B Corp certified

It’s a bitterly cold Wednesday morning in early December. Slap bang in the middle of a relentlessly busy week of deadlines, client calls and project deliveries. But instead of making their way to the studio, an army of Tilters are gathering impatiently outside Brighton’s favourite indie art house cinema, the Duke of York’s. The doors are locked and the staff are trying to avoid eye contact with us. We shuffle from foot to foot, rubbing our hands, complaining about the cold and wondering aloud to each other what the bloody hell we’re doing here. All we know is that our senior leaders told us to be here. They’re confiscating our phones because they want our undivided attention. And they’ve got something to tell us.

Suddenly, all is forgiven when the staff lift the velvet rope and welcome us inside into the warm black and white checkerboard tiled foyer. They give us hot coffee and as much popcorn as we can stuff into our faces at 9am. We have the cinema all to ourselves and we settle into the impossibly comfy red velvet seats. The lights dim and….action!

In the beginning…

But hang on, let’s rewind 12 years to 2010 when Tilt was a seedling of an idea and the founding directors Jon, Chris and Dan were sitting around musing about starting a creative agency. Asking questions like: What would it be like? Who would come work with us? What clients do we want to attract?

One question was more important than the rest – WHY are we doing this? What’s our philosophy – what are the things we really believe in, the moral compass at the heart of it, the things we’ll live and die by, the things that are intrinsic to us? We knew one thing for sure – Tilt would do good for the environment, and it would be valuable to society. Something that could grow and change, and be worthy and relevant to future generations. Because after all, what’s the point in creating a business without also creating a better place for it to exist?

Fast forward to that bitterly cold December morning at the Duke of York’s. The film reel spun into action. And what filled the big screen was a love letter to the journey of making all that happen. A celebration of all the good work we’d achieved. Years of labour, love, imagination and inventiveness. A celebration of dreams made real.

AND an announcement that we’d been awarded the award we’d most coveted – a B Corp certification.

Born this way

In its simplest form, the B Corp movement is about using business as a force for good. Their certification process is a long old road with many thorough and rigorous checkpoints, but we found we were already a long way down the road before our certification.

Yes, we’re obsessive recyclers. Yes, our suppliers are all sustainable. Yes, we offset our climate impact. Yes, we’re powered by low-carbon energy. Yes, we fundraise. Yes, we donate. Yes, we plant trees. Yes, we offer time and resources to those who need it.

But it’s not just relentless focus on the environmental impact that keeps us getting up in the morning. Over the past 12 years, we’ve found that we thrive when we’re working on projects rooted in positive societal purpose – from helping Diageo change attitudes towards drink driving to explaining the science of love for the BBC.

In the last month alone, we’ve won five awards for creative work in the Environmental Social Governance field. Check out a few of those projects here. Creating and enjoying this type of work has led to us organically attracting and seeking out more and more projects that aim to do something bigger than just selling products for the sake of profit.

It’s because of this and because of our B Corp certification, that we’re putting a stake in the ground to say now more than ever, we’re devoted to being an agency that’s a force for realistic good. Environmental and social impact is and will always be the blueprint for how we do business. Now and forever.