Our values and commitments
Today, humanity is facing existential changes that require a profound transformation in the way we think, live and talk about our world.
Co-responsible for the state of the world, specialists in branding, marketing and communications, we help our clients to formulate and implement their corporate, branding and communications strategies to support them in the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) transition by making sense and building bonds with all of their stakeholders.
Code of Ethics
B-Corp ?
« Just like our founders, Roger Bornand and Bruno Gaeng – The first created the agency on his return from a forty-thousand kilometre trip across America in 1966, the second was a conscientious objector and registered with the Swiss Federal Register – the second generation of BGs that we represent are passionate, creative and critical entrepreneurs. We are economists, graphic designers, political scientists, businesswomen and marketing specialists, and we have benefited from the high-quality training provided by the neo-liberal society of the eighties, nineties and twenties.
We are aware that we have benefited fully from the comforts and opportunities offered by this model. At the same time, we have fundamental and critical questions about the impact, role and responsibility of our activity on our social, economic and natural environment.»
« These questions, and the difficulty of managing the paradoxes that result from a clash between professional practice and idealistic aspirations on a day-to-day basis, have led us to rethink our model once again and reorganise it, this time from top to bottom, after fifty years in business. In June 2017, we were made aware of the idea of « Conscious capitalism » at a conference given by Professor Rajendra Sisodia, as part of our international network
of independent agencies AMIN. We clearly saw ourselves in the desire to promote a responsible and sustainable liberal economy, which puts the interests of all stakeholders before those of shareholders alone, and this convinced us even more that we must and can put into practice here and now the changes we want for our world. And this convinced us even more that we must and can put into practice here and now the changes we want for our world. »
How did you go about it?
‘We decided to take a concrete step to assess the impact of our activities on our environment, to qualify our corporate social responsibility and to help us support and quantify the effective results of the raison d’être we have defined for our SME, namely ‘Communicating for a better world’. At the beginning of 2019, after various research and contacts, we embarked on the ‘B Assessment’, which is free of charge. We then undertook the steps leading to B Corp certification. It’s a great satisfaction for us to see our process come to fruition and to be able to announce that BG is now part of the B Corp community, which includes some three thousand companies worldwide and around thirty in Switzerland.’
What commitments and concrete actions does this involve?
« In addition to the structural, organisational and legal commitments we have made as part of B Corp certification, BG intends to develop concrete actions on three levels:
- To research, create and recommend to our customers operational marketing and communication strategies and solutions that contribute to improving their social and environmental performance.
- To make our business relations, including our suppliers, aware of the benefits of undertaking a B Corp certification process and to provide them with practical assistance in this process, through a consultancy service that I will provide myself, as I have undergone specific training for this purpose.
- Finally, I want to play an active role in the B Corp movement in Switzerland and internationally. »
What is B-Corp?
B Corp’ certification is a certification awarded to commercial (for-profit) companies that meet high social, environmental, governance and public transparency standards. B Corp certification is awarded on the basis of the independent international standard B Impact Assessment. Certification covers the entire company, all its departments and all its business sectors.
To be awarded certification, a company must obtain and maintain a minimum score of 80 points (out of 200) on the international B Impact Assessment standard. The initial assessment is carried out free of charge and online via the B Impact Assessment platform. Once the initial assessment has been completed, it is submitted to B Lab, the entity responsible for certification, for verification. During the certification process, the candidate company may be required to modify or add to many of its processes, documents and operating procedures, including its
legal statutes. This last requirement typically involves calling a general meeting and getting the shareholders and directors to validate the company’s appropriate aims, as well as, for example, articles that add objectives relating to the company’s responsibility towards its stakeholders, society and the environment.
The results obtained by certified companies are displayed publicly, indicating their performance on specific themes and points.
Certification is limited to for-profit entities, regardless of their legal form, with the aim of committing the private sector to sustainability and acting in the public interest.
Among the international companies certified by B Corporation are Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia, Danone and Fairphone. In Switzerland, certified companies include Opaline, Loyco, Serbeco, Lombard Odier, Baabuk and now BG CO-CREATIVE STRATEGY.
In Switzerland, the certification process is led by
B Lab Switzerland
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sustainability
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social transition
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Code of Ethics
BG Co-Creative Strategy SA is an honest, reliable and humane communications agency. These values imply that the agency’s employees carry out their activities in compliance with the legal system, internal guidelines and ethical principles. We defend our interests in accordance with the principles of loyalty, transparency, responsibility and reliability.
Swiss Triple Impact Leader
In 2023, BG joined the Swiss Triple Impact directory of ESG committed companies as an STI Leader, with the four formal commitments opposite (in French).
