During her time at EADA, Maria Jose Ramirez, graduate of the International Master in Sustainable Business and Innovation, had the opportunity to participate in the annual B Impact Team initiative. The initiative involes a team of students working as consultants to measure and manage a business’s social and environmental impact. The end goal is to prepare the comopanies for te prestigous B Corp Certification.
Maria Jose’s team worked with two companies,Optimal Therapies and Instock. The executives at both companies were so impressed with Maria Joe’s work that they offered her to stay to finish up the process of becoming certified.
As a result of her work within the B Impact Team, today Maria Jose was recently hired as Micro and Small Enterprise Approach Trainee at B Lab Spain, the organisation responsible for prividing B Corp certification for companies in Spain
We talked to Maria Jose to find out a bit more about her experience in the B Impact Team and working with these companies afterwards.
1. What motivated you to join the B Impact Team?
There are many challenges: climate change, the depletion of the planet’s resources, social and economic inequalities….For this reason, we all have to join forces: governments and public administrations; citizens and social movements; NGOs, trade unions and associations; and, yes, companies too. Change will not be possible if companies are not part of it.
I believe that the systemic change that we want so much can be achieved through private enterprise, which is why I believe that B Corp is the best ally to achieving it.
2. What was the most memorable moment of this experience?
To have had the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with companies that want to make a holistic impact on their business and help them create a strategy for change.
3. How did the opportunity to continue working with the B Impact companies come about? What are your main responsibilities now?
Achieving B Corp certification requires a lot of theoretical knowledge about sustainable business strategy, a knowledge that is lacking in many companies that want to be a B Corp. Having this knowledge opened the door for me to be part of their teams.
My main responsibilities in Incapto are managing and creating the sustainable strategy for the company and managing the B Corp certification. And in B Lab Spain I’m responsible for the coordination of all companies in the process of “Micro Enterprise Approach – MEA” certification and Pending companies.
4. Would you encourage EADA students to join a B Impact Team? Why?
Yes, not only because they can put into practice what they have learnt in the master’s degree, but also because of the experience they will gain by implementing sustainability strategies at different levels of the company (government, workers, community, clients, environment).