Biddeford broadband carrier joins growing ranks of Maine's B Corps
Courtesy / GWI
Fletcher Kittredge, a 2011 Mainebiz Business Leader of the Year, is CEO of Biddeford-based internet provider GWI.
GWI, a Biddeford-based company that employs 46 people from Presque Isle to southern Maine, on Tuesday announced that it has become the country's first broadband carrier to achieve B Corporation status.
That puts it in a growing group of certified B Corps in Maine, bringing the total to 10, for meeting high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and legal accountability.
Fletcher Kittredge, CEO of GWI and a 2011 Mainebiz Business Leader of the Year, told Mainebiz that while there are many values to achieving B Corp certification, reducing the risk related to environmental regulation or lawsuits is among the most important.
"Broadband has become a utility with the pandemic, but we're not yet regulated as a utility," he said in a phone interview Tuesday morning. "Our thought is that we ought to start acting like one, so that when it comes it's not an initial burden we have to jump over."
He said this company, which builds fiber optic networks, took about nine months to a year to go through the certification process, and that he first started thinking about it after attending a talk years ago by ReVision Energy co-founder Phil Coupe, whose company is also a certified B Corp.
"It seemed like while I was looking at all of the things that were required, I was struck by the fact that if you took a long-term view, they are all the things you want to do anyhow." He also said that having B Corp status should help with employee retention and recruitment, and that it's currently looking for a senior software engineer.
To achieve certification, B Corps must be evaluated by a Wayne, Pa.-based nonprofit, B Lab, which considers each applicant's impact on natural resources, treatment of employees and vendors and how the company behaves in the community.The B Corp certification was created in 2007.
With GWI, Maine now has a total of 10 B Corps, with "some others on the way" according to Kittredge.
The others are: Portland-based Cornerstone Financial Planning; Allagash Brewing Co., also of Portland; Insource Renewables of Pittsfield; Tom's of Maine; Portland-based Coffee By Design; Topsham-based organic coffee and tea company Wicked Joe; ReVision Energy; MaineWorks LLC; and Luke's Lobster, which is based in Saco (though it is erroneously listed under New York in the official B Corp directory).
Another B Corp with a presence in Maine is Lebanon, N.H.-based Mascoma Bank, whose Portland office is led by senior vice president and Maine market manager Todd Bachelder.
"More and more companies are recognizing that a commitment to stakeholder value, rather than shareholder value, is the best way to build brand, customer and employee loyalty," he told Mainebiz. "The business approach is essentially a commitment and to the long-term and to sustainability in the broadest sense of the word, from the standpoints of our companies, our communities and our environment."
Overlaps with conscious capitalism
Many of the B Corp principals overlap with the growing conscious capitalism movement that view business as a force for good, as profiled in a Mainebiz cover story earlier this year.
Tara Jenkins, CEO of a consulting company called Conscious Revolution and founder of the Portland Conscious Capitalism Chapter, welcomed said more companies becoming B Corps is positive for the economy as a whole.
"The growing number of companies practicing conscious capitalism and pursuing B Corp certification in Maine is a tribute to the evolved leadership that exists in Maine and our collective dedication to running our businesses differently — adding value to all of our stakeholders, rather than focused primarily on profit," she told Mainebiz.
"As the conscious business movement spreads in Maine and we have more certified B Corps and companies practicing conscious capitalism, we will solve our longstanding economic issue of not having enough people to fill our jobs," she added. "People will flock to work for Maine companies and stay at Maine companies because they know we are dedicated to doing business differently."
Editor's note: Article has been updated on Aug. 13 to add Luke's Lobster to the list of Maine-based certified B Corporations, which is erroneously listed in the B Corp directory under New York and not Maine even though it is based in Saco, according to Ben Conniff, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Luke's Lobster.
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