Welcome to your roundup – a monthly selection of news hand-picked to keep you up to date with what’s going on for businesses and investors working to create positive impact.
In this roundup you can find out what’s new in the B Corp, social enterprise, and impact investing spaces, amongst others, collated under helpful headings. We’ll also share links to resources and information that our expert lawyers have selected as being useful to you and your networks.
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Corporate purpose
The Better Business Act campaign will be hosting Better Business Day 2025 on 11 June in London. There will be a reception at Parliament with over 50 business leaders expected to join from a range of business, from Ben & Jerry’s to Virgin, that are already considering the impact of their decisions on people and planet alongside profit. The campaign calls on supporters to email their MPs to encourage them to meet attendees on Better Business Day and to raise awareness of the Company Directors (Duties) Bill, sponsored by Martin Wrigley MP, which will have its second reading on 4 July and supports the campaign’s call for an amendment to Section 172 of the Companies Act 2006.
The Bates Wells team will be out and about in the coming weeks. Louise Harman and Luke Fletcher will be heading to Better Business Day 2025 at Parliament on 11 June, Oliver Scutt will be joining FuturePlanet’s Community Connect LIVE event in London on 12 June, and Oliver, Luke and Joshua Machado will attend The Wonderful Summit 2025 on 13 June. If you’ll be attending any of these events, do say hello!
‘The rules are broken’: Urgent call for UK to fix fashion’s fast future. The Independent reported on the launch of a white paper, by Bates Wells and Fashion Declares, that considers regulation for improving sustainability in the UK fashion and textile industry. The paper makes three policy recommendations: to close the de minimis customs loophole on imported purchases, mandate Extended Producer Responsibility schemes for all UK textiles, and mandate a Digital Product Passport system to provide consumers with key information. For more on sustainable fashion, the Circular Fashion Innovation Network, part of the British Fashion Council’s Institute of Positive Fashion, has published Accelerating Towards a Circular Fashion Ecosystem in the UK, a detailed report outlining two years of industry-led collaboration to accelerate the UK’s transition to a sustainable fashion ecosystem (press release).
Ahead of the G20 Summit in November, UCL economist Prof. Mariana Mazzucato has authored a discussion paper, Principles for an Inclusive and Sustainable Global Economy (press release). The paper proposes a framework for a purpose-driven global economy, shifting governments from correcting market failures to structuring markets around public purpose, and rejects the fragmentation of key global agendas (i.e. climate, debt, food security, finance, industrial policy). Outlining four pillars for reform, the paper highlights challenges including the tensions between climate and development goals, the need to collaborate for a just transition, and the role of private finance steered through purpose-driven, blended instruments.
B Corps
B Corp acquisitions: Preserving purpose through a change of ownership. Bates Wells’ Nirav Patel, Luke Fletcher and Phillippa Holland explore some key considerations for B Corps and their buyers in the event of an acquisition, to help preserve the purpose-beyond-profit and certification status of the B Corp. For example, the prospective parties to the acquisition may benefit from identifying from the outset alignment in their intentions regarding the B Corp’s purpose and how it will pursue its impact goals going forward. The buyer may want to supplement its due diligence to account for the B Corp’s certification and the requirements to maintain this after acquisition. The article also considers steps that can be taken by the B Corp, including early in the business’ life, to embed and protect its purpose.
In collaboration with B Lab UK, Channel 4 Sales, the advertising arm of Channel 4, has shortlisted 10 businesses in a competition offering the chance for five B Corps to each win airtime worth £120,000. Over 200 companies applied for the competition, and the shortlist includes Divine Chocolate, The White Company, and Marshfield Ice Cream. Those shortlisted are expected to take part in final stage pitches this month, and the winners and runners-up will have access to a series of masterclasses to support their growth. B Lab UK’s Director of Communications & Marketing, Ros Holley, said that “through this partnership, we’re hoping to build understanding of a new way of doing business among a wider audience”.
B Lab and BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions have launched Common Good, a new short film series that can be viewed on YouTube, which showcases B Corps in 14 countries and aims to explore the impact these businesses are having on the planet and in communities (press release). Included in the series is a film about Scottish whiskey business, Bruichladdich Distillery, which discusses the business’ impact on local unemployment, restoring local wild botanical resources and improving soil quality.
B Lab US and Canada, in collaboration with Bark Media, has created a short guide to the Government Affairs and Collective Action Impact Topic in the new B Corp certification standards. The new certification standards require B Corps, particularly larger businesses, to adopt responsible and transparent lobbying practices and publicly share their lobbying positions and political contributions, to work collaboratively to advance collective impact, and take a responsible and transparent approach to tax. The guide collates resources that could help B Corps meet the standards and improve their impact in this area, including examples of activities and advocacy policies from B Corps such as Danone and Natura &Co., and it signposts resources such as the Erb Principles for Corporate Political Responsibility.
Climate & biodiversity
Stop Ecocide International reported that Scotland may become the first UK nation to criminalise ecocide, following the publication of a new Member’s Bill in Holyrood. The Ecocide (Scotland) Bill, introduced by Monica Lennon MSP, would make it a criminal offence to cause widespread, long-term or irreversible environmental damage, with penalties including up to 20 years in prison and unlimited fines for companies. Senior executives could be held liable if offences involve their consent or connivance. In support of the Bill, an open letter has been signed by over 100 prominent figures including some business leaders. For more on ecocide, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has adopted a new Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law, aimed at supporting a more coherent response to environmental crime, including facilitating collaboration across borders (press release). The convention is described as the first international legally binding instrument to address environmental crime.
The Great British Energy Bill has received royal assent, empowering the government’s publicly-owned Great British Energy company to invest in clean energy across the UK, including community-led projects, and support emissions reduction in fossil fuel-based energy production (press release). Also, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero announced that the Clean Industry Bonus will be more than doubled to £544 million, to reward offshore wind developers if they prioritise investment into UK regions that most need economic stimulus or in cleaner supply chains. The incentive scheme is aimed at leveraging private sector investment into some of the UK’s most deprived communities, including traditional oil and gas communities, ex-industrial areas and ports and coastal towns.
The cross-party Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has published The role of natural capital in the UK’s green economy, a detailed House of Commons committee report with recommendations for Government. The report follows an inquiry into the role of natural capital in the green economy and the Government’s proposals to increase private investment into nature recovery. The report sets out the UK natural capital landscape and considers matters including the biodiversity net gain policy, improving market integrity for nature credits through increasing compliance requirements, and the need to balance food security with land management that preserves natural capital stock. Among other points, the EAC expects the Government to use the June 2025 Spending Review to set out how it is integrating consideration of natural capital into its spending decisions and how it will grow the UK’s natural capital.
The High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy has published a substantial report, The Future of the Workforce in a Sustainable Ocean Economy, aimed at industry leaders and other stakeholders. The report estimates that there is the potential to create 51 million jobs by 2050, based in the regeneration of oceanic resources and making the industry more sustainable, and reflects on the barriers to those goals that could hamper a socially-equitable transition. Among other points, the report calls for the private sector to invest in workforce development and create new business models that balance profit with environmental stewardship. For more, Phenix Capital has published a report on impact funds in the blue economy, based on its own impact database. Key findings include that 6.6% of the impact funds studied are dedicated to the blue economy and that there’s been a 463% growth in the number of these funds in the last decade.
Impact investing
The UK has shown the way in tackling the challenge of child poverty. President of GSG Impact Sir Ronald Cohen wrote for New Statesman about how social outcomes partnerships could help address child poverty in the UK, drawing on examples of social impact bonds and investors that are already engaging with outcomes partnerships, including local government pension schemes. Cohen also urged government to create a central ‘Outcomes Payment Fund’ to help unlock private capital through outcomes partnerships.
Convergence, the global network for blended finance, has published the spring 2025 version of its State of Blended Finance report, which provides a market overview and considers deal and investor trends over the past five years (press release). Key findings include that blended finance deal flow was higher in 2024 than the market average for the prior five years, with deal sizes trending upward and more buy-in from the private sector. The report also considers the main challenges impacting blended finance, including the lack of a private sector mobilisation strategy and action plan, the underrepresentation of local investment, the lack of transparency on blended finance activity, and the sector’s underdeveloped ecosystem.
GSG Impact has published a detailed report, Impact Economies Traction & Trends, on the global impact economy landscape (summary and press release). The report analyses trends across 34 GSG National Partners, providing insights into government actions, the role of market-building groups and impact investing ‘wholesalers’, and contributions to the UNSDGs. Among other points, the report finds that impact investing has transitioned from a niche practice to a mainstream investment strategy, increasingly embedded into governments’ development plans and policy agendas, with more institutional and retail capital being deployed toward impact, more use of outcomes-based financing, green and sustainability-linked bonds becoming mainstream instruments, and advances being made in global sustainability disclosure standards. The report aims to share learnings between participants and across borders.
The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) has published a short paper on Impact Investing in the Forestry Sector, drawing on global data from GIIN’s forestry impact performance benchmark and interviews with impact investors (press release). The paper highlights increasing interest in the forestry sector and makes recommendations for advancing impact investment practice in this space. For more, UK investment manager Gresham House has reached the final close of its Forest Fund VI at £375 million, including commitments from UK pension funds, which aims to generate returns while sequestering carbon and enhancing natural capital through supporting biodiversity.
The Impact Investing Institute has published a detailed guide for wealth managers on opportunities within the impact space, with support from Schroders (summary/press release). The guide describes increasing investor interest in impact and the benefits for wealth managers in developing an impacting investing offering, as well as commonly cited barriers and other insights from market participants. Also, alongside ShareAction and ClientEarth, the Institute has submitted written evidence on boosting pension fund investment in the UK to the Work and Pensions Select Committee. The submission argues for legislative measures to clarify trustees’ fiduciary duties and regulate asset allocation advice by investment consultants, to support pension funds to consider the impacts of investments on financial systems, the community and environment, and members’ standards of living. For more, the Institute, Pensions for Purpose and GIIN have updated the Impact Investing Principles for Pensions, which encourage pension funds to set impact goals that reflect the needs and values of their beneficiaries (press release).
Social enterprise
On behalf of the Fair Banking for All Campaign, The Finance Innovation Lab has published a response to the Department for Business and Trade’s call for evidence on small business access to finance (landing page). The campaign group includes the Impact Investing Institute, Triodos Bank, Access, the Key Fund and Social Investment Scotland. Among other points, the response highlights that a Fair Banking Act could increase the financing available to community development finance institutions and credit unions and support the growth of social enterprises and the coops and mutuals sector, as well as setting out broadly how legislation could achieve this. The response also notes that the government’s call for evidence did not identify social enterprise as a particular group that struggles to access lending, and describes some key inequities in access to finance that have been identified within that group.
‘We could do more’ social enterprises tell the government. Social Enterprise UK summarised some of the points raised at the first evidence session of the Social, Cooperative and Community Economy All-Party Parliamentary Group’s inaugural inquiry into the government’s commitment to grow diverse business models. Participants called for reforms and the removal of barriers, providing specific suggestions and examples, including in relation to public procurement rules, taxation, access to finance and awareness of social enterprise within government.
Collecting Data on Social Enterprises: A Playbook for Practitioners is a new guide published by the Schwab Foundation’s Advisory Group on Social Enterprise Data and the World Economic Forum. The guide explores the gaps in social enterprise data collection, presenting lessons from over 25 organisations and providing guidance for practitioners on using surveys, with the aim of harmonising the collection of social enterprise data worldwide to improve quality, consistency and comparability. The Advisory Group has also developed a set of core survey questions and encourages the adoption of these questions in order to strengthen the global understanding and visibility of social enterprises.
The Department of the Economy for Northern Ireland has published Barriers to Growth Research on the Social Economy in Northern Ireland (press release). The research identifies funding challenges, legal and structural constraints, market visibility issues, recruitment challenges and perceived gaps in programmatic support as the key barriers to growth faced by social enterprises in Northern Ireland. It also sets out key recommendations for the government and the sector to mitigate these barriers, encourage systemic change and further sector growth.
Social Economy News reported that the European Parliament has renewed the Social Economy Intergroup after campaigning by Social Economy Europe, a sector body that aims to establish dialogue between the social economy (SE) and the EU. Also, Social Economy Europe published an open letter noting that the EU Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) disbanded its unit responsible for the SE and social entrepreneurship. The letter argues that the move separates the ‘economic and industrial dimension’ from the SE’s social mission, undermining its impact.
ESG
Sustainable business advisory firm Volans has published Mobilising Trade Associations as a Force for Good: A Playbook for Companies, in collaboration with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (press release). The guide provides a 5-step framework aimed at helping businesses to mobilise their trade associations on key aspects of climate policy, and signposts other resources on the topic. The guide argues that many sustainability-related targets are dependent on supportive public policy and businesses need to take a proactive approach to their “policy footprint”, treating policy engagement as essential to long-term value creation, risk management and positive impact.
The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership has published a paper, Rewiring Finance – a New Approach to Financing a Sustainable Economy, which finds that addressing current global economic, social and environmental crises via strategic private sector action could provide US$10.3 trillion of opportunities (landing page). The paper describes how the financial system is currently not incentivised to consider sustainability in financial decision-making and three ‘shifts’ (in industrial and financial policy, mindset, and core financial structures) required to transition to a sustainable economy.
The Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) has collaborated with Chapter Zero, the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative, Competent Boards and the Green Finance Institute to publish new guidance: Asking Better Questions on Nature: For board directors (landing page and press release). The guidance, structured around twelve key questions for boards and senior executives to consider, is designed to help board members incorporate nature-related issues into governance, strategy, risk management, and capital allocation. For more on the global disclosure taskforces, the Taskforce on Inequality and Social-Related Financial Disclosures (TISFD) has announced the launch of four Regional Councils, including for Europe and the UK, to ensure global social, economic and cultural relevance and local engagement. The TISFD aims to develop recommendations and guidance on impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities related to social factors.
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