At Reho Travel, using business as a source for good is proving fruitful for business and morale. We asked them to tell us more.
Earlier this year Reho Travel became one of the first travel management companies in the world to achieve B Corp certification.
Six months on I spoke to a very enthusiastic Karen Dalla Riva, who is Reho’s Head of Sales to ask her what it’s meant to the company and how much impact it’s had.
Firstly Karen, please tell us what defines a B Corporation?
“B Corps are a new type of company that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental issues. Companies that create a new set of expectations, create higher quality jobs and improve the quality of life in communities. This growing global community has over 1000 members all working towards one unifying goal – to redefine success in business”
Has the entire Reho team embraced the concept?
“For many of us B Corp Certification was simply an endorsement of what we were already doing as a business. For some it opened the door to concepts that had previously been in the background and others like myself were keen to embrace every aspect of it. I was chosen to represent Reho at the B Corp Champions retreat in Burlington Vermont a few weeks ago, which was a serious eye opener”.
The wall decals in Reho’s Melbourne office
What was it like? I’d imagine it was like a summer camp in the woods where you all stayed in log cabins and chanted slogans by the lake?
“Ha Ha, no not at all, Burlington is a nice little city with some great five star hotels and the delegates were mainstream business people that were there to network and learn. Although it was a full on conference I came home incredibly inspired by the global leaders that have joined this movement. It was a privilege for me to hear first-hand the experiences of some big name BCorps like Ben & Jerry’s, Cabot Creamery, Etsy and Patagonia and their stand for positive, innovative and practical solutions to global problems”.
In practical terms what has Reho done with the certification?
“During the certification process we discovered that although our values and current business practice exceeded the expectations of most the criteria, we found several areas where we required guidance, in particular developing and implementing an environmental policy.
Subsequently we have partnered with City Switch on a project that aims to inspire and educate businesses in Melbourne’s CBD and St Kilda Road to improve office energy efficiency ratings. Students from RMIT analysed and provided suggestions to us on our waste management; at one stage they had a whole week of our rubbish sub divided on plastic sheets across the boardroom.
We also decided to reduce the number of brochures we carry in the office, which involved contacting all of our suppliers asking most of them to not deliver brochures where content was available online.
In addition switching to 100% renewable energy surprisingly shaved over 20% off our power bill and massively reduced our footprint”.
A very proud Karen Dalla Riva
Sounds like you have done a lot already, how do you get the message out there?
“You’ve probably worked out by now that the Reho team are quite passionate about not only making a difference but also shouting it from the rooftops to encourage others to B the Change.
My team are encouraged to talk about B Corporation at every client meeting and so far this philosophy of using business as a source for good is proving good for business.
In addition an entire wall in our sales department has been decorated with our B Corp infographic. This stimulates conversation and reminds us of our true purpose. We have also just had our Reho Study Tours car wrapped and a new website is around the corner”.