Introduction
As the world hurtles towards an uncertain future of AI, monopolies, and concerning geopolitics, a quiet and completely voluntary change is happening to businesses across the world.
In 2025, nearly 10,000 businesses are certified Benefit Corporations (or B Corps), and in the entire Middle East, there are 23 as of this writing. In the UAE? Just 12, including The Surpluss.
Here’s the story of how we got here.
What is a B Corp?
What began as a mission to redefine business success in 2006 by the non-profit B Lab has become a powerful movement led by companies proactively taking Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations into their business operations. B Corp certification looks at the triple-bottom-line (TBL) of businesses: economic, environmental, and social sustainability.
A B Corp, short for Benefit Corporation, is a business that meets rigorous, independently verified standards of performance, accountability, and transparency. Certified B Corps commit to balancing purpose and profit, ensuring that every decision considers the impact on employees, customers, suppliers, communities, and the environment. Cutting through the noise of greenwashing and dubious certifications, the B Corp certification makes our values demonstrable through a rigorous certification process that is recognised by both the B2B and B2C communities for its focus on sustainability. Becoming a Certified B Corporation became a public promise to hold ourselves to the highest standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.
The B Corp Certification Process
When most people hear “certification,” they think of filling out a form, paying a fee, and getting a stamp of approval. The B Corp process is that and a whole lot more.
The process involved months of gathering data, reviewing policies, measuring impact, and having honest conversations about how we operate. The evaluation demanded that every claim be backed with documentation and evidence, and every gap we found meant rolling up our sleeves and making changes; not just to pass an audit, but because it was laying the foundation for a business built on strong principles that would guide our operations across a broad range of impact concerns.
The process would have been a lot more daunting were it not for the guidance and support of MENA Impact, a community-powered platform driving sustainability and innovation in the MENA region, led by the knowledgeable and sharp Nadine Zidani.
Why We Became a B Corp
Becoming a Certified Benefit Corporation in a region where there are only 12 such businesses is quite the feat. Even in economies with a mature market saturation of B Corps, the process of becoming certified is an arduous process that requires an ecosystem of documentation, governance reviews, and multiple stakeholders.
So, why did we undertake this year-long, completely voluntary process to become certified? The credibility of being associated with B Corp only works where the brand is recognised. As pioneers in the climate tech space, we must be ahead of the pack, and the number of B Corps in the region and globally is only set to grow. As B Corp continues garnering global recognition, becoming a B Corp makes it clear to our partners, clients, and community that we strive to live by the values of what it means to be a B Corp.
Impact Areas of B Corps
B Corps are evaluated in five main areas, and each one connects deeply to what we do:
Governance — Ethical leadership and full transparency in how we make decisions.
Workers — Treating our team as partners in our mission, not just employees.
Community — Contributing to both our local community and the global effort for climate action.
Environment — Reducing waste, cutting emissions, and helping others unlock value from underused resources.
Customers — Delivering solutions that create genuine, lasting change.
For The Surpluss, these impact pillars are the blueprint of how we work.
The Challenges
In total, the process took a year to finalise – a year of digging into detailed data, documenting practices that had previously been informal, and challenging ourselves to improve in areas we thought were already “good enough.”
But every challenge became an opportunity. We emerged with stronger systems, clearer policies, and an even sharper sense of purpose.
Our Future as a B Corp
Certification isn’t the end of the road: We’ll be reassessed every three years, against ever-evolving standards that go through frequent updates and new additional criteria, which means we also built ‘striving for continuous improvement’ into our business DNA.
Our next steps include deepening our environmental impact, expanding our collaborations, and continuing to innovate in climate tech. Being a B Corp also connects us to a global network of changemakers, giving us fresh ideas and powerful partnerships to drive our mission forward.
Becoming a Certified B Corporation is both a milestone and a commitment. We’re proud to be the first climate tech B Corp in the MENA region, and we hope our journey inspires more businesses in the region to join the movement of companies that do well by doing good.
