Better Business Act

Did you see The Better Business Act coalition headed to Westminster yesterday to promote their campaign to change the law?

Mary Portas, Co-Chair of The Better Business Act (BBA) and supporters were all over the media for Better Business Day on 20 April in Parliament. If you didn't know, she now has a podcast called The Kindness Economy and has created 26 charity shops for Save the Children and posted on Twitter, "...how people buy, sell, make and live has to change. We need commerce to go hand in hand with social progress".

The Better Business Act is a business-led campaign that aims to change the law; the Companies Act 2006, Section 172.

From what I understand, reading the existing and suggested changes, it would basically mean that the directors' duty set out in Section 172 from 2006, which currently requires them to "promote the success of the company for the success of the members as a whole" would change to include benefitting the wider society and the environment and to reduce harms the company creates and costs on society or environment. See the suggested wording by The Better Business Act.

The ideas discussed and the wording fits well with our ethos for Fine Toad, however, there are wider implications of course in business with responsibilities being shifted for directors and questions around how that would work in practice and accountability. The BBA really want it to be a default change to all companies, requiring directors to judge and weigh up the interests of not only their stakeholders but also wider society and environment, described at the 'tripple bottom line' in this article.

What do you think? Should all businesses be legislated to consider their wider society and the environment?