Some great news from the Trusted Housesitters Team

The actual B Corp assessment of TH is here and includes TH’s Disclosure Report, where TH was required to disclose something very interesting about their
business model corporate structure that I did not know (I won’t comment further as I’m sure anything I say will be modified/removed).

1 Like

Hello everyone!

I appreciate you sharing your comments on this subject, and it’s amazing to see how much thought you have all put into it.

As valued users of the service, can you share your thoughts on what we can do to improve the validity of our Bcorp status?

BCorp is granted on a points basis (which are detailed in the report that @meow kindly shared) so we would love to rack up a few more when we recertify next year.

I’m feeding back any comments to the team.

Jenny :slight_smile:

Please share with us the specifics of how this certification will benefit members. Thank you.

4 Likes

This is an incredible milestone. Wishing you continued success as you grow with purpose and dedication to the greater good. Congratulations, and here’s to an even brighter future! :star_struck: :star_struck: :star_struck: :star_struck: :star_struck:

1 Like

The fact is that TH is a company whose existence relies on two things known to be quite harmful to the environment: pets and travel.

However, the way Bcorp scoring works, companies are not penalized for their “bad” behaviour. They are only rewarded for their good behaviour.

Scores start at zero and can’t go lower. TH’s Environment score is relatively low (and three times lower than Nespresso’s score; something to think about…).

It’s TH’s action in other areas, likely DEI initiatives, community engagement through volunteer work, and so on, that bumped the score over 80. It’s disingenuous for TH to claim any sort of environmental win when that is not what earned them the Bcorp status and when their business model relies on two things very harmful to the earth simply to exist.

If TH had focused on the more relevant aspects of the Bcorp status and not tossed in the nonsensical statement about their positive environmental impact that would have been far more appropriate and likely better received.

11 Likes

I am a bit confused as I have never heard of Bcorp. Maybe some of the product team could take a minute from their hard pressed time and update us on this forum how this is good news for the house sitting community and not just the company.

4 Likes

Link does not work?:upside_down_face:

1 Like

This B corp status means nothing to me as a member and has no meaningful value for me.

6 Likes

Link doesn’t work for me anymore either. I tried searching on the Bcorp site but nothing shows up.

The item in the disclosure report that I didn’t know about was “TrustedHousesitters Limited’s parent company (Felix Topco Limited) is incorporated in Guernsey.”

Why many companies incorporate there: The Benefits of Using Guernsey Companies

TH appears to have been removed from the B Corp directory, weird. I saw that item as well, I forget the exact term on the disclosure report but it was basically a tax shelter. I mean, the company is owned by a private equity fund, it’s not exactly suprising.

It is, however, a bit strange that they would remove the listing… isn’t transparency one of the key tenets of being a Certified B Corporation?

3 Likes

Also interesting that the company has apparently made a loss for “several years” as noted in that corporate structure part of the published report. My brain :brain: says if you’d spent a lot less man hours on trying to get B Corp status, that your paying clients (chief income stream) don’t care about, then you might get to turn a profit sooner….#foodforthought

5 Likes

Hello everyone,

Thanks for your feedback on our BCorp announcement.

I’ve been passing everything over to the team, and the team have taken your comments on board.

We understand and acknowledge that we could have positioned the announcement to be more member-focused.

Thanks to everyone who has provided their thoughts, some of which have started a great discussion around sustainability where I’m also collecting feedback for the team.

I understand that some of you have raised concerns and questions here, and while I don’t have the answer for them, I have asked the team if it’s possible to take a look over them and provide me with some more information so that I can follow up here. Please bear with me for the moment while I see if that’s possible.

Jenny

As @Smiley notes, how about fixing some of the things sitters (what I care most about) like the clunkiness of the guide posting process, for example?
I congratulate you on attaining BCorp, but isn’t it about making the staff feel good and telling customers you are good people.

2 Likes