Talking Tables is proud to be an early adopter of B Lab's new standards, reflecting our commitment to creating positive environmental and social impact while meeting evolving European sustainability requirements.

The updated standards strengthen what it means to be a B Corp, ensuring certified businesses are making meaningful progress across every area of their operations. They also align with the EU's Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (ECGT), designed to give consumers greater confidence in environmental claims.

What are the new B Corp standards?

The new standards represent the biggest evolution of B Corp certification since it was introduced to provide independent assessment of companies’ social and environmental impact.

Previously, businesses were assessed across five impact areas and needed to achieve a minimum overall score to become certified. Under the new standards, businesses must now meet specific performance requirements across seven impact areas. This ensures companies are taking action across all aspects of their business rather than excelling in one area while falling short in another.

As part of the changes, certification is no longer based on achieving a single overall score.

Why Talking Tables certified early

Talking Tables first became a Certified B Corporation in 2022. In 2025, we successfully recertified, increasing our B Impact Assessment score from 87.5 to 113.2.

Because we sell products across the EU, we chose to certify early under the new standards to align with upcoming EU legislation, making us one of the early adopters of this strengthened approach to responsible business.

While the certification process has become more rigorous, we welcome the changes. They encourage businesses to continually improve while ensuring every certified B Corp meets robust standards across environmental, social and governance performance.

Our Climate Action Plan

One of the new requirements is for every business to have a Climate Action Plan.

For Talking Tables, the greatest opportunity to reduce our environmental impact lies in the production and transportation of our products. Our Climate Action Plan therefore focuses on these areas while continuing to reduce emissions across the wider business. Our commitments:

Ongoing

• Maintain 100% renewable electricity at our Head Office.

By 2027

• Expand take-back and recycling initiatives to improve product circularity and recyclability.

By 2028

• Source 100% FSC-certified paper and board across all our products and packaging.

• Continue increasing recycled content year on year.

• Transport: Continue to work with our 3PL warehouse partners to reduce the carbon intensity of downstream deliveries by 20%. This will include working with couriers and transport companies on electric and HVO vehicles.

Our standard napkins are made in Europe from recycled paper and we plant trees to offset the paper used.

How we'll achieve this

Our Climate Action Plan includes practical actions across our supply chain and operations, including:

• Working with suppliers to increase the use of recycled and certified materials while collecting primary carbon data.

• Partnering with our logistics and warehouse providers to improve delivery efficiency and transition towards lower-carbon transport.

• Measuring our carbon footprint annually through an independent specialist and reporting progress publicly each year.

• Encouraging our team to travel and work more sustainably wherever possible.

Our Fragments of fashion collection of decorations is made from fashion industry fabric offcuts.

Driving change together

The new B Corp standards also place greater emphasis on collective action, recognising that businesses can achieve greater impact by working together to tackle society's biggest challenges.

This is something Talking Tables already actively supports. We are a member of the Better Business Act campaign, which is calling for UK company law to be updated so that all businesses are legally required to balance profit with people and the planet.

By working alongside other purpose-led organisations, we hope to help create positive change that extends well beyond our own business.

Looking ahead

Welcoming the new standards, Managing Director Daniel Fagan said:

"Our aim has always been to embed sustainability into every part of our business so that it becomes part of everyday decision-making. The new B Corp standards reinforce exactly that approach, encouraging businesses to improve across every area of their operations. We're delighted to have achieved certification under these strengthened standards and to continue our journey towards creating a more sustainable future."

“Achieving certification under the new standards is an important milestone, but it is not the finish line. We know there is always more to do, and these higher standards provide a valuable framework to help us continue improving our environmental and social impact for our customers, our colleagues, our suppliers and our communities.”

For more on our sustainability practices read more here.