Bristol has second highest B-Corp companies per capita in UK

Bristol Has More B Corps Per Capita Than Any UK City Outside London. Here's What B Corp Means for How You Source Printed Clothing

Bristol's business community has spent the last decade building something genuinely pushing change in the corporate environment. The city now has more B Corp certified businesses per capita than any UK city outside London and it really reflects how businesses here choose to operate.

B Corp companies commit publicly to supply chain accountability and most if not all will order branded clothing so this post is for Bristol businesses that hold B Corp certification or are working towards it.

It covers what the B Impact Assessment actually scores, why many print companies cannot meet the standards and what to look for when you source branded garments from a supplier who needs to fit with the standards your company is setting.

What the B Impact Assessment Actually Measures

The B Impact Assessment is more demanding than most people outside the process realise. It covers five pillars: governance, workers, community, environment and customers. Each one carries specific evidenced requirements. A general statement of good intent does not score points, evidence and documentation is required.

Workers is one of the most detailed pillars. It assesses pay relative to living wage benchmarks, health and safety practices, training and development investment, job flexibility, and whether staff have any meaningful stake in the business or its direction. Certification requires evidence that workers are treated as assets rather than overheads which means fair compensation, safe conditions, and structures that give people agency over their working lives.

Community looks at how the business engages with its local area and supply chain. This includes diversity in hiring, civic engagement, sourcing from local suppliers where possible and whether the business model itself generates broader social value. For Bristol businesses this pillar often reflects the reason they chose to operate here.

Environment covers energy use, water consumption, materials sourcing, waste management and the lifecycle of physical products. For businesses that buy branded clothing this is where procurement decisions start to matter to the score. What are the garments made from? How were they produced? What happens to them at end of life?

Governance focuses on whether the business is structured to pursue its mission even under commercial pressure. This includes legal accountability to stakeholders, transparency in reporting and whether the business can demonstrate its values through its decisions rather than just its communications.

Customers assesses whether products and services generate genuine value, are accurately represented and whether the business has mechanisms to collect and act on feedback.

Across all five pillars the common thread is accountability. The assessment is designed to distinguish businesses that have built ethical practice into their operations from businesses that have written it into their marketing.

Why Supply Chain Accountability Trips Up B Corps at the Procurement Stage

Businesses undertaking the B Impact Assessment can easily overlook one area: what they buy and who they buy it from.

Branded clothing can feel peripheral against other business practices but it is imperative to map your supplier relationships against the environment and community pillars to make sure they hold up.

Can you verify the labour conditions at the factory that made your garments? Can you demonstrate that the inks used to print your logo meet recognised safety standards? Can you document the environmental footprint of the decoration process? Can your supplier tell you anything about where the fibres came from?

For most B Corps the honest answer is probably no. Not because they have chosen suppliers carelessly but because the garment decoration industry has not traditionally had the infrastructure to answer those questions. Certification, auditing, and transparent documentation have historically been the exception in this sector although thankfully this is now starting to change led by companies such as Stanley/Stella, Earth Positive and Magnacolours. 

What Ethical Garment Decoration Actually Looks Like in Practice

The B Impact Assessment gives businesses a framework to assess against. The harder question is what it looks like to actually meet this at the production level.

On workers: A print studio that treats its team well pays fair wages, provides genuine training, maintains safe working conditions and creates a workplace people want to stay in. Screen printing and embroidery can involve chemical exposure, repetitive physical work, and machinery that requires proper safety management. The difference between a studio taking worker wellbeing seriously and one that does not is visible in staff tenure, in how consumables are handled and in whether health and safety is documented or assumed.

On environment: Garment decoration involves inks, pigments and pre-treatments. The responsible approach is water-based chemistry rather than PVC-based plastisol inks, verifiable waste management and production powered by renewable energy. These are not difficult standards to talk about but they are difficult to sustain commercially when lower-cost alternatives exist. A supplier who has maintained them consistently has made a deliberate choice and that choice should be verifiable.

On community: A Bristol-based studio with genuine community roots sources locally where it can, supports independent businesses and creative projects and operates in a way that strengthens the local economy. For B Corp clients working with a local supplier rather than a national commodity printer can also reduce transport emissions and keeps spending in the city.

On supply chain: The garments themselves matter as much as the decoration. Suppliers who work with manufacturers holding recognised labour and environmental certifications are providing a meaningfully more defensible supply chain than those who source from the cheapest available factory. Standards like GOTS, Fair Wear Foundation, and SA8000 exist precisely to provide the kind of third-party verification that 'we checked and they seemed fine' can not.

Why GOTS Certification Is One of the Most Useful Standards for B Corp Procurement

The Global Organic Textile Standard is one of the few certifications that maps directly onto what the B Impact Assessment is looking for.

GOTS covers the entire textile supply chain from raw fibre to finished product. It sets mandatory requirements for organic fibre content, prohibits a long list of harmful substances across every stage of production, mandates social criteria including fair wages and safe working conditions at every certified facility, and requires annual third-party auditing.

That last point is what makes it credible. The certification is not self-reported. An independent auditor verifies compliance every year, which means the standard is maintained under commercial pressure rather than when it is convenient.

For a B Corp sourcing branded garments a supply chain that includes GOTS-certified manufacturers provides a level of verifiable accountability that is directly relevant to the environment and workers pillars of the assessment. 

How Live Ink Approaches the B Corp Standards

We are currently working towards B Corp certification and are not certified yet although we are in the process of building the evidence base and documentation that certification requires. We are being deliberate about it because we want the outcome to reflect how we actually work rather than how we present ourselves.

What we can tell you right now is how we already operate against each of the pillars that matter most for a supplier relationship.

Workers: We run a friendly team in Bristol and we pay above minimum living wage, invest in training and maintain a working environment where people are not exposed to unnecessary chemical risk. We use water-based inks across our screen printing operation because they are safer for our team as well as better for the environment. This is a meaningful operational commitment because water-based inks require more technical skill and more careful process management than the plastisol alternatives.

Environment: Our studio runs on renewable energy. We use water-based ink systems that eliminate the PVC, phthalates, and heavy metal pigments associated with plastisol printing. We manage waste carefully and we do not treat environmental practice as a communications exercise, it is built into how we produce. You can read more about how we approach sustainable garment decoration.

Community: We are a Bristol business. We work with independent brands, creative businesses and support charities and community organisations across the city. We do not have minimum order requirements on embroidery or DTG printing, which means we are accessible to small organisations that need quality decorated garments without a commercial print run behind them.

Supply chain: We work with garment suppliers including Stanley/Stella and Earth Positive who hold GOTS certification and carry a range of additional social and environmental accreditations. We can tell you who those suppliers are, point you to their certification documentation and give you a supply chain you can actually trace rather than one you have to take on trust.

The reason we are working towards B Corp is that the framework describes how we already run Live Ink and the certification process is the best way of making that verifiable for you.

What to Ask Any Print Supplier Before You Place an Order

If you hold B Corp certification or are working towards it, here are the questions worth asking any print company before you commit.

On inks: Do you use water-based or plastisol inks? Can you provide safety data sheets? Do your inks comply with REACH restrictions on hazardous substances?

On energy: What powers your production facility? Is it verified renewable?

On garments: Which manufacturers do you source from? Do those manufacturers hold any recognised labour or environmental certifications? Can you provide documentation?

On workers: How do you manage chemical safety in your studio? What does staff training look like?

On transparency: Can you provide third-party documentation for any of your ethical claims, or is your supply chain self-certified?

A supplier who cannot answer these clearly may not be in a position to support your B Corp commitments with anything that will stand up in an assessment.

Get in touch we'd love to hear from you