From Bees to Buildings: Two B Corps Leading in Environmental Stewardship

For decades, the corporate world’s environmental efforts have been neatly captured in two words: “net zero.” But a new, more holistic vision has been rapidly gaining ground in boardrooms and on balance sheets, moving from a narrow focus on carbon to a broader embrace of nature itself. This is the dawn of the “nature-positive” movement—a recognition that planetary health and economic stability are two sides of the same coin. This is mirrored in the new B Lab Standards, which are raising the bar with a new Environmental Stewardship & Circularity Impact Topic, challenging businesses to fundamentally reimagine their relations with the natural world.
The stakes are immense. The World Economic Forum estimates that over half of global GDP, roughly $44 trillion, is moderately or highly dependent on nature. As we push past six of the nine planetary boundaries vital for Earth’s stability, businesses are realizing that the destruction of nature is not a distant environmental issue, but a direct threat to their supply-chains and long-term survival.
This realization is creating a new class of corporate leaders. Certified B Corps like APIVITA, whose very existence is tied to the health of bees, and Entuitive, which is redesigning the built environment with nature in mind, offer powerful examples of how to translate this grand ambition into the kind of tangible, impactful action the moment demands.
For Greece-based B Corp APIVITA, a natural cosmetics company that creates its products from bee products and native plant extracts, stewardship begins with its name. “APIVITA literally means ‘life of the bee’”, shares Anagnosti Choukalas, Head of Sustainability at APIVITA. “For us, keeping bees at our premises is as natural as breathing. It’s a signature ritual to introduce our people… to our source of inspiration: the bees, the sentinels of life on the planet.” This deep reverence is the soul of this B Corp, where protecting ecosystems is understood as “not only an environmental responsibility but a business imperative.”

This philosophy is the heart of their ambitious Billion Bees Program, created in collaboration with 1% for the Planet. The program aims to regenerate honeybee populations worldwide and awaken a global understanding of the critical role these tiny agricultural allies play. To date, APIVITA has helped bring over 4 billion new bees—a powerful and tangible example of the Environmental Stewardship Impact Topic in the new B Lab Standards.
Just as vital as protecting and regenerating the bees is educating the next generation of leaders on their importance for life and biodiversity. Through their Bee School, APTIVIA translates the global crisis into simple, powerful lessons for children. “I ask them what their favorite fruit is,” Anagnosti explains, “and then I tell them that with no bees pollinating, it will not be available. When they realize that their favorite fruit, vegetable, or nut will not ‘be’ without bees, they are in awe.”

Whilst APIVITA works to protect the tiny engineers of our ecosystems, another B Corp is reimagining the work of human engineers, asking an equally important question: how can the very structures we live and work in become a force for regeneration?
For the team at Canadian consulting engineer firm Entuitive, explaining their work often starts with a personal joke. “I start off by telling people I ‘model for a living’,” shares Biren Singh, Building Performance Team Lead at Entuitive, “and then go on to explain what energy modeling is. I think when you really love what you do, the passion shows through. It’s our way to have a tangible effect on climate change and people’s lives.” This passion drives the B Corp’s mission, which they describe as “making a tangible and lasting impact on the world.”

Their focus is one of the planet’s biggest challenges: the built environment, a sector responsible for 37% of global carbon emissions. Entuitive’s approach directly reflects the enhanced focus on circularity in the new B Lab Standards, which push companies up the hierarchy of circular actions. For example, in the award-winning Valhalla residential towers project, the structural team innovated to reduce the amount of concrete used—a critical intervention given the material’s intensive carbon footprint.
But Entuitive’s mission goes beyond the numbers of a carbon ledger. “Success… should be looked at in a holistic manner that goes beyond just carbon reduction,” Singh explains. This holistic view means measuring success in the resilience of a building against future climate shocks, as well as its impact on local ecosystems. Even the human element is part of this larger system; during a visit to a historic Toronto housing co-op, residents shared their struggles with drafts and poor ventilation, giving the team a clearer understanding of how social and environmental needs intersect. “Those discussions really drove how we approached the retrofit process as opposed to a one-size-fits-all solution,” Singh says. Ultimately, for this B Corp, the technical work serves a larger purpose: creating structures that not only shelter people but also act as responsible stewards of the natural resources they are part of.

The stories of APIVITA and Entuitive are dispatches from the frontline of a new economy, providing a blueprint for how businesses can move from ambition to meaningful, nature-positive action. Both show what’s possible when businesses stop seeing themselves as separate from the natural world and start recognizing their deep interconnection with the ecosystems they affect.
Crucially, their journeys also show that authentic stewardship requires accountability. Rigorous frameworks, such as those embedded in B Corp Certification and its standards for Environmental Stewardship & Circularity, are essential tools that help companies measure and improve what matters. Ultimately, these B Corps demonstrate that regenerating our world is not just a moral obligation but a business imperative, lighting the path for an economy designed to thrive in harmony with nature.
Learn more about APIVITA: Rebuilding the hive - Common Good
Learn more about Entuitive: A model for efficiency - Common Good
*All stills in this blog are taken from the films above produced for APIVITA and Entuitive by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions.

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