Joins 113 Companies From 21 Countries and 46 Industries to Set Gold Standard and Challenge All Businesses to Measure and Manage Impact
236 Companies Honored as ‘Best for the World’, Best for the Environment’, and ‘Best for Workers’
April 14, 2015 — Today, Turnstile Tours was recognized for creating the most positive overall community impact by the nonprofit B Lab with the release of the fourth annual ‘B Corp Best for Community‘ list. The ‘B Corp Best for Community’ list honors businesses that earned a community score in the top 10% of more than 1,200 Certified B Corporations from over 120 industries on the B Impact Assessment, a rigorous and comprehensive assessment of a company’s impact on its workers, community, and the environment. Honorees were recognized among micro, small, and mid-sized businesses around the globe.
The B Corp ‘Best for Community’ list sets the gold standard for high impact companies and demonstrates any type of company can use business as a force for good. It is part of the ‘Best for the World’ series, which has inspired the Best for NYC campaign, the first municipal public-private impact partnership in the world to support businesses to create more high quality jobs and improve the quality of life in local neighborhoods, all while strengthening their bottom-line.
Among the list of over 100 honorees in the 2015 “Best for Community” category, Turnstile Tours was one of only four travel and leisure companies in the world to receive this recognition. Turnstile Tours develops and operates guided tour experiences based on original research in partnership with nonprofit organizations and cultural institutions in New York City. Their current tour programs explore the past and present of the street food industry in Manhattan, Latino cultural and culinary traditions at Brooklyn’s Moore Street Market, and landmarks of Brooklyn’s industrial waterfront, including a tour of the Brooklyn Army Terminal, and six theme-based tours at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, on topics ranging from World War II history to modern manufacturing to sustainable architecture. Both the Navy Yard and Army Terminal are city-owned, secure industrial facilities that would otherwise be inaccessible to the general public if not for these public tour programs, which help connect local people with the history and present-day opportunities available within their gates.
This year, Turnstile Tours is working with charter cruise company Classic Harbor Line to host tours about the military history of New York Harbor, kicking off in May in honor of Fleet Week NYC and Memorial Day. They are also launching a brand new series of weekly harbor cruises departing from Brooklyn Bridge Park highlighting the past and present of industry on the waterfront. These tours will not only feature Turnstile’s guides, but also a rotating list of guest experts, including representatives from news organizations, community groups, and other waterfront stakeholders.
Turnstile Tours reinvests at least 5% of all revenue from ticket sales to support the work of designated nonprofit partners, including the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92, the industrial park’s visitor, exhibition, and employment center; the Street Vendor Project, an initiative of the Urban Justice Center that supports vendors through advocacy, education, micro-loans, and legal representation; and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, an organization that works to create jobs, generate economic opportunity, and improve quality of life in New York City.
Turnstile founder Cindy VandenBosch was honored to have her small company recognized in this way, after less than three years in business, and in just their first year as a Certified B Corporation. “The heart of our work is about the patchwork of community organizations in New York City and the resources they offer to local people. We are incredibly grateful for this award, but we’re sharing it with not only our dedicated team of researchers, guides, and advisors, but also with the nonprofit groups, small businesses, and community residents who make it possible for us to document and celebrate amazing stories of ordinary and extraordinary New Yorkers.”
Additional 2015 Best For Community Honorees include Roshan, Afghanistan’s leading telecommunications company, California’s Beneficial State Bank an innovative, triple-bottom line, community development financial institution and provider of the B Corp Credit Card, Echale a Tu Casa, a social housing production company in Mexico and Oregon’s A to Z Wineworks. The 114 ‘Best for Community’ companies come from 46 different industries such as manufacturing, financial services and engineering. 39% of honorees are based outside the US, with companies operating in emerging markets such as Afghanistan, Kenya, Vietnam, and Brazil (full list at bestfortheworld.bcorporation.net).
“Today’s honorees inspire all companies to compete not only to be best in the world, but best for the world. We hope many will take the first step by using the B Impact Assessment to measure and manage their impact with as much rigor as their profit,” said Jay Coen Gilbert, Co-Founder of B Lab, the nonprofit organization that certifies B Corporations and governs the independent third party standard used to generate the comparable assessment of corporate impact.
B Lab simultaneously released separate lists recognizing the companies ‘Best for the World’ (overall impact), ‘Best for the Environment’ (environmental impact), and ‘Best for Workers’ (employee impact) which can be found atbestfortheworld.bcorporation.net. A total of 350 companies were named 2015 Best For the World Honorees, including Natura, d.light designs, Cooperative Home Care Associates, New Belgium Brewery, and King Arthur Flour. The 2015 Best for the World Honorees represent nearly one-third of all B Corps, displaying a wide range of excellence throughout the community.
Each honored company is a Certified B Corporation. These companies use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems and have met rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Today there are over 1,200 Certified B Corporations, across 121 industries and 38 countries, unified by one common goal: to redefine success in business. Any company can measure and manage social and environmental performance at bimpactassessment.net.
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Turnstile Tours creates and operates unique, rigorously-researched, engaging tours and public programs in partnership with nonprofit organizations and cultural institutions that bring together out-of-town visitors, community residents, and people of all ages and abilities. In addition to providing promotional and mission support to these organizations, Turnstile has committed to contribute at least 5% of all ticket sales to designated non-profit partners.
Contact: Cindy VandenBosch, Founder & President, Turnstile Tours
cindy@turnstiletours.com, (347) 903-8687
For more information, visit turnstiletours.com
B Lab is a nonprofit organization that serves a global movement of people using business as a force for good. Its vision is that one day all companies compete not only to be the best in the world, but the best for the world and society will enjoy prosperity for all for the long term. B Lab drives this systemic change by: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations to make it easier for all of us to tell the difference between “good companies” and good marketing; 2) passing benefit corporation legislation to give business leaders the freedom to create value for society as well as shareholders; 3) helping businesses measure, compare and improve their social and environmental performance with the free B Impact Assessment; 4) driving capital to impact investments through use of its B Analytics and GIIRS Ratings platform. Contact: Katie Kerr, B Lab
katie@bcorporation.net, (610) 293-0299
For more information, visit www.bcorporation.net
