Coming 2026 · UK launch

Making ethical business the only
business worth doing.

DESIGN is the independent certification and rating system for businesses that don't just say the right things — they do them. Outcomes, not policies. Continuous, not three-yearly. Real-world, not paperwork.

6
Pillars covering the full ethical picture
3
Tiers — accessible to every size of business
24/7
Continuous monitoring, not periodic audit
The problem

The current certification system is broken.

Founding B Corps are walking away. Companies pay thousands for a logo and continue practices that contradict it. Audits happen every three years. Nobody checks what happens in between.

"We have not seen adequate, transparent and timely action. Our only recourse is to drop our certification."
Dr. Bronner's, dropping B Corp status — February 2025
"Instead of paying an £8,500 recertification fee, we're donating it directly to Save the Children."
Scrumbles CEO, exiting B Corp — 2025
"It is an onerous audit database, more suited to large corporates than SMEs — and it's not outcome-based."
Big Issue Group founding B Corp — on B Corp's limitations
The standards

Six pillars. Three tiers. Real evidence.

DESIGN spells out exactly what ethical business looks like — and how it's measured. Every pillar requires evidenced outcomes, not policy documents.

D

Diversity

Workforce composition, leadership representation, pay gaps, and supplier diversity — measured and tracked over time.

E

Ethics, Equality & Environmental

Code of ethics, anti-corruption, equal pay, science-based emissions targets, and live adverse-media screening.

S

Social

Real Living Wage, employee wellbeing, modern slavery due diligence, and quantified social value.

I

Inclusion

Independent inclusion index, psychological safety, neurodiversity, LGBTQ+ inclusion, accessible products.

G

Governance

Board diversity, named accountability, embedded purpose, transparent pay ratios, group/entity scope.

N

Network

Supply-chain ethics, industry advocacy, peer support for smaller businesses, regulator engagement.

The platform

Three connected products. One ethical infrastructure.

DESIGN isn't just a badge. It's a working ecosystem where companies certify, customers rate, and employees have a confidential voice.

Product 01

The Standard

The certification framework

Six pillars. Three tiers. Continuous algorithmic monitoring. Adverse-media screening. The first certification that revokes itself when companies fall short.

Product 02

The Rating

Independent ethical-conduct ratings — by people who buy, supply, and live alongside the company

Customers, suppliers and community members rate companies on real-world ethical behaviour. Public, searchable, evidence-weighted.

Product 03

The Line

Anonymous employee voice — with confidential whistleblowing built in

Anonymous employee voice on whether the standards are real internally — with confidential escalation to trained investigators when something serious is reported.

Why DESIGN is different

What sets us apart from everything else.

DESIGN was built to fix what's broken about every other framework on the market.

B CorpCustomer review platformsEthical ConsumerDESIGN
What it measuresSelf-reported policyCustomer experienceResearcher analysisEvidenced outcomes
MonitoringEvery 3 yearsContinuous5-year storiesContinuous + algorithmic
Employee voiceNoneNoneNoneBuilt-in
WhistleblowingNoneNoneNoneIndependent line
Public markStatic badgeStar ratingNone displayedLive, revocable
Accessible to SMEsOnerousN/AN/ATiered by size
Why now

The market is asking for exactly this.

Founding B Corps are publicly walking away. Consumers are tired of greenwashing. Regulators are circling. The space is wide open for an evidence-based alternative built for the next decade — not the last one.

B Corp's Pending programme — its on-ramp for start-ups — is closing on 28 February 2026. Thousands of values-aligned companies need a new home.— B Lab UK, 2025 announcement
9,900+ companies are B Corp certified globally. The audit infrastructure cannot credibly monitor that scale on three-yearly cycles. DESIGN is built algorithmically — and built for now.— DESIGN strategic position
Coming next · for consumers Phase 2

Show people where their money actually goes.

Many people want to know who really benefits when they spend £11.50 on a chicken or £4 on a coffee. DESIGN puts open public information — Companies House filings, country-by-country reporting, Living Wage data, commodity prices — in one place, in a form a normal person can understand. We never tell you what to buy. We give you the data so you can choose.

Fair value breakdown

Where every pound of the shelf price goes — from raw materials and Living Wage labour, through processing and logistics, to retailer margin and brand owner profit.

Where the money ends up

The full chain of beneficiaries — from UK retailers and EU producers to ultimate parent companies abroad. Sourced from filed accounts and country-by-country tax disclosures.

Compare alternatives

The same product across competing brands, side by side — fair value, country benefit, ethical conduct. So you can vote with your wallet, with your eyes open.

Where your £11.50 ends up
Premium free-range chicken
Sample data · methodology under consultation
EU
European Union
Production, wages, processing
53%
UK
United Kingdom
Retail, logistics, taxes
25%
USA
United States
Ultimate parent profit
22%
Sources: Companies House, SEC 10-K, OECD CbCR, Living Wage Foundation, DEFRA. Open public data, presented in plain English.
Information, not instruction. DESIGN's transparency layer never tells anyone what to buy or boycott. Every figure is sourced from public filings and named in the methodology. Where data is missing or disputed, we say so. The decision belongs to the person paying.
Our people

Real auditors. Named accountability. A regulator by proxy.

B Corp's credibility crisis is a staffing problem. They certify thousands of companies with a small team and a self-serve platform. DESIGN is built differently: every certified organisation has a named DESIGN Account Director, every claim has a real human auditor behind it, and continuous monitoring is operated by people — not just an algorithm.

1:25
Account Director to certified company ratio (target)
100%
Of Tier 1 certifications human-audited
24h
Response to algorithmic trigger alerts
£0
Auditor remuneration linked to certification volume

The DESIGN team behind every certification

Account Directors

Long-term partner to your business

Named, accountable, and dedicated to your organisation throughout your DESIGN journey. They know your business, your context, and your team. A real person to call.

Independent Auditors

Trained, certified, independently paid

Conduct verification at certification, recertification, and on every triggered review. Their pay is not linked to whether companies pass — only to the quality of their audit.

Monitoring Analysts

The eyes behind the algorithm

Watch the live dashboard. When the algorithm flags an adverse media event, employee voice anomaly, or score deterioration, a real analyst investigates within 24 hours.

Standards Council

Independent, multi-disciplinary

An independent body of regulators, academics, civil society, and practitioners. They own the standards methodology — separated from the commercial certification function.

Whistleblowing Investigators

Confidential, trained, supervised

Trained professionals who handle every report into The Line. Reports never go to the employer — they go to DESIGN, are investigated, and are acted on confidentially.

Legal & Regulatory

In-house counsel and external advisors

Specialists in employment law, data protection, defamation, and FCA regulation. Every public statement, every revocation, every escalation goes through proper legal review.

The B Corp model

Self-serve assessment. Three-yearly recertification. Limited human oversight. Companies left to interpret standards themselves between audits.

The DESIGN model

Named Account Director. Continuous monitoring with named analysts. Annual review supplemented by triggered audits. Real humans helping you maintain — not just achieve — your accreditation.

Become a founding partner.

We are inviting a small number of organisations and investors to shape DESIGN from the ground up. If you're tired of the status quo and ready to build the standard the market is asking for — let's talk.

● Companies seeking certification ● Investors ● Strategic partners