Darling Associates certified as a B Corporation™

Darlings has been certified as a B Corporation™, scoring 87 against the 80-point threshold needed to qualify.

B Corporation™ is awarded by the non-profit B Lab to businesses that meet independently verified standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency, covering everything from governance and how staff are treated to impact on the community, the environment, and customers.

It’s a certification that puts a number on something Darlings has been working towards for years. The practice’s own sustainability focus group has long pushed for buildings that are low-carbon by design, including passive solutions that cut down on artificial heating and lighting, and material choices that reduce embodied carbon and waste.

Recent projects reflect that thinking in practice: the rooftop solar panels on Unilever Campus in Kingston upon Thames are expected to offset 74 megawatt-hours of energy a year, while The Welcome Building in Bristol is designed to connect to the town’s district heating network as part of its ambition to run at net zero. Darlings has also been operationally carbon neutral since 2021, offsetting its emissions through Gold Standard projects including Amazon rainforest protection and a wind farm in Karnataka, India, alongside a commitment to cut its own footprint by 5% every year.

Darlings joins a growing number of architecture and built-environment businesses becoming B Corps, part of a wider industry shift toward using design as a force for good, not just growth.

The assessment recognised strengths across governance and workplace culture including the practice’s Equality and Diversity Policy, its Corporate & Social Responsibility framework, and the everyday things that make Darlings what it is: paid charity days, ongoing staff training, and a long-standing relationship with SW1 charity The Passage.

Staff wellbeing has been a particular focus of that culture. Darlings has run a formal Mental Health + Wellbeing Action Plan since 2017, backed by in-house Mental Health First Aiders. The practice holds a monthly wellbeing breakfast for the whole team to check in on how everyone is doing, alongside everyday measures such as a subsidised gym membership and free healthy breakfasts, reflecting a belief that looking after people properly means being proactive about mental health, not just reactive.

Looking ahead, the practice has committed to improving its score at future recertification, alongside existing goals to cut operational carbon and achieve net biodiversity gain across its projects.

Becoming a certified B Corp is a milestone for us, but really it’s a reflection of what we’ve believed since day one. Good architecture isn’t just about the buildings; it’s about the people who use them, the communities around them and the planet we all share. This certification holds us properly accountable to that and gives our clients and our team something real to measure us against. Well done to all the team involved, particularly James Le Ball and Melissa D’Souza who steered us through the process.