[B]rattleboro Savings & Loan has become a certified B Corporation, the first bank in Vermont and second in New England to do so.
To be a Certified B Corp., companies must meet high standards of performance, transparency, and accountability as set by the non-profit B Lab. They must fill out a questionnaire called the B Impact Assessment, which measures the company’s impact on its workers, community, and environment.
Dan Yates, the bank president, said Brattleboro Savings & Loan scored well on the assessment, which looks at the categories of customers, community, employees, governance and environment.
He said the bank set a minimum starting pay of $15 per hour and put in place a profit-sharing program for employees last year. The bank is also powered through net metering and has its own solar array – all amenities that raise the assessment score.
There are only a few banks on the website of the B Labs, the certifying entity, because many banks have shareholders who require bank leaders to make profits the No. 1 goal. Yates said Brattleboro Savings & Loan gets around that because it’s a mutual, depositor-owned bank.
“We do not make any decisions based on what is best for a shareholder; we make our decisions based on what is best for our employees, customers and community,” Yates said. “We’ll make decisions that may not yield the greatest amount of profit, but that we think are the right decision for one or all three of that group, like a cooperative almost.”
The bank was founded in 1912 and has $205 million in assets on its bank side and another $200 million in assets on its wealth management side, Yates said. It has offices in Brattleboro, Wilmington and Bondville.
B Labs, the certifying organization, has 16 Vermont companies listed as certified B Corps., including SunCommon, Rhino Foods, Ben & Jerry’s, Cabot Creamery, King Arthur Flour and Clean Yield Asset Management. Mascoma Bank of Lebanon, N.H., is also a certified B Corp.