Blabbering About Broadband: Heather Kelley and Kerem Durdag

Audio Transcription:

Colin Haley:  “Good morning everybody and welcome to GWI’s first episode in our series ‘Blabbering About Broadband.’ My name is Colin Haley and I will be leading the discussion on today’s topic, B Corporations. With me today I have GWI’s President and CEO, Kerem Durdag, and GWI’s Vice President of People and Culture Heather Kelley to help me educate you all on the subject matter. Thank you both for joining me today.

Heather Kelley:  “Absolutely.” 

Kerem Durdag: “Thank you for having us, Colin.” 

Colin Haley: “So everybody, the reason we’re speaking about certified B Corporations is because in 2020, GWI became the first broadband carrier in the nation to achieve B Corp certification, but before we get into the nitty-gritty about B-Corporations, Kerem, I thought you could start us off with a little bit of background about GWI; the who we are, what we do, where we do it, and why we do it, so to speak, and any elements of the company that you think are pertinent for the general public to know.

Kerem Durdag: “Sure, no, I’m happy to do that. So, GWI has been in the Maine broadband ecosystem for the last 27 years. We serviced the entire state of Maine and have recently started expanding into Vermont. We provided internet services and voice services to everybody; residential and commercial since 2010. We’ve been maniacally focused on doing our part to wire up the entire State of Maine on fiber broadband infrastructure, and fiber broadband. What does that do? It allows you not to watch the wheel of life as you wait for things to upload or download, and it’s a, it’s an infrastructure that allows you and your children, and your children’s children to participate in the 21st century. 

In terms of what we do, we very much, very much to our core believe that the consumer is at the center of the decision making process, and so the B Corp is an instantiation, is an auditable, uh, structure, that allows us to be beholden to the interests of the consumer. We build our own networks and at the same time we allow and have the capability to run networks on behalf of municipalities and utility districts. We exist very comfortably in both worlds. We do everything; from billing, to provisioning, to sales, to marketing, to support, to design, engineering, construction, operation. We do all of it, and so for us having that kind of expertise allows us to do things in highly populated, dense metro-areas, and also do that in collaboration with municipalities and utility districts in rural areas, and our goal is to be able to have all mainers have access to high-speed broadband internet. We believe actually it’s a human right. 

One of the things that we’re also very proud of is our focus on privacy and security. We believe your data should be yours and nobody else’s. We are nationally known for our support for net neutrality. What does that mean? It means we’re not going to give preferential rights to anybody. Everybody has the same kind of rights and access, and at the end of the day we don’t believe in hiding stuff, so we’re very transparent. All our pricing is easy to understand, English language. And then some, and, uh, you know none of these, uh, tricks about bundling, and so on so forth. So all that wraps into obviously our B Corp certification. So that’s who we are, that’s what we do, uh, and we do it well. We really do.” 

Colin Haley: “Well, thank you for that. It sounds like quite the righteous place to work. 

Kerem Durdag: “It is.” 

Colin Haley: “So, so let’s, uh, let’s dive right into the topic. Uh, Heather, maybe you could give us a little high-level overview about B Corporations, what they are, and maybe what makes a certified B Corporation unique in relation to other types of businesses.

Heather Kelley:  “Sure, absolutely Colin. So, B Corps are really organizations that value and prioritize their stakeholders, and so in terms of people that means our workers, our customers, the communities in which we operate. In addition to what would be our normal, traditional shareholders of the court, of the company. We also are very invested in the planet in terms of what our impact of the work that we do is on the planet. 

And so, looking at that environmental aspect, Companies who are B Corps also really have to be willing to demonstrate, and a high social and economic performance. And we do that through the B Impact assessment, and we do that by sharing all the things that we know that we do, and validating those things through the assessment that B Lab does for us. And so we’ve made a legal commitment to, um, being a B Corp and changing our corporate governance structure so it supports that as well, as we are very transparent about our B Corp certification. You can actually go to the bcorporation.net website and see all the things that we have attested to and said that we do, and we support. 

And so you know, not only in terms of us being a business, um, that’s you know, trying to do good out there in the world, but also for us it comes down to mostly two things; it’s the core – it’s the employees who are our employees that we’re supporting, and we’re doing that in the best possible way. Not only is our, our intent to be a righteous place to work, but we’re a great place to work, um, you know we really support our employees. We believe in them and they’re really one of our major shareholders. And the other thing is, is the communities that we’re serving in. And so, you know, as we go and look to build out fiber in these different, um, communities, we’re really looking to be a part of that community, to support that community, and make sure that they have all of the advantages that high speed internet brings to them.”

Colin Haley: “That’s great, that’s great, and it sounds as if in listening to that answer, Heather, regarding the certification, it seems as if the bar is set very high, and, and the process to become certified, and to maintain that certification can be very challenging. Um, maybe, Heather, you could walk us through a little bit about the process and you know, time frames, any trials and tribulations that GWI as a company went through to get B Corp certified?” 

Heather Kelley: Absolutely, Colin. So, it’s absolutely challenging and I would say it was pretty intense for us to get through that, and it shouldn’t be easy, right? It shouldn’t be just, kind of a checklist that you can run through and become a B Corp. It really should mean something. And so, there are kind of four steps to being certified as a B Corp, um, but probably where we spent the most time was even before that, and doing some preparations.

So we had done the B Impact assessment, which is the, the kind of run-through of, of who you are, and how your values, and, and what you’re doing, and your business practices line up with the B Corp standard. And then we also got connected with the, with Dr. Fiona Wilson, who is the Deputy Chief Sustainability Officer and Director of the Sustainability Institute at the University of New Hampshire, and we applied for, and joined the Spring 2019 B Impact clinic at UNH. And so it was a big part of us becoming certified. I personally worked with a team of students and they helped us go through that B Impact assessment and really help to, to narrow down some areas for us where we had maybe some more opportunity to expand our policies or, um, more opportunity that for things that were adjacent to what we had originally said we knew we could stand behind in the impact assessment. And so, after going through the clinic they, the students, came back with this report for us, and so for me it allowed me to, to fine-tune some of those things and then actually submit the assessment. 

So the first step really is the, the B Impact assessment, which we submitted in July of 2019. We then went through a review process where B Lab went and looked at all of our answers and reviewed everything, that was, that we had said we were doing. And then they came back to us with the next step which was the verification process. And so, B Lab is the organization that does the assessment of your readiness and fitness to be a B Corporation, and so, they go through the verification process. We then submitted a bunch more information to them; policies, procedures, information about the demographics of the areas that we were serving, um, and they came back and and really either said you get these points and credits toward being a B Corp or we think maybe we need more information for you or you’re not going to get them. And so, that led to this improvement period, and again it wasn’t easy. We spent a lot of time really looking at who we are and what we’re doing and how that matched up with the B Corp and it gave us a chance to make some improvements. And so, we went through the improvement period, and then as you said in 2020, almost a year after we submitted the first assessment, did we actually get certified as a B Corp. 

So it’s long, and hard, and challenging, but so worth it for us to really be able to say that the things that we knew we stood for the things we knew we were doing for the communities in Maine and for our employees was really validated by an outside entity and we became a B Corp.” 

Colin Haley: “Well, I think it’s, it’s safe to say if it was easy everybody would do it, right? But, um, but it sounds as if there are some, there are some wonderful resources out there to help organizations through the process, because it is so challenging, because there are such accountabilities tied to the certification process. 

With a little bit of background in hand now Kerem, maybe you can chat with us a little bit about why, why GWI decided to become B Corp certified? What was – what was the reasoning behind it, and, and maybe why B Corporations are so important in this day and age to society as a whole?” 

Kerem Durdag: “That’s a good question. In terms of why GWI? We believe it’s our moral, financial, ethical, and financial obligation to do the right thing. And we believe that our dna allows us to be a member of the ecosystem and the community of companies that are trying to do the right thing. Together with communities, together with the consumer, together with the employees, our vendors, and other other shareholders and stakeholders, right it is important for, for GWI on, on three levels: 

The first is, because it is a hard process to go through, you are achieving, and attaining, and maintaining benchmarks. High-level business benchmarks to be able to do these things. Well, that for us is a way to manage our business that we do on a day-to-day level, but now it is institutionalized, right, it cuts across all departments, it cuts across decision making, it cuts across the way we view life. So having those benchmarks in place allows us to risk mitigate, it allows us to be able to plan, process, put workflows that reflect our dna to the broader world, and to ourselves internally. So that’s that. That’s one. 

The second reason we did it is to be able to show ourselves as an example in an industry which traditionally has been at the very bottom of the pile when it comes to consumers believing that this industry is doing the right thing. So if you look at the trust and validation that the telecommunications industry has had over the last 40 years it is right there in the bottom and we want to change that. Right. We want to be able to show that we, as a member of that industry, are capable of so much more, and can do so much more. So that’s just that. That’s, that’s the second reason.

The third reason is we owe this to the community and to the consumer, and when I say we owe this, we owe. The fact that we are going to be, and we are on so many levels, a place where people can trust us, and that trust is important because it allows society to grow. It allows economic development to occur. It allows generations to be able to build upon the goodness that the previous generation did. So, and that sort of transitions into why on a society level it is important in the 21st century. 

The rules and the ways of doing business that were established in the 19th and 20th century are no longer applicable. Economies are different. The way the consumer views a relationship is no longer just transactional. It is a relationship. The way our decisions have a direct influence and are directly dependent on the health of the community, the health of the planet, the health of us as a society is incredibly important. Whether it’s the social stratification, whether it is the digital divide, whether it’s economic divide, whether it’s us intentionally overcoming redlining, uh, us being inclusive, and diverse, and equitable. Those things are a matter of collaboration, cooperation between all facets of society. It’s not just a responsibility of the citizen and not the corporate entities that are in place. 

So, so, for us this is a place to sort of conjoin those things and allow society to flourish, to bloom, and in that way it’s a way for communities to really have power. The power of having a relationship where you want to be able to purchase goods, products, and services that reflects your DNA I think is going to be the predominant theme of the 21st century. The way we do work, the way we view wealth, the way we view equity, and what it needs to be across all dimensions of society is massively, massively important. You cannot do it, one at the expense of the other. It is not a zero-sum game. Exclusionary and being monopolistic is not a tenet of democracy, and so these are the things that us as a B Corp, together with the communities, as people, and as our brothers and sisters within society can allow us to have a relationship together. That’s really, really, really important and I think we as one of the members of the Maine B Corp community are trying to sort of, hey, this can be done, this has advantages, this has scalability, and leverage. I think it is really important.” 

Colin Haley: “That’s, that’s great, and, and leading back into, or tying back into to what you referenced, you know, B Labs started certifying organizations all the way back in 2007, and as we know, that, there are a multiplicity of internet service providers out there who have been around since 2007, so I think it speaks volumes about the industry as a whole, how consumers view internet service providers and honestly back to it, the challenges and, and, and the heavy lift it is to become B Corp certified. 

So you know, again, as, as Heather mentioned, this is, this is a serious process and it should be, because you, you know certification is important and maintaining that certification is just as important. Uh, checks and balances throughout the way holding businesses to, to a level of accountability that, uh, most businesses aren’t used to. So i think it speaks volumes about GWI as an organization, and to your point, Kerem, there has been this, this wonderful movement occurring in in the state of Maine, in which we are seeing more Maine businesses, uh, achieving that certification and going out for that certification as well, which is, which is fantastic and something that we as an organization at GWI are are are highly encouraging. 

Um, I believe we are at ten Maine businesses right now that are certified, and more on the way, so, so that’s fantastic news and to step back a little bit before we finish off, so that everybody listening has a general sense across the globe right now, there are 4748 certified B Corporations in 78 countries, so, um, it’s a, it’s a growing movement. And, and if you’re out there listening and curious to know whether it’s worth the process, it most certainly is, um, uh, most certainly, and if you’re curious about it; you’re curious about B Corporations in general, you want more information about our journey or the movement in Maine, please go ahead and visit bcorporation.net, gwi.net and mainbecorps.com. Uh, thank you both very much for your time. We greatly appreciate it, and to all of you out there listening on the internet we say hello and thank you again.” 

Kerem Durdag: “Live long and prosper.”