Jeffrey D. Stewart, founder and executive director of Enharmonic Encounters, joins Kim Allchurch Flick. Enharmonic Encounters helps companies measure impact and amplifies non-English speaking stakeholders through language access.
Stewart describes becoming the first company in the United States to certify under B Lab’s new standards (V2) and explains the need for real case studies to show compliance is possible across company sizes.
He traces his path from a Fulbright experience in Brazil to working at B Lab as a Portuguese-speaking analyst certifying over 100 companies, then launching a translation practice combined with B certification consulting.
They discuss global versus local impacts, the growing need for language access amid B Lab’s global consolidation, and key V2 updates including required climate action planning, continuous improvement mechanisms, equity integrated across standards, and higher-level governance buy-in, as well as early challenges setting qualitative climate SMART goals.
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Time Stamps
00:00 Welcome and Intro
01:15 First on New Standards
02:50 Fulbright to B Lab
06:35 Founding Enharmonic
11:20 Community at Crossroads
19:38 Local Meets Global
28:42 Climate and Improvement
35:55 Purpose and Governance
41:05 Obstacles and Optimism
48:09 Stories and Next Wave
50:13 How to Connect
53:14 Dinner Question Finale
56:21 Closing Thanks
Kim Allchurch Flick: Hello everyone. Welcome to the Mighty Measure podcast. This is Kim Allchurch Flick and I am so delighted today to have someone who I met at the Champions Retreat in 2026. Jeffrey Stewart, who is the founder and executive director of Enharmonic Encounters, one of the coolest names I’ve ever heard, dedicated to helping companies measure their impact and amplifying the voices of non-English speaking stakeholders through language access.
As an expert consultant on the B certification process, placing Enharmonic encounters at the helm of the world’s largest. Third party verified socially responsible business movement as the first company in the United States to certify on B Lab’s new standards, otherwise known as V two. Jeffrey is uniquely positioned to guide companies on their B certification journey, ensuring that companies values shine to the fullest extent.
Today we’re gonna talk about trailblazing on B Lab’s new standards, and there’ll be a lot of takeaways and good discussions here. Welcome, Jeffrey. It’s so good to see you again.
Jeffery D. Stewart: Thank you, Kim. I really appreciate the invitation.
Kim Allchurch Flick: Yes. First of all, congratulations being the first. You are truly a trailblazer and I believe that you and I as other be certified or be meg, be trained consultants.
I’ve been learning about the new standards and giving feedback on the new standards for a while, but to actually embed in them and complete, that’s a first, so congratulations.
Jeffery D. Stewart: Thank you very much. This achievement means everything to us, and you’re exactly right that for quite some time now, we’ve been speaking about the new standards we’ve.
Been doing our best to study and prepare ourselves for compliance. What we ultimately needed was to begin seeing examples, real examples of companies implementing the requirements, verifying what works and what maybe doesn’t work. And we really needed to see how companies were approaching the requi, the requirements.
I’m glad that at N Harmonic Encounters, we were able to set an example for our ecosystem and show that compliance is indeed possible for any size company and for any, well, almost any industry.
Kim Allchurch Flick: I concur. Let’s go back to your story a bit and what led you to this, and a lot of listeners may not even know what B Corps is at this point, but what has been your journey and inspirations that brought you to this point?
Jeffery D. Stewart: Really, everything began for me with the Fulbright grant that I originally applied for back at the end of college. I applied for that grant in Jordan. At that point in time, and still today, I was very serious about studying Arabic and I wanted to put those skills on the ground in a real environment. I then applied for a Fulbright grant coming toward the end of college, and ultimately Brazil gave me a chance instead of Jordan, since the program is very prestigious.
I decided to go to Brazil and learn Portuguese, which at the beginning was not part of my plan at all. I was so focused on taking Arabic to the next level. I had never considered Brazil Brazilian culture or the Portuguese language before. Then as it happened, that Fulbright experience changed my entire trajectory.
That when I came home, I knew that I wanted to have my own practice in translation. One of the biggest things that the Fulbright did for me in Brazil was that they gave me experiences and real opportunities to leverage my language skills in the work I was doing in Brazil, in federal universities. I then saw that.
The, the language profession was something very serious for me and I wanted to take it forward. When I got home, I then understood that eventually I would have my own practice, but I needed to get started in my professional career some other way. I wasn’t going to be able to have my own company and start making all this money right away.
I decided that I would need to pursue a normal employment kind of experience first, that pursuit led me to B Lab as it happened. At that point in time. B Lab was searching specifically for Portuguese speaking individuals to serve as analysts for companies pursuing B certification. I knew nothing about.
B certification. Nothing about sustainability really. My college studies were in music performance, but I did have the language skills that B Lab was seeking. So that’s how I found myself entering into this ecosystem of certified B Corporations through the year and a half that I worked as an analyst at B Lab, I personally certified over.
100 companies, of course in Brazil, throughout South America, really all over the world. That showed me how it looks for businesses to run their operations in a different way, in a way that prioritizes people and planet over profit as it happened that could, that was the best thing that could have happened, because I originally had.
An idea of what I would wanna do. And now through the experience working as an analyst, I had a much clearer image of how I would run my own company. Those two things were pivotal in those early days. And then when I departed from the analyst position at B Lab, a third element came into play that was.
The experience gained as an analyst would be very beneficial for companies because as we know, the certification journey is sometimes long and complex. Companies often benefit greatly from working with someone who understands the in and outs of the process, knows what to expect from analysts, from the audit, and can guide companies accordingly.
I then understood. Not only would I have a company based around translation, but we could also add this very niche consulting service to guide companies on their B certification journey. That’s what led me to found N Harmonic Encounters, which the name by the way is giving or paying homage to. My studies in college in music performance and harmonic is a music theory term to signal that when you have in sheet music two notes that look different on paper, yet they sound the same to the ear.
That’s kind of where I was going in terms of aligning different voices or different viewpoints to be on one accord and I’ve. Been threading the needle in that where whatever industry or whatever company that comes to the B certification journey or whatever stakeholder that needs to engage in crucial conversations on people and planet, whether they be a Portuguese speaking individual, Arabic speaking individual, or English speaking individual, or even any other language that.
Through our partnership, we are able to align all of those different linguistic backgrounds or all of those different business perspectives to be on one accord that is very powerful today and relevant to the new standards for B certification in that we’re making a larger push than ever toward collective action.
That is to put all of our voices and all of our efforts together and to leverage them to be a much stronger force than any of us could have been individually.
Kim Allchurch Flick: That is so fascinating and what a beautiful gift you’re bringing to people and that is that of language and translation. And while you were talking, I was thinking back on all the opportunities I’ve had to perhaps learn a language to fluency and I have studied some and yet have fallen way short of the mark of really being able to communicate.
Any other language I stumble upon and I really admire that you did that. And also this story of serendipity where going from Jordan to Brazil, totally different continents, perhaps even different hemispheres, and yet it was, ended up being a gift because it led you into the B Lab community where Jordan May not have who knows what that we can’t know what the other path might have been, but what an incredible story
Jeffery D. Stewart: Indeed.
I often look back on it today, and you’re absolutely right that it’s impossible to predict how things could have been otherwise. Although what we often say is that hindsight is 2020. That, that particular decision the decision for Fulbright to give me a chance in Brazil instead of Jordan, that changed everything both in my life and for my family.
Brazil has become very personal in my life, and now it’s a permanent part of my life. I was blessed to meet my wife in Brazil. Today, my in-laws, a whole new part of my family is in Brazil, and we go regularly and it of course informs the, the never ending journey of learning of the language and culture that plays a direct role in the type of language access that we provide at end Harmonic encounters.
Kim Allchurch Flick: Absolutely. And it leads me to my next question. What do you see in your community and how is the community that you see solving it, solving problems that are of life experience, but also what is, what are you seeing as solutions? But I also wanna add that there’s. More than one community for you, there’s the Brazil community and the US community and your local community and more global.
How does that feel for you and how do you think about issues in Brazil? Issues in the us Not necessarily as competition or contrast, but in their own worth. What is true for the people in Brazil and what you see there and what is true for the people in your local community in the US and how does in, Enharmonic encounters be a part of finding solutions and working with those communities?
Jeffery D. Stewart: I’ve often seen myself and have identified in many ways in our. Global ecosystem of certified B corporations. I mentioned earlier that my start was as an analyst at B Lab. Since then, I’ve really grown and expanded how I’ve served this ecosystem, both in the United States and both in Brazil and on a larger global context as we know.
B Lab as an entity is moving toward a global consolidation, whereas in the past it has been or focused on different regions. For example, United States and Canada has been one. There are various Sistema Bay presences, for example, Sistema Bay in Brazil, or Sistema Bay. Mexico and others. I’ve seen that our community, particularly now, is at a crossroads where the update in the standards has been implemented as a way to meet the current challenges that people and planet are facing.
One of the biggest concerns with this update is. How companies will remain compliant and how they will rise to the occasion. And so what we’ve done in pursuing the certification on the new standards and being the first company to do so in the United States is begin to give our ecosystem a clear image of how it looks to meet the new standards, ultimately seeing others.
Complete something that we are ourselves are pursuing, I believe, gives us a higher sense of confidence. It gives us more encouragement and really sets a path that we ourselves may consider adopting in some way. Of course, that’s going to look different in the case of every company, and the magic of this transformation is that gradually we will see different.
Ways that companies spotlight their form of meeting the new requirements. Ultimately we need to see some real case studies and that was part of the biggest motivation for us, that End Harmonic encounters when we took that step. We want to do everything possible to, of course, build our credibility among stakeholders in our ecosystem, but also serve.
As a resource to communicate to companies that in making this transition, companies are not alone in embarking on this journey, and from our part at an Harmonic Encounters, we’re here to serve in any way we can. That was one of the major points for us in how we identify and what we’re seeing in our community.
There’s also another element. That element is really how we’ve been working to embed our language access arm at end, harmonic encounters with the global consolidation of B Lab. Ultimately, that’s going to mean a higher need for language access. That’s really what we’ve been seeing more and more in our community in September last year.
Right before COP 30, which was held in Brazil, I had the privilege of attending the equivalent of Champions Retreat in South America is what is called, that is the, the premier platform in South America for, for everything B Lab related. Last year in Quent MAs Bay was held in Brazil, and it was my first time attending this conference.
It switches countries every year and it’s on a biannual basis. The, the previous one they had was in Mexico. This current one, or this most recent one was in Brazil. That really did something for me in showing me and showing our team at end Harmonic encounters how we’re able to. Step up even more for our ecosystem.
We’re not just about being one dimensional in how we show up and serve our community. We see that everything that we’re doing and every part of the expertise we have is applicable to our community, and we are fully dedicated to pouring everything we have into it in Entro MAs Bay in Brazil. Was a coming together of the entire continent of South America.
Not only were there Brazilian companies, there were also Mexican companies, Colombian companies, Argentinian companies and stakeholders present. You can imagine the kind of linguistic celebration and cultural celebration that that was. That’s not something that we see to the same degree. In the United States or at Champions Retreat.
And so what we’re looking to do moving forward is to leverage our linguistic expertise, our language access services, to once again be at the helm of driving this ecosystem forward. And we believe that we are uniquely positioned to do so on the basis of yes, our. Consulting work. Were deeply embedded in the standards and the jargon of this ecosystem.
But then when you combine it with the lifelong journey, that is language learning and a never ending pursuit, I often compare it with the work of professional athletes that even when. An athlete arrived to the NBA to the NFL to is even on the World Cup platform. Those athletes do not stop training and refining their craft.
That’s language learning, that is the provision of live interpreting services. We’re saying that we are uniquely positioned in a multitude of fashions to see our ecosystem. To make our for people and plan it and pushing it forward.
Kim Allchurch Flick: Wow. I’m gonna share an observation as well because BB Lab and a lot of social enterprise talks about how it’s important to think local and you have grown up and done many things overseas.
I myself grew up overseas, mostly in, in Europe, was exposed to different languages, and then later in life I got an international master’s and have been part of the Global Trade Center in, in. The Oregon area and the way I see local is important, and yet there are chemicals internationally all the time everywhere, and it can be through a supply chain.
For instance, one thing I learned one of my first B Corps journeys with another company was helping a winery very, very local. The grapes are on site, making the wine on site, and yet the corks and the barrels. Come from overseas. And so an international component. I see even in some service companies or growing companies sometimes.
Sometimes the international connection is through who they employ. How the diversity comes in is someone an immigrant who is part of the employment as well. So local can mean something. But listening to you speak, it seems if we keep ourselves in a bubble that is defined by whatever individual might think what local means, we’re losing the beauty of that.
That emphasis that the world is connected. And I also really appreciate what Rebecca Dre has done as being part of creating the purchasing with purpose movement, which is how to think about connecting. Across all sorts of networks to think about how do we purchase together, work with each other, network, work with each other for purpose.
And it goes across a lot of local lines and you’re bringing up so much with the language piece, which makes you as, a B certified consultant or B train consultant, as am I, an and a growing number of people, that there’s this uniqueness to you that I’m really so happy to talk about today because it’s fascinating, it’s important, and I was wondering if you could address that a little bit before we dive into what.
What V 2.1 looked like when you were deep in it? I, myself am in V 2.1, not even close to being finished with it yet. And and we’ve both been, trained in it and working with it and giving feedback on it. But before that I was just wondering if you could speak to that international and local.
Local piece that I brought up because listening to you really inspired me to think that it is important to see the global impacts that we all have or the global influences. Even though focusing on local is remains important.
Jeffery D. Stewart: That’s correct. I believe that with the new version of the standards, we are of course encouraged to consider local in various ways.
We’re also encouraged to look at the supply chain in general, and in fact, encouraged to be more deliberate about our relationships with suppliers and how those suppliers even treat their own team members. When we look at the, our global ecosystem in general, the majority. Of certified B corporations are located outside of the United States.
According to my most recent numbers, there are about 1,800 companies, certified companies in the United States. I believe there were upwards of 3000 or so when you consider the United States and Canada. Then our global ecosystem is over 10,000 Now, I believe there’s something to be said about the, the collective power that we have when we look beyond the United States.
There are plenty of case studies and plenty of examples of how companies are prioritizing people and planet that. We would benefit greatly from considering. Oftentimes, I feel that those stories don’t reach us either because of distance, oftentimes because of language barriers. One of the main pieces that we’re emphasizing, which we found in ourselves over our journey toward.
Version two of the standards is that many of the voices, narratives, and solutions that are crucial in facing the challenges in front of people in planet today are with stakeholders, non-English speaking stakeholders. Those voices, narratives, and solutions need to be brought to the fore, and they need to be made accessible to the rest of the world.
We believe that. That’s going to play a very crucial role in taking us to where we want to go in this ecosystem to creating a world that is more just more inclusive and an economy that is more regenerative that has to go well beyond the borders of the United States. And so through the new standards.
Through the collective, the, the direction more toward a collective voice that we’re now emphasizing through these new standards. We believe that both local and global need to be part of the conversation.
Kim Allchurch Flick: Yes. And it reminds me of a friend of mine who is a professor at a variety of places, including in Paris and Berkeley and Portland State wrote a book called.
Brand global, adapt local, and it isn’t necessarily B Corp focus, but the gentleness and the concern about how different cultures may not interpret something a company is trying to say. If it’s too broad and if the same message is going everywhere, it will mean different things. So to think about.
Adapting local means taking a look at it. And when I, sometimes I teach a little bit at Portland State and small business development center, and one thing I teach is marketing and branding and we look at branding failures and there are some, and most of them are cultural, that the companies didn’t do enough research to find out how a culture will interpret what they’re trying to say.
So it’s really a fascinating topic and I think that you also bring that expertise as well about what it means to reach out and communicate with someone somewhere else and be able to adapt language that suits their needs instead of assuming that our message will mean something. Because sometimes it can really, there’s some funny ones, but there are some, some crisis ones as well, and to.
To know that is meaningful.
Jeffery D. Stewart: Indeed, it is very meaningful and I’m so glad that it’s a topic that we can move toward having more and more and to make more commonplace. I maybe because it’s in my nature now, or from what I’ve been studying, I’ve always had a desire to. Engage with the world more widely through, through different languages.
That, that seems to have been my channel or what I discovered in myself. But of course there are plenty of other ways, but I’m glad that we’re able to leverage not only our, what of course is now our vocation, but to for it to also be aligned with. Something that we generally, genuinely like doing, that’s a blessing for us and we’re proud to continue to move in that direction.
Kim Allchurch Flick: I love that you said genuinely like doing. I think that’s something about this whole community, even though sometimes it can be tough, it is really a joy to work with companies that are trying to be a force for good. So as we go into your experience in B 2.1, could you also tell us a little bit about, just in general, what obstacles and issues are you seeing and in, in your work in the community and.
If anything, how can V 2.1 shine a light on some of those issues, positive or negative?
Jeffery D. Stewart: One of the biggest additions about version two of the standards is all companies are now required to take some kind of action on climate change from the very smallest companies to the very largest companies. Taking action on climate change has, in a way been viewed with concern because of course, when you look at smaller companies, the resources might not always be available to measure greenhouse gas emissions or, step reduction goals, offsetting and so on.
What the new standards require, even from the smallest company for us, from US at end, harmonic Encounters, for example, is to create a climate action plan that contains, among other things smart goals. The smart goals will list actions that we take to ultimately address and combat the climate crisis in some way.
It doesn’t mean that we measure scopes one, two, and three of our emissions, in fact, that’s not part of the requirement for the smallest of companies. Of course, that is always the best and encouraged practice, but really the spirit of climate action for smaller companies is to not get bogged down with.
Measuring greenhouse gas emissions, but rather to take some action because at the end of the day, taking some action is better than remaining stagnant. There’s nothing wrong with better Mo moving forward in some way. That’s ultimately what it’s about, and in fact is aligned with probably what I would say is, has become the slogan of.
B Lab, or particularly around the new standards, which is a continuous journey of improvement. I believe that phrase has come to the fore in a way that was much stronger than before. On the previous version of the standards, companies weren’t really held accountable to making improvements over time as long as they.
Maintained the minimum score of 80 points, then they were deemed eligible for certification and remained in the ecosystem. There was no mechanism to measure what has been done over the years for certification ultimately, that allow companies to remain stagnant in their journey on continuous improvement.
The biggest update now with version two is that there are mechanisms in place that mandate progress be taken, that progress be made over the years of certification, and that shows up in new requirements that will only come into play in years after the initial certification on version two. I think that is.
Going to be very significant in getting all companies aligned on the collective action piece that no longer are we identifying high performers or individual companies in the sense that they are different things that they’re doing, or they scored very high, they scored. Over 150 points on the previous version.
It’s not about highlighting high performers anymore. It’s about leveraging the collective voice of an entire movement that is implementing a blanket set of standards. Climate action is one of those standards.
Kim Allchurch Flick: I concur, and I love that you said it’s a continuous journey of improvement and you don’t reach a goal. You can celebrate it, but the goal’s not the end. The goal is the journey and part of it. The other thing I really appreciate about the new standards and part of it’s my training, I was also, I’m certified with the Institute of Equity Centered Coaching and just as a white person trying to learn as much as possible and be an advocate, be an ally, but I love that equity is not a category.
It’s more of an imperative that overarches everything in the standards because climate considerations have to also consider equity. Employee considerations also have to consider equity. Community considerations should also consider equity. What does that mean? And I look at it as, as one of the benchmarks that are part of the values that I’ve learned is to look and examine.
If there’s a question and a decision to be made, the question is who benefits, who’s burdened, who’s left out? And sometimes those left out, it’s okay because it, it’s not harming them to be left out, but to measure things against that. So when we’re making climate decisions, purchasing decisions employment decisions, that those three things, who, who benefits, who’s burdened, who’s left out can.
Kimberly help us. And the V 2.1 standards seem to help us incorporate that equity decision making across the board. And I was wondering, since you’ve been deeply fully through and submitted the new standards, how did that appear to you? And was what is, was it as good as I think it is supposed to be or what challenges and obstacles do you see?
Jeffery D. Stewart: I believe so that it is becoming as good as we would hope it would be. Certainly moving the needle from where we were before. One of the, to be honest, if we talk long enough, we could say that all of these pieces from the new requirements are so significant for this particular moment. Another of the biggest elements of version two is that there needs to be approval from the highest governing body for various requirements.
That means that at the very top of any company there not, there needs to be not only awareness, but also buy-in and. A willingness to remain committed to those requirements that are held for a company, not just in the beginning, but over time. For us at N Harmonic Encounters, that was key. And really identifying our purpose.
I, I, when we’re. When we continue to think about these standards and then serve our partners on their B certification journey, what we’ve found is that the new standards really move us in a direction of intentionality. In defining our purpose, I’ve discovered that the purpose is really connected.
To every subsequent requirement that appears for companies that starts off from the purpose and stakeholder governance impact topic, where companies are required to define a purpose statement that is articulating why they exist and how the work that they do generates a positive social or environmental impact.
That’s a bit different from a mission statement. We find ourselves distinguishing between the two, that a purpose statement can be a part of a mission statement, but a mission statement isn’t always automatically a purpose statement. When we got down to it, we defined our raison death, why we exist and connecting it.
To a positive social and environmental impact. In addition to making explicit the integration into our strategy and demonstrating business relevance, when we did that, we found that every subsequent requirement goes back to that purpose statement. I believe that’s a huge discovery for our ecosystem and a nugget that we should take with us moving forward.
Because the definition of that purpose ultimately leads us to make decisions for every other aspect of our company. For us, at End, harmonic Encounters, we defined our purpose as incubating a world. Really we were thinking about our ecosystem of certified B corporations empowering it. To be more inclusive, accessible, and representative of our diversity, particularly that last part, representative of our diversity, that then leads us to make certain decisions on the partners we serve.
It leads us to make certain decisions on the, on our supply chain where we direct our spending. It leads us to make certain decisions on the community investments that we make and so on. It leads us to make decisions on our Jedi actions, our collective action examples and so on. It really shows up in every single aspect.
And so I believe that we need to really focus on the purpose of a company, get that locked in, and then we can really. Take the next steps. It really guides us in how we approach the next steps on, on the B certification journey.
Kim Allchurch Flick: And what I’m hearing too is there’s kind of this joy of discovery that sometimes the purpose statement comes first and a company might build around it.
But it also sounds like on your journey that the journey itself helped create, inform, and evolve a purpose statement. That can be a really dynamic process, and it doesn’t mean that a statement has to be static through time. It can last a long time, but as times change, and we’re recording this in 2026, there’s what I’m hearing from you is it’s also giving you some freedom to develop and question and hone a, a purpose statement as the company itself.
Hones and grows and adapts and evolves and improves and all the things that companies do. Very few of us are standing still. I love what you said. I was also wondering if you could speak a little bit to what obstacles your and issues are out there for you and clients, what you might be seeing, and then we’ll go into what makes you optimistic too.
Jeffery D. Stewart: Sure that’s a very relevant point to raise, particularly in the early days of version two, allow me to bring up the climate action plan again, as in this area as well. I’ve been seeing a little bit of un uncertain uncertainty, a few obstacles around setting the smart goals. I had mentioned before that small companies are not required to measure greenhouse gas emissions.
In fact, that only comes into play for large companies and above. That means that for the majority of the ecosystem, a considerable number at minimum, companies aren’t gonna have to do that. I found early on that. Not measuring greenhouse gas emissions isn’t necessarily bad in and of itself, but it seems to make setting smart goals a little difficult in that, my sense initially is that we wanna have some kind of reduction goal very specific with a percentage.
For example, we want to. We want to emit, 25% less emissions than a baseline year. You can’t really do that if you don’t first have a clear image of the inventory by measuring the different scopes and setting goals that way. However, the standards do allow for the setting of smart goals that are qualitative.
The smart goals can be both quantitative, they could be quantitative or qualitative, but it seems, at initial glance in these early days, I repeat that we have a natural tendency to want to set quantitative smart goals on climate action. How does it look for companies to set qualitative goals? Are still compliant, that that’s an area where I still would like to see more definition, more examples of how that looks.
We’ll get it in due time while we’re at this early stage. That’s still an area that we’re wrestling with a bit.
Kim Allchurch Flick: That’s. I concur. I hear you speaking, saying yes, this is a dynamic process and those are very good things to consider. What makes you optimistic?
Jeffery D. Stewart: What makes me optimistic is the gravity and the weight of this moment for our ecosystem. The update for version two of the standards took four years, if I’m not mistaken. A lot of stakeholder feedback, a lot of things that were taken into consideration. Some four years it took for us to reach this moment.
The moment has arrived at the end of September this year. The new European Union regulation will go into effect, and that in fact is what? In fact has driven in large part this, this significant transition for our ecosystem this year. Not too many companies, at least in the United States, will be certifying on the new standards, but for those who are subject to the new European Union regulation, they will seek to do that next year.
A slew of companies, a myriad will be due for submission, and so at that point in time, we will really begin to see un mass, how our ecosystem is entering into compliance and making their case for all of these requirements. What makes me optimistic is that any initial kinks. Uncertainty in the new standards will begin to be addressed with that large number of companies that will be submitting, going through the audit, corroborating the requirements with their evidence, substantiating their arguments, and so on.
That makes me very optimistic because it’s really through real live case studies. I think that we will most efficiently move forward. At present we work with the guidance and the information that the standards and that B Lab provides. Although real examples from companies give us it seems to me that gives us a, a.
A clear image. And so my optimistic is really based on seeing this large wave of companies now come to submission and get to the other side
Kim Allchurch Flick: and stories matter and it’s fun. And I also see, and I’m one of them, my, my company re certified in the old. Version in November. This is a handful of months ago, and yet I’m in the V 2.1 and the way I’m looking at it, because I like to know how things work and if I’m going to share something with others and encourage others not to wait, because even though there’s a if companies are already certified, that’s a beautiful history of documentation and learning.
And yet look at the new standards as a fresh start. It is a year zero, and it is a way to take everything, whether certified or not, and start to establish a new baseline that takes us into something. And learning how it works is, for me, is part of the joy. Yes, it’s part of the work and it can be part of the frustration, but yet it’s also.
Part of the joy and everything you’ve said about this is a lot about the reasons why and the dynamic and the positivity that can come from it. So I truly appreciate your words about this and how the ecosystem can be stronger because of it as well.
Jeffery D. Stewart: In fact I wanna highlight what you noted on the storytelling.
I believe that that’s really what it is, that stories. I’m not making this line up myself. I actually heard it somewhere, so I’ll give wherever I heard. The credit stories are what move us, I believe more than anything. When companies reach the end of the audit with the po, with the positive decision, it then enables them to.
Tell a story of that journey, of that experience, that’s what’s gonna move companies, and that’s where B Lab is heading. I see. In amplifying more stories to highlight the innovation of such a wide array of companies in this ecosystem, yet somehow all aligning on. What is now a, a blanket set of standards applicable to everyone, that’s gonna look different for companies.
We need to hear those stories in every case. That’s really what will move us forward and encourage companies to join us and continue to grow this ecosystem at Enharmonic Encounters, we are fully committed to contributing to that growth. Whether through retention or through welcoming new companies into our ecosystem, our pursuit and success early on in this b certification process hopefully will give us a, a jumpstart to, to that storytelling, to inspire other companies to follow along.
Kim Allchurch Flick: Yes. And I do think that B Lab and we can all do a better job of sharing the stories and getting them out there so that people can find them. But that’s part of the journey. What else would you like to say and how can people reach you?
Jeffery D. Stewart: I would like to say that for all companies out there that are considering or concerned in some way.
About compliance on version two of the standards. Please know that this journey is more than feasible and more than worth the effort, the requirements. I believe once companies begin to dig into them, companies will find that the requirements are doable. They may not be as intense. Some may not be as intense as the former version, whereas others may be more intense.
Certainly there will be some new things that companies encounter, whether from Jedi or from a more deliberate focus on the supply chain to the consideration of certain impacts in procurement decisions. No matter where we are in the standards, there is a path forward and I want all companies to know that from our part at end, harmonic Encounters.
The whole reason that we embarked on this journey so early was for this moment so that we could be as equipped as possible with as many resources to serve you. We are available. On our website at www.nharmonicenc.com. I’m also very active on LinkedIn at Jeffrey D. Stewart, and we’re also available on Instagram at n Harmonic e nnc too.
I should say. And Harmonic ENC as well. We want all of you to engage with us. To learn more about our story and understand that we’re here to help you in any way we can. We’re so glad to have accomplished what we’ve accomplished early on. We know that it’s for a higher purpose, and we stand ready to play our part.
Kim Allchurch Flick: Oh, beautifully said. And I see you as a community builder, a connector, catalyst, and, we can create more together. It’s also really interesting that B Corps is now not the only verifier of benefit corporations, and I think that’s a good thing, that there are other ways to go that create more of a common ground community and to consider purchasing with purpose.
And I think the new standards are more key to embrace that possibility instead of trying to be. Exclusive. It’s more inclusive. Now. For the final question, it’s a fun one. If you could have dinner with anyone, up to three individuals living or deceased to have a table of four, who would they be and why?
Jeffery D. Stewart: That is a very tough question, and I’ll tell you, I spent some time thinking about this one. Allow me to go back to my days in college. What exactly sparked in me? A desire to pursue languages in my career or to center things around being a language professional. In my very first Arabic class in college, Arabic 1 0 1 a, a basic course for beginners.
There was a point where I was on YouTube. I looked up, I don’t exactly remember how, but I found myself watching this video in the aftermath of a very tragic event in Ra, in, in tortilla.
The then Prime Minister of Tortilla was addressing the nation on that tragic event, and there was live interpreting into Arabic. Of course those early days, I understood very little of the live interpretation. It was on El Ja Zura. Yet somehow the words of that interpreter touched me and moved me a great deal.
Still today. I remember it fondly that was, can you believe 11 years ago? I heard that YouTube video I listened to it time and time again over the years, gradually understanding more and more of the live interpretation into Arabic. But when I really get down to it, that video is what inspired me to pursue everything that I have as a language professional, not just related to Arabic, but really related to everything.
Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of that Arabic interpreter on El Jazeera’s network, but if I was able to somehow obtain that information and contact that individual, I would want to have dinner with them and learn all about their life trajectory and how they achieved everything that they’ve achieved as a language professional.
What they did on that video. On that occasion, which was tragic, really set the tone and gave me a clear image of what I would wanna do someday. For me, that is the equivalent of appearing on the World Cup stage or appearing in the Super Bowl or any other equivalent in sports.
Kim Allchurch Flick: I hope you find that person.
Jeffrey, thank you so much. I love. Time with you listening to you, your brilliance, and I appreciate every listener who’s here and the future ones. Thank you so much. This is Kim Allchurch Flick with the Mighty Measure Podcast and coming soon, Mighty Impacts Continuum cohort learning.
We appreciate you. Have a wonderful day.
This Episode’s Guest: Jeffrey D. Stewart
Jeffrey D. Stewart is the Founder and Executive Director of Enharmonic Encounters LLC, dedicated to helping companies measure their impact and amplifying the voices of non-English-speaking stakeholders through language access. As an expert consultant on the B Certification process, placing Enharmonic Encounters at the helm of the world’s largest third-party-verified, socially responsible business movement as the first company in the United States to certify on B Lab’s New Standards (V2), Jeffrey is uniquely positioned to guide companies on their B Certification journey, ensuring that companies’ values shine to the fullest extent.
