Last week over 500 employees from over 200 Certified B Corps from across the world descended upon Portland, Oregon, to share best practices and celebrate people using businesses as a force for good.

A couple of Sunrise employees, including myself, were fortunate to attend this sold-out, motivating retreat.

In case you have recently started learning about Certified B Corps, here are the basics: Certified B Corps are companies that are certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.  Certified B Corps strive to redefine success in business so that one day all businesses compete to be the best for the world.  Today, there is a growing community of more than 1,400 B Corps in 42 countries.

For me, perhaps the most inspiring part of the retreat was the B Inspired event, which featured leaders from Certified B Corps Sustainable Harvest, Kickstarter, New Seasons Market, Red Rabbit, Volans, Waste Zero, Cooperative Home Care Associates, and Global Policy Solutions.  These speakers used their experiences in life and business to answer the question, “What bridges must we build?” to move closer to a more shared and durable prosperity.

I can’t even begin to sum up the amazing stories of these speakers, but I left the day feeling charged and reminded that businesses truly can do well by doing good.  Videos will be released next week, but here’s a sneak peek of B Inspired: https://www.facebook.com/bcorporation/videos/10153166487422546/

Follow @SunriseBanks or @BCorporation to see the videos as they’re released.