'The world will be a better place!': Why Big Issue became one of the original B Corps

You’ve seen Big Issue vendors on the street, selling the magazine to make a living. You might well be reading this in a copy you bought from a vendor. The magazine is just one part of our growing social business providing a wide range of earning, investment and employment solutions to fight poverty and inequality at its roots. 

We’re committed to delivering social impact and have been since 1991 when the Big Issue magazine was founded by Lord John Bird to give people experiencing homelessness a way to earn an immediate and legitimate income. Big Issue is rooted in business solutions to social problems. We’re a social enterprise not a charity. 

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This is why becoming one of the original B Corps in the UK back in 2015 made so much sense to us. Becoming a B Corp isn’t just about ticking boxes. We’ve always been driven by social impact, and the B Corp framework provides a robust structure to measure, manage and improve that impact. It holds us accountable and ensures we’re living up to our values. It highlighted areas where we could improve and pushed us to formalise best practices. The assessment prompted us to take steps to strengthen our supply chain policies, ensuring we work with ethical suppliers. It also encouraged us to develop our environmental strategy, looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint across the business. 

The B Impact assessment has historically covered five key impact areas: governance, workers, community, the environment and customers. Big Issue Group, which includes Big Issue Invest and Big Issue Recruit, has consistently performed well but we’ve seen our best scores in the customers category, thanks to the impactful work we deliver to our vendors and our investees. 

In 2024 alone, we supported 3,500 people to earn a collective income of £3.9m by selling Big Issue and through the 145 organisations backed by Big Issue Invest we supported 1.8 million people in the UK facing poverty. 

Being a B Corp isn’t a destination; it’s a journey of continuous improvement. Our mission is to create innovative solutions to unlock opportunity for people affected by poverty, which is now at the highest level it’s been this century. There are 16 million people in the UK currently living in poverty and of those, 3.8 million are experiencing extreme poverty, struggling to eat, clothe themselves and keep warm.   

We face a challenging road ahead, but we are up for the fight and committed to creating lasting solutions to the poverty crisis. And we are not alone. Over the following pages you can read more about the incredible and innovative work taking place across the country. 

We encourage all organisations with impact at their heart to strive for B Corp status because becoming a B Corp can enhance an organisation’s reputation, help it reach new customers, and ultimately, increase its positive impact. In short, the world will be a better place! 

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. Big Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine or get the app from the App Store or Google Play.