Oliver Russell Named as “Best in World for Workers”

2015 Best for the World for Workers

From our friends at Oliver Russell:

Brand marketing firm Oliver Russell was recognized recently for creating the most positive overall employee impact by the nonprofit B Lab with the release of its fourth annual ‘B Corp Best for Workers’ list. The ‘B Corp Best for Workers’ list honors businesses that earned a worker score in the top 10% of more than 1,200 Certified B Corporations from over 120 industries on the B Impact Assessment, a comprehensive assessment of a company’s impact on its workers, community, and the environment.

The B Corp “Best for Worker” list sets the gold standard for high-impact companies and demonstrates any type of company can use business as a force for good. In the workers category, Oliver Russell is one of 98 companies from 13 countries and 31 industries to be so recognized. Additional 2015 Best For Workers honorees include Cooperative Home Care Associates, a worker-owned cooperative based in the Bronx, Venezuelan biotechnology firm ETAVENCA, America’s oldest flour brand King Arthur Flour and Kansas-based MAX Insurance. Thirty-five percent of honorees are based outside the US, with companies operating in emerging markets such as Brazil, Ghana, and Venezuela.

A full list of this year’s honorees can be found at bestfortheworld.bcorporation.net. And an expanded version of this news release can be found as a blog on the Oliver Russell website.

“Many companies pay lip service to the shopworn adage, ‘people are our most valuable asset’,” said Russ Stoddard, Oliver Russell founder and president. “We decided to make this a competitive advantage – to invest significantly in our employees—and we’re gratified for this recognition as it shows we’re on the right track.”

“Today’s honorees inspire all companies to compete not only to be best in the world, but best for the world,” said Jay Coen Gilbert, Co-Founder of B Lab, the nonprofit organization that certifies B Corporations and governs the independent third party standard used to generate the comparable assessment of corporate impact.

B Lab simultaneously released separate lists recognizing the companies ‘Best for the World’ (overall impact), ‘Best for Community’ (community impact), and ‘Best for the Environment’ (environmental impact) which can be found at bestfortheworld.bcorporation.net. A total of 350 companies were named 2015 Best For the World Honorees, including Natura, d.light designsRoshan, New Belgium Brewery, Method Products, and Seventh Generation.

Each honored company is a Certified B Corporation. These companies use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems and have met rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Today there are more than 1,200 Certified B Corporations, across 121 industries and 38 countries, unified by one common goal: to redefine success in business. Any company can measure and manage social and environmental impact performance at bimpactassessment.net.

About Oliver Russell

Oliver Russell, a Boise-based brand-marketing firm founded in 1991, builds brands for purpose-driven companies and causes. The company counts Hewlett-Packard, Allegro Coffee/Whole Foods Market, and Mountain Health Co-op among its clients. It is a certified B Corporation, part of a growing movement of companies that believe in using the power of business to help solve social and environmental issues. Since the company’s founding, Oliver Russell has donated more than $1.8 million in cash and resources via social impact grants to nonprofit causes and social enterprises. More information about these Social Impact Grants can be found here.

About B Lab

B Lab is a nonprofit organization that serves a global movement of people using business as a force for good.  Its vision is that one day all companies compete not only to be the best in the world, but the best for the world and society will enjoy prosperity for all for the long term.  B Lab drives this systemic change by: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations to make it easier for all of us to tell the difference between “good companies” and good marketing; 2) passing benefit corporation legislation to give business leaders the freedom to create value for society as well as shareholders; 3) helping businesses measure, compare and improve their social and environmental performance with the free B Impact Assessment; 4) driving capital to impact investments through use of its B Analytics and GIIRS Ratings platform.

Belated Recognition for Advantage Advertising

In August, Advantage Advertising’s work for  the University of Wyoming was recognized by the Bleacher Report in their ranking of the top 50 college football team schedule posters for 2014. Advantage Advertising’s work for Wyoming was ranked number one in the nation by Bleacher Report.

This isn’t the first time Advantage Advertising’s work in the college sports arena has been recognized. In 2012, the agency’s design for the University of Idaho Vandal football schedule poster ranked number four, and last year the design for the Wyoming Cowboys football ranked 17th.

Also, earlier this year, FootballScoop.com ranked Advantage Advertising’s web design work for Wyoming football’s signing day graphics as number three in the nation.

Well done folks. Well done.

Familiar names in this year’s 40 under 40

Accomplished Under 40

While looking through this year’s 40 under 40 – also known as the 14th annual Idaho Business Review Accomplished under 40 list – several familiar names were among this year’s honorees, including:

Karianne Fallow, Red Sky Public Relations

John Hardesty, Bodybuilding.com

Carolyn Lodge, DaviesMoore

Jennie Myers, Drake Cooper

Amanda Watson, Red Sky Public Relations

These, and the other 35 of this year’s Accomplished under 40 will be recognized at an awards ceremony on June 13th, and the 2013 Accomplished under 40 magazine will be published in the June 14th edition of the Idaho Business Review.

Congratulations to all.

2013 Silver Medal Award Winner

Congratulations to Edward Moore, recipient of the 2013 Silver Medal Award from the Idaho Advertising Federation.

Recognition Galore

Some notable recognition we’ve come across lately:

For those that haven’t heard, Drake Cooper was named one of Outside Magazine’s 30 Best Places to Work. Coming in at number 26, Drake Cooper joins the likes of New Belgium Brewing, Clif Bar and a host of others on the list.

In June, Russ Stoddard, founder and chief executive officer of Oliver Russell received the Service to Community Award from his alma mater, the University of Puget Sound. The Service to Community award “recognizes talents or skills in projects that improve quality of life through human service, the arts, recreation, education, or other pursuits,” and was one of four Distinguished Alumni Awards presented earlier this summer by UPS.

Oliver Russell was also named one of the top 100 advertising agencies in the United States by BtoB Magazine for the fifth year in a row.