The specialist, one of the co-founders of the Travel by B Corp group along with Intrepid Travel, became one of the first B Corps in travel when it was certified in 2020 with a score of 81.2.
Businesses must achieve a score of 80 or more to gain their B Corp certification during a process which typically takes between six to eight months, or even up to a year, and must recertify every three years.
B Corp businesses are legally bound to a commitment to balancing the profits they make with the impact of their actions on people and the planet.
Pura Aventura increased its score from 81.2 to 96.3, an increase in percentage terms of 18.6%. Co-founder and chief executive Thomas Power said the business would now target a score of 100+.
"Given that you have to earn every 0.1 of a point, it’s actually quite monumental to have increased our score by more than 15 points," said Power. "We aim to maintain this momentum: I’d love to get us past 100 points in the next recertification in three years’ time."
Pura Aventura started its B Corp journey during the pandemic, and Power said despite the additional strain it placed on the brand, he had no regrets about any aspect of pursuing B Corp Certified status.
"When we started out on this journey, in the midst of the uncertain times brought by Covid, it was a huge but important decision to allocate the resources required to certify and certify well," he continued.
"But creating an environmental legacy is at the heart of all we do. This is not about building our business around B Corp; it is about building our business around values which we share with the B Corp movement. "I can’t think of a single thing we would stop doing if B Corp vanished."
Pura Aventura invests 1% of its revenues in environmental causes, and compensates for all carbon produced by the holidays it sells – the impact of air, road and sea travel – by 160%. It started carbon labelling all of its trips in 2021.
The Travel by B Corp group has since grown to more than 25 members; besides Pura Aventura and Intrepid, it features a handful of trade-friendly businesses, including InsideJapan Tours and InsideAsia Tours parent Inside Travel Group, Experience Travel Group, Byway and Exodus Adventure Travels.
