Simplyhealth will prioritise B-Corp certified companies and other organisations with strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) values when handing out contracts.
And CEO Sneh Khemka urged the rest of the healthcare and health insurance industry to do more in this regard.
The B-Corporation movement launched in 2015 for organisations aiming to balance the interests of people, planet and profit, and has certified more than 1,000 for-profit companies on their social and environmental performance since. Simplyhealth received its certification this summer.
Firms seeking certification must carry out work for assessment, make a legal change to permanently embed purpose into the heart of the business and and commit to transparency by publishing an impact report and their B-Corp score, B-Corp executive director Chris Turner explained
Khemka (pictured) explained Simplyhealth’s work in the past year for its own certification has involved becoming carbon neutral and donating up to £1m a year whether the firm posts a profit or not to charities that make a meaningful impact on people’s health or in the local community.
It is also giving staff £1,000 to deal with the cost of living crisis and buy Christmas presents this festive season.
Khemka added that Simplyhealth will measure the success of its ESG outcomes against its B-Corp score.
Cut down health sector waste
Turning to the rest of the industry, Khemka also reflected on how wasteful the healthcare sector is.
“If you look at some of the statistics of it, healthcare is the third most polluting industry that there is,” Khemka said.
“The healthcare world has not really woken up, so what we’re doing for example is looking at our supply chain. One of our businesses Denplan deals with thousands of dentists up and down the country.
“What we’re doing is working with each of those dentists to see whether we can help them with their environmental impact and think about how they use their instruments, disposables and such.”
And over the longer term, Khemka said Simplyhealth was also aspiring to work with more B-Corp partners.
“What we want to do is get into those who provide on our behalf, because we’re an insurer, and also those who we contract with,” he continued.
“Ultimately, the aspiration is to preferentially contract with organisations that are B-Corp certified or have the right credentials behind them and give them more money.”