Utilize opted to become a B Corp in response to customer and staff demand, its Group MD has told IT Channel Oxygen as he predicted more MSPs will follow suit.
Essex-based Microsoft, SonicWall and Sage partner Utilize secured B Corp status last month following an 18-month process.
The notoriously exacting social and environmental sustainability badge is awarded to companies which show they are balancing profit with purpose.
Despite being best associated with consumer goods brands such as Ben & Jerry’s and The Body Shop, the certification is catching on in the IT services sector.
£25m-revenue Utilize is the latest in a growing line of MSPs and IT solutions providers to achieve the status. Other recent converts include Qlik IT (March 2025), Systems & Smiles (November 2024), Computeam (October 2024), UBDS Group (September 2024) and Zenzero Solutions (August 2024).
But talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Utilize Group MD Guy Hocking said more MSPs – including those like Utilize which are part of the Ingram Micro Trust X Community (see above) – will follow suit imminently.
“Trust X played a big part in our journey. We were able to share learnings from other MSPs who are also going on this journey – there will be others announcing B Corp soon,” he said.
“Multiple customers have reached out to us”
Becoming a B Corp was “quite an investment in time and money”, Hocking said.
“The ‘why’ behind it is really that we were getting asked by customers and staff,” he said.
“Since becoming a B Corp we’ve had multiple customers reach out to us to say, ‘we’re really interested in what you guys are doing’ and ‘how we can adopt it in our organisation’?”
The process was driven by Utilize’s Sustainability Committee, a team of six staff who put their hand up to steer its sustainability strategy.
Utilize scored 82.7 on its B Impact assessment, compared with a median score for ordinary businesses who complete the assessment of 50.9.
Echoing the experiences of other B Corps including Natilik, one area Utilize was marked down on was its supply chain.
“It’s quite hard in the tech industry to sanitise your supply chain,” Hocking explained.
“The industry needs to stand up on this. Distribution can really help with that by just having something as simple as a carbon digital passport.
“That’s being worked on, but I just think it needs to be turned up to the max.
“As MSPs, we’re aggregators of services, so we need that transparency from our vendors and our distributors. It’s like trying to piece together a jigsaw with one hand behind your back, and ten missing pieces.”
Hocking characterised getting B Corp as “hard work”, saying it had been “a year in the making”.
“But it’s really formalised a lot of the stuff we were already doing and gave us a nice, clean conversation point with prospects, customers and employees,” he concluded.
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
