Australian women's footwear label Frankie4 has officially announced its B Corp certification, with an initial score of 85.7 across five impact areas.
This is just above the qualifying score of 80 and well above the median score for businesses that have attempted to certify of 50.9.
Franke4 scored highest in the impact area of community at 20.5, followed by workers at 19.5, environment at 17.3, governance at 15.4 and customers at 12.8.
The brand is only the fifth footwear-dedicated company founded in Australia and New Zealand to join the B Corp community.
“This important milestone reflects the hard work and dedication across all Frankie4 teams. We’re proud of our journey so far—and look forward to Frankie4 continuing to be a force for good as part of the B Corp community,” CEO Hilary McMillan said.
“The B Corp certification process involves an intensive assessment of a company’s impact on workers, customers, community, and the environment. Improving the well-being of women worldwide is the heart of our mission, and we want to do so as responsibly as we can.”
Frankie4 joins four other Australian fashion retailers who have achieved B Corp status this year, with two in the month of July including R.M.Williams and Camilla.
Frankie4 was founded in Brisbane in 2010 by Caroline McCulloch and her husband Alan and has since grown to nine stores in Australia and a flagship store in Seattle, and includes hundreds of stockists globally such as David Jones, Nordstrom, and JJill.
The brand develops and tests its products in-house by an all-female design team. It also partners with numerous organisations such as Queensland University of Technology (QUT) for further research and development efforts in podiatry, Plan A for carbon accounting and reporting services, and Australian footwear recycling business TreadLightly.