After a six-month investigation B Lab has revoked the B Corp certification of Havas and several of its agencies.  

The probe followed complaints by several dozen B Corp certified agencies and the industry group Clean Creatives that Havas had won and accepted Shell Oil’s global media account last year. The group argued that B certified agencies should not be doing work major fossil fuel companies.  

B Lab ultimately agreed. In a statement the group said their investigation “found that Havas’ actions constitute a breach of the B Corp community’s core values as expressed in our Declaration of Interdependence.”   

Havas agencies stripped of B Corp certification include Havas London, Havas Lemz, Havas New York, and Havas Immerse. “While the Certified B Corps are not directly involved in providing services to the client,” B Lab stated, “Havas’ structure and use of a common brand name across some of its agencies means that the entire group is ultimately required to earn certification, per B Lab rules; this places the group’s actions in scope for this investigation.”  

B Lab said it concluded that “suspension with remediation would be required for Havas to maintain certification.” Noting that Havas had cooperated throughout B Lab’s investigation and accepted the ruling, it disclosed that Havas “resolved not to adopt the remediation actions required to maintain certification.” Presumably that means the agency declined to resign the Shell account.   

Havas issued a statement: “Havas has cooperated in good faith throughout B Lab’s investigation, while simultaneously preserving the integrity of confidential client information. Whilst the investigation recognizes that our certified agencies (Havas London, New York, Lemz and Immerse) do not have a relationship with Shell, we accept the ruling and they will cease to be B Corp certified. 

"Our level of commitment towards sustainability remains unchanged, as evidenced by Havas’ receipt of the Gold Medal by EcoVadis - the world's most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings – earlier this month, the validation of our decarbonization trajectory by the Science-Based Targets Initiative in March 2023, and the deployment of the Havas Carbon Impact Calculator across all our agencies to promote eco-designed solutions." 

Havas added, "We are proud to support our clients in their transformation for the future and remain focused on progressing towards the highest levels of social and environmental performance, with more to come in the coming months and years.”

Duncan Meisel, executive director, Clean Creatives issued a statement: “Creative agencies should not be working for the companies destroying the planet. I want to thank B Labs for doing the right thing and revoking certification for agencies that promote fossil fuel polluters. They listened to the dozens of B Corps who spoke out about this and took the right steps to protect their community from agencies that wanted to use certification as a cover for greenwashing.”