An award-winning social business model

b corp white logo transparentBetween 2014 and January 2018* we joined the community of Certified B Corporations, a community of businesses around the world dedicated to solving social and environmental issues.

We have been featured in a number of international media publications in the US. We're a case study in social entrepreneurship featured in the Harvard Business Review, and prestigious universities invited us to share our model and participate as panellists. We have received multiple awards and our model has been recognized internationally.

The media coverage and speaking invitations to prestigious schools helped us inspire and reach a wide audience of students, business people and others. The thousands of customers that we have acquired over the years have become great ambassadors for our values and our social enterprise model. 

In addition to the power of inspiration, we believe in the power of collaboration. Leveraging the power of networks for us starts with finding individuals and organizations that share our values and possess resources that we lack.

Here are some values-aligned organizations we have worked with:

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

2b design introduced a home refurbishment program with this international organization. Habitat refurbishes the flats of the poorest of our employees when a dwelling is deemed unhealthy and/or presents safety hazards to a family or person, particularly when they are disabled. Habitat for Humanity makes all the necessary repairs, the employee only pays a third of the total costs of the repairs/upgrades.

PINE STREET INN

Pine Street Inn is the largest organization in New England fighting to end homelessness. We collaborated with Pine Street Inn in 2016. It included training and hiring homeless women from the Boston community, and exploring the use of Pine Street Inn’s handicraft and repair workshop for our salvaged elements.

ARC EN CIEL

Arc en Ciel is the largest and most diversified NGO in Lebanon. Our collaboration began in 2006 when we started using the forge Arc en Ciel to craft our wrought iron salvage. This later evolved into a full-time relationship where we worked a team of around 8 blacksmiths to transform our findings into lamp bases, consoles, tables, candleholders etc. The blacksmiths took pride in preserving their common heritage by transforming old pieces of discarded elements into works of great beauty.

TAHADDI  

Tahaddi is an organization that cares for the poorest of the poor including the destitute Dom (Gypsy) community living in the slums of Hay el Gharbi in West Beirut. The organization provides free health care and education to the Doms. The handicapped son of one of our employees attends Tahaddi school and is cared for by a Tahaddi volunteer, and his whole family is provided with health care at Tahaddi’s health centre. 2b design aims to increase employment opportunities for women from this gipsy community in close collaboration with Tahaddi. Wafaa, for example, has been working with us for several years. Read her story to see how transforming salvage into art has helped her over the years.

 Read our people's stories to see how working with [beyt] has impacted their lives.

*Because of the devastating political context in Lebanon, we had to shut down our business and our workshops for two years before opening again, and we lost our certification.