Our Benefit Company Status 

At our core, we care about people: the employees who make our work possible, the clients we collaborate with, and the communities we’re part of. As a Benefit Company, we’re legally required to consider how our decisions affect our employees, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment. It’s a way to stay accountable to our values and be transparent about our impact.

About This Report

CTRS Market Intelligence is a benefit company  incorporated under the British Columbia Business Corporations Act. This report is prepared and published in accordance with Division 1.1 of the BCBCA. It provides an assessment of our performance in conducting business in a responsible and sustainable manner and in promoting public benefits, as set out in our articles of incorporation.

This report has been approved by the directors of CTRS Market Intelligence and is signed by the undersigned director to evidence that approval.

Our Benefit Provision

Our articles of incorporation state: "This company is a benefit company and, as such, has purposes that include conducting its business in a responsible and sustainable manner and promoting one or more public benefits."

 

We pursue this commitment through four areas of practice: fair and transparent employment, community investment through in-kind and pro bono work, mentorship and capacity building, and inclusive economic participation.

Third-Party Standard

We assess our performance using the B Impact Assessment, developed by B Lab. The B Impact Assessment is a comprehensive framework that evaluates a company's performance across five areas: governance, workers, community, environment, and customers.

CTRS was previously a Certified B Corporation and completed the full B Impact Assessment as part of that certification process, scoring 99.3 out of 200. We subsequently re-took the assessment and scored approximately 120. We chose not to renew our certification in 2024 after raising concerns with B Lab about the certification of multi-level marketing companies and divisions of multinational corporations whose broader practices we felt were inconsistent with the spirit of the program. When those concerns were not addressed to our satisfaction, we concluded that continued certification did not reflect our values.

We continue to use the B Impact Assessment framework as our third-party standard due to our deep familiarity with its methodology and its status as the most comprehensive publicly available standard for evaluating responsible business practices. Our objection was to the certifying body's governance decisions, not to the quality of the assessment tool itself. Based on our current operations and commitments, we estimate that we would continue to score at or above the 80-point certification threshold, in the range of 99.3.

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We selected this standard because of our direct experience with it and because it covers the full breadth of our operations, not just environmental or social dimensions in isolation.

How We Demonstrated Our Commitments in FY25

Fair and Transparent Employment

CTRS is a Certified Living Wage Employer, ensuring that all team members earn a wage that reflects the actual cost of living in our community. We maintain a pay transparency policy and operate with a stakeholder primacy model that balances the interests of employees, clients, the community, and shareholders rather than prioritizing shareholder returns alone.

Community Investment: In-Kind and Pro Bono Work

We have committed at least 5% of our annual work to pro bono engagements since becoming a benefit company. Non-profit clients receive a discounted rate of 25% or more, with the difference recorded as an in-kind contribution. In FY25, organizations that benefited from our pro bono and in-kind work included:

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• YWCA Metro Vancouver

• Canadian Queer Chamber of Commerce

• QueerTech

• Futurpreneur

• The Forum

• Foresight CAC

• New Ventures BC

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Mentorship and Capacity Building

CTRS's president serves as a mentor through the Canadian Queer Chamber of Commerce (CQCC), supporting LGBT+ business owners in building sustainable practices. CTRS President Aaron Cruikshank teaches Market Research for Product Development at the Centre for Digital Media in Vancouver, contributing to workforce development in the technology and digital media sectors. He also serves on the program advisory committees for Kwantlen Polytechnic University's School of Business and the Centre for Digital Media, helping to shape curriculum and program direction.

Inclusive Economic Participation

CTRS is a certified LGBT+ Business Enterprise through the CQCC and a designated supplier diversity partner. Our President is a BC Government appointee to the Presidents Group, an advisory body that works to improve employment conditions for individuals with disabilities or other barriers to employment. These commitments reflect our belief that market intelligence as a discipline should be practiced by, and accessible to, a diverse range of people and organizations.

Circumstances That Hindered Our Commitments

Our decision not to renew B Corp certification means we no longer carry an external verification of our performance against the B Impact Assessment. While we stand behind that decision and continue to self-assess against the framework, we acknowledge that the absence of third-party verification reduces external accountability. We are open to exploring alternative formal verification processes in future reporting periods, should a suitable option emerge.

Assessment Summary

B Impact Assessment Areas:

1. Governance

2. Workers

3. Community

4. Environment

5. Customers

 

Self-Assessed Status:

1. Governance: Strong. Benefit company structure, stakeholder primacy model, transparent operations.

2. Workers: Strong. Living Wage certification, pay transparency, inclusive hiring practices.

3. Community: Strong. 5%+ pro bono commitment maintained, in-kind contributions to seven organizations, active mentorship programs.

4. Environment: Moderate. As a professional services consultancy, our direct environmental footprint is limited. We do not maintain a formal environmental policy or carbon offset program.

5. Customers: Strong. Long-term client relationships across public, private, and non-profit sectors with an emphasis on accessible, actionable market intelligence.

 

Based on this self-assessment against the B Impact Assessment framework, we estimate our current score at approximately 99.3 out of 200, which exceeds the 80-point threshold for B Corp certification.

Director Approval
This benefit report was approved by the directors of CTRS Market Intelligence on October 1, 2025.
/s/ Aaron Cruikshank

President and Director, CTRS Market Intelligence