Cape Town’s The Ethical Agency (TEA) – an award-winning B Corp certified design, web and digital marketing agency serving impact-driven organisations across 25 countries – has built its reputation helping sustainability and ESG-focused clients communicate their purpose. Now, with a B Corp Impact Score of 111.7, TEA has turned that same rigour on itself. The result carries a quiet but significant message for Africa’s creative economy.
There’s a credibility problem at the heart of sustainability communications that rarely gets named. The agencies producing impact reports for some of the world’s most scrutinised institutions are not themselves subject to independent scrutiny. The work is visible. The business behind it, less so.
The Ethical Agency (TEA), a Cape Town-based creative and digital agency founded in 2017, has spent the better part of a decade working to close that gap. In late 2025, it formalised what had long been an operating philosophy: TEA achieved B Corp Certification with an Overall B Impact Score of 111.7.
The minimum score for certification is 80. The global median sits at 50.9. TEA’s 111.7 puts it in a category very few creative agencies on the continent have reached – and raises a broader question about what’s possible when purpose is built into how a business operates, not bolted on afterwards
“Earning B Corp certification is a clear validation of the framework we have built at The Ethical Agency since 2017. It confirms that our approach of balancing purpose with professional excellence is meeting high international standards.” — Brett Jefferson, Founder & CEO
Built over time, not overnight
TEA’s B Impact Assessment – which evaluated performance across Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, and Customers – reflects nearly a decade of deliberate decisions rather than a certification drive. The agency was founded on the principle that design and communications work could be a direct instrument of positive change, and that this belief required structural commitment, not just stated values.
The agency serves clients across 25 countries, including the World Bank, Greenpeace, WWF, the United Nations, GIZ and the Presidency of South Africa. These relationships are built on a shared orientation towards measurable impact – and TEA’s certification now provides independent, third-party verification that its own house is in order.
That alignment matters more than it might appear. The distinction matters: there’s a difference between an agency that produces sustainability communications and one that’s structurally committed to the same values it communicates. For values-aligned organisations – NGOs, development finance institutions, UN agencies, and impact-driven businesses navigating increasingly complex ESG reporting and circular economy commitments – working with a certified B Corp creative partner means the relationship itself reflects their values and mission.
Digital sustainability as a practical commitment
One dimension of TEA’s digital sustainability commitments is its approach to digital infrastructure. The agency is the only organisation in Africa currently recognised by The Green Web Foundation as a verified provider of 100% renewable energy-powered website hosting.
Digital emissions are a growing concern, and the choices agencies make about how they build and host websites carry real consequences. TEA has made those choices deliberately from the start.
A signal to Africa’s creative economy
Africa’s creative sector is growing – and its capacity to shape how organisations communicate their purpose, their impact, and their values is considerable. Africa’s creative sector is growing fast, and the agencies that serve impact-driven and sustainably-minded clients carry more influence than they’re often given credit for. The way they frame a story, design a campaign, or build a platform shapes how millions of people understand issues that matter.
TEA’s certification is, in part, a challenge to that sector. It demonstrates that the business of creative work – not just the output – can be held to rigorous ethical and operational standards. That agencies do not need to choose between commercial viability and verified accountability. That purpose-led work can emerge from a purpose-led organisation, and that the two reinforce rather than compromise each other.
B Lab Africa welcomes The Ethical Agency to the community of Certified B Corporations and recognises its certification as a meaningful contribution to raising the bar for responsible business practice in Africa’s creative economy.
About The Ethical Agency
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Cape Town, The Ethical Agency provides branding, graphic design, ESG and sustainability report design, web development, and digital marketing services exclusively to impact-driven organisations. TEA serves clients across 25 countries and holds B Corp Certification with an Overall B Impact Score of 111.7.
Connect with us – ethical-agency.com
