Empowering Change

Making business a force for good.

After nearly 20 years of working on supplier inclusion and supporting small business owners, Liz Whitehead’s priorities transformed after giving birth to her second child. When her employer approached her about returning to work and setting up a travel schedule, Whitehead realized it was time to pursue a new professional path. Today, she is the CEO of 12PointFive, a business development consultancy that specializes in building business development strategies so that diverse business owners can leverage certification and ultimately win new business.

In 2017, Whitehead began her transition into a new career path by initiating a customer discovery process. She reached out to several people she knew, asking them what services they would be willing to pay for if she were to help them with their businesses. Most of the responses indicated that they wanted her assistance in leveraging their certifications. “I started with a couple of clients, helping them narrow down their targets and get organized to have a system and a plan for how they were going to approach the WBENC and NMSDC Conferences and how they were going to approach going to a supplier summit. That yielded a lot of benefits for my clients, and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since,” she says.

Over time, Whitehead learned that corporations were increasingly prioritizing sustainability, focusing on its three pillars: environmental, social, and economic. Recognizing that her clients would be expected to address these issues, she pursued and obtained B Corp Certification, a rigorous, lengthy, and challenging process.

She partners with various organizations to enhance the services she offers. One of her key partnerships is with Mary Fehlig of the Fehlig Group, another B Corp-certified, woman-owned business with more than 30 years of experience in sustainability consulting. Through this collaboration, she provides a pulse report that helps determine benchmarks in different industries and how to leverage that information for business growth.

Whitehead also collaborates with Heather Cox of Certify My Company, who offers EcoVadis Certification, a sustainability assessment that rates a company’s environmental, social, and governance performance, providing an objective score and potential medals or badges based on its overall ranking and performance over time. Additionally, she co-founded Diversity Masterminds, an online curriculum designed to create a roadmap for certification success, alongside Cox. Whitehead states, “When all your partnerships are aligned in terms of values and the value you want to provide your customers, it just makes it that much easier to offer different services.”

Whitehead’s work is yielding positive results. One of her clients recently obtained EcoVadis certification and stated that this certification helps her stand out with large companies, particularly in the consumer product sector. Even if some companies did not request the certification, they responded positively, saying it was a significant help to them. As a result, she has been able to elevate her profile with existing clients.

For organizations aiming to incorporate sustainability into their services, Whitehead offers two key pieces of advice: start small and track your progress. It’s important to keep a record of your efforts, even if they seem minor. For instance, if your organization has volunteers, document the number of participants and the total number of hours they worked, and then compare this data to that of previous years. She also recommends using free tools, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calculator and the Sustainable Development Goals Action Manager, to help you start your sustainability journey.

Next year, Whitehead will recertify her B Corp. “I’m looking forward to that and seeing how I match up against the new standards,” she says. In the meantime, she will continue to educate business owners on how incorporating sustainability can distinguish their businesses, create new opportunities, and contribute to a healthier planet.