The B Corp Certification
What is the B Corp certification and why should you get the certification?
The B Corporation (B corp) Certification is a third-party standard that allows companies to meet their highest standards of social and environmental impact, verified by transparency and accountability towards their stakeholders.
This certification is issued by B Lab, a non-profit organisation founded in 2006 in the United States, with the scope of transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities, and the planet.
Quite curiously the "B" is not an evaluation score but stands for beneficial. Therefore, it means that the certified organizations meet their standards of transparency, accountability, sustainability on a voluntary base.
The benefits of obtaining a B Corp are multiple and holistic.
First, it helps to build trust with consumers, communities, and suppliers. In fact, high transparency and accountability standards increase both confidence and visibility as a brand.
Further, the certification attracts and retain more sustainable-minded employees; and draws mission-aligned investors. Finally, consequently to such benefits, as a UK study shows the B Corp busines grow 28 times faster than UK average.
As of March 2024, there are 8,324 certified B Corporations across 162 industries in 96 countries.
The Pathway to Certification
The process to achieve and maintain certification is rigorous and requires engaging teams and departments across the company. The pathway will vary depending on few factors, as revenue and company size, sector, industry, and ownership structure.
If you work with a start-up or smaller company, your certification process will be based on a Pending B Corporation; whereas if you work in a company, the certification guide is based on the size of the enterprise: small, small-medium, medium or large.
To obtain the B Corporation certification, an entity first needs to register and complete the Risk Review. Following, is the B Impact Assessment (BIA), which measures the positive impact of the company in areas of governance, workers, community, the environment. To pass the Assessment, all companies need to earn a minimum score of 80 out of 200 points to further proceed to the other steps.
After establishing the enterprise Profile, you can learn about your baseline score: if it is under the 80-point benchmark, you must revaluate and prioritize improvement areas. Whereas, if it’s over the 80-point benchmark, you can submit your BIA for review.
Once the Evaluation and Verification Queues are completed, you will have the opportunity to sign the B Corp Agreement and therefore reached the final step: the Certification. Meeting the transparency requirement for B Corp Certification means that you’ll need to publish your public profile in the B Corp Directory, including your company’s score and impact report.
The certification lasts for 3 years, after which the enterprise is required to prepare for recertification, where can rely on the BIA and the certification process as a tool for continuous improvement.
How does the B Impact Assessment work?
Used by more than 150,000 businesses, the BIA is a digital tool that evaluates how your company’s operations and business model impact your workers, community, environment, and customers.
The assessment covers the company's entire operation and measures the positive impact of the company in 5 areas: governance, workers, community, environment, as well as the products or services the company provides.
B Impact Assessment Structure
To fulfil this step, you have to answer a series of questions - approximately 200 – regarding the business practices and outputs. Questions you can expect are “what is the percentage of management from underrepresented populations?”, “does your company monitor and record its universal waste production?” or “how do you verify that your product improves the impact of your client organizations?”.
Following, you can see where your business is outperforming others, and where there’s room for improvement. This way, you can identify, track, and learn about improvement opportunities and best practices.
Furthermore, since certified enterprises are required to undergo the verification process every three years to renew the certification, B Corps also helps to continuously improve the company’s standards, leading to long-term resiliency.
B Corp Certification is holistic, not exclusively focused on a single social or environmental issue.
Sources:
B Corp. About B Corp certification. Retrieved from https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/certification/
B Corp. B Impact Assessment. Retrieved from https://bcorporation.eu/become-a-b-corp/b-impact-assessment/
B Corp. (2024). News. Retrieved from https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/news/press/b-corps-show-this-way-forward-to-better-business/
Akepa. (2022). Sustainability Certification. Retrieved from https://thesustainableagency.com/blog/alternatives-to-b-corp-certification/