Certified B Corporations are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on all their stakeholders. B Corps make this legal change by updating their Articles of Association, reincorporating as benefit companies and benefit corporations, or making other structural changes. The B Corp legal framework helps companies protect mission through capital raises and leadership changes and gives entrepreneurs and directors more flexibility when evaluating potential sale and liquidity options.To understand how your company could meet the legal requirement for B Corp Certification, use the dropdown menus below. The company’s legal requirement, and the timeline for the process, will be determined by your company structure, and your country and state/province of formation. This same information will determine which B Corp Agreement your company would sign to complete certification. For a summary of the Terms of Agreement, please see here. For companies with more than 10 employees, there is a grace period for completing the legal requirement (see timelines based on pathways below):
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Adopt benefit corporation structure or equivalent within 2 years of certifying
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Amend governing documents to include specific mission aligned language with 90 days or 1 year depending on region
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If your corporate structure and region of incorporation does not have a designated legal framework, there is no additional legal requirement to attain certification, but the company will support B Lab’s public policy objectives of passing benefit corporation legislation in its state, province, or country of incorporation.
If the company does not meet the above requirements, B Lab may revoke the company's certification as provided or decline to recertify the company. In the event of a change in control or change in legal form of the company, the company agrees that it will notify B Lab to learn how to meet the above requirements of certification in light of those changes.