Certified B Corporations are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on all their stakeholders. 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.
B Corps make this legal change by updating their Articles of Incorporation, reincorporating as benefit corporations/companies, or making other structural changes.
Use the dropdown menus below to understand your company’s pathway to meeting the legal requirement. Your company’s structure, country, state/province of formation determine the legal requirement and allowable timeline for implementation. This same information also determines which B Corp Agreement your company must sign to complete certification. For a summary of the Terms of Agreement, please see here.
For companies with less than 10 employees, the legal requirement must be met prior to achieving Certification.
For companies with more than 10 employees, extra time is granted post Certification for completing the legal requirement (see timelines based on pathways below, as determined by using the legal requirement tool and your corresponding Terms of Agreement).*
- Adopt benefit corporation structure or equivalent within 2 years of certifying
- Amend governing documents to include specific mission-aligned language within 90 days.
- 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.
*B Lab may revoke the company's certification as provided or decline to recertify the company if the above requirements are not met. In the event of a change in control or change in legal form, the company must notify B Lab to understand if additional requirements may apply due to the change.