Start-ups or smaller companies may pursue Pending B Corp status. Pending B Corp status is designed to give these companies time to prepare for the rigorous process of full B Corp Certification and signals to investors that a company measures and manages its social and environmental performance. Read more about becoming a Pending B Corp here.
The length of the certification and verification process — from beginning the B Impact Assessment to fulfilling the legal accountability requirement to finishing with announcing your B Corp Certification to the world — varies based on a company’s size and complexity.
Small to medium sized companies should expect a wait time of 6-8 months. Large multinationals, companies with many related entities, or companies operating in controversial industries should expect a longer verification process.
Certified B Corporations pay an annual certification fee, which licenses them to use intellectual property like the Certified B Corp logo. This fee varies by region and may also be subject to additional costs depending on size and structure. Visit our Pricing page for further information.
The B Corp community reflects the world’s business landscape, ranging from sole proprietors to publicly-traded companies. The majority of B Corps are small- to medium-sized businesses, however, more large enterprises and are engaging with our movement through B Corp Certification, B Movement Builders, the B Impact Assessment, the SDG Action Manager, and various other programs.
The B Impact Assessment examines a company’s impact on their workers, community, environment, and customers. The B Impact Assessment also asks questions about a company’s governance structure and accountability. Questions are split into two categories: Operations, which covers a company’s day-to-day activities, and Impact Business Models, which awards additional points for business models designed to create additional positive impact. The B Impact Assessment is updated every three years.
Certified B Corporations and benefit corporations are often confused.
Our non-profit, B Lab, administers B Corp Certification to companies who meet verified standards of social and environmental impact through the B Impact Assessment, commit to transparency requirements related to their business’ impact and operations, and commit to being legally accountable to all of their stakeholders. One way for B Corps to fulfill the legal accountability requirement of the certification is to become a benefit corporation.
A benefit corporation is a legal structure that embeds stakeholder governance into a business’ DNA, ensuring the business considers its impact on all of its stakeholders. Importantly, the benefit corporation structure is not a certification and benefit corporations are not required to meet B Lab’s standards.
B Lab recognizes that high-quality social and environmental business standards demand continuous improvement in order to meet principles of inclusion, independence, and credibility.
Our standards are therefore independently governed by B Lab’s Standards Advisory Council and Board of Directors. We also seek input from external stakeholders and various Working and Advisory Groups.
Our standards are updated and improved on a regular basis with all standards development projects informed by research and multi-stakeholder input. Learn more about our Standards here.
B Corp Certification is administered by Standards Analysts at the non-profit B Lab. Standards Analysts are located at B Lab’s Pennsylvania, New York, and Amsterdam offices. The standards for B Corp Certification are overseen by B Lab’s independent Standards Advisory Council.
With the exception of circumstances outlined on our Controversial Issues page, any established for-profit company may pursue B Corp Certification. There is no minimum or maximum size. Certain companies, such as those under a year old, those with related entities, or large multinational and public companies, have additional considerations and requirements.
Unless your company is already a benefit corporation or its equivalent, yes. All Certified B Corps must meet a legal accountability requirement to achieve and maintain certification. Your company’s legal requirement will vary based on your location and structure; learn more through our Legal Requirement tool.
A formal complaint process is an essential complement to the B Corp Certification verification and review. B Lab prioritizes responses to stakeholder inquiries and complaints, which can help us identify and take action on misconduct or misrepresentation by Certified B Corporations.
All complaints are kept confidential and contact information is requested for follow-up purposes only. B Lab aims to have all initial reviews of complaints concluded within 90 days from receipt, and, if a Standards Advisory Council review is necessary, to have a decision concluded within another 90 days.
Learn more about our complaints process and the instances in which B Lab will, or will not, investigate a complaint here.
All Certified B Corps share their B Impact Assessment overall scores and category scores on their public profiles on B Lab Global’s website. Public companies and their subsidiaries have extra transparency requirements and make their entire B Impact Assessment public, with particularly sensitive information like revenue redacted. Companies that have material items on their Disclosure Questionnaire may also be required to make that disclosure transparent as well. Learn more about the requirements for B Corp Certification here.
The B Impact Assessment examines a company’s impact on their workers, community, environment, and customers. The B Impact Assessment also asks questions about a company’s governance structure and accountability. Questions are split into two categories: Operations, which covers a company’s day-to-day activities, and Impact Business Models, which awards additional points for business models designed to create additional positive impact. The B Impact Assessment is updated every three years.
B Lab recognizes that high-quality social and environmental business standards demand continuous improvement in order to meet principles of inclusion, independence, and credibility.
Our standards are therefore independently governed by B Lab’s Standards Advisory Council and Board of Directors. We also seek input from external stakeholders and various Working and Advisory Groups.
Our standards are updated and improved on a regular basis with all standards development projects informed by research and multi-stakeholder input. Learn more about our Standards here.
Yes! There are many publicly-traded Certified B Corporations around the world. Check out our Find a B Corp section to learn more.
Probably! There are Certified B Corps in more than 80 countries around the world. Find a B Corp using our B Corp Directory where you can search by keyword, location, and more. In addition, you can discover more about the B Corps in your area by contacting your local B Lab or Sistema B organisation. See our full European Network here.
If you or your organization are interested in being part of the B Corp movement to transform our economic system, there are other ways to get involved besides B Corp certification:
– Measure and manage your business’ impact using the B Impact Assessment
– Track your company’s progress on contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals using the SDG Action Manager
– If you’re a multinational, public company, join B Movement Builders to scale and accelerate global systems change to support long-term value creation for all stakeholders.
– Commit your company to stakeholder governance by revisiting your business’s articles of incorporation or equivalent governing documents.
– Explore job opportunities at B Lab Global, B Corps around the world at different B Lab or Sistema B organizations in the B Global Network.
Search the B Corp Directory to discover companies to support, collaborate with, purchase from, follow on social media, and more.
B Lab was founded in 2006 in the United States by three friends who shared a vision to make business a force for good. The first 82 Certified B Corps were certified in 2007.
There are currently over 6,00 Certified B Corporations in more than 80 countries and over 159 industries. Head to our homepage to see the latest statistics about the B Corp Movement.
The B Corp community reflects the world’s business landscape, ranging from sole proprietors to publicly-traded companies. The majority of B Corps are small- to medium-sized businesses, however, more large enterprises and are engaging with our movement through B Corp Certification, B Movement Builders, the B Impact Assessment, the SDG Action Manager, and various other programs.
Certified B Corporations and benefit corporations are often confused.
Our non-profit, B Lab, administers B Corp Certification to companies who meet verified standards of social and environmental impact through the B Impact Assessment, commit to transparency requirements related to their business’ impact and operations, and commit to being legally accountable to all of their stakeholders. One way for B Corps to fulfill the legal accountability requirement of the certification is to become a benefit corporation.
A benefit corporation is a legal structure that embeds stakeholder governance into a business’ DNA, ensuring the business considers its impact on all of its stakeholders. Importantly, the benefit corporation structure is not a certification and benefit corporations are not required to meet B Lab’s standards.
B Corp Certification is administered by Standards Analysts at the non-profit B Lab. Standards Analysts are located at B Lab’s Pennsylvania, New York, and Amsterdam offices. The standards for B Corp Certification are overseen by B Lab’s independent Standards Advisory Council.
Yes! There’s no minimum size for B Corp Certification.
Start-ups or smaller companies may pursue Pending B Corp status. Pending B Corp status is designed to give these companies time to prepare for the rigorous process of full B Corp Certification and signals to investors that a company measures and manages its social and environmental performance. Read more about becoming a Pending B Corp here.
Subsidiaries, franchises, and companies with related entities may pursue B Corp Certification, with certain limits. Subsidiaries of publicly-traded companies also must meet additional transparency requirements.
The specific questions that appear in your assessment depend on your company’s track, which is the sector, size, and geography of your business.
Each question is assigned a relative weighting based on how difficult the practice is to implement and the directness of the indicator in assessing a positive impact on workers, communities, environment, and/or customers, as determined by B Lab’s independent Standards Advisory Council. For example, there are equally weighted questions, heavily weighted questions, less weighted questions, and unweighted questions. Generally speaking, questions measuring specific outputs and outcomes are more heavily weighted than questions about policies and practices. that you frequently don’t need to answer all options to get full credit, that “other” option is weighted less, etc.
The length of the certification and verification process — from beginning the B Impact Assessment to fulfilling the legal accountability requirement to finishing with announcing your B Corp Certification to the world — varies based on a company’s size and complexity.
Small to medium sized companies should expect a wait time of 6-8 months. Large multinationals, companies with many related entities, or companies operating in controversial industries should expect a longer verification process.
Certified B Corporations pay an annual certification fee, which licenses them to use intellectual property like the Certified B Corp logo. This fee varies by region and may also be subject to additional costs depending on size and structure. Visit our Pricing page for further information.
The “Certified B Corporation” trademark is owned and licensed solely by B Lab, a non-profit organization. The certification has been developed independently of any government or international authority, none of which have endorsed or authorized the certification. Read more
With the exception of circumstances outlined on our Controversial Issues page, any established for-profit company may pursue B Corp Certification. There is no minimum or maximum size. Certain companies, such as those under a year old, those with related entities, or large multinational and public companies, have additional considerations and requirements.
Unless your company is already a benefit corporation or its equivalent, yes. All Certified B Corps must meet a legal accountability requirement to achieve and maintain certification. Your company’s legal requirement will vary based on your location and structure; learn more through our Legal Requirement tool.
