Certified B Corporations are businesses that are committed to creating high-quality social and environmental performances, through public transparency, and legal accountability in order to be able to operate in a sustainable, and more inclusive way.

It applies to any for-profit company with at least a year of operations that, besides wanting to maximise its investor’s benefits, wants to add value not only to society but also to the environment. If a company is under one year old, there will be additional considerations and requirements.

B Corp Certification is managed by the non-profit B Lab and its Standards Advisory Council. This certification has a duration of three years.

In order to become a Certified B Corp, a company has to go through three different types of requirements: Performance, legal, and transparency.

Performance: To accomplish this requirement, a company must first complete the B Impact Assessment, which measures a company’s overall positive impact on workers, community, customers, and environment. To acquire a B Corp Certification, a company must achieve a minimum score of 80 across all the areas and it comprises around 200 questions in total which is determined by the company size, sector, and market. These questions are divided into two: Operations (covering day-to-day activities) and Impact Business Models (including additional points for business models designed to create additional positive impact).

Additionally, there are guides, goal-setting features, and improvement reports that will help companies create a roadmap for improved performance compared to previous years.

Moreover, negative impacts are also considered in this section, ranging from background checks to public complaint processes. This is done through the Disclosure Questionnaire which doesn’t impact the company’s score achieved on the B Impact Assessment. Further transparency might be needed and will be notified by B Lab.

Legal: Not only meeting high standards of performance and transparency are important, but B Corp also wants to ensure that companies are legally protecting their mission and considering the impact of their decisions on all parties involved (not only shareholders but also stakeholders).

How does B Corps do this? By updating their Articles of Incorporation, reincorporating as benefit corporations/companies, or making other structural changes.

Verification and Transparency: After completing the previous steps, companies will undergo a verification process to determine if they meet the 80 points required for Certification, as well as certain transparency requirements. All certified companies must share their B Impact Report publicly.