FROM A TO
B CORP
A path to purpose-driven business
In today's rapidly changing world, businesses are redefining success by prioritizing social and environmental impact alongside financial profitability. One powerful movement leading this change is the Certified B Corporation, or B Corp. In this article, we'll explore what it means to become a Certified B Corporation and why more companies are embracing this transformative journey.
It's a 5-10 minutes read but in this article we'll cover:
What is a certified B Corporation?
It's a business that voluntarily meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability. Certified B Corps are a global community of thousands of purpose-driven companies working together to use business as a force for good by measuring, managing and improving their social and environmental impact. They embed sustainability in their DNA.
B Lab, the driving force behind the B Corp movement, is a global nonprofit organization. They developed the B Impact Assessment (BIA), a comprehensive tool used to evaluate a company's impact on stakeholders. B Lab verifies the assessment results and grants B Corp certification to businesses that meet the stringent criteria.
Vision B Lab:
To build a more inclusive, equitable and regenerative economic system for all people and the planet.
The B Corp Movement
The B Corp movement is a growing global community of businesses dedicated to using their influence to create positive change. It's a movement that inspires collaboration, innovation, and shared success. Currently, about 6700 companies globally are certified as a B Corp, of which 2600 in Europe. Well-known B Corps are Patagonia, Tony Chocolonely and Ben & Jerries.
B Corp in numbers:
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7000+ Global
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2900+ Europe
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1000+ UK
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300+ Benelux
Spanning across
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163 Industries
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77 Countries
B Corp is more than a certification. It's...
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An Assessment - offering a complete sustainability framework for companies to continuously measure and manage their impact
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A Vision - aimed at better business: better for the environment, employees, partners, suppliers and consumers
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A Legal Commitment - B Corps are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on all stakeholders by amending the company’s articles of association.
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A Global Movement & Community - B Corp is a publicly known global movement of businesses supporting each other to improve, grow and drive global change with sector taskforces aimed at collective action
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A Framework for Continuous improvement - Certified B Corps must update their impact assessment and verify their updated score every three years.
Why are companies becoming B Corp certified?
There are many reasons for companies to become B Corp certified. By first measuring and then improving your social and environmental impact, you ensure your company is demonstrating that both people and planet matter, not just profit. By making a legal change to your constitutional documents through the B Corp Legal Requirement, you protect these values and your mission going forward. People want to work for, buy from and invest in businesses that recognise their role in addressing the global challenges of social injustice and the climate emergency.
To summarize, becoming a certified B Corp offers the following benefits:
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It encourages improvement on social and environmental performance
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Align with internationally recognized standards and it allows for benchmarking
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Attraction and retention of the best talent, clients that value sustainability and conscious investors and partners
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It demonstrates true public commitment for increased social and environmental impact
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Increased opportunities for improved employee engagement and satisfaction
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Collaboration with other B Corps on best practices and learnings
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Increased resilience and long-term sustainability
How do you become B Corp certified?
Becoming a B Corp can be a complex and time consuming process. It consists of the following phases:
1. Measure your impact
Complete the free online B Impact Assessment (BIA), a confidential tool to measure, improve and verify your company's social and environmental performance. The BIA has roughly 200-300 questions, tailored to your company's size, sector and location, covering governance, workers, community, environment and customers. 80 points are required to achieve B Corp certification.
2. Improve your BIA score
Once you know your current impact, check in which areas you're able to improve. Set up a roadmap and assign a strong project manager to track all the To Do's. Formalize policies, define and track metrics, document impact and reach out to stakeholders. There are some low hanging fruit questions but we advice to stay true to your mission and strategy. Make use of the free tools the BIA offers such as the Bookmark report, Knowledge Base and Goal setting.
3. Meet the legal requirement
In addition to meeting the high BIA standards, you must also meet the B Corp Legal Requirement which reflects your company’s commitment to a triple bottom line of people, planet and profit. Not only does this help protect your company’s mission over time but it also carries valuable points within the B Impact Assessment.
4. Submit, wait and review
Once you've improved your score above 80 points, you can submit the assessment. To be safe, only submit the assessment above 85 points as it's very common for the score to drop in the review phase. Once submitted, there currently is a waiting period of about 6 months before your BIA will be reviewed During the review process you’ll be asked to provide documentation and evidence to support the answers you have given in your assessment.
5. Celebrate and communicate
Once all requirements are met and verified, you are a certified B Corp! Celebrate and communicate this milestone with your stakeholders. To maintain your certification, you need to recertify every three years. B Lab is currently developing new standards that will become applicable in about a year.
What are requirements for success?
The B Corp certification is most valuable when it is part of your DNA. Just getting the certification doesn't mean that you're a sustainable business. It's about continuous improvement and progress. When embarking on this journey, consider below requirements for success:
1. Get buy-in from leadership
Full commitment and active regular involvement from top management is required. The process of becoming B Corp often creates new projects and additional to do's which require budget and approval.
2. Ensure all employees are involved and engaged
Engage and involve all employees at the start of the process. A taskforce can be set up to encourage internal support.
3. Focus on the long term
The B Corp certification process is to be approached and perceived as a long term strategic objective, that will become part of the brand identity. The process can sometimes feel like it's dragging on so celebrate short term wins with the team and stay focused on the long term north star.
4. Ensure regular communication
Regular internal communication on progress and short-term wins should be shared with the entire company and externally communicated with clients, partners and stakeholders. This determines if B Corp is fully integrated in the company.
What makes our approach unique?
While it can be a long and complex process, becoming a certified B Corp is something that a company can do themselves if they have dedicated resources available. However, B Corp often is a project that keeps getting put off. The questions are complex and there might not be a dedicated project manager that takes the lead. The queue time is long and companies are caught up in day-to-day business.
What makes our approach unique is our focus and connection of B Corp with the strategy, mission and values of the company and employee engagement during the process. While we know the BIA like the back of our hands, including the low hanging fruits, becoming B Corp is not a tick box exercise. It is only valuable when truly integrated in your company's DNA. We do this by refining or defining the current strategy, defining goals and KPI's. We conduct an assessment on the most material topics of the organization. And we involve the full team in the process.
When working with From A To Green, we will lead the project as external (or interim if needed) project managers. We help you complete the B Impact Assessment, set up a roadmap for improvements with jointly defined goals and initiatives and make sure everyone is involved and stays updated in the process. We guide the company in the implementation phase and join the review call with B Lab. Once the company is certified, we will ensure a detailed handover to the internal team so B Corp is truly integrated in the business. If requested, we will stay involved to make sure you keep tracking your progress and B Corp stays top of mind in the organization.
30 min. free B Corp scan
Curious if your company is able to become a certified B Corp? We now offer a free 30 min. B Corp scan to review if your company is eligible to become a certified B Corporation, how achievable it is and practical tips on how to best approach the process.