Many companies are considering B Corp certification as they strive to generate social impact through their business. For a socially-conscious business, the B Corp certification is a strong credential presenting a company’s determination to pursue a sustainable, inclusive, and equitable business and social environment.
What is a B Corp?
B Corps are mission-driven companies that balance purpose and profit. Growing levels of climate change, pollution, and loss of diversity represent a severe environmental hazard to our planet. We recognize the critical role of for-profit businesses in driving positive social and environmental change to protect our environment. Companies are certified as B Corps if they meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability and bring positive impacts to their stakeholders and the planet.
Who Should Consider Becoming B Corp Certified?
For-profit businesses across industries committed to achieving sustainability could all consider applying for the B Corp certification. While companies of all sizes are welcome to apply, a company must be for-profit and have been in operations for at least 12 months to be eligible for certification. Early-stage companies, however, can apply for Pending B Corp status, with a simplified application pathway to demonstrate their commitments to social and environmental change. Nowadays, more than 5000 companies over the world have been certified as B Corp, and over 100 companies are on the Pending B Corp status.
What is the B Impact Assessment?
For many companies, the B Impact Assessment is the first step of their application. The assessment is a questionnaire designed by B Lab to help assess your company’s impact, benchmark your company’s performance with other businesses, and learn about improvement opportunities and practices in the future. The assessment is free on B Lab’s online platform. You will need to answer a series of questions across five categories to complete the assessment: governance, workers, community, the environment, and customers. Each category consists of questions correlating to a score in the assessment. You are also expected to prepare relevant documents for next-step verifications upon answering the questions.
How Do I Become a Certified B Corp?
To become B Corp certified, your company needs to meet the three requirements and get evaluated and verified by B Lab.
Why Should You Consider Becoming B Corp Certified?
B Corp certification is the only certification that measures a company’s entire social and environmental performance. The comprehensive process of evaluation and verification proves that the company is incorporating the highest standards of ethical business into their operations and business model, from your supply chain and material input to employee benefit, charitable giving, and community engagement. The certification will help your company stand out from others by demonstrating that your company is making a real difference instead of merely smart marketing. Certified B Corps are able to join the B Corp community with other industry and business leaders, and together drive the systematic change to address the social and environmental challenges.
If your business is thinking about becoming a B Corp, request a demo from Ecolytics today to see how we provide customized recommendations for your business and assist you with the application!
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