B Corp Certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials. In order to achieve certification, a company needs to be operational for >12 months to be eligible for B Corp Certification.
Is your business <12 months in operations?
B Corp Certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials. In order to achieve certification, a company must:
B Corp Certification is holistic, not exclusively focused on a single social or environmental issue. And the process to achieve and maintain certification is rigorous and requires engaging teams and departments across your company. Taking company size and profile into account, verification involves documentation of your company’s business model and information about your operations, structure, and various work processes, as well as review of potential public complaints and possible site visits. Recertification confirms these standards continue to be met on an ongoing basis.
While the certification process varies depending on your company’s size and complexity, all companies must do the following to become a B Corp.
1. Register on the B Impact Assessment
Use the B Impact Assessment to measure your social and environmental performance and get recommendations on ways to improve your impact. Gather your supporting documentation and data. You will also be prompted to create a company profile and complete the Disclosure Questionnaire. At this point, you will learn your baseline score; if it is below 80 points, reevaluate and prioritize improvement areas
2. Submit your assessment for review
If you're over the 80 point benchmark, submit your assessment for review. On submission, there is a fee of 25% of your expected certification fee that will be factored into your certification fees, otherwise it is non-refundable if you do not certify.
3. Meet legal requirements
Make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and achieve benefit corporation status if available in your jurisdiction.
4. Evaluation
You will then wait in the Evaluation Queue as an analyst from our team reviews your company's eligibility for B Corp Certification. Once eligibility is determined, you enter the Evaluation Phase. An analyst from B Lab will look at your company's structure, any controversial issues, as well as your answers to the entire assessment.
5. Verification
During Verification, you'll have a review call with a Standards analyst, go through your verification report, and provide additional documentation backing up your answers to the Assessment. Should your score drop during the process, you will be offered additional time to work on improvements.
6. Sign B Corp Agreement
If you meet the 80-point threshold, you will enter the Post Verification stage, sign the B Corp Agreement, the B Corp Declaration of Interdependence, and pay your annual certification fees. Fees are based on annual sales and vary per region.
7. Public Transparency
You have now achieved Certification! In order to meet the transparency requirement, you are required to publish your profile in the B Corp Directory, including your company's score and impact report.
8. Continuous Improvement
The final step in your B Corp journey will last the longest. You will prepare for recertification every three years, and use the B Impact Assessment and the certification process as a tool for continuous improvement.
Register for the B Impact Assessment and start answering your questions about your company’s operations and business model. Along the way, you’ll be able to set goals for improvement, compare your performance to similar companies, and learn best practices pulled straight from the Certified B Corp community.
