Overview of the standards for B Corp Certification

The requirements for B Corp Certification are divided into Foundation and Performance Requirements. Companies are first evaluated against Foundation Requirements to assess their eligibility to pursue B Corp Certification. To do this, they must meet specific conditions, for example completing the legal requirement. The Foundation Requirements also assist companies in preparation to engage with the Performance Requirements through understanding and learning about their business model. The Performance Requirements consist of Impact Topics relating to a company's operations, value chain, and stakeholders. The latest draft of the Performance Requirements identifies Impact Topics with clear and universally applicable impact management actions that companies must meet to achieve and maintain B Corp Certification and be differentiated as a leading company using business as a force for good. The new standards will focus on the most important social and environmental issues facing people and the planet, giving companies clarity to focus on what matters and galvanize the most impactful actions.

The latest iteration of the draft standards include more in-depth detail on what is expected from companies to meet the new standards, how they will be evaluated, and what tools and resources are available to support their implementation. Across the Impact Topics we share further detail on the Performance Requirements, and in some instances, new options for companies to meet the requirements. Overall, we have addressed prevalent feedback from the first consultation, added additional requirements to make them clearer and more impactful, tailored the requirements according to company size and sector, and included recertification requirements that support a company’s continuous improvement. This build out of the latest draft standards provides a greater opportunity for companies to understand the intended impact of the standards; get a clear picture of what is required for B Corp Certification; and to allow companies to make a fair assessment on its attainability. The latest draft standard also includes a new section on Foundation Requirements that will assess a company’s eligibility to pursue, and support a part of its preparation, for B Corp Certification.

During stakeholder engagement processes in 2021 and 2022 the need to tailor the standards according to company context was a prominent feedback theme. As such, this draft aspires to include meaningful tailoring of the standards according to a company’s size, sector, location and industry. There is a balance to strike and in this draft we have maintained the universality of the goals within each topic while making the standards actionable and relevant for companies across the globe and with varying operating contexts. To do this, we have introduced a range of tailoring strategies including differentiated sub-requirements based on size and sector and have established an equity mechanism, recognising that companies can face differing levels of operational barriers depending on location.

Throughout this process, we have also received significant feedback highlighting a desire for company performance to continue to be recognised and differentiated across companies. This recognition motivates companies to improve their impact over time and supports them in further learning and prioritizing efforts. As we move away from an 80 point threshold in the current standards to specific requirements across Impact Topics, this latest draft of the standards shares a new model for your consideration: 1. The first element relates to the Performance Requirements, specifically how companies are performing against the sub-requirements in each Impact Topic and if they ‘Do not meet’, ‘Meet’ or ‘Exceed’ these requirements. 2. The second element relates to company performance across Impact Business Models (IBMs), being the way that a business is designed to create a specific positive benefit/outcome for one of its stakeholders. Companies possessing IBMs would receive public recognition, for example having their tier of performance published on their B Corp Public Profile, categorized as either “Developing”, “Advanced”, “Outstanding”, or “Leader”.

Changing the economic system requires continuous improvement and continuous effort. The latest draft standards embody this spirit, driving business impact though both mandatory and ‘above and beyond’ measures. Mandatory improvements include an expectation on companies to set improvement goals and demonstrate progress within Complementary Impact Topics and progress against the Recertification Performance Requirements. These draft standards also encourage companies to go ‘above and beyond’ to improve in other ways over time; while not “requiring” such improvement to ‘meet’ the requirements for B Corp certification, companies are encouraged to continue efforts to ‘exceed’ their performance on requirements and develop Impact Business Models to grow over time.