A Dive into the New B Corp Standards 

What is B Corp?

As consumers become more conscious of sustainability, organizations are under pressure to verify their sustainability efforts.  B Corp Certification has long been committed to setting rigorous standards to verify organizations’ environmental, social, and governance initiatives. As consumer demand for sustainable brands rises, B Corp Certification is the perfect way to validate an organization's commitment to people, planet, and profit. 

B Corp Certification is a globally recognized certification and indicates that an organization achieves the highest standards of social and environmental performance. Organizations that pursue B Corp Certification complete a rigorous assessment to evaluate its social and environmental performance.  

B Lab, the non-profit organization that certifies companies as B Corps, was founded in 2006 with the goal of using ‘business as a force for good’ and since the beginning B Lab has been dedicated to helping businesses enhance their sustainability efforts. Since conception B Lab has been committed to revising its standards to continue to increase the benchmark for verifying an organization is ‘using its business as a force for good.’ 

New Standards 

The recent announcement of new standards doesn’t come as a surprise as there have been six revisions to the B Corp standards since 2006. While this announcement may not be unexpected, it may leave organizations wondering what to expect.

Currently B Corporation certification adopts a comprehensive approach, assessing an organization’s sustainability across five key areas: governance, workers, community, environment, and customers. Across these five key areas an organization must score 80 points to be certified. There currently are no minimum point requirements within each section. In addition to scoring 80 points, organizations must meet the B Corp legal requirement of committing to considering all stakeholders when making business decisions. These new standards will split the assessment into two requirement groups.  

First, the new standards will include ‘Foundation Requirements’. The intent of the Foundation Requirements is to assess an organization on its eligibility and scope for certification. Additionally, organizations will complete the legal requirement of committing to its stakeholders within the Foundation Requirement.  

Secondly, the new standards will expand the key areas of the assessment from 5 to 7. The key areas of the assessment will fall within the Performance Requirements of the B Impact Assessment.  The new categories within the assessment are as follows:  

1. Purpose & Stakeholder Governance  
2. Fair Work  
3. Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion  
4. Human Rights  
5. Climate Action  
6. Environmental Stewardship & Circularity  
7. Government Affairs & Collective Action  

Takeaway/Next Steps 

The previous standards required organizations to obtain 80 points across 5 categories. Within the new standards organizations will be scored based on criteria specific to the organization’s size, sector, and location across all 7 key areas.  

The goal of this shift is to ensure organizations aren’t excelling in one key area and under performing in another. B Lab ensures that organizations that become certified are taking a holistic approach to sustainable business and can score well within all 7 of the new key areas.  

As consultants who help organizations become B Corp Certified, we are excited to see the transition to the new standards. We are interested in what the transition will look like for organizations recertifying and organizations certifying for the first time. We look forward to learning more about these standards and helping organizations certify with these new standards.  

These key changes are based on the most recent draft of the new standards, organizations can anticipate receiving the final standards from B Lab in April 2025.  

Stay tuned to hear our review of the finalized standards in April.  

Sources:  

https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/standards/performance-requirements/ 

https://standards.bcorporation.net/en-us/draft/overview