EVOLVING THE STANDARDS FOR B CORP CERTIFICATION

As the climate crisis intensifies and societal inequality grows, the need to bring about systemic change is clear. We must advance the standards for B Corp Certification to meet the magnitude of the challenge ahead.

The new standards will provide clarity for companies, galvanizing the most impactful business actions and focusing on what really matters, meaningfully demonstrating the leadership role that B Corps and the B Corp movement play in the world.

While significant improvements have been made to our certification standards since B Lab began in 2006 (they have been revised six times), the core aspects of the B Impact Assessment have remained consistent — including the fact that the certification is rooted in a company achieving an overall verified score of 80 through a flexible range of practices and attributes. This approach has been tremendously valuable and impactful in the first 15 years of this movement, yet it has also demonstrated its limitations and challenges. 

We see this evolution as an opportunity to ask big questions about how the current standards for B Corp Certification meet the needs of the moment, and how we can optimize the B Corp movement for the future.

In May 2023, we shared the Preliminary Consultation Summary Report, providing an overview of the September-November 2022 preliminary consultation results and highlighting the potential ways that prevalent feedback could be addressed in the next draft of the standards for B Corp Certification.

The second consultation ran from 16 January 2024 through 26 March 2024. We will identify and incorporate prevalent feedback from this consultation process in to the final version of the standards before publication. You can continue to familiarise yourself with the content of the latest draft standards here.

Learn more about the work happening behind the scenes at B Lab to implement the new standards in our latest blog.

For more information, please review these Frequently Asked Questions, as well as our previous announcements:

• Request for Proposals for Consultant with ESG/Sustainability and Financial Sector Expertise (4 June, 2024)

• Revisiting the proposed changes to the standards for B Corp Certification (27 October, 2023)

• Preliminary Consultation Suggests New B Corp Standards Are Ambitious yet Attainable (15 May, 2023)

• A call for feedback on the draft of the new standards for B Corp Certification (23 September 2022)

• Update on the Future of the B Corp Certification Performance Requirements (23 February 2022)

• B Corp Performance Requirements Review updates: B Lab expands Regional Standards Advisory Groups, launches next round of community engagement, and updated project timeline (15 September 2021) 

• Performance Requirements Review Update: Survey Results and Next Steps (21 April 2021)

• Call for Input on B Corp Certification Performance Requirements (2 December 2020)

Update on the timeline: A previous version of this page shared alternative timelines around the implementation of the new standards. B Lab continues to develop the rollout and transition timeline for the new standards, including improved digital experiences and certification processes.