B Lab is a nonprofit organization dedicated to using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.
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B Resources
These free downloadable guides were created to help companies improve
their social and environmental performance.
Making good easy is hard work. Our B Resource Guides have been created through a research partnership with Columbia Business School’s Research Initiative on Social Entrepreneurship RISE program. RISE Director and Columbia Business School professor Catherine Clark assembled a team of student researchers from Columbia Business School and Duke’s Fuqua School of Business to create the resource guides, which represent conversations with experts and entrepreneurs worldwide to find and present the best information in a few short pages on each topic. These researchers included: Alan R. Cordova, Ana R. Salazar-Manzur, Debika Shome, Gillian Core, Ivajlo Nikolov, Jenny Harms, Marie Auyong, Paula Wertheim, Samantha Brenner, Shannon Arvizu, Steve Allan, and Jacquelyn Rowley . If you have an interest in contributing, please contact Cathy Clark at cathy@cathyhc.com.
Governance:
Creating and improving your board’s Audit Committee.
How to write a Whistle-Blowing Policy.
How to implement Financial Controls.
How to write and implement effective Company Policies.
Employees:
How to write an Employee Handbook. Includes sample outlines, links and software.
How to create a Code of Ethics. Includes outlines, templates and examples by industry.
Guide to assessing Employee Engagement and collecting regular Employee Metrics.
Includes a special offer from a founding B Corporation.
Guide to increasing Workplace Flexibility.
Suppliers:
How to write and implement a Local Purchasing Policy.
How to create a Supplier Code of Conduct Guide. Includes links to international standards for supplier codes, templates, and options for implementation and monitoring once you have a code in place.)
Environment:
Guide to conducting an Environmental Audit. Includes thoughts from Seventh Generation and Pure Strategies.
Guide to LEED Standards and Certification. Includes links to LEED ratings systems and a searchable database of LEED consultants.
Guide to Reducing Use of Materials and Recycling Office Materials.
Guide to Designing, Producing and Certifying your Products as those that generate no waste.
How to conduct a Life Cycle Assessment. Includes definitions, books, helpful software, and links to consultants you can engage to do it for you.
How to Calculate Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Includes templates you can use to do it yourself, or links to consultants who can do it for you.
Renewable Energy Resources Guide. Includes definitions, best practices and examples of current B Corporations using renewables.
Community:
Guide to Community Service Programs. Includes a list of models to choose from as well as many links to best practices.
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