B Movement Builders

Multinational companies recognizing the leadership of Certified B Corps and committed to the principles of the B Corp movement.

Inspired by the leadership of the global B Corp community, B Movement Builders is a collaborative coalition of leading multinational companies that catalyze the global movement of business as a force for good.

Business must lead the way on addressing the compounding crises facing our world — from climate change to wealth inequality. B Movement Builder companies help create a new narrative about the role of business and affirm the role B Corps play in changing the culture, practices, and operating system of capitalism.

All B Movement Builders are multinational companies (MNCs) with at least $1B in annual revenue. They recognize the leadership of Certified B Corps and are committed to the principles of the B Corp movement, as well as the company-level and collective actions that bring these principles to life.

Bolstered by customized support from the B Movement Builders program, participating companies make credible commitments, identify opportunities for scalable collaboration, and work internally to affect impactful transformation that accelerates a global systems change of business and culture. They also access a community through which they can engage with peers in order to build the movement and accelerate its impact.

B Movement Builders receive guidance from Danone and Natura & Co who serve as B Movement Builders Mentors.

Since 2014, the B Corp movement has continued to scale its engagement of multinational companies, showing the world that even large enterprises can be a force for good.

  • 2014 Natura becomes the first publicly traded company to certify as a B Corp.

  • 2017 Danone publicly committed to become a Certified B Corp by 2030.

  • 2020 The B Movement Builders program launched with its initial cohort, bringing together a group of six pioneering companies with $60B in combined revenue and 250,000 employees in more than 120 companies across five industries.

PRINCIPLES 
  • Authentic Credibility: Credible, concrete, and inclusive actions backed by comprehensive and transparent assessment.

  • Scalable Collaboration: Interdependent communities that create collective impact through peer-learning and partnerships.

  • Impact Transformation: Authentic leaders dedicated to audacious goals that transform business to create shared value for all stakeholders.

DRIVING SYSTEMS CHANGE

The MNC Program is a key component to achieve B Lab's Global Theory of Change. It creates a pathway for multinational companies to start their journey towards a real impact transformation. It facilitates the adoption of standards for MNCs to manage their impacts as well as  creates a pathway for multinational companies to move towards becoming certified B Corps, if they wish to do so. The MNC Program has the potential to significantly contribute to all intermediary and final outcomes of the Theory of Change in the following way:

  • An ever growing coalition of MNCs engaged with certification and impact improvement have the opportunity to be a leading voice for economic systems change, evidenced by collective actions and support for stakeholder governance 

  • Transparency and accountability requirements can have high impact within the business 

  • Potential to change industries by enlisting the few large giants in the particular industry 

  • Ability to affect the capital markets, role of stock exchanges, and stakeholder vs shareholder narrative 

  • Even small incremental improvement on the  practices of large multinationals  through the use of our measurement tools  will have substantial positive impact

By contributing to these outcomes the program help to bring forth B Labs Vision of Change. 

BENEFITS
  • Build trust, credibility, and brand value with employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders.

  • Increase employee engagement by providing opportunities to build their skills and network through engagement in the B Corp movement.

  • Receive media recognition through progress on commitments and goals as well as collective actions.

  • Combat short-termism by aligning your investors to build long-term value.

  • Collaborate with peers and B Corps to make progress toward the SDGs, scale innovations and share best practices.

  • Accelerate the B Corp movement around the world that’s transforming the way business and capital markets work. 

The B Movement Builders program and the B Corp Certification are different but harmonized pathways.

The B Movement Builder program is designed as a journey to foster real transformation and change, aligned with the principles of the B Corp movement and allowing for impact throughout the process.

The program enables eligible companies with a shared name or brand as their top-level parent to certify independently, while stipulating that the parent company becomes a B Movement Builder within three [3] years. This is a conditional for recertification eligibility.

While in the BMB program companies can:

  • progress on their B Corp Certification journey as the program is fully harmonized with the certification requirements. Certify subsidiaries (when operationally complete & distinct)

  • work with B Lab to design a customized, detailed pathway for the whole company to adopt standards to manage their impact as well as work with other MNCS, collectively, to exchange opportunities, challenges and actions 

  • show company engagement with the B Corp movement, supporting the B Corp Movement through different possibilities of collaboration

  • work towards alignment of governance structures in the business community and the capital markets that create  value for all stakeholders

Companies participating in B Movement Builders will therefore not necessarily meet the same social and environmental performance standards as Certified B Corporations. Before joining the program, companies must undergo a Risk Review to determine eligibility; in order to participate, they must demonstrate meaningful progress on key goals related to their social and environmental performance as overseen by our Standards Advisory Council.

Find additional information in our One Pager.

B MOVEMENT BUILDERS IN THE NEWS

How Multinationals Navigate To A Stakeholder Economy: B Movement Builders Share Progress And Challenges | Chris Marquis | Forbes

How Multinationals Navigate To A Stakeholder Economy: B Movement Builders Share Progress And Challenges, Part Two | Chris Marquis | Forbes

Ready to be a B Movement Builder? Reach out to our team at bmovementbuilders@bcorporation.net.


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