EXPLORE B LAB'S NEW STANDARDS

As the climate crisis intensifies and societal inequality grows, the need to bring about systemic change is clear. That's why B Lab has strengthened its standards for business impact, equipping companies to drive meaningful, sustainable change.

B Lab has continuously evolved its certification standards to raise the bar for responsible business. The latest updates provide greater clarity and consistency, ensuring companies focus on the most impactful business actions. These new standards establish a stronger, more transparent foundation for all businesses committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative global economy. 

Join us in embracing these new standards and unlock your company’s true potential as a catalyst for systemic change.

Need to see how these standards apply to your company? Login to B Impact for tailored requirements.

B Corp Certification signals to your customers, employees, and investors that your business is committed to making a difference. You’ll join a global movement of companies that use business as a force for good, and demonstrate your company’s leadership in a changing economic landscape. By achieving B Corp Certification, your company can:

• Demonstrate leadership: Stand out as a business committed to driving positive impact and minimizing harm.

• Build trust: Strengthen credibility with customers, employees, and investors by showing accountability and transparency.

• Drive systems change: Join a movement that is redefining success in business and transforming the global economy for the better.

The revised standards strengthen accountability and clarity, guiding companies to take concrete actions that align with the movement’s core mission. At the heart of these changes are two key pillars: 

In a company’s certification journey, its first step is meeting the Foundation Requirements. This sequencing ensures companies are meeting fundamental eligibility requirements before they progress to the Impact Topic requirements.

Generally, the standards for B Corp Certification are tailored to a company’s context, including size and sector. However, all companies are required to meet the Foundation Requirements, which are:

• Meet Eligibility Requirements for B Corp Certification: A company must be legally incorporated, in operation for at least 12 months, and comply with local and national laws. 

• Commit to Stakeholder Governance: Companies must adopt the B Corp Legal Requirement, ensuring accountability to all stakeholders. This involved embedding stakeholder governance principles into legal frameworks and signing the B Corp Declaration of Interdependence. 

Conduct a Risk Assessment: Companies will create risk profiles using B Lab’s risk profiling tool. This process determines the number of additional due-diligence sub-requirements that the company must meet as part of the B Corp certification process.

B Lab’s new standards require businesses to take meaningful action across key social, environmental, and governance Impact Topic areas. By meeting these expectations, companies can demonstrate leadership in responsible business practices and impact management. These standards have been designed to enhance impact, provide clarity on what it means to be a leading business, and integrate feedback from various stakeholders over its development.

• Purpose and Stakeholder Governance: Companies act in accordance with a defined purpose and embed stakeholder governance in decision making. By doing so, they contribute to an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economic system for all people and the planet.

• Fair Work: Companies provide good quality jobs and have positive workplace cultures.

• Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (JEDI): Companies have inclusive and diverse workplaces and contribute to just and equitable communities.

• Human Rights: Companies treat people with dignity and respect their human rights.

• Climate Action: Companies take action to combat the climate crisis and its impacts.

• Environmental Stewardship and Circularity: Companies demonstrate environmental stewardship and contribute to the circular economy in their operations and value chain. They both minimize negative impacts, to help stay within ecological thresholds and pursue positive impacts.

• Government Affairs and Collective Action: Companies play a leadership role in fostering shared understanding and implementing solutions toward an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative economy. This role includes a fair and responsible contribution to their operating countries’ economies and infrastructure.

To become B Corp certified, companies need to take action across the Foundation and Impact Topics Requirements. The specific requirements that a company must fulfill will depend on its size, sector and industry, ranging from 20 to 124 requirements to be certified. Your company’s location determines whether you’re eligible for the equity mechanism.

Learnings from company self-assessments, verification processes, and the implementation of the new standards may lead to further improvements to the standards. We’ll make sure to let you know in advance whenever a major update is coming.

To ensure the standards remain relevant and actionable for businesses across industries and regions, B Lab has designed a range of tailoring strategies. 

• Differentiated sub-requirements based on company size and sector 

• Sub-requirements that provide different options or are inherently context-based

• Equity mechanism for countries/territories, ensuring fair and equitable implementation worldwide 

Learn more about these strategies.

B Corps are expected to continuously improve their impact. The new standards integrate mandatory improvement actions, ensuring that businesses evolve alongside global challenges and push the boundaries of what responsible business can achieve. 

During the certification journey, companies are expected to advance their actions over a five-year period. Initially, companies must meet the Year 0 requirements, then gradually comply with Year 3 and Year 5 requirements. This ensures that B Corps remain at the forefront of responsible business leadership. 

Learn more about how companies will gradually adopt the new standards.

Impact Business Models (IBMs) are the ways that a business is intentionally designed to create a specific positive outcome for a stakeholder group. Examples include companies providing services to preserve or restore natural environments, those donating an essential product for every sale, educational service providers, or companies intentionally hiring and training individuals from underemployed populations to support social progress. Companies with IBMs play a critical role in system change and hold significant value for many stakeholders. 

The role and recognition of IBMs were thoroughly explored during the development of the new standards. However, due to evolving regulations—such as the Empowering Consumers Directive—and the risk of further delaying the implementation and adoption of the new standards, the assessment and recognition of IBMs were not included in the first publication of the standards. 

B Corps with Impact Business Models (IBMs) under Version 6 will continue to have these displayed in the B Corp Directory, as part of their V6 score, in recognition of the ongoing impact generated through their business model.

We are excited about the opportunity to engage the community in shaping the next evolution of Impact Business Models, as we see them playing a vital role in both the B Corp community and our broader Theory of Change. B Lab remains committed to exploring how IBMs can be recognized and valued within and beyond B Corp certification. We’re especially eager to connect with B Corps that are leading the way with innovative and impactful business models and working together to help define the future of IBMs.

You can sign up here to participate in the Impact Business Model development process. Still got questions about the new standards? Visit our Frequently Asked Questions to learn more.