What is B Corp certification?

Nowadays, businesses want to become increasingly responsible, both socially and environmentally, but do not necessarily know where to start or even how to structure their approach. The B Corp movement is an excellent solution for making their practices accountable, in a concrete and structured way.

What is B Corp?

B Corp (Beneficial Corporation) is a certification granted to for-profit companies that meet the highest standards of social and environmental impact, ethical governance, and transparency towards the public.

This certification was founded in 2006 in the United States in the state of Pennsylvania by B Lab, a non-profit organization. It is also B Lab that conducts the audit for companies seeking certification to assess the truthfulness of their responses.

The B Corp certification stands out from other certifications offered to businesses through the following points:

- It is the only certification that evaluates the entirety of a company’s social and environmental performance.

- To maintain its certification, a company must recertify every 3 years. This way, organizations must continuously improve.

- Certified companies, those in the process of becoming certified, or even those interested in the movement, can benefit from a business community that gathers several times throughout the year.

How does B Lab evaluate a company's impact?

B Lab created the B Impact Assessment, a questionnaire of about 200 questions offered for free online that allows companies to assess their own impact.  

The process is simple; organizations are invited to answer various questions across 5 distinct categories: ​​

1. governance
2. employees
3. community
4. environment
5. customers.

Note that starting in 2026, the current method will transition to an evaluation based on 7 standards to be met. To learn more.

What are the main advantages of being a B Corp company?

There are several advantages to being certified. Here are a few you might benefit from:​

1. Allows for compliance with the ESG requirements of large contractors and financial partners (which are becoming increasingly strict)
2. Creates a differentiating element across an industry
3. Facilitates the recruitment of new employees
4. Facilitates employee retention
5. Creates business opportunities through the B Corp community
6. Improves brand visibility and reputation
7. Allows for accountability in its practices by following the highest standards of social and environmental impact.

How to become a B Corp company?

To obtain B Corp certification, a company must first achieve a minimum score of 80 out of 200 on the assessment. To do this, the organization must, among other things:

- Create documentation (code of ethics, employee guide, etc.)

- Implement concrete initiatives (getting involved with underprivileged communities, establishing an onboarding process, etc.)

- Modify its legal documents to ensure that the company equally considers the well-being of its stakeholders and the growth of its profits.

The duration of the process varies between 8 and 12 months depending on the size of the company, its industry, and its involvement in the certification process. The cost depends on the company's annual sales. The higher the sales, the higher the annual certification cost will be.​

Furthermore, only for-profit companies with at least one year of existence are eligible for certification. For young organizations with less than a year of activity, there is Pending B Corp, which is a certification allowing young companies to draw inspiration from the best practices proposed by B Corp during the startup phase.

As for non-profit companies, they are not eligible for certification but can still use and draw inspiration from the B Impact Assessment offered for free online to make their practices accountable.

Which companies are already B Corp certified?

There are currently over 9,000 companies, including more than 400 in Canada, that are B Corp certified across more than 75 countries. They all stand out in their industries for their good societal and environmental practices and their desire to redefine success in business. Here are some examples.

Some B Corp certified companies in Quebec (for the full list):
Prana
GenV
Ciele
LG2

Some internationally certified B Corp companies:
Patagonia
Danone
TOMS
Ben & Jerry’s

💡 Need a hand to fill out your B Corp questionnaire? We would be happy to assist you for free for a quick 30 minutes!

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Article written by Thomas, B Corp Consultant (he/him)