Frequently Asked Questions

These are the most common questions we get asked around B Corp, what it is, and what we do!

B Corp Certification is a third-party certification standard that evaluates a company’s social and environmental impact.

Certified B Corps are a new form of business that seeks to balance purpose and profit. This means that rather than solely focusing on profit maximisation, they consider the impact of their operations on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment.

B Corps are leaders of a global movement of business as a force for good.

To get Certified, they meet the highest independently verified levels of transparency and accountability around their social and environmental performance.

The B stands for Benefit. It’s about showing how you are benefitting all your stakeholders and the planet beyond just making a profit for your shareholders.

The B Corp Certification process is a customised assessment based on industry, size, geography. There are about 70 different assessments in total depending on these variations.

B Corp Certification is aimed at for-profit businesses:

  • Of any size – yes even if you have no employees
  • In most industries and geographies – you can see a list of controversial industries that would mean they typically can’t Certify here – https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/standards/controversial-issues/
  • Of almost any legal structure – typically it is not for charities, with some exceptions
  • That has been in operation for more than 1 year – The operational date begins from the first supplier or client contract, or when an individual is contributing more than 35 hours per week to the company.

There are 5000+ B Corps from around the world.

You can find a B Corporation list of all of them.

The B Corp movement started in 2006 after one of the co-founders of the movement, Jay Coen Gilbert realised the power of business to make an impact on the world.

He did it alongside Bart Houlahan and Andrew Kassoy.

Check out our blog post here for the full creation myth story.

At Grow Good we are a bit biased but we firmly believe B Corp Certification is a great thing to undertake.

If you nail the Certification and bring your major stakeholders on the journey you will absolutely have recouped the investment of your Certification fee.

  1. People want to work for, buy from, and invest in businesses they believe in and B Corp Certification is the most powerful way to build credibility, trust, and value for your business amongst all stakeholders.
  2. Walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk. “Purpose Washing” and “Green Washing” are both rife in the market, but customers and employees are increasingly better at recognising “Purpose Lite”. B Corp and a genuine purpose will see you gaining raving fans as a customer base.
  3. Get purpose at work in your organisation and see an increase in team performance, team engagement, as well as attract and retain the best talent.
  4. Join a community of over 5000 businesses around the world that are aiming to make the world a better place. Benchmark your business against local, regional and global peers.
  5. Not only is this the ‘right thing’ to do, but it also makes economic sense as well. Research shows that being a B Corp can add to your bottom line and profitability. Genuine triple bottom line is the future for all businesses.
  6. And as a bonus, you get to sleep well at night knowing you’ve done the right thing! #priceless.

Not at all. It’s all about mindset and intent. There are great examples of large companies that have Certified such as Danone and Natura.

Not at all. It’s all about mindset and intent. Indeed the vast majority of B Corps around the world are small to medium businesses. You can even Certify if you are a Sole Trader and have zero employees.

Yes, there are many examples of publicly traded companies that are B Corps. Kathmandu, Lemonade, Natura, Coursera, and Allbirds are some examples.

Maybe…

Generally, they can’t as the B Corp Certification is aimed at for-profit businesses. That being said if they can prove that the majority of their income is from business activity and they are not mainly reliant on funding or donations then they can potentially Certify.

If this is you, drop us a line and we can help you work out if it will work for you.

It’s achieved by measuring the positive contribution that your organisation makes through the BIA or B Impact Assessment. It reviews your business against the 5 pillars of:

  1. Governance
  2. Workers
  3. Community
  4. Environment
  5. Customer Model

The assessment is a self-assessment and is completely free to take. You only pay to have your certification verified by a B Lab Standards Assessor, however, you will need to do that to get the certification.

To qualify for the Certification you must also meet the minimum score of 80/200 points.

Click here to go to the BIA and start your journey to Certification.

We like to describe the process as rigorous but achievable. So far over 5000 businesses have managed it!

Some businesses find the BIA relatively easy because they are already doing the good.

Where it gets harder is when you need to make impact improvements to reach the 80/200 threshold for certification.

If you have the mindset and intent to want to get there then it’s definitely achievable. That’s what we are here to help with.

To just complete your BIA can be done as quickly as 5 – 10 hours.

Once you have submitted your assessment for verification there will be a waiting period to be assigned a standards assessor from B Lab.

The B Corp movement is currently growing rapidly so the timeline to Certification can take some time, potentially up to 12 months.

Don’t forget all good things take time ;-p

To maintain your B Corp Certification you need to pay an annual fee.

That fee is based on your annual revenue and will depend on where your company is based.

To find out the fees you’d be required to pay, search for your local B Lab.

Taking the B Corp Impact Assessment is like you’re taking an open book exam, but you never took notes – we have taken the exam multiple times, have all the notes, and a lot of the answers, and we are keen to share!

Essentially good consultants are all about helping you to simplify and fast track the B Corp certification journey,

If you want some help to get on top of your Certification book a call here and let’s talk B Corp!

We are a leading consultancy firm that specialises in helping businesses just like yours to go B Corp and Beyond.

We have helped over 60 companies through the B Corp Impact Assessment from small to large enterprises in a range of industries from agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, media and service-based businesses.

Tim, Founder and CEO of Grow Good is also New Zealand’s 1st qualified B Consultant. This means that he has successfully completed the training programme run by B Lab ANZ and maintains regular CPD to ensure he stays up to date with the latest changes and updates to the Impact Assessment.

That’s why we are able to offer a consulting service to make the process of B Corp Certification as quick, engaging, fun and easy for you as possible, whilst at the same time bringing the B Corp assessment to life and engaging your entire team.