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Concept

B Corporation

Also known as: B Corp, Certified B Corporation, Benefit Corporation

A certification (B Corp) and corporate-legal-form (Benefit Corporation) framework for businesses that legally bind themselves to consider stakeholders beyond shareholders — workers, communities, customers, suppliers, environment. Certified B Corporations are assessed by the nonprofit B Lab on social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability; ~6,000+ B Corps in 80+ countries. Benefit Corporation is the parallel legal form (codified in 35+ U.S. states starting 2010) that allows businesses to formalize stakeholder commitments in corporate charter. Patagonia, Ben & Jerry's, Allbirds, Kickstarter, Eileen Fisher are well-known B Corps.

B Corp Certification is granted by B Lab, a U.S. nonprofit, to companies meeting performance standards across:

  • Workers (compensation, benefits, ownership, training)
  • Customers (quality, harm prevention, accessibility)
  • Community (civic engagement, suppliers, charitable giving, diversity)
  • Environment (energy, water, waste, supply chain, materials)
  • Governance ([[mission-district-sf|mission]] lock, accountability, transparency)

Companies score against the B Impact Assessment; minimum 80/200 points for certification. Recertification every 3 years.

Benefit Corporation is a separate legal-corporate-form, codified in 35+ U.S. states ([[harrington-delaware|Delaware]] was the major adopter in 2013) and several other countries. Benefit Corporation allows or requires the corporation to consider stakeholders beyond shareholders in directors’ decision-making. The form is legal-structural; B Corp Certification is voluntary-assessment.

A company can be one or both. Patagonia is both. Many small certified B Corps are not Benefit Corporations (their state may not have the form, or they haven’t restructured).

Spread

  • ~6,000+ Certified B Corps in 80+ countries (2024)
  • Notable: Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s, Allbirds, Kickstarter, Eileen Fisher, Seventh Generation, Method, Klean Kanteen, dr-bronners, Cabot Creamery, Athleta
  • Largest companies: Natura (Brazilian cosmetics, $5B revenue), Danone (France, partial certification), Patagonia ($1B+ revenue)
  • The framework is most-developed in the U.S., U.K., Europe, Latin America, and Australia/NZ

Critiques

Honest assessment:

  • The B Impact Assessment includes many genuinely-rigorous criteria, but compliance can vary
  • The certification doesn’t transform business fundamentals (Etsy was a B Corp; left after IPO; the [[farmers-market|public market]] reorganized incentives)
  • Many B Corps remain in the broader corporate framework — the certification is one constraint among many
  • The Benefit Corporation legal form is a meaningful but partial change to fiduciary duty

The framework is one of several institutional forms for the broader project of stakeholder-oriented business; not a complete answer.

See also

Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.

  • Shares approach with: [[regenerative-finance]]
  • Practiced by: [[patagonia]]

Sources

  • B Lab (bcorporation.net)
  • The B Corp Handbook, Ryan Honeyman and Tiffany Jana (Berrett-Koehler, 2019)
  • Multiple academic and trade publications on stakeholder business

Rooted in life.

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