You probably have heard the phrase B Corp (Certified B Corporation) flying around over the past few years, but do you actually know what it is?? Well, you might know the general gist, but what defines a company from having the B Corp stamp or not. And if you are a business, how do you aim to get one?
At Chu Lo we are aiming to get the B Corp stamp, so thought we would share with you the process and importance of it.
So, what is a B Corp?
The official definition provided by B Lap is; Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.
How does a company get the precious B Corp stamp?
- First, you have to measure your impact, by doing the B Impact Assessment. This involves answering over 200 online questions, so the organisation can get a non bias, accurate view of the good your company is doing. The BIA will measure your company’s social and environmental performance across 5 areas; governance, workers, community, environment and customers.
- Then, you have to improve your score. Your company must score 80+ in the BIA to progress to earn the B Corp Certification. If you don’t score more than 80, then there are lots of things you can do to improve your impact and transparency, and therefore your score! Just have a look on the B Corp website, where they share with you ways you can do this.
- Meet the B Corp legal requirement. As well as measuring and improving your impact, you also need to make a legal change. This legal change is a commitment to consider the impact of decisions on your company’s stakeholders now and in the future, by building this consideration into your constitutional documents. This essential means you need to prove you are changing, not just say you are! For more info on that have a look on their website.
- Submit and review. The review process, will mean going through your answers and providing evidence for your answers. You will also have a call with one of the B Corp team to discuss anything and ask any questions.
- Certify. After that, you can hopefully certify with the B Corp mark. It is a bit of a lengthy process, but it is to ensure that not just anyone can gain the certification- so we think its great! And the most important thing is using business as a force for good.
Even if you are a newer company and this seems long away, we feel these are still great guidelines for companies to follow, and we feel at Chu Lo it is something to be proud of that's why our company is B Corp Pending!