B Lab released new standards for B Corp Certification earlier this year! Going forward, B Corps must meet performance standards across seven ‘Impact Topics’:
- Purpose & Stakeholder Governance: Act in accordance with a defined purpose and embed stakeholder governance in decision-making, creating governance structures to monitor purpose, social, and environmental performance.
- Climate Action: Develop an action plan to support limiting global warming to 1.5°C, and, for larger companies, include GHG emissions and validated science-based targets.
- Human Rights: Understand how their operations and value chain may involve negative human rights impacts and take action to prevent and mitigate negative impacts.
- Fair Work: Provide good quality jobs and have positive workplace cultures, implement fair wage practices, and incorporate worker feedback in decision-making.
- Environmental Stewardship & Circularity: Assess their environmental impacts and take meaningful action to minimize them in their operations and value chain.
- Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion: Foster inclusive and diverse workplaces, and contribute meaningfully to just and equitable communities.
- Government Affairs & Collective Action: Engage in collective efforts to drive systemic change, advocate for policies that create positive social and environmental outcomes, and, for the largest companies, publicly share their country-by-country tax reports.
Whether or not your company is – or plans to become – a B Corp, the standards offer a rich, detailed perspective on what good organizational policies, practices and impact goals look like!
Of particular interest to us is the ‘Government Affairs & Collective Action‘ standards, which are tiered to the size of the company. It requires even the smallest companies to advocate for system-wide policies on key topics. Alvo + Beal is eager to work with current or future B Corps seeking to meet these standards for the first time.
