B Corp Certiﬁcation
Guide for Large
Enterprises
How large private & public companies
can become Certiﬁed B Corporations
Note: Large Enterprise Certiﬁcation
Pathway is intended for eligible private or
public $100M+ companies with 10+
operational subsidiaries operating in
multiple countries.

Contents

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Getting Started onYour Certiﬁcation
Pathway

Preliminary Risk
Review

Timing & Pricing

45
6Requirements & Steps
to Certiﬁcation●

Finding out if yourcompany is eligible●

Going through theCertiﬁcation & Veriﬁcation
process●

Preparing forrecertiﬁcation andcontinuous improvement

Build Your B Team●

Who’s on your team?

●Strategies forovercoming obstacles
along the path toCertiﬁcation●

Tips to keep in mind
before you begin

Impact & Information
What you’ll need for each
impact area of the B Impact
Assessment2

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Getting Started onYour Certiﬁcation
Pathway3

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Getting Started onYour Certiﬁcation
Pathway

At the BeginningThis guide will provide you with a general overview of the internal processes
and tools used to achieve B Corp Certiﬁcation, as well as clear expectations of
the workload and resources that you’ll need to accomplish your goal of
becoming a Certiﬁed B Corp. We’ve developed it with input from businesses
that have gone through the process, gleaning useful tips and practices toaddress commonly experienced barriers and challenges.
The guide will serve as your resource during the certiﬁcation journey;
however, we at B Lab and Sistema B will also work directly with you along theway. Use the map on the B Lab Global website to ﬁnd the B Lab or Sistema B
organization near you.
The processes explored in this guide apply to Large Enterprise andMultinational businesses, which generally refer to companies with $100M to$999M in annual revenue with 10 or more subsidiaries in multiple countries,
as well as companies with $1B or more in annual revenue, although othercriteria also may apply. Companies with more than $5B in annual revenue will
also participate in our B Movement Builders program, and are subject toadditional baseline requirements.

Executive Engagement
To ensure success, your Chief Executive Officer must be a strong supporter andadvocate of B Corp Certiﬁcation. The CEO will be expected to support the
project team in securing buy-in from executive leaders and, if applicable,board members and/or shareholders. This will empower certiﬁcation-related
teams within your organization to assign appropriate resources for B Corp
Certiﬁcation activities, such as collecting data for the assessment orformalizing best practices into policy.

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Preliminary Risk
Review5

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Preliminary
Risk Review

Prior to embarking on the journey towards B Corp Certiﬁcation, all companies
must undergo a preliminary risk review performed by B Lab.
The objective of a preliminary risk review is to identify any potential key risks
that might impact a company’s journey towards B Corp Certiﬁcation, may have
implications on a company's eligibility to certify, or could require additional
processes.
The following factors would be identiﬁed as key risks:●●●© B Lab 2021

Material (greater than 1% of revenues) involvement in any of thefollowing industries, without a formal commitment to exit thoseindustries: Coal, Pornography, Casinos, Firearms, Weapons or
Munitions, Tobacco; Prisons. (Click here for B Lab’s position statementson controversial issues.)
Credible concerns of systematic complicity in fraud; human rights
abuses; or violations of national or international laws, regulations, andconventions within the last two years
Other high risk systematic concerns or allegations against a company
related to material issues of stakeholder concern within the last two
years (via RepRisk, including diversity, workplace practices, animal
welfare, environmental damage, human health risks, etc.)6

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Timing & Pricing

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Timing & Pricing

Timing
B Corp Certiﬁcation project timelines vary widely depending on resources dedicated tothe project, operational complexity, target deadlines, marketing considerations, andother strategic objectives.
Please note that the timeline below is approximate and subject to change based on
submission rates and B Lab’s capacity. After you have submitted your company’s
assessment, you and your colleagues will be able to reference the status of the review
directly through the B Impact Assessment.

Application

Application
Results

1-2 months

Certiﬁcation
Preparation

3-24 months

Achieve B Corp Meet B Corp Legal
Certiﬁcation
Requirements

3-12 months

Up to 2 years after
certiﬁcation

Section 4 of this guide provides more details on these phases and the associatedservices and requirements for each.

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Timing & Pricing

Pricing
The Large Enterprise cost structure is complex. The certiﬁcation pathway
consists of a combination of required and optional services, which are
determined by the company’s operational structure and associated risk. Afteryour application is submitted and reviewed, your regional B Lab or Sistema Bteam will share information about the fee structure and costs associated withyour company’s customized engagement pathway.
Application & Preliminary Risk Review$ / € / £ 100M-500M: 2,000$ / € / £ 500M-1B: 4,000$ / € / £ 1B+: 8,000© B Lab 2021

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Requirements & Steps
to Certiﬁcation10

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Requirements & Steps to
Certiﬁcation

Phase 1: Application
In order to determine if your company is eligible for B Corp Certiﬁcation, youwill need to ﬁll out and submit the Large Enterprise and Multinational
Application Form.
Once your forms have been received and reviewed, B Lab will email you an
Application Review Memo that conveys our decision regarding yourcompany’s eligibility for B Corp Certiﬁcation. The memo will outline the risks
that might affect your eligibility, provide visibility into issues that will be
explored during certiﬁcation preparation, and indicate those that may require
further review.
Finally, the memo will detail your customized certiﬁcation pathway
recommendation for B Corp Certiﬁcation and certiﬁcation of your subsidiaries,
including the list of required steps as well as optional services that can prepare
you for successful veriﬁcation.

Phase 2: Certiﬁcation Preparation
Through certiﬁcation preparation, you will understand B Lab’s veriﬁcation
techniques, identify improvement strategies, receive B Impact Assessment
support, and reﬁne a customized pathway for subsidiary or group certiﬁcation
by engaging in a series of optional service offerings and required steps toprepare your company to meet the B Corp Certiﬁcation requirements.
During the preparation phase, you will work with B Lab Global’s Certiﬁcation
and Veriﬁcation team on the:Risk Screen: Depending on a company's associated risk factors,
controversial industry, or practices engagement, this is a review of therisks that may aﬀect your eligibility for certiﬁcation. Companies insensitive or controversial industries must also undergo a review ofindustry-related risks, concerns, and disclosures.
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Requirements & Steps to
Certiﬁcation

Eligibility Review: If deemed necessary, issues identiﬁed in the Risk
Screen are evaluated through third-party stakeholder engagement andsecondary research; additional certiﬁcation requirements such as
remediation or public transparency may be required. Cases with clear
precedent are decided by B Lab’s internal review committees;
unprecedented cases are elevated to our Independent Standards
Advisory Council for a decision.
B Impact Assessment Performance Consultation: Companies canreceive customized advice from B Lab Global’s Certiﬁcation andVeriﬁcation team in order to better understand our veriﬁcation
techniques, impactful improvement strategies, and B Impact
Assessment requirements as they relate to a company’s uniqueoperating reality. You may also receive guidance on requirements forrelevant Impact Business Models. (For most businesses, this is an
optional step.)
Subsidiary & Full Global Group Scoping: You will work with a memberof B Lab Global’s Certiﬁcation and Veriﬁcation team and your contactfrom your regional B Lab or Sistema B partner to analyze your corporate
structure as well as ﬁnancial and reporting lines. This will help identify
the quantity of B Impact Assessments your company will be required totake (as well as the scope of those assessments), which legal entity orentities must fulﬁll the Legal Requirement for certiﬁcation, and what afeasible reporting and veriﬁcation timeline would be for your company.
Measure Social & Environmental Impact: Now, you will need toregister and complete all the B Impact Assessments with the scope ofoperations determined during Scoping. Upon registering for the B
Impact Assessment your project lead will collaborate with yourcompany’s internal topical experts and the project team listed under
Build Your Team to collect information required to measure the socialand environmental impacts for all your business units and markets. (Thisstep will be explained in greater detail over the following two pages.)© B Lab 202112

4Requirements & Steps to
Certiﬁcation

For Project Leads: A Note on Social & Environmental
Measurement
Measuring your company’s social and environmental impact will require
great internal management and alignment, as well as substantial
involvement from your team; it is the step at which most companies
spend the majority of their time and effort in the journey to B Corp
Certiﬁcation. The more detailed and methodical your are — in terms of
tracking where answers to questions originate, how the data is collected,
and the method by which it has been documented — the more efficientand effective you will be at leading this step.
As you gather data, it’s imperative that you track your methodology andback-up information, as you will be required to show your work at many
points in the certiﬁcation process. The information that you sharethrough the B Impact Assessment is kept completely conﬁdential; pleaserefer to our Privacy Policy for more information. You can save andreturn to your assessment at any time.
It’s important to make sure that your company is achieving a minimumof 85-90 points based on conservative preliminary answers in the B
Impact Assessment. This way, if your veriﬁed answers cause adowngrade your company is less likely to drop below 80, which is thelowest possible score for B Corporation Certiﬁcation.

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4Requirements & Steps to
Certiﬁcation

For Project Leads: A Note on Social & Environmental
Measurement
Before you begin the B Impact Assessment, here are some tips to keep in
mind:
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© B Lab 2021

You should accurately indicate the scope of your operations; forexample, if your company has operations in multiple countries,
the policy or practice in question should refer to at least 80% of
your operations, employees, and facilities.
Answering questions with “no” or “we don’t track this” isacceptable when completing the B Impact Assessment.
Responses should reﬂect the current reality of business
operations, not the aspirations of the company. We are more thanwilling to recognize policies, practices, or programs that are innascent stages, but cannot assess those that have not yet been
implemented.
You can create a test B Impact Assessment to familiarize yourself
with the questions and assess existing policies and practices, aswell as areas for improvement; this can be done online in the B
Impact Assessment portal.
If you wish to share questions with different departments or
teams within your company, it is possible to download the full B
Impact Assessment in spreadsheet form; you can then export
relevant questions to internal stakeholders.

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Phase 3: Veriﬁcation
The veriﬁcation stage is the most intensive and includes multiple rounds ofreview; it typically involves virtual meetings and may require onsite visits.
Don’t worry when your B Impact Assessment score changes — this happens to
all companies during veriﬁcation. In fact you should prepare yourself forsigniﬁcant score changes.
At this stage, you will no longer be able to make changes to information you
have submitted through the B Impact Assessment. If you notice thatsomething is incorrect, simply leave a comment on the question, indicate yourproposed new answer, and provide supporting documentation; the analyst willtake this new information into account.
During veriﬁcation, your operational project lead will work with B Lab to:

Verify Social & Environmental Impacts: This includes documentation
review for independently operating subsidiaries, clusters, markets, orbusiness units, as well as the entire group.
Site Review: Conducted either virtually or through an onsite visit, thisincludes an in-depth documentation review for approximately 50 B
Impact Assessment questions, a facilities tour, employee interviews, andsupplier reference checks.
Transparency Documentation: You will be required to present
transparency documentation that will appear on your public proﬁle as a
Certiﬁed B Corporation, including material disclosure items,
controversial issue statements, and full B Impact Assessment questions.
B Corporations are required to make their B Impact Assessment score
reports public through the B Corp Directory on the B Lab Global
website. Additionally, wholly-owned subsidiaries, majority-owned
subsidiaries with a parent company that earns more than $1B in annual
revenue, and public companies with a larger than $100M market
capitalization are required to make non-sensitive answers in their B
Impact Assessments transparent on the company’s Proﬁle.

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

Sign Documents: After veriﬁcation is complete, your CEO will need tosign your B Corp Agreement and the B Corp Declaration ofInterdependence.
Legal Requirement: You’ll engage with owners and investors on
stakeholder governance and adopt the B Corp Legal Requirement. In
order to maintain their Certiﬁcation, B Cops are required to think beyond
just proﬁt and consider their impact on the systems in which they
operate and recognize the need for change in corporate governance thatallows directors to consider stakeholders in their decision-making
process. As such, B Corps must amend their corporate governing
documents to embed comprehensive stakeholder governance.

A Note on Brand IP
Though B Corp Certiﬁcation is a company-level certiﬁcation, B Lab has created apathway for aligned brands that are meeting the performance requirement forcertiﬁcation to use the IP independently of the certiﬁed entity name. Brands witha different name than their certiﬁed entity can use the B Corp IP if they meet averiﬁed score of 80+ independently. If your company wishes to use the B Corp IP
on any brands or affiliated entities with a different name than the certifying
entity, they will need to undergo a paid Brand Review during Veriﬁcation.

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

Phase 4: Certiﬁcation
Congratulations, you made it! At this point, you may want to plan theannouncement of your B Corp Certiﬁcation — both internally with employees,
board members, and shareholders, and externally with suppliers, vendors, andthe public. Customer and employee engagement with your announcement canbe one of the most rewarding aspects of the process.
After certiﬁcation, you can add the B Corp logo to product labels, printed
materials, packaging, uniforms, email signatures, and more. Make sure youreference our Brand Guidelines for more information.
Certiﬁcation launches are as unique as the companies that certify and should
reﬂect your brand and corporate culture. Working with your marketing, public
relations, and human resources teams, you can determine your short- andlong-term communications goals.
If a Certiﬁed B Corp with $1B+ in revenue wants to use the B Corp logo for
newly launched brands, a new acquisition, or a newly created subsidiary with adifferent name from the Certiﬁed Parent after certiﬁcation, B Lab can performa paid Brand Review mid-cycle to determine whether certiﬁcation
requirements are met independently.
The next page has some ideas that other businesses have found helpful. Be
sure to review the Brand Guidelines before taking action.

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

Internal Communications
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Use multiple employee
communications channels toannounce B Corp Certiﬁcation:○
Internal messaging
system / Intranet
○
Email
○
Company newsletter○
Staff meetings○
Flyers or posters○
Host a certiﬁcation
celebration with
employees
Incorporate B Corp values into
employee onboarding andannual training programs.
Invite employees to join the B
Hive if you’re based in the US& Canada, and to follow B Lab
Global and your local B Lab or
Sistema B organization onsocial media.
Include social andenvironmental metrics in
employee job descriptions andevaluations.
Post job openings on the B
Work platform.
Invite employees to join yourinternal B Team and focus on
impact improvement.
Add the B Corp logo to yourcompany’s email signature.

External Communications
Public relations:●●●

Submit a press release to
newswires; pitch a story to media
contacts and trade publications.
Invite journalists, industry leadersand other stakeholders to yourlaunch party and plan apresentation sharing why you
became a B Corp.
Seek speaking engagements at
trade shows, conferences, andother public events where you canhighlight your B Corp Certiﬁcation.

Website:●●●●Create a landing page announcing
your B Corp Certiﬁcation.
Feature the B Corp logo on yourwebsite.
Update your mission and/or visionstatement to reﬂect your status.
Write a series of blog posts about
your journey to certiﬁcation.

Social Media:●●●

Announce certiﬁcation on yoursocial media channels.
Tag B Lab Global, your Global
Partner, and allied B Corps forcross promotion.
Share posts about your journey tocertiﬁcation.

Newsletter: Share the news withstakeholders through a personal email or
newsletter.

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

Print & Packaging
Utilize the B Corp logo and/or
messaging on all assets:
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Include the B Corp logo on
print collateral
Hangtags
Shopping bags/boxes
Company uniforms
Product labels
Informational cards to insert
into customer shoppingbags/deliveries
Receipts and orderconﬁrmations
Decal on store windows

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

Step 13: Continuous Improvement & Preparing forRecertiﬁcation
Many companies use the B Corp Certiﬁcation process as an ongoing
methodology and tool for continuous innovation and improvement.
Certiﬁcation may also serve as a catalyst for your vendors and suppliers to
improve their social and environmental impacts, and provides another way for
you to engage customers and employees.
Some companies repeat the B Impact Assessment annually in order to closely
monitor their goals and their path to recertiﬁcation, which occurs every three
years. The best practice is to begin your recertiﬁcation 18 months before it isdue; this will give you enough time to implement new practices that can raise
your score. This can be done online in the B Impact Assessment portal or
offline through the Continuous Improvement Tracking Excel template.
B Lab will not conduct a bringdown certiﬁcation review outside of the standard
recertiﬁcation schedule in the case of an initial public offering, or any other public
offering, private placement of securities, or other transaction.

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

A Note on the Process
Companies report exponential beneﬁts from B Corp Certiﬁcation. There’s noquestion that the process is rigorous — and, at times, even onerous — butthey agree that the rigor is what makes the process worthwhile and paves theway for more collaborative and inspired work.
The B Impact Assessment serves as an excellent tool for breaking down silos,
fostering innovation, and constructing a roadmap for continuous
improvement. Some companies also develop stronger external relationships— with community members, vendors, suppliers, peers, and more — becauseof the certiﬁcation process. But more importantly, they report how gratifying
it is to serve as leaders in the movement that’s transforming our global
economic system to beneﬁt all people, communities, and the planet.

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© B Lab 2021

Build Your B
Team

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Build Your B Team

Typically a senior team member such as a Director of Corporate Social
Responsibility or Director of Sustainability, the Project Lead is the primary “B
Keeper” within the company. The Project Lead will be the main project manager
working with B Lab to ensure that the certiﬁcation requirements are met, andinviting colleagues to participate in the process.
As B Corp Certiﬁcation includes a comprehensive evaluation of all aspects ofyour business, in order to effectively engage and successfully complete allprocess steps you will need the support of topical experts from all departments
who must be willing to provide multiple rounds of explanations,documentation, and clariﬁcation.
If your operations are global, consider including a B Team member from eachlanguage group.

Role, alphabeticallyResponsibility

CEO

Support the project team in securing executive
leaders and, if applicable, board members and/or
shareholders buy-in.

Investor Relations &Legal Support Lead

Begin the dialogue with investors in order to drive
critical awareness and support for the governancechanges necessary to operate the company in a
way that aligns corporate purpose with stakeholder
governance and fulfills the Legal Requirement for B
Corp Certification.

Marketing &Collaborate with B Lab and the project lead to craft
Communications Lead internal and external communications strategies andmessaging related to B Corp Certification.
Project Manager© B Lab 2021

The Project Manager or “B Keeper” or “B Champion”
leads the B Team and is the most important role in
the B Corp Certification process as they will work togather the information necessary to complete the B
Impact Assessment.

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Build Your B Team

Project managers may experience pushback when they request data and/or ask
others to implement changes in order to meet B Corp Certiﬁcation requirements.
The table below highlights some strategies that other companies have found tobe helpful in addressing these obstacles:

Strategies for Overcoming Obstacles
Educate employees about B Corp Certification, sharing specific details on
how their contribution matters to the process.
Show colleagues how the B Impact Assessment might help them achieve
their goals and support their work.
Request support from B Lab for legal and transparency requirements.
If your operations are global, consider including a B Team member fromeach language group.
To receive answers, provide a list of questions in advance and/or conduct
one-on-one interviews with information holders.
Consider dividing the work among B Team members; when asking for dataor policy change, select the B Team member best suited to make therequest.
Having a target date for certification will help keep the project moving
forward.
Keep senior leaders informed about progress and the support needed tomeet certification goals.

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Build Your B TeamAs you begin collecting data, it’s helpful to start educating your colleagues
about what B Corp Certiﬁcation is and why it’s important. Answering thequestion, “What’s in it for me?” for each part of your company is critical to
the success of the project.
Team meetings help build excitement and engagement, which oftentranslate into faster turnaround times for data collection. Establishingregular B Team meetings — with clear deadlines and resources for support— can help maintain the momentum needed to complete the assessment.
The B Corp community can also provide support. Use the B Corp Directory
to research and reach out to companies in your industry. Within thesecompanies, the individuals involved with the certiﬁcation process are
typically enthusiastic ambassadors and more than happy to help.

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© B Lab 2021

Impact &Information

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Impact &Information

Keep in mind that for every answer you provide through the B Impact
Assessment, you’ll need to provide supporting documentation. Check out thisKnowledge Base article for documentation tips.
This chart shows the areas that B Corp Certiﬁcation may impact, and where
information may be found in order to fulﬁll speciﬁc information requests.

Impact area

What’s covered

Information found

Governancemission andengagement; ethics
and transparency

c-suite, finance, legal

Workers

financial security;
health, wellness, andsafety; careerdevelopment;
engagement andsatisfaction

human resources

Community

diversity, equity, andinclusion; economic
impact; civic
engagement andgiving; supply chain
management

corporate social
responsibility; humanresources;
procurement

Environment

environmental
management; air andclimate; water; land
and lifepurchasing;sustainability; facilities
and operations

Customers

customer stewardshipsales and marketing;customer experience© B Lab 2021

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