B Corp Certiﬁcation
Guide for Medium
Enterprises
How medium-sized businesses canbecome Certiﬁed B Corporations

Contents

1

Requirements ofBecoming a
Certiﬁed B Corp●

Performance●

Transparency

●

Legal

2

Timing3

Impact &Information© B Lab 2021

What to expect from start toﬁnish

What you’ll need foreach impact area of
the B Impact
Assessment

4

Build Your B Team●

Who’s on your team?

●Strategies for overcoming
obstacles along the path toCertiﬁcation●

Tips to keep in mind
before you begin

5

Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

6

Recertiﬁcation FAQs

Overview of steps to B Corp
Certiﬁcation

Commonly asked questions
related to recertifying

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1© B Lab 2021

Requirements ofBecoming a Certiﬁed
B Corporation3

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Requirements ofBecoming a Certiﬁed
B Corporation

Getting started
This 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.

Understand the requirements of becoming a Certiﬁed
B Corporation
Typically, the ﬁrst step towards becoming a Certiﬁed B Corp is to complete thefree and conﬁdential B Impact Assessment online. However, for more
complex companies, we recommend beginning with contacting the B Lab or
Sistema B organization in your region or market for what we refer to as the
Discovery or Scoping stage. Our team will support you in navigating theCertiﬁcation process.
We’ll review your B Impact Assessment so that we can best apply our
performance-based standards to your application. If you are recertifying,please review the FAQs on the ﬁnal page of this guide.
Thematically speaking, these are the requirements for becoming a Certiﬁed B
Corp:
Performance: Certiﬁed B Corporations must earn a score of at least 80 points
on the B Impact Assessment. Scores are veriﬁed through a review process,which includes documentation, calls, and, possibly, onsite visits. B Corps mustrecertify every three years.

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Requirements ofBecoming a Certiﬁed
B Corporation

Transparency: B Corps 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 aparent company that earns more than $1B in annual revenue, and publiccompanies with a larger than $100M market capitalization are required tomake non-sensitive answers of their full B Impact Assessment transparent on
their B Corp Proﬁle Page.
Legal: B Corps must amend their corporate governing documents or adopt a
corporate form that explicitly requires the considerations of all stakeholders,
not just shareholders, in their decision-making — this is known as
stakeholder governance. You can learn more by visiting the Legal
Requirement page on the B Lab Global website.
Regarding timelines for meeting the Legal Requirement, companies with lessthan 50 employees must meet the Legal Requirement prior to certifying. For
companies with 50 or more employees, the Legal Requirement must be met
within 2 years of certifying.
Another important requirement for becoming a Certiﬁed B Corp is theDisclosure Questionnaire, which is an unweighted group of Yes/No questions
that allows a company to conﬁdentially disclose any sensitive industries,
practices, ﬁnes, or sanctions related to its business or partnerships. For
companies pursuing B Corp Certiﬁcation, the Disclosure Questionnaire is usedin conjunction with background checks and B Lab’s public complaints process
to identify material negative impacts. The disclosures that are deemedmaterial may, in rare circumstances, result in ineligibility, but morecommonly result in no further action, additional transparency on the B Corp
Public Proﬁle, or required remediation.

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2 Timing© B Lab 2021

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TimingTiming Considerations
B Corp Certiﬁcation project timelines vary widely depending on resources dedicated tothe project, operational complexity, target deadlines, marketing considerations, andother strategic objectives.
Timelines can range from as soon as six months to a few years, as some companies
choose to delay certiﬁcation in order to maximize their B Impact Assessment score,
while others apply and begin the certiﬁcation process as soon as they reach the
80-point threshold that is the minimum for certiﬁcation.
Please note that timelines are 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.

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© B Lab 2021

Impact &Information8

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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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© B Lab 2021

Build Your B
Team

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Build Your B Team

Before you begin the certiﬁcation process, you’ll need to establish your B Team— the internal stakeholders and partners who will get you across theCertiﬁcation ﬁnish line.
We’ve identiﬁed several roles below; however, one Project Manager canmanage all of them.

Role, alphabeticallyResponsibility

Finance

Answer revenue and expenditure questions

Human Resources

Answer employee benefit and demographic
questions

Legal / GeneralCounselAnswer questions related to transparency andothers needed to fulfil the legal requirement of B
Corp Certification

Marketing &Communications

Answer education and communication questions

Procurement

Answer supply chain questions

Project Manager

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

Senior Leadership

Because certification involves a substantial timecommitment and significant public transparency, we
recommend securing the support of Senior
Leadership

Sustainability

Answer environmental and social impact questions© B Lab 2021

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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 can help keep the project moving
forward — though also be prepared to reevaluate and adjust.
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

Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

Before you begin:
Here are some tips to keep in mind:●●●

You should accurately indicate the scope of your operations. For example,
if your company has operations in multiple countries, the policy or practicein question should refer to at least 80% of your operations, employees, andfacilities.
Answering questions with “no” or “we don’t track this” is acceptable
when completing the B Impact Assessment.
Responses should reﬂect the reality of business operations, not theaspirations of the company. We are more than willing to recognize policies,
practices, or programs that are in early stages, but cannot assess those thathave not yet been implemented.

Step 1: Register for the B Impact Assessment
This step will kick off the data collection phase in which the project manager willcollect information required to complete the B Impact Assessment.

Step 2: Contact your local B Lab or Sistema B oﬃce
For companies of speciﬁc sizes and complexities, you’ll need to work with our
local teams at your regional B Lab or Sistema B office during the Discovery stage.

Step 3: Gather data & collect documentation
Keep in mind that for every affirmative B Impact Assessment answer, you may
need to provide supporting documentation. Therefore, it is vital to keep detailed,up-to-date records throughout the project. Consider the following options:●●●●© B Lab 2021

Keep links to supporting documents in your master Excel spreadsheet.
Add notes using the comments feature in the B Impact Assessment.
Use a project management tool to organize and store documents.
Maintain a record of who provided the information and where it came
from.

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

Step 4: Take the B Impact Assessment
You can save and return to your assessment at any time. The information that you
share through the B Impact Assessment is kept completely conﬁdential. Pleaserefer to our Privacy Policy for more information.

Step 5: Establish a Company Proﬁle & Start The
Disclosure Questionnaire
Once you have completed the majority of the assessment, you will be prompted toestablish a company proﬁle and begin the Disclosure Questionnaire (bothcontained within the B Impact Assessment). At this step, you may need theassistance of your legal team to answer the questions, as some request sensitive
information.
Review your baseline score with your B Team and prioritize improvement areas byevaluating the available points, implementation difficulty, and feasibility. The
Improvement Report and Goals functionality within the Assessment platform canhelp you get started.
Once you are over the 80-point benchmark (we recommend 85), you’re ready tosubmit your B Impact Assessment!

Step 6: Submit your B Impact Assessment for Review
At this point, your company name will be visible in the reviews tab of the B Impact
Assessment platform. There, you can see active tasks, respond to additionalrequests for action, and view due dates as your submission passes throughmultiple stages of review.

Step 7: Evaluation Queue
Now your submission will enter the evaluation queue, where a B Lab Evaluation
Team analyst will review your B Impact Assessment and determine yourcompany’s eligibility for B Corp Certiﬁcation.

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

Step 8: Evaluation
When your submission reaches the evaluation stage, you will no longer beable to make changes to information you have submitted through the B
Impact Assessment. If you notice that something is incorrect, simply leave acomment on the question, indicate your proposed new answer, and provide
supporting documentation; the analyst will take this new information into
account. A note on communication & notiﬁcations: often the analyst willcommunicate with you via comments in the B Impact Assessment, and you'll
receive an email when you have a notiﬁcation. Be sure that your notiﬁcations
are enabled so you don’t miss a message from us.
During evaluation, the analyst will look over these aspects of your business inthe following ways:
1.
2.

Complex Structure Review analyzes ownership and the structure of allentities and brands associated with your company.
Controversial Industry Review assesses your company’s involvement inany of the industries B Lab has determined are controversial.

Please note that the analyst may close the review due to results from the Complex
Structure Review or the Controversial Industry Review indicating your company isineligible for B Corp Certiﬁcation, or your that your company’s path to certiﬁcation
requires additional considerations. If so, you will need to resubmit a B Impact
Assessment and begin a new review process.

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

Step 9: Veriﬁcation Queue
Once your B Impact Assessment moves into the next phase — veriﬁcation —you will be asked to provide information on your company’s employees andsuppliers. It may be helpful to gather this information in advance while you
wait for B Lab to have capacity to assign your review to an analyst; however,this is not required.
Questions regarding employees of your business will include the total numberof full time, part time, and temporary employees as of the current date as wellas those who were employed in the previous 12 months. For these workers, youwill be required to provide the following information, as indicated in thistemplate:
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Name or identiﬁer. An identiﬁer (such as “Employee 1”) can be used if you
do not want to list the name of the employee, for privacy reasons.
Employment status: full time, part time, temporary employee,
independent contractor, working owner. Salaried employees with 10%+ ofcompany shares are considered “working owners” while employees with lessthan 10% of company shares are considered full time or part time employees.
Hours worked per week.
City or town, state or province or county in which the employee works.
Gender identity
Age diversity. Whether the worker is younger than 24 or older than 50.
Whether or not the worker is part of an underrepresented social group,
which has not had equal access to economic opportunities because of
discrimination or other social barriers. This may vary by context and bygeography: Please consider ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, disabilities,
immigration background and/or low-income status.
Percentage of company ownership. “Stock option” is an acceptable
input. This information can be omitted, if not applicable.
Whether or not the employee is an executive, manager, or
non-manager. An executive is deﬁned as the person who is responsible foroverseeing the implementation of management decisions made by C-suite,
VP level employees, or Directors.
Hiring date: Format as DAY-MONTH-YEAR.
If the employee is still working at the company.
If the employee is no longer working at the company, the end of contract
date.

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Questions regarding your suppliers will include the ﬁscal year reported andthe type of currency reﬂected, as indicated in this template. Note you will be
asked to report the total non-labor expenses for the last ﬁscal year.
The suppliers you list must represent at least 80% of total non-labor
expenses. Payrolled salaries and bonuses, rent and utilities costs (water,energy, gas, internet, garbage collection, etc.) should be excluded; costs fromlabor beneﬁts (such as a private health insurance supplier) should be included.
Independent contractors who do not work indeﬁnitely or greater than 20hours per week for six months or more should also be included. For these
suppliers, you will be required to provide the following information:
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© B Lab 2021

Name of supplier or vendor.
City, state / county / province and country of supplier.
Whether or not the supplier’s headquarters is located within 50
miles/80 kilometers from your company’s headquarters or main
production facility.
Description of product or service purchased.
Total costs with this supplier in the last complete ﬁscal year.
Percentage of supplier expenditures.
If the supplier company is independently owned (i.e. not a subsidiaryand not publicly traded).
How many months your company has been working with this supplier,since the ﬁrst contract.
Whether or not the supplier company is majority owned by women or
individuals from underrepresented groups, which have not had equal
access to economic opportunities because of discrimination or othersocial barriers. This may vary by context and by geography: Please consider
ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, disabilities, immigration backgroundand/or low-income status.
Whether or not your company requires the supplier to adopt a formal
supplier code of conduct.
Whether or not your company screens or evaluates suppliers for socialand environmental impact.

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

Step 10: Veriﬁcation
The veriﬁcation stage is the most intensive and includes multiple rounds ofreview. Don’t worry when your B Impact Assessment score changes — thishappens to all companies during veriﬁcation.
Once our team has capacity to begin working with you, B Lab will assign ananalyst to work with you through the remaining stages of the veriﬁcation
process:
1.

2.
3.

© B Lab 2021

B Impact Assessment: The analyst will review key aspects of your B Impact
Assessment to ensure that your company has best represented its impact,
in relation to other companies who have previously used the B Impact
Assessment. This includes:○
Assessment Track Conﬁrmation: The analyst will review yourcompany’s selected B Impact Assessment track, including market,
sector, size, industry, and industry category, to ensure that it iscorrect based on the B Impact Assessment standards and precedent.
If the analyst determines that the track should change, you will enter
the Revision stage, in which you will be prompted to answer
additional questions in the B Impact Assessment; this may result in
additional changes to your score.
○
Preliminary Scoring Screen: The analyst will look at the Impact
Business Model(s) that you have selected, and may request
additional information and/or a change to your company’s score.
○Deﬁne Veriﬁcation Requirements is the ﬁnal check to make surethat your company is on the appropriate path for certiﬁcation before
proceeding.
Veriﬁcation Report: After conﬁrming the above information, the analyst
will customize your veriﬁcation report.
Review Call: Then, the analyst will schedule a review call to clarify
information and make edits to your B Impact Assessment.

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

Documentation: Finally, the analyst will request documentation to
verify your Impact Business Model and information presented in the B
Impact Assessment.
a.
Documentation can include policies, reports, web links,
presentations, agendas, or even photographs of why answer
options selected apply to your company.
b.
You may use comments to clarify questions that were notaddressed in the call or through documentation, and may include
rationales, explanations, clariﬁcations, and examples of why eachanswer option selected applies to the company.
c.
Although only one document can be uploaded per comment,
questions may require multiple documents. Please leave multiplecomments to upload multiple documents, indicate the pages
within the uploaded document in which topics related to eachanswer option can be found, and provide a brief summary of whatis stated in the document and why the document is relevant forthe speciﬁc answer option selected.
d.
Your analyst may share additional instructions through thecomments section; please follow these closely.
e.
In order to consider an answer veriﬁed, supporting evidence in theform of comments or documentation must be provided for each of
the checkboxes selected within a question. When no evidence orcomment is provided, those answers will be deselected and will
negatively affect your score.
Follow Up: Your analyst will provide at least one opportunity to provide
follow up documentation and comments after the review call.

By the end of this stage, all questions in the veriﬁcation report will show acheckmark icon to indicate that they have been fully veriﬁed. At this point, if
your company has not achieved a veriﬁed score of at least 80 points, theanalyst will provide instructions on how to improve your B Impact Assessmentscore. You will also need to have fulﬁlled the Legal Requirement in order tomove on to post-veriﬁcation and certiﬁcation.

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

Step 11: Post-Veriﬁcation Stage
If your company has met the veriﬁed 80-point threshold, you will move into
the post-veriﬁcation stage. There may be a few places in your B Impact
Assessment that still require clariﬁcation and/or you may need to ﬁnalize
steps related to the disclosure questionnaire section or the complex structure
review.
Once all questions have been resolved, you will sign the B Corp Agreement,
which states the terms of the B Corporation Certiﬁcation, including thecertiﬁcation fee. This is an annual fee that is determined by your company’s
location and revenue; you can determine your certiﬁcation fee by visiting thewebsite of the local B Lab or Sistema B organization in your region.
In order to comply with the transparency requirement of B Corp Certiﬁcation,
you must create a public proﬁle that includes your company’s score andimpact report in the B Corp Directory. For certain companies, additionaltransparency requirements, as outlined in the B Corp Agreement, may apply.

Step 12: Certiﬁcation
After certiﬁcation, you can add the B Corp logo to product labels, printed
materials, packaging, uniforms, email signatures, and more. Check out ourbrand guidelines for more guidelines.
Companies with less than $1B in annual revenue that launch a new brand or
subsidiary with a different name than the parent company may want to use the
B Corp intellectual property. The company can do so at its own discretion
providing the new brand/subsidiary shares identical operational practices as
the ones assessed through certiﬁcation. If B Lab determines during therecertiﬁcation process that the operational practices are not identical and the
new brand/subsidiary does not meet B Corp certiﬁcation standard of 80+
points on the B Impact Assessment, the company must remove B Corp
intellectual property from its products and marketing collateral within six
months.

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

Step 13: Launch!
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.
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. Customer and employee engagement withyour announcement can be one of the most rewarding aspects of the process.
The next page has some ideas that other businesses have found helpful. Be
sure to review our brand guidelines before taking action and connect with the
B Lab or Sistema B organization in your region.

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation Steps

Internal Communications
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Announce your B Corp
Certiﬁcation on:○
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 andtraining 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 leaders,and 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

Step 14: 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 a year before it is due;
this will give you enough time to implement new practices that can raise yourscore.

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Certiﬁcation &Veriﬁcation StepsIn conclusion
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, andconstructing a roadmap for continuous improvement. Some companies also
develop stronger external relationships — with community members,
vendors, suppliers, peers, and more — because of 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

Recertifying
FAQs

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Recertifying
FAQs

When is the best time to submit the recertiﬁcation B Impact Assessment? The best
time to submit the B Impact Assessment is within three months of your recertiﬁcation
date. You can ﬁnd your recertiﬁcation date on your dashboard when you log into the B
Impact Assessment platform. Since the assessment is an annual reporting tool, please
update the assessment with the most recently completed ﬁscal year information.
When will my company's recertiﬁcation assessment be reviewed? After you submit,
the initial evaluation may take as much as two months; the full review will takebetween three weeks and two months.
Can you give me the name of the analyst who will be working on the assessmentwith me? Once you complete the initial evaluation, you will be connected with theanalyst who will be working with you on the review. In the meantime, you can ask
questions through the B Impact Assessment platform, which will be addressed once
the review process begins.
Can I delay recertiﬁcation? Companies should submit their assessment by the due
date to remain in good standing and may forfeit that status if the submission has notoccurred within two months after the due date. If your company has any extenuating
circumstances, please reach out to support@bcorporation.net.

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