B Corp certification is more than an
emblem of responsibility or environmental accomplishments. It’s a holistic
framework to help businesses understand and improve their impact on people,
communities and the planet.
“B Corporations join the community because they believe in business as a force
for good,” Andy Fyfe, Director of Equitable Growth at B Lab US and
Canada, told Sustainable Brands™ in a recent interview. “The
certification journey is just the beginning of a journey to a commitment to
improvement.”
B Lab — the
certifying body for B Corps — launched in 2006 with the conviction that a
different type of economy was not only possible, but essential. Since then, over
5,300 B Corp-certified companies have met B Lab’s evolving standards for social and
environmental performance, accountability and transparency.
The B Corp community was built by small businesses with faith in B Lab’s vision
for an economic system of shared and durable prosperity.
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“What makes this community of businesses indispensable for so many is largely
due to the tireless and heartful contributions of these smaller businesses,”
Fyfe said. “The momentum the small business community has created is what
encourages larger companies to consider certification.”
Several multinational corporations have now achieved B Corp
certification, leading some to criticize B Lab for abandoning its original
mission: Making business a force for good. An open
letter signed by
dozens of certified B Corporations protested B Lab’s recent certification of
Nespresso, criticizing the Nestlé
subsidiary of greenwashing its way into B Corp certification.
B Lab confirmed it has received the letter and is directly engaging its
signatories but is not revoking Nespresso’s certification on the merits of the
letter alone. Nespresso did not respond to a request for comment.
“B Lab will not be revoking Nespresso’s certification due to the open letter,”
said Alexa Harrison, Senior Public Relations Manager at B Lab US and Canada.
“Nespresso, following an intensive three-year process, has met all of the
certification requirements — which include scoring a minimum of 80 on the B Impact
Assessment, meeting the legal requirement; a risk
assessment, disclosure and transparency; as well as additional requirements for a
company of its size.”
Scaling up impact
Fyfe is unequivocal: Multinationals are not given a leg up over smaller
corporations. Large, multinational companies with annual revenue in excess of
$100 million face a more involved and time-intensive certification
process.
Furthermore, welcoming multinationals into the B Corp family is a logical step
in scaling systems change, he said.
“Certification is a means to achieve something that is much bigger than
[certification alone], which is to drive systemic change,” said Gian Maria
Bruno, Global B Corp Director at Danone — which to
date has had 45 of its
brands
(accounting for over 60 percent of its global sales) achieve B Corp
certification; the company is
aiming
to become one of the first completely certified multinationals by 2025. “It’s a
no-brainer that if you want to achieve this systemic change, we need to have big
players.”
Certified Danone brands including Danone North
America
(which itself became the largest B Corp in 2018) join Nespresso, Ben &
Jerry’s
(owned by Unilever),
Natura
&Co,
Tom’s of
Maine
(Colgate Palmolive),
Athleta
(Gap Inc), and other multinational brands in B Corp certification.
Though no B Corp is perfect, Fyfe welcomes multinationals as an essential part
of B Lab’s mission in scaling systems change.
“A known, global brand like Nespresso joining the community is important to the
overall vision of a more responsible economic system,” he said. “It opens up an
honest dialogue that we rarely see in our current, capitalistic system
… The more brand awareness of what it means to certify means its influence will
reach more multinational industries and companies, increasing the potential for
collective impact.”
Regardless of their size, corporations must meet a minimum set of requirements,
then commit to a journey for improvement — B Corps must re-certify every three
years to ensure consistent growth against baselines. Companies that certify are
baking in years of work to unveil and report on stakeholder impact. Oftentimes,
Fyfe says, companies fall short and don’t get re-certified; and they must reset
and re-engage.
“In addition to the performance requirement, they are embedding their mission
into their legal charter for the long run,” Fyfe said. “And so, while these two
achievements don’t signal perfect companies, they do hold them accountable for
transparency, ongoing improvement, and a business community of feedback and
collaboration.”
Each B Corp can bring its best solutions to the table, Bruno said. For Danone,
that’s scale and collaboration. For smaller B Corps, it’s innovation and
passion. The B Corp landscape is an ecosystem where large and small businesses
find a role to play in collaboration and cross-pollination. It’s this special
place that levels the playing field and allows smaller companies to go
head-to-head with giants in forging collective systems change.
“Embracing multinationals brings about more general awareness of what the
community is collectively trying to achieve and has the voice to help with the
policy that needs to happen,” Fyfe said. “The community is meant to be one of
collaboration and impact, and together, they can have open engagement and deepen
and scale impact initiatives.”
Danone’s B Corp journey
For Danone, B Corp isn’t about the size of a company, but a deepened commitment
to a legacy of purpose.
“You don’t decide in a single day to become a B Corp,” Bruno told SB. “In almost
every B Corp, there is already a strong cultural heritage in the company DNA.”
Danone acquired its first B Corp-certified subsidiary, Happy
Family, in 2013 — spurring an ambition to
achieve 100 percent company certification by 2030, which Danone announced in 2017. Bruno says the pandemic brought into stark relief the
relevance of authentically purpose-driven
business;
so Danone has amended its 2030 target to global certification by 2025.
Bruno encouraged everyone to view B Corp as more than a certification process,
but a method for redefining capitalism in an age of crisis.
“If you think B Corp is a certification, I really believe you’re losing so much
of the value of what you can get,” he said. “The real value of B Corp is how it
helps you to drive change, how it drives trust and partnerships, and consumer
education. If you understand that the real role of B Corp is to drive systemic
change, then all the ways you think about B Corp changes — because everyone can
play a role in systemic change.”
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Christian is a writer, photographer, filmmaker, and outdoor junkie obsessed with the intersectionality between people and planet. He partners with brands and organizations with social and environmental impact at their core, assisting them in telling stories that change the world.
Published Jul 26, 2022 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST