Patagonia, GoLite, Seventh Generation, New Belgium Brewing Company and 80 other global companies have been named “Best for the Environment” by the nonprofit B Lab.
The ‘B Corp Best for the Environment’ list honors businesses that earned an environmental impact score in the top 10 percent of all Certified B Corporations on the B Impact Assessment, a rigorous and comprehensive assessment of a company's impact on its workers, community and the environment. Honorees were recognized among micro, small and mid-sized businesses.
The honored companies come from over 30 different industries such as financial services, consulting, apparel and personal care. Some 36 percent operate in the service sector, 33 percent in wholesale/retail and 25 percent in manufacturing. A quarter of honorees are based outside the US, with 13 percent of the companies operating in emerging markets including Brazil, Colombia and Chile.
Each honored company is a Certified B Corporation, B Lab says. This means they use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems and have met tough standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. Today there are over 990 certified B Corporations, across 60 industries and 32 countries, unified by one common goal: to redefine success in business.
In March, B Lab released the “Best for the World” list, which recognizes companies for overall social and environmental impact. Stay tuned for separate lists recognizing the companies ‘Best for the Community’ (community impact), and ‘Best for Workers’ (employee impact) throughout 2014.
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Founder, Hower Impact
Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact — a boutique consultancy delivering strategic communication advisory and support for corporate sustainability, ESG and climate tech.
Published Apr 24, 2014 10am EDT / 7am PDT / 3pm BST / 4pm CEST