Founded | 2006 |
---|---|
Founder | Andrew Kassoy, Jay Coen Gilbert, Bart Houlahan |
Headquarters | Australia |
Revenue | 26,678,597 United States dollar (2022) |
Total assets | 12,760,590 United States dollar (2022) |
Website | B Lab Australia & New Zealand |
B Lab is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2006 in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, by Andrew Kassoy, Jay Coen Gilbert and Bart Houlahan. [1] B Lab created, and awards, the B corporation certification for for-profit organizations. [2] [3] The "B" stands for beneficial [4] and indicates that the certified organizations voluntarily meet certain standards of transparency, accountability, sustainability, and performance, with an aim to create value for society, not just for traditional stakeholders such as the shareholders.
While originally founded in the United States, today B Lab is a global network. B Lab Global is the entity that is the hub of the network and certifies companies as B Corps. The B Lab network also includes dozens of B Lab organizations at the country and regional levels. They support their community of B Corps, bring companies into the certification pipeline, and develop local programming to support the movement towards economic systems change based on stakeholder governance (i.e., a B Corp).
In order to earn B Corp certification, companies must achieve a score of 80 or higher out of 200 based on 5 criteria - governance, workers' rights, community impact, environmental impact and "stewardship of its customers". Once a company passes the B Lab's "Impact Assessment", it must then pay an annual fee which is based on its location and gross annual revenue. [5]
As of December 2023, there are now over 7,600 B Corps in 84 countries and 157 industries. [6] With its rigorous standards, B Corp certification can enhance a company's reputation, as well as attract socially and environmentally conscious customers. [7] Because of this, the waiting list for assessment can be up to two years. [8]
In addition to awarding B Corporation certifications to companies that score high enough on the B Impact Assessment, B Lab’s initiatives include administration of the B Impact Management programs and software, as well as advocacy for the adoption and improvement of benefit corporation statutes at the state level. (The B Corporation certification should not be confused with state-sanctioned benefit corporation status.)
B Lab has attracted media attention to the concept of benefit corporations. [4] [9] [10] [11] [12] Some people confuse the concepts of a benefit corporation and a B Corporation, and sometimes use these phrases as if they are interchangeable even though they are very different legally. [13]
B Lab has established a partnership with the United Nations to help the private sector translate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) into practical business processes. B Lab created an SDG Action Manager that became available for companies to use in 2020. [14]
Unisys Corporation is an American multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company founded in 1986 and headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. The company provides digital workplace, cloud applications and infrastructure, enterprise computing, business process, AI technology, and data analytics services.
The Forest Stewardship Council GmbH (FSC) is an international non-profit, multistakeholder organization established in 1993 that promotes responsible management of the world's forests via timber certification. This organization uses a market-based approach to transnational environmental policy.
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a non-profit organisation which aims to set standards for sustainable fishing. Fisheries that wish to demonstrate they are well-managed and sustainable compared to the MSC's standards are assessed by a team of Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs).
The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, also known as PotashCorp, was a company based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The company merged with Calgary-based Agrium to form Nutrien, in a transaction that closed on January 1, 2018.
New Seasons Market is a chain of neighborhood grocery stores operating in the Portland, Oregon metro area, and southwestern Washington. Some of the products offered are organic and produced locally in the Pacific Northwest, but conventional groceries are also sold.
The 'International Fairtrade Certification Mark is an independent Fair trade certification mark used in over 69 countries. It appears on products as an independent guarantee that a product has been produced according to fair trade political standards.
Sustainable procurement or green procurement is a process whereby organizations meet their needs for goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a life-cycle basis while addressing equity principles for sustainable development, therefore benefiting societies and the environment across time and geographies. Procurement is often conducted via a tendering or competitive bidding process. The process is used to ensure the buyer receives goods, services or works for the best possible price, when aspects such as quality, quantity, time, and location are compared. Procurement is considered sustainable when organizations broadens this framework by meeting their needs for goods, services, works, and utilities in a way that achieves value for money and promotes positive outcomes not only for the organization itself but for the economy, environment, and society.
ISO 26000 is a set of international standards for social responsibility. It was developed in November 2010 by International Organization for Standardization. The goal of these standards is to contribute to global sustainable development by encouraging business and other organizations to practice social responsibility to improve their impacts on their workers, their natural environments and their communities. The standards were designed to fit into an integrated management system.
Australian Ethical is an ethical investment management company, listed on the ASX, and based in Sydney, Australia
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is a sustainability organization operating in the U.S. and Canada that works across four pillars: standards, conservation, community, and education. SFI was founded in 1994 by the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA). SFI is the world's largest single forest certification standard by area. SFI is headquartered in Ottawa and Washington, D.C.
Bullfrog Power, an Envest company, is a Canadian green energy retailer operating in Canada. Bullfrog offers green electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and low-impact hydro, as well as green fuel and green natural gas, a renewable biogas product that serves as an alternative to fossil fuel-based natural gas. Bullfrog only sources electricity from generation sources that meet or exceed the federal government's Environmental Choice Program EcoLogo standard for renewable electricity. Bullfrog's green natural gas product is produced at facilities that have met environmental standards as defined by ICF International.
The Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) is a global consortium of development institutions that work collaboratively to advance sustainability learning with systematic and science-based measurement. COSA applies a pragmatic and collective approach for using scientific methods to develop indicators, tools, and technologies to measure the distinct social, environmental, and economic impacts and are applied in performance monitoring, evaluation, return on investment (ROI) calculation, and impact assessment. COSA has a public mission to open its scientific methods and metrics up to widespread use.
Sustainability standards and certifications are voluntary guidelines used by producers, manufacturers, traders, retailers, and service providers to demonstrate their commitment to good environmental, social, ethical, and food safety practices. There are over 400 such standards across the world.
Coursera Inc. is an American global massive open online course provider. It was founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses, certifications, and degrees in a variety of subjects.
A charitable for-profit entity is an organization with a charitable mission but legally organized as a for-profit corporation. Both benefit corporations and Low-profit limited liability companies (L3C) fall under this category. As well as generating a profit, a charitable for-profit entity concentrates on setting a social objective. The business must achieve its social purpose, as well as make a profit, to be successful. There are movements to refine strategies, retuning community-oriented activities based on ROI of Little Investment or Small Capital, Low Risk, yet, higher return and rebranding nonprofit entities from wholly-dependable funding beneficiary from Governments or public i.e. business organization or individual. previously, we often heard of Nonprofits and community-based organizations, now, For-profits community-based Social Enterprises The case of organizing charitable work under for-profit rules rather than as a traditional charity such as a foundation gained prominence when Google announced its Google.org branch in 2006. Since then, the subject has been under both academic and public debate with U.S. law professor Eric Posner arguing in favor of expanding Charity law to include for-profit charities, while Brian Galle considered the legislative popularity of social enterprises a "race to the bottom among states competing to siphon away federal tax dollars for local businesses."
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In business, a B Corporation is a for-profit corporation certified for its social impact by B Lab, a global non-profit organization. To be granted and to maintain certification, companies must receive a minimum score of 80 from an assessment of its social and environmental performance, integrate B Corp commitments to stakeholders into company governing documents, and pay an annual fee based on annual sales. Companies must re-certify every three years to retain B Corporation status.
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