Now more than ever, businesses are realizing that purpose can be more important than profit. For organizations looking to ensure their business is a force for good, becoming a B Corporation is a way to tell employees, stakeholders, and customers they care about helping people and the planet.
What's a B Corporation?
When your for-profit organization officially becomes a B Corporation—or B Corp—your business meets high standards in areas like accountability, transparency, performance, and positive impact on stakeholders. During certification, these areas are assessed, tracked, and validated across all areas of your business.
This certification process directly measures your organization’s overall social and environmental impact. Various aspects of your business, such as employee perks, charitable donations, supply chain practices, and materials—to name a few—are evaluated against B Lab’s standards.
Now, let’s take a closer look into the exact step-by-step process of becoming B Corp certified.
How Do I Become a Certified B Corp?
If you’re looking to become B Corp certified, your organization needs first to meet the performance standards of B Lab. These are displayed in the B Impact Assessment (BIA) online tool (a tool that evaluates the impact of your business across areas such as governance, workers, community, environment, and customers). If your organization’s assessment score is an 80 or above—hooray! Your organization now qualifies for the B Corp certification.
Next, your organization will need to complete the disclosure questionnaire. Then, your organization must meet the legal requirements of B Lab – for which B Lab provides this helpful legal tool to determine your organization’s needs. All in all, this legal framework enables you to safeguard your business’s missions and objectives while ensuring that your organization remains liable to its stakeholders.
Next, your organization will undergo the final steps of the B Lab certification process—evaluation and verification. During evaluation and verification, analysts will conduct a high-level review to ensure the organization is eligible for certification and review your company’s documentation to verify the answers you provided on the BIA. Once your organization completes the verification process with a score of 80 or higher, your business is one step closer to becoming a certified B Corp!
Last but not least, your organization will need to publicly provide information about its B Corp assessment as part of B Corp’s transparency requirements. This information then goes on your B Corp profile and B Lab Directory for all of the public to see.
TGW Studio is a Certified B Corporation!
Here at TGW, we are proud to be a certified B Corp. We believe that it’s our duty as a business (and as people) to be as transparent, ethically responsible, and committed to our community and our planet. Our studio emphasizes the value we create for not only our clients, but for our global community. Check out our most recent and previous year’s B Corp scores here!
Are you looking to be a part of the change you wish to see in this world?
