7 Dec 2021

How B Lab are thinking outside the box to meet high demand

By Inge Hertzog
stairs

B Corps are businesses that meet high standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. At Seismic, we guide businesses on their B Corp journeys.

B Lab, the not-for-profit organisation who certifies B Corps, carefully reviews each company that submits a B Impact Assessment (BIA) in hope of becoming a B Corp. This makes the certification process rigorous and is one of the reasons why being a certified B Corp is so reputable.

The rigour of the standard is further maintained by the fact that existing certified B Corps are required to recertify every three years. Both the certification and recertification processes require verification by one of B Lab’s Standards Analysts.

What is the B Lab Outside Verification pilot programme?

B Corp certification demand is accelerating and, in response, B Lab is ensuring that its verification process is scalable, rigorous and geographically local to each applicant.

To do this, B Lab ran an Outside Verification Pilot Programme, which added external resources and increased verification capacity. B Lab conducted a pilot in 2021 to understand the feasibility, results, and resources needed for the programme.

As part of the pilot, I was lucky to observe first-hand how B Lab is as transparent as possible with companies. Typically, a company’s score will fluctuate during the verification process. Because the score changes regularly during the certification process, it can be challenging to keep up with the changes and the next steps.

This is one particular stage of the certification process where it can be beneficial to have a consultant or a friendly B Leader beside you, who you can tap on the shoulder for help to turn the changes into impactful actions and insights.

It’s been exciting to have been selected for the programme and get into the detail of what makes a company worthy of B Corp status. Supporting B Lab as an external verifier in the Outside Verifier pilot programme was helpful for my role as a consultant and brought a new dimension to Seismic’s B Corp service. So, what now?

If your company is thinking about becoming a B Corp, we’re here to help. Seismic has accompanied 60+ companies through the BIA Diagnostic, leveraging our collective experience to walk clients through the process and set them up for success.

Get in touch if you’d like to know more.