How to become a B Corp: A closer look at the B Impact Assessment  

“The B Impact Assessment is a crucial step in B Corp certification, but it is also an invaluable tool for understanding, managing and improving your company’s impact and contribution to society.”

Want to learn more about the B Impact Assessment (BIA) and what you can do to prepare for it? Read on for a detailed look at this key assessment framework.

What is the B Impact Assessment?

The BIA is an evaluation tool used as part of the B Corp Certification process to measure your company’s social and environmental impact. It covers five ‘impact areas’: governance, workers, community, environment and customers. Taking a holistic approach, it assesses positive and negative impacts across your entire business rather than focusing only on specific products or operations.

The assessment consists of 100 to 200 simple-to-answer questions. The questionnaire itself is dynamic and tailored to the size, location and sector of each company. To be eligible for B Corp certification, you need to score at least 80 out of a possible 250+ points. Careful preparation is, therefore, essential to accurately reflect your company’s sustainability maturity and demonstrate your progress. [1]

Looking for further insights about the path to B Corp certification? Read more here .

What questions will I be asked in the B Impact Assessment?

At the core of the B Corp approach is the idea of ‘stakeholder governance’. This means considering the interests of all stakeholders, not just shareholders, in decision-making. Based on this principle, the five impact areas of the B Impact Assessment include four key stakeholders – workers, community, environment and customers – in addition to the topic of governance. This helps to provide a comprehensive view of your company’s performance.

The weighting of each impact area will vary depending on the specifics of your company and sector, ensuring that the resulting BIA score reflects your context. There are two main question types: ‘operational’ questions, which relate to the day-to-day impact your company has on stakeholders, and ‘Impact Business Model’ questions. These cover any specific ways in which your company delivers social or environmental benefits.

To help you prepare for the questionnaire, here is a summary of the five impact areas:

Governance is a broad topic, covering a company’s structure, transparency, ethics, mission, and social and environmental impact engagement. Among other areas, the questions will assess how well your company is set up to deliver on its mission and include the needs of all stakeholders in its decision-making processes.

A key step in improving your Governance score is to adopt the B Corp Legal Requirement. This means incorporating a specific addendum into your company’s articles of association – a clear demonstration of your commitment to stakeholder governance. This should be reflected in all areas of your corporate culture.

Example topics: Whistleblower policy, code of ethics, financial information disclosure.

Example question: What proportion of your management team is evaluated in writing on their performance with regard to corporate, social and environmental targets?

This impact area focuses mainly on employee well-being, including factors such as financial security, career development and workplace safety. Questions will focus on topics such as how your company ensures a healthy working environment, supports professional growth and pays fair wages. There will also be questions on specific factors such as how you support the inclusion of people with barriers to employment or the percentage of non-executive employees who own shares in the company.

Example topics: Employee satisfaction/engagement, health and safety, wellness, career development.

Example question: What percentage of the company is owned by full-time workers (excluding founders/executives)?

In this impact area, the questions focus on how your business impacts and engages with the local community. This can include the economic impact of your organisation, such as your presence in the local labour market or the level of financial investment you make in the community. Fair trade sourcing, cooperative models and charitable giving can all contribute to a better score in this impact area. Other best practices include sourcing materials and services locally and hiring from underrepresented groups.

Example topics: Diversity, equity and inclusion, supply chain management, civic engagement and giving.

Example question: What percentage of management is from underrepresented groups? This includes women, minority/previously excluded populations, people with disabilities, and/or people living in low-income communities.

Along with workers, customers and communities, the environment is considered a key stakeholder in the B Impact Assessment framework. B Corps must therefore demonstrate how they are set up to manage their overall environmental impact, including greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, land and water use, and waste management.

This section of the assessment covers topics such as energy efficiency, recycling rates and sustainable sourcing. By taking a holistic approach to environmental impacts – including supply chains and distribution channels – the BIA helps companies to more accurately assess and manage their sustainability. The assessment also recognises companies whose products and services have a positive impact on the environment.

Example topics: Recycling rates, water and energy use, air and climate, environmental management systems.

Example question: Does your company monitor and record its universal waste production?

The final key stakeholder group covered by the B Impact Assessment is customers. This impact area looks at how well a company treats its customers in terms of factors such as the quality of its products or services and the ethics of its marketing practices. Other key topics include the efficacy of feedback channels, and data privacy and security.

This impact area is also designed to recognise companies that address social problems for or through their customers or clients. This might include addressing underserved groups, helping other organisations to optimise their social or environmental impact, or delivering highly beneficial services in areas such as health, arts or education.

Example topics: Feedback or complaint mechanisms, customer outcomes and well-being, data privacy and security, positive impact through products and services.

Example question: How do you verify that your products or services deliver benefits to your customers or clients?

Top tips for success in the B Impact Assessment

B Corp certification is considered a gold standard in sustainability accreditation, and with good reason. Its rigorous and comprehensive methodology is designed to ensure optimal coverage of your organisation’s social and environmental impacts. As a result, it is rare for a company to achieve the required 80+ points on the first assessment.

However, there are some ways in which you can get prepared to help streamline your assessment process. First, since the BIA is broad in scope, it can be helpful to assemble a cross-functional team (including HR, legal teams, operations managers and board members) to facilitate information sharing and simplify the assessment process.

Ready to learn more about accelerating your B Corp certification journey? Read more here.

B Corp certification: Catalysing your sustainability strategy

The B Impact Assessment is not just a key step on the path to B Corp certification. It is also an invaluable tool for understanding, managing and optimising your company’s social and environmental impact. Indeed, you do not need to be pursuing B Corp certification to use the BIA tool. Many companies treat it as a strategic sounding board.

This is because, when you complete the B Impact Assessment, you get more than just a score. You can also see how your company compares to others in your country and sector, and you receive a dedicated improvement roadmap with actionable steps to help increase your score. By providing a comprehensive and comparable framework, the BIA is therefore a critical tool to help companies drive large-scale systems change.

Ready to start your B Corp certification journey?

There are a number of tangible benefits to becoming a B Corp, including improved employee engagement, easier access to financing and greater traction with customers. However, with so many questions and impact areas to consider, getting started with your B Impact Assessment can be daunting. Working with a sustainability consultant can help.

Whether you’re wondering how to choose the right assessment track, what kind of documentation you need or even how to project manage the BIA process, Nexio Projects can guide you on your B Corp journey. As a leading B Corp Way consultant and a certified B Corp ourselves, we are here to streamline the path to B Corp certification.

For more information on how we can help you with your B Impact Assessment, visit our B Corp certification  service page or get in contact  for a free consultation with one of our experts.

Sources

[1] Whittaker, K. (2024) Unpacking the ‘B impact score’ – what it is and why it matters, B Lab Australia & New Zealand. Available at: https://bcorporation.com.au/blog/unpacking-the-b-impact-score/ (Accessed: 19 February 2025).

The B impact assessment (2025) B Lab UK. Available at: https://bcorporation.uk/b-corp-certification/the-certification-process/the-b-impact-assessment/ (Accessed: 21 February 2025).

Behind the b: An introduction to the B corp movement (2025) B Lab UK. Available at: https://blabuk.thinkific.com/courses/intro-to-bcorp (Accessed: 19 February 2025)