B Corp certification | How to become a B Corp

“The B Corp standards provide a reliable framework to assess your company’s sustainability maturity and identify the areas where investment and effort will yield the greatest benefits.”

B Corp certification is one of the most widely recognised sustainability credentials that a company can achieve, demonstrating a consistent commitment to social and environmental progress. Read on for our guide to the evaluation process, including eligibility criteria and practical tips on how to complete the B Impact Assessment.

Looking for more information about the B Impact Assessment (BIA)? Check out our guide to the BIA.

What are the eligibility criteria for B Corp certification?

The founders of B Lab – the non-profit organisation behind B Corp certification – were all entrepreneurs before launching their industry-shaping initiative. Because they believed that businesses should play an active role alongside governments and non-profits in catalysing system-wide change, they focused on for-profit companies. This is why NGOs, charities and most government agencies aren’t eligible for B Corp certification.

Although there are no restrictions on a company’s size or location for B Corp certification, there are some key eligibility criteria:

Full B Corp certification is only available to companies that have been in operation for at least 12 months. Startups and newer companies can instead apply for ‘Pending B Corp’ status by committing to the B Corp standards and integrating them into their operations and practices.

Multinational and public companies with extensive, multi-sector or international operations can also apply for B Corp certification, although they may face additional baseline requirements such as subsidiary-level reporting and a Disclosure Review process for controversial issues.

Companies directly involved in certain industries, as listed on the controversial issues page of the B Corp website, may not be eligible for B Corp certification. These include mining, casinos, fossil fuel and energy companies, pharmaceutical companies and water utilities. However, companies in some of these industries may be eligible for B Corp certification if certain conditions are met. In addition, companies with clients in one or more of these industries may be ineligible for B Corp certification.

What is the process to achieve B Corp certification?

Seven steps to B Corp certification

Assemble your B Team

Gather data and documentation

Complete the BIA

Improve your BIA score if necessary

Evaluation and verification

Certification

If your company is eligible for B Corp certification, a key first step is to build a team of internal stakeholders to coordinate your company’s efforts. Since the certification covers five ‘impact areas’ – governance, workers, community, environment and customers – it is important to have a range of functions represented.

You may want to include colleagues from finance, HR, legal, procurement, marketing and communications, and sustainability – as well as senior leadership. Once your team is in place, you are ready to register for the B Impact Assessment (BIA).

How does the B Impact Assessment work?

The BIA is a comprehensive online assessment tool that measures your company’s performance against B Lab’s standards in the five impact areas. The questions are tailored to your company’s size, activities and location(s). Once you have created an account and registered for the BIA, you are ready to start preparing for the BIA.

This will require you to gather all the data and documentation needed to respond to the BIA questions, including reports, policies, presentations and agendas. The BIA tool will help you to identify the documents you need. Remember to keep careful notes about your data collection methodology and who is responsible for each source of information.

Taking your next steps towards B Corp certification

With your evidence collected, it is time to complete the BIA itself. Given the broad scope of the assessment, it is important to foster close collaboration within your designated B Corp team and coordinate your responses where necessary. If data is unavailable for a particular topic, it is acceptable to answer ‘we do not track this’ or similar. In parallel, you will also need to complete a company profile and fill out the disclosure questionnaire, which covers any controversial practices, fines or sanctions.²

Upon completion of the questionnaire and submission of the supporting documentation, you will receive an initial BIA score. If you have achieved a BIA score of 80 or above, and nothing is flagged on your disclosure questionnaire, you will proceed to the next stage of the process: evaluation. However, if your score is below 80, you will need to make adjustments before your assessment can be evaluated for B Corp certification.

What if I don’t score high enough on the BIA?

A BIA score below 80 doesn’t have to be the end of your B Corp journey. In fact, most companies don’t get there on their first attempt. To help your company reach the required baseline score, the BIA tool itself can help you identify areas for improvement thanks to its Improvement Report feature.

This report will give you clear guidance on the areas you need to focus on to increase your BIA score. To help you understand what to do next, you can also choose to work with a sustainability consultant. As a leading B Corp Way consultant, Nexio Projects can support you on your B Corp journey to help you achieve full B Corp certification.

Visit our B Corp certification service page for more information on B Corp consulting.

What happens after the BIA submission?

If your company achieves a BIA score of 80 or higher, your submission will be reviewed by a member of the B Lab Evaluation Team. They will determine whether your application can proceed to the next stage: verification.

During verification, which involves several review rounds, you will be asked to provide further detail and documentation on your company’s practices in the five impact areas. It is normal for your BIA score to change during this process. Your B Lab analyst or external consultant can also provide information on how to improve your score if necessary.

Wondering if B Corp is right for you? Read more about the different standards available.

What are the final steps to achieving B Corp certification?

At this stage, there are only a few steps left before your company can become a certified B Corp. For example, you will need to have fulfilled the B Corp Legal Requirement.³ This is a legal commitment to ‘stakeholder governance’ – B Lab’s founding vision for companies that are accountable to workers, communities, customers, suppliers and the environment in addition to shareholders.⁴

In practice, this means incorporating the text of the Requirement into your company’s articles of association. This will look different for each company since the exact wording will depend on your region and corporate structure. For example, the addendum for a UK limited liability partnership (LLP) is different to that for a public company.

I have achieved B Corp certification: What next?

If you have passed the final verification stage and paid your annual fee, you are ready to be certified as a B Corp – congratulations! This important step will allow you to demonstrate your sustainability credentials to your stakeholders. It can also help to motivate value chain partners to evaluate their sustainability management practices.

However, certification is just the first step on your B Corp journey. To maintain your B Corp status, you must be re-certified every three years. This requires you to demonstrate continuous improvement, considering organisational growth and strategic changes. Some companies even choose to complete the BIA every year so that they can track their progress towards recertification.

Indeed, part of what makes the B Corp assessment so valuable is that it provides a reliable framework for assessing your company’s sustainability maturity – and for identifying the areas where investment and effort will yield the greatest benefits. The B Corp certification process is therefore much more than a gold-standard sustainability credential. It can also be a powerful catalyst for your sustainability strategy.

Want to learn more about the B Impact Assessment? Check back on our blog soon for updates. In the meantime, visit our B Corp certification service page to find out how we can help you move forward on your B Corp journey.

References:

¹ Which companies are eligible for B Corp certification? (2025) B Lab Global. Available at: https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/faqs/who-eligible-b-corp-certification/ (Accessed: 05 February 2025).

² Companies with clients in controversial industries (2024) B Lab Global. Available at: https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/standards/companies-with-clients-in-controversial-industries/ (Accessed: 03 February 2025).

³ How to become a B corp? (2025) B Lab Europe. Available at: https://bcorporation.eu/become-a-b-corp/how-to-become-a-b-corp/ (Accessed: 05 February 2025).

⁴ B Lab Legal Requirement (2025) B Lab Global. Available at: https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/about-b-corps/legal-requirements/ (Accessed: 05 February 2025).