B Lab publishes new B Corp standards, raising the bar for businesses worldwide

In April, B Lab unveiled new standards for B Corp Certification to galvanize business action on the world’s critical social and environmental issues, marking the most significant evolution in the nonprofit’s 19-year history.

As the climate crisis intensifies and societal inequality grows, the standards provide companies with clarity on how they can take meaningful and tangible action on issues facing people and the planet, raising the bar for all businesses, with B Corps leading the way. The new standards serve as an open-source blueprint for responsible leaders and are freely available in the B Impact app.

The new standards, B Lab’s seventh iteration, build on the success of the global B Corp movement, driving businesses to scale impact towards shared social and environmental goals. With the B Corp community on the cusp of a significant milestone — a groundswell of almost 10,000 companies across 100 countries, employing nearly 1 million workers in 160 industries — the potential for positive change across the economy is reaching new heights.

After engaging with diverse stakeholders through a multi-year consultation process, B Lab is introducing requirements that all B Corps must meet across seven critical Impact Topics and moving away from cumulative point scoring. This will create a mandate for B Corps to manage their impact holistically while increasing transparency and clarity for the public.

B Corps must meet performance standards across seven ‘Impact Topics’:

• Purpose & Stakeholder Governance: Act in accordance with a defined purpose and embed stakeholder governance in decision-making, creating governance structures to monitor purpose, social, and environmental performance.
   
• Climate Action: Develop an action plan to support limiting global warming to 1.5°C, and, for larger companies, include GHG emissions and validated science-based targets.
  
  
• Human Rights: Understand how their operations and value chain may involve negative human rights impacts and take action to prevent and mitigate negative impacts.
  
  
• Fair Work: Provide good quality jobs and have positive workplace cultures, implement fair wage practices, and incorporate worker feedback in decision-making.
  
  
• Environmental Stewardship & Circularity: Assess their environmental impacts and take meaningful action to minimize them in their operations and value chain.
  
  
• Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion: Foster inclusive and diverse workplaces, and contribute meaningfully to just and equitable communities.
  
  
• Government Affairs & Collective Action: Engage in collective efforts to drive systemic change, advocate for policies that create positive social and environmental outcomes, and, for the largest companies, publicly share their country-by-country tax reports.

As businesses face increasing regulatory complexity and mounting pressure to retreat from climate and social justice initiatives, B Lab’s new standards provide a clear path for sustained commitment. Recognizing the pressures businesses face today, they incorporate data and methodologies from other certification schemes, sustainability-related frameworks, and disclosure reporting—including GRI, SBTi, and Fairtrade—enabling companies to focus on what matters: operating for the benefit of all stakeholders.

While B Corp Certification affirms that a business meets high standards of social and environmental performance, the commitment to progress doesn’t end there. Continuous improvement is a cornerstone of the new B Corp standards; businesses must demonstrate impact improvement over time, including milestones after 3 years and 5 years, empowering leaders to continue driving meaningful progress throughout their journey as a B Corp.

“At a time when other leaders are stepping back, business must drive progress. This isn’t merely an update; it’s a complete reimagining of business impact to respond to the challenges of our time,” says Clay Brown, Co-Lead Executive of B Lab Global. “B Lab’s new standards can serve as a roadmap for leadership on social and environmental issues when needed most.”

“After four years, two public consultations, and 26,000 pieces of feedback from businesses, the public, and experts, we are confident that the new standards are clear, ambitious, and truly capable of raising the bar for businesses worldwide,” says Judy Rodrigues, Director of Standards of B Lab Global. “We look forward to collaborating with our community as they embrace these new standards and create momentum for systems change.”

“European companies have been and still are committed to leading the way in using business as a force for good,” says Juliette Caulkins, Managing Director of B Lab Europe. “These new standards provide a clear and credible path for businesses and align with global frameworks and expectations—turning ambition into action and paving the way toward a more inclusive and sustainable economy.”

About B Lab:

B Lab is a nonprofit transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities, and the planet. A leader in economic systems change, our global network creates standards, policies, tools, and programs for business, and we certify companies, known as B Corps, who are leading the way. As part of this global network, B Lab Europe raises awareness for the B Corp movement and advocates for legislation that holds businesses accountable and drives impactful change in the European economy. To date, our global business community includes 950,000 workers in over 9,600 B Corps – with over 2,200 in Europe – across 102 countries and 161 industries.

About B Corp Certification:

Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, are companies verified to meet B Lab’s standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Based on stakeholder input, research, and established best practices, B Lab’s standards are the basis for B Corp Certification requirements and B Lab’s impact management tools, and they inform the network’s programs and collective action initiatives.