In this episode of the Getting Down to Business podcast, host Lauren Everett chats with two experts on B Corp certification and recertification at B Lab U.S. and Canada. Zach Fayer is the organization’s recertification manager supporting the community of B Corps in the United States and Canada on their recertifications. And Max Hayes is a community growth manager who helps companies navigate the standards, benchmarking, review process, and other aspects of the certification journey at B Lab.

Value of B Corps certification

Max describes several key benefits to businesses of getting certified. One of the main value adds, he says, is around accountability. “Oftentimes, businesses know they want to do better, but they don't necessarily have the systems or structure to hold themselves accountable,” he tells Lauren.  “And so that's really where maintaining your B Corp certification becomes an awesome accountability tool.”

Additionally, he says, the standards become the roadmap: “So not only are we holding you accountable to what you say living up to your values, but then we're also giving you that road to travel down and showing you what is best in practice in market.”

A third benefit is around the branding and the community. “The B Corp logo is a small simple logo, a b with a circle, but it says a lot within that simple logo,” he says. “And then the community is global and diverse and local all at once. And so I think there's just so much power within the B Corp community as well.”

Certification process walk-through

Max and Zach also discuss the stages of the certification process. Zach describes the first stage as the evaluation stage. “A contractor is going to meet with your company, do a very high level overview of how your company answered the assessment, potentially ask for some additional information to make sure that all of the T's are crossed and i's are dotted, but not going to do that super in-depth review that you would expect from the B Corp certification,” he explains.

Next a company is assigned to a verification analyst who takes them through the verification stage. “And at that point, your verification analyst will do the very in-depth review of your company's assessment, will potentially ask for additional documentation and additional information about how your company answered the assessment, and verify that your answers are correct based on your documentation or other information you provide,” Max describes. “And ultimately, at the end of that process, if you're still above 80 points, your company will be awarded B Corp certification.” 

The next step is one of the most critical stages, according to Max. “Our team has a great onboarding webinar that we encourage everyone who's recently certified to join,” he says. “ And really what they're doing in that webinar is not just welcoming you into the B Corp community, but getting you to start thinking about the next steps, which is really how are you going to announce your certification, how are you going to get your staff to understand what process you've just went through, what it means and how it's changed your outlook on your business, and then how are you going to get involved in the community?”

Once a business has crossed that line, Max says, it's time to start getting involved. “What B Local can you join? What network is relevant for you when you come into Champion's Retreat?” he asks. “I think the most exciting part is once you're across that line and really integrating into the community and learning how the community can really support you, make feel seen, and help you go even deeper than the standards ever could.”

For more information about B Corp Certification and how to measure your company's impact, visit https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/programs-and-tools/b-impact-assessment/ 

Getting Down to Business hosts Lauren Everett and Denise Jones welcome Dr. Kimberly McGlonn, founder and CEO of NOOR by Grant Blvd, in the season’s final episode. NOOR by Grant Blvd is a sustainable luxury brand that has been making waves with its ethical production practices, its commitment to intersectional design, and its mission-driven business model.

NOOR has been a B Corp for four years and just went through recertification. Kimberly says that so much of what it means to be a B Corps had been in the DNA of her understanding of what a business could do since she founded her first company. “So B Corp just became a pathway for communicating to other people that I said what I said, and that I was going to do what I was going to do, and that I had receipts to support what we were building together,” she says.

B Corp and intersectionality

As a black woman, Kimberly notes, having “receipts” has been one way of entering into a qualitative conversation with a quantitative track record. And although she consciously built her business around intersectional design, she says that becoming involved in the B Corp movement has broadened her understanding of just how wide the “aspirational push” of a business can be. “I think in the beginning I thought a lot about wages, and how do we think about materiality,” she notes. “And in doing the assessment, my understanding of what I could also consider really opened up.”

In particular, the values of B Corps aligned with her own value of intersectionality. “In the assessment, you're thinking about governance, you’re thinking about what does our energy use look like?” she says.  “Those are all considerations that when you weave them together, they become a gumbo. And that is what I mean when I say intersectionality, and that's informed by a real sense of urgency that the problems that we have to figure out how to make some significant progress on, it's going to require that we don't choose one or the other, that we're going to have to pay attention and hold our arms out a little wider in terms of what we hold as central considerations.”

Importance of tangible certification

Kimberly says that attaining the B Corp certification has helped her as a business leader to signal her commitment to doing things ethically and sustainably: “One of the things that emerged over time was that it wasn't so much my own sense of achievement. . .but that I knew that what I was doing would supersede a standard and a wider set of considerations than even my own personal standard.”

The clarification for consumers of the business practices that go along with B Corps certification is also invaluable, she says. “I think in that way it's helpful for really, really discerning consumers that seeing the B Corp certification on a product or a label or a website, that it has value, and I want it to be aligned with that value add.”

Growth throughout her company was another benefit of the certification process. “I think what it created actually were more opportunities for me to work with my team around what we were actually driving,” Kimberly says. “While it was a teaching tool for me as a leader, I also work with our Director of Impact to make sure we have what we needed and that our documentation fit within the standards that were being required of us. The B Corps assessment also offers an opportunity for professional development within the company culture. The people who are submitting that [data] are then empowered to have new language and fresh eyes for thinking about what's happening within the company and the culture and the decision making. And that was really helpful.”

For more information about B Corp Certification and how to measure your company's impact, visit https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/programs-and-tools/b-impact-assessment/ 

Join Getting Down to Business hosts Lauren Everett and Max Hayes as they sit down with Drew Lavine and Shawn Hogan from Re:Vision Architecture, an architecture and sustainability consulting practice that has been a certified B Corp since 2007 and is deeply committed to re-envisioning and restoring the balance between natural build and social environments.

Drew is a partner at Re:Vision and an expert in designing net zero energy passive house and living building challenge projects. He's also been an integral part of embedding B Corp principles into Re:Vision’s culture and operations. Shawn Hogan is a project manager at Re:Vision’s High Performance Consulting Studio who specializes in fostering collaboration and environmental change within corporate and community spaces.

In their conversation with Lauren and Max, Drew and Shawn focus on one of the most crucial aspects of the B Corp certification process: environmental impact and sustainability. Businesses today are increasingly being held accountable for their environmental footprint, and B Corps are leading the way by measuring, reducing, and mitigating their impact on the planet.

Re:Vision Architecture

Re:Vision, a small Philadelphia-based firm, has two sides: an architecture studio and a consulting studio. The architecture studio is dedicated to a variety of green and sustainable architecture, from new home construction and renovation to commercial projects such as higher education and even manufacturing. “We're unique because we're not stove-piped in a single industry,” Drew says. “We work across sectors with sustainability being the thread that connects them on the other side of the firm.”

On the consulting side, Shawn describes the range of services the High Performance Consulting Studio provides: “We do a lot of LEAD certification—buildings that are in design that want to be more sustainable than code minimum. And then we also do other types of building rating systems, sustainability consulting, so we've had LVC Core Net Zero Energy, net zero Carbon projects as well, or just general sustainability consulting.”

From its founding, Drew says Re:Vision has been a mission-driven practice striving to rebalance the relationship between the built, natural, and social environments. “That's always been our ethos as a company,” he notes. “And so when B Corp began, it just made so much sense for us because it's like all of a sudden this is the position that we’ve been working from. We've just gotten to be more involved with the community and more involved with the evolution of B Corp. It's something that really is a very defining cultural aspect of what we do.”

Measuring environmental impact

Lauren describes the B impact assessment, or BIA, as a comprehensive, free tool for measuring a company's overall social and environmental impact. “Specifically, the environmental section assesses factors such as carbon footprint, waste management, water usage, supply chain sustainability and product lifecycle impact,” she explains. “And companies provide measurable data to earn B Corp certification and demonstrate their commitment to continuous improvement.”

For Drew and Shawn at Re:Vision, some of the biggest challenges around B Corp certification and recertification were around data management. Shawn, who joined the firm right before recertification was due, says that pulling together the necessary data was a huge effort the first time around. But then, she says, she began meeting with project managers at regular intervals to keep everything updated: “So now, when that recertification comes, it's a breeze.”

Drew says having those data-collection and other systems in place has had dual benefits. “One, we knew our work a whole lot better afterwards and we could see that kind of impact across the board of what we were doing,” he notes. “But I think it's also put the framework in place. So now when we start a project, we're thinking about these things all the time and not just in the normal flow of what we might be doing on that project.”

For more information about B Corp Certification and how to measure your company's impact, visit https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/programs-and-tools/b-impact-assessment/ 

In this episode of Getting Down to Business, host Lauren Everett and co-host Briana Humes sit down with Tess Hart, co-founder of Triple Bottom Brewing, to talk about the impact of certification on employees, workplace culture, and the community. Triple Bottom Brewing is a certified B Corp brewery in Philadelphia that's been making waves with its commitment to employee welfare and community engagement since it opened its doors in 2019.

Tess and her co-founders chose the name because of their focus on a "triple bottom line" of beer, people, and the planet, with a mission to create jobs for people facing barriers to employment. Going through the B Corp certification process in 2020, at the height of the pandemic was challenging. “We built the brewery with some of the B Corp goals already in mind,” Tess says. “(Because of the pandemic) lots of different priorities come up for a business owner, so some things went on pause, but ultimately certification was a really great learning opportunity. Honestly, I feel like I learned more about the business and know the business better as a result of that process.”

Supporting and measuring impact

One of the biggest benefits of going through the B Corp certification process, Tess says, was that it forced them to take the time to build the infrastructure to support their values. For instance, Triple Bottom had always committed to paying their employees at least $15 an hour. “But we hadn't written it anywhere, we just said it when we were onboarding people,” she recalls. “And so I realized we have to write this down, this has to go in our handbook, otherwise it literally doesn't count for B Corp to get those points. But it's also something that theoretically we could change our minds on, and there would be no one the wiser who could hold us accountable.”

The encouragement to set goals and measure progress was another big benefit. “We have a triple bottom line, and our environmental work really is checking some boxes, but there's so much more opportunity for us and it starts with measurement and we just hadn't even built the infrastructure to do that,” Tess says. “And so one of our amazing bartenders has taken it upon herself to figure out the measurement piece of so much of what we do from our energy use to our waste collection and finding new waste management partners who can actually help us quantify how much of what type of waste we're diverting from landfills and things like that.”

Impact on employees

For Tess and the rest of the leadership team, being a certified B Corp aligns with long-held personal values. And for employees—whether they were aware of what a B Corp was or not before joining the Triple Bottom team—there’s also a sense of pride. “It's an incredible talking point that they have when they are behind the bar or at a farmer's market,” she notes. “We're woman-owned, which is super rare in our industry, and we're the only B Corp brewery in the state of Pennsylvania. And it's this very easy validating point of: this is something that makes us really different.”

That sense of pride sets the tone for the workplace culture as well, which Tess describes as amazing. “It's this beautiful culture of joy and collaboration and just incredible kindness and respect for all different types of people,” she notes. “And we have an amazing general manager who really embodies that and I think helps to instill that in new team members. And so it's just constantly being reinforced. And I think again, a lot of the way that we've now sort of institutionalized that culture is because of the B Corp certification.”

For more information about B Corp Certification and how to measure your company's impact, visit https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/programs-and-tools/b-impact-assessment/ 

Join hosts Lauren Everett and Max Hayes on Getting Down to Business, as they chat with Solar States founder Micah Gold-Markel and CFO Jael Blankenship. Solar States is focused on using solar energy as a tool for sustainability, economic development, and workforce training, and the company has installed solar projects on homes, schools, and businesses across Philadelphia, while also training the next generation of green energy workers.

Micah and Jael join Lauren and Max to discuss governance, one of the key pillars of the B Corp impact assessment. “Good governance ensures that a company's mission and values aren't just words on a page, but are embedded into its decision-making structure,” Lauren explains. In this episode, she explores with her guests how transparency and accountability shape businesses for long-term success.

Solar States’ journey to B Corp

When Micah founded Solar States in 2008, he knew he wanted his business to have a connection to the community. He describes being attracted to the idea of becoming a certified B Corp, but knowing the cost would be challenging, he thought he might postpone the certification process.  He recalls being prodded by his colleague Akil March. “He said, of course we're living by the standards we set, but people have to be able to verify that,” Micah recalls. “How do they know you're telling the truth? Well, third party verification, that's it. That's when it started to make more sense.”

Solar States was certified officially in 2013, a process Micah describes as rightfully difficult. For the first few years, the company maintained the certification but wasn’t sure about the benefits, feeling that since they believed so strongly in those values, they would meet all the B Corp standards whether they paid for the certification or not. But once they landed a large contract on the strength of their mission and their B Corp status, the value became clear. “That was a real launch pad for us because we had consistent work, and it put us into a network where other folks were hearing about us and what we did, Micah says. “So it was a real game changer.”

Governance as a tool for transparency and accountability

Another big component of becoming a B Corp is that it’s a rigorous process, and governance plays a critical role. And as Max explains, B Corps need to expand their fiduciary duties to legally allow them to consider more than just profit when making business decisions.  For Solar States, Jael notes that this has been a beneficial but not overly burdensome part of the process.  We've done three recertifications and another one this year coming up. And so every single time we're putting in new policies, we're putting in new reports, we're tracking new metrics for the company.”

That exercise has been helpful, Jael notes. “Rather than just saying, this is what we do, or knowing that this is what we do, really proving that this is what we do,” he adds. “And it’s helped to professionalize us a little bit. In the beginning, when I started, we were very, very small. And since we've grown, it's really helped us to add structure and be organized about the whole thing.”

That rigorous governance has also helped Solar States to build in steps to ensure transparency and accountability in decision making. They’ve formalized policies and been transparent with employees and the public to bring them into the fold of the values and mission and what it means to be a B Corp. One way they’ve instituted transparency among employees is around transparent compensation structures, and another is by sharing both the good and the bad company-wide. As Micah sums up: “I think when people feel like they understand what's going on around them and there's transparency such that they feel like they're being treated the right way, then that sort of reflects into other areas of their lives.”

For more information about B Corp Certification and how to measure your company's impact, visit https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/programs-and-tools/b-impact-assessment/ 

The Getting Down to Business podcast series takes listeners on a journey to discover what it means to become a B Corp, why it matters, and what comes next—for B Corps and for the rest of the world. Throughout the series, host Lauren Everett explores the certification process firsthand with B Corp leaders who have taken the leap, and together they break down what it really means to use business as a force for good. In this first episode, Lauren sits down with Jorge Fontanez, CEO of B Lab U.S. & Canada, to dive into these topics.

B Lab and B Corps

Jorge describes B Lab as the nonprofit engine behind the standards that are used by companies to assess themselves and then ultimately certify against those standards—or to become a B Corp. B Lab, he says, strives to address environmental, social, and governance issues within the framework of all stakeholders. “We see ourselves as being one of the most comprehensive standards on the planet,” he tells Lauren. “Literally in the way that Fair Trade helps to certify coffee companies and ensure fair trade practices for growers or the LEAD certification supports the built environment and ensuring that buildings are safe for the people that inhabit them.”

Jorge describes the history of B Corp certification in three parts. The first phase, which started less than 20 years ago, was to create a set of performance standards to help companies be held to account for how they are measuring their impact on the world and on the stakeholders that they affect. The second phase began about a decade ago and included establishing what is often called the legal requirement, but is more simply an alternative corporate structure.  “It is the way in which we lock the mission for companies to make decisions for the benefit of all stakeholders,” Jorge says. “So that tension around shareholders versus stakeholders in some ways gets resolved by the legal structure that we call a public benefit corporation.”

The third and current phase of what it means to be a B Corp addresses what Jorge calls the future of the movement. “Our vision of the future is to create an economic system that is equitable, regenerative, and inclusive,” he tells Lauren. “And if that is what we believe, then we also should be talking about how the rules of the game need to change and how policies operate more for the benefit of companies and shareholders than they do for workers or suppliers or the communities at large.”

The mission and the journey

Jorge discusses his own journey from marketing and academics to joining B Lab. During the pandemic, he says, he became engaged in a conversation with B Lab Global about the future of the organization and the birth of B Lab U.S. & Canada. “For many of us as a society, we were grappling with what it would mean to come out of the pandemic and how we would successfully think through community care, but also what did this mean for business,” he recalls.  “Something about the opportunity really spoke to me because I saw within the strategy a theory of change that really aligned with my values. And in some ways my career path has been a journey in identifying and saying yes to those opportunities that feel most in alignment with my values.”

He also discusses the idea of a regenerative economy, and says his definition of that is to leave the planet better than you found it by creating policies and practices that actually improve the ecosystem in which we all exist. “The unfortunate truth about capitalism is that it has been built on the premise that companies can take whatever resources they need to create a profit and that's what we're looking to combat,” he says.

For more information about B Corp Certification and how to measure your company's impact, visit https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/programs-and-tools/b-impact-assessment/ 

Discover the eye-opening stories behind businesses making a positive impact on the world. Get Down To Business delves into the journey of B Corp Certified companies, exploring the unique challenges and rewards of achieving this prestigious certification.

In each episode, we'll learn about a different B Corp, unpacking their inspiring business practices and focusing on a specific aspect of the B Corp Certification process. From environmental sustainability to ethical labor practices, we'll provide in-depth explanations and real-world examples to illustrate the significance of these standards.

Join us as we navigate B Corp Certification, examining the growing demands within the community, alongside changing requirements. Discover what it truly means to be a part of the B Corp movement and how these businesses are shaping a more sustainable and equitable future.