December 25, 2024
In a year marked by unfathomable devastation, heartbreak, and injustice, the leadership of the B Lab Global Network and our global B Corp community has been a beacon in the storm. And as the calls for systems change ring increasingly louder all around the world, we’re reminded why our work is more important than ever.
As we wrap up our 14th year and the first year of the Decade of Action, read on and join us in reflecting on the major milestones we reached together in 2020, and look for an important opportunity to collaborate with us next year in shaping the future of the B Corp Certification.
Wishing you, your loved ones, and your communities a safe, healthful, and regenerative year end. We'll see you in 2021. |
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 January: In partnership with the UN Global Compact, B Lab launched the SDG Action Manager, an impact management solution for businesses of all sizes, anywhere in the world, to take meaningful action and track their progress on the Global
Goals.
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March: B Lab honored by Fast Company as a 2020 World’s Most Innovative Company for pushing stakeholder capitalism into the mainstream business conversation.
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 May: Joined the World Economic Forum’s COVID Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs to ensure vulnerable, marginalized, and excluded communities are included in the multilateral COVID response.
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June: Launched B Interdependent, a platform to support businesses around the world by offering relevant and essential resources, and sharing inspiration and leadership from the B Corp community.
We also released a series of COVID-19 best practice guides found on B Interdependent to help businesses navigate the pandemic and manage impact across their various stakeholders.
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July: B Lab commited to becoming an anti-racist organization and publicly do the work to educate internal leaders and staff on anti-racist rhetoric, theories and behaviors, dismantle aspects of racism embedded in our systems and policies, de-center whiteness and Americanization in our work and analysis, and center justice in our goals, outcomes and standards.
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September: Launched B Movement Builders, a new program for multinational, public companies to lead economic systems change alongside and in support of the global B Corp community.
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We also launched the RESET campaign with Imperative 21, raising awareness around the necessity of, and opportunity to, reset our economy to one that centers shared well-being on a healthy planet.
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October: In partnership with the non-profit The Shareholder Commons, B Lab US & Canada released a bipartisan policy agenda for systems change: From Shareholder Primacy to Stakeholder Capitalism.
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November: Announced our partnership with YPO, the global community of more than 29,000 chief executives, to create positive impact at a global scale.
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December: Issued a call for input on B Corp Certification requirements to determine if and how they need to change in the context of the pressing challenges facing the world today.
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Celebrated the one year anniversary of Let's Get to Zero, our climate action commitment and campaign to drive businesses to Net Zero by 2030. Since the launch at COP25, 800+ companies have signed up.
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As mentioned above, we announced our first cohort of B Movement Builders this fall—Bonduelle, Gerdau, Givaudan and Magalu, with Danone and Natura &Co as mentors—scaling and accelerating authentic stakeholder capitalism. As B Corps have done for the last 14 years, B Movement Builders will inspire consumers, employees, and investors to
support this transformation of business while driving their own growth, culture, and positive impact. Read more in this Forbes piece by Christopher Marquis and this Forbes interview with Nell Derick Debevoise. |
Call for Input on B Corp Certification Performance Requirements
The world is in a very different place than when the initial requirements for B Corp Certification were developed in 2006. There has been no greater moment of awareness and recognition of the need to reset our economic system to be more inclusive, equitable, and regenerative, and no greater amount of expectations for businesses to play a positive role in these changes than now. As such, B Lab is exploring the possibility of developing specific, meaningful, minimum requirements to become a Certified B Corp that build on the existing standards in the B Impact Assessment (BIA)—and we’d love to hear from you.
If you’re interested in providing input on what business leadership should look like and what standards B Corps should be meeting, please respond to our survey here.
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| A toast to B Corp growth and momentum, B Lab UK celebrates its 5th anniversary this December. In celebration, they’ve created an interactive story book to illustrate milestones from the past 5 years stewarding the ever-growing community of B Corps in the UK and an exciting preview of its ambitious goals for the future. |
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27 Nov: Economia: Business Spotlight: How B Lab UK’s Charmian Love is building a sustainable business
23 Nov: Barron’s: The Biden Era Could Be a Boon to Sustainable Investing
23 Nov: Cheerful Podcast: To B(Corp) or Not to B: A Different Way of Doing Business
13 Nov: La Tribune: We must accelerate the transformation of companies into positive impact companies
12 Nov: Business Live: Can ethical business really make money?
5 Nov: Bloomberg Law: Bold Economic Reform That Both Parties Can Support
18 Oct: Boston Globe: How to Save Capitalism
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| B Lab is building a global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economic system. This end-of-year season, we're asking you to join us and power our movement further in 2021 by donating today. Thanks to generous friends, all gifts will be matched, dollar-for-dollar, up to $110,000, doubling your impact. |
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