Before you start

What is Company B™ Certification?

The B Company Certification, granted by B Lab™, guarantees that a company complies with high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. It lasts for 3 years, and at the end, the company must undergo a recertification process.

It is exclusive for companies, as it provides an integral diagnosis of the company, ensuring that the 5 areas (governance, community, environment, workers and customers) comply with international requirements. That is why it does not certify processes, products, divisions, brands or business units.

Unlike other certifications, Company B must legally commit to protect its mission in the bylaws. You can see all the requirements here.

How long does certification last?

The certification lasts 3 years and is renewable.

Six months prior to the expiration of the certification, B Corp must resubmit the B Impact Assessment™ for review, and go through the verification process again.

How does the certification process work?

The process varies depending on the structure of the company:

Companies with less than 12 months of operations

While they cannot certify as a B Corp, they can access a temporary status called Pending B Corp™.

Standard companies with more than 12 months of operations

Companies that have a simple structure (they are not part of a corporate group and do not represent a global brand).

Companies with complex structure

Large corporations, multinationals, business groups or companies with subsidiaries, franchises, divisions or other affiliated entities, etc.

Companies with Complex Structure

The certification process for large companies and multinationals is more rigorous, with additional requirements and verification measures.

If your company meets one of the following criteria, it is considered a company with a complex structure:

It operates under a franchise model.
It has majority-owned (50%+) and/or wholly-owned (99%+) subsidiaries.
It is owned by another company.
It is part of a group with which it shares a brand, equipment or operations.
It operates in multiple countries.

Has a relationship with the government (ownership, shares operations, employees, customers, Board of Directors, etc.).
It has the government as a client.
Operates a monopoly.
Turnover >US$100 million.
It is public / publicly traded.

Companies with an annual turnover of more than US$100 million, must perform the Diagnostic stage before completing the Impact Assessment B.

Request information from certificaciones@sistemab.org

Eligibility

Any company that operates within a territory where B Lab or Sistema B™ is present and complies with the requirementsYou can apply for B Corp Certification. There is no minimum or maximum size.

Although in some cases a more in-depth analysis will be required, in general, these are the criteria for potentially ineligible companies:

That do not reach the 80 points verified in the Impact Assessment B.
Unwilling to comply with the legal requirement of B Corp.
That are related to the government.
Operating in a Controversial Industryand do not meet the specific requirements.
That have controversial practices and are unwilling to undertake remediation.
That they are not independent and have no control over the purchase of products and their impact on the supply chain.
Franchises operating in the same country as the franchisor (not certified).

Don't forget that the Company B Certification standards are evolving. See the section for more information.

Can companies with less than 1 year of operations be certified?

For a company to be certified as a B Company, it must meet high standards of socio-environmental impact, and it is unlikely that a new company will be able to meet them.

However, there is a distinct opportunity for those who want to be born with impact at the core of their business and want to be part of the B Movement, to be a B Company Pending

What does Company B Pending consist of?

B Company Pending is a temporary status granted by B Lab to startups and small businesses that have less than one year of operations and wish to become Certified B Companies in the future, but cannot yet reach the minimum required score.

The company receives explicit and specific permission to use B Lab's intellectual property - i.e., the Empresa B Pendiente name and the Empresa B Pendiente logo - exclusively on its website, digital channels and internal communications. The Empresa B Pendiente logo may not be used on packaging or print.

After a period of time (1 year for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico and 2 years for Belize, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela), the Pending B Companies must complete the entire certification process.

It is important to note that the term B Company Pending does not refer to any company that is in the process of becoming a B Company. Companies must apply for B Company Pending status.

Business groups and related entities

How can related entities and subsidiaries become a B Company?

Company B is a comprehensive company-level certification. It evaluates social and environmental performance and a company's responsibility to consider all stakeholders, not just shareholders.

B Lab does not certify brands, divisions or business units. In some cases, B Lab certifies related companies or subsidiaries within a broader organizational structure that meet independence requirements.

In certain cases, for example, if the brand/name is shared in whole or in part, maintaining the B-Company Certification of a subsidiary will imply additional requirements for the parent company.

Subsidiaries

Subsidiaries are eligible to become B Corporations in their own right if they can demonstrate that they are operationally independent of their parent and/or sister companies. This requirement exists because B Company Certification is primarily intended to comprehensively assess the social and environmental performance of an entire company.

B Lab needs to determine that a subsidiary seeking independent certification is a business "complete and distinct." This includes being a distinct legal entity, having executive responsibility, exercising control over its products/services and its supply chain. It must also report financial account information independently and have information about its operations, including but not limited to people management, supply chain management and its environmental practices and policies.

In addition, the ability of a subsidiary to certify independently also depends on whether the subsidiary shares a name with its parent or sister company:

If its name is substantially different enough to ensure differentiation in the market (in all cases to be confirmed by B Lab), the entity is eligible to certify independently.

Subsidiaries with the same name as their parent company can certify independently if the subsidiary is located in a different geography, has a separate website and is operationally independent. However, to alleviate confusion and to safeguard the credibility of the B-Company brand, parent companies with the same name as B-Company certified subsidiaries must make certification commitments.

In all cases, B Lab shall confirm eligibility and review the guidelines for communication and use of the Company B brand.

Parent company

Since B-Company Certification is designed to evaluate a company across the entire scope of its operations, parent companies wishing to become a B-Company must include all wholly or majority owned subsidiaries in the scope of certification to be eligible.

In all cases, B Lab must confirm eligibility through a no-cost process called Discovery, which will also clarify the manner in which affiliates are to be incorporated into the certification.

For more information and other cases of related companies, see the Complete Guide below.

Controversial Industries

Understanding the negative repercussions of an enterprise

What are risk standards? What are controversial issues? And how do you assess a company's negative impacts, both with the current version of the now and with the new standards?

This page provides an overview of risk standards and how negative impacts on new and existing standards are determined. For specific information on how risk standards may affect your company, please refer to the links below:

Frequently Asked Questions

What are risk standards?

B Lab's risk standards and processes are additional minimum standards that companies in controversial industries, or those with potentially negative practices, must meet in order to qualify for B Company Certification. Risk standards are necessary to maintain credibility, manage risk and achieve the impact B Lab seeks in the world. B Lab's risk standards and research are posted on the website in order to provide transparency about eligibility for B Company Certification and encourage further constructive public discourse.

What is a controversial topic?

A controversial issue refers to a practice or industry in which the company's involvement could influence negative and adverse impacts. For more B Lab definitions of risk-related terms, click here. here.

How is risk assessed in the current B-Company Certification process?

The current B Company Certification assesses a company's risk (potential negative impacts) separately from its positive impacts. While the current B Impact Assessment captures a company's positive impacts, a company's negative impacts are identified through the B Impact Assessment Disclosure Questionnaire, the background check and the Public Complaint Process.

Transition to the New B Lab Standards

As B Lab works to evolve the B Company Certification standards more broadly, we take the opportunity to optimize and improve our risk processes. Today, B Lab's risk standards and processes outline additional minimum standards that companies in controversial sectors, or those with potentially negative practices, must meet in order to qualify for B Company Certification. As part of B Lab's work to holistically evolve our standards, this is changing, and many controversial topics will no longer require separate requirements to be developed. Existing and pending standards on controversial industries and Disclosure Questionnaire (DQ) risk topics will be addressed as follows:

Some standards on Controversial Issues and risk issues from the Disclosure Questionnaire will be adequately covered by the Impact Issues of the new standards.
Some risk issues will be integrated into non-eligible sectors, as defined in the Fundamental Requirements (1.2) of the new standards.
Some risk areas and issues will be addressed through an updated risk assessment process.

New evaluation processes have already been put in place (e.g., the new approach for Clients in Controversial Industries), which bridge the gap between current and new standards, based on internationally recognized frameworks such as lhe Principles UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

In addition, B Lab is incorporating new risk processes into our digital products, allowing for automatic assessment of eligibility at the start of a company's certification process. This will ensure a smoother experience at the start of the certification process. It is currently being tested in an opt-in pilot phase for new companies, and is expected to be made available to all new and re-certifying companies in 2025.

Please note that while we await the release of new standards or the development of a relevant assessment framework, a company's certification status may remain on hold. B Lab representatives will contact companies when a path to certification or a decision on ineligibility has been determined.

More information on the standards evolution process here.