As an organization motivated by our social mission to increase pro bono service and to improve the quality of the volunteer experience; and as a company committed to being good to the earth, society and our employees, we wanted to label ourselves as such. Enter the B Corporation certification. We took the assessment and passed, and then committed to certain requirements, and voila! – we became, and are proud to be, a Certified B Corporation.
We have benefited tremendously from being a B. For instance, B Corporations get discounts to great services such as the Salesforce Enterprise Edition software and Quickbooks. We believe in giving back, so we have invited our fellow for-profit, social mission, B Corporations to join Catchafire and access our community of talented, high-skilled professionals who are looking to volunteer their time and skills, not only to nonprofits, but also to for-profit social mission businesses. Read more about being a B below.
B Corporation – what’s that?
Certified B Corporations are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. They work to create greater economic opportunity, strengthen local communities and preserve our environment.
B Corps meet rigorous, independent social and environmental performance standards. They are certified by BLab, a nonprofit organization, the same way Transfair certifies Fair Trade coffee or USGBC certifies green buildings. Through a company’s B Impact Assessment, anyone can access performance data about the social and environmental practices that stand behind their products.
B Corporations are working to build a new sector of the economy. These companies can be found all over the US, in many different industries.
B Corporations, Benefit Corporations, B Lab…It’s hard to keep it all straight. Here’s the rundown:
Certified B Corporation: a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. B Corps meet rigorous, independent social and environmental performance standards and are working to build a new sector of the economy.
To become a B Corporation, you must 1) take and pass the B Impact Ratings System 2) Adopt the BCorporation Legal Framework to bake the mission of the company into its legal DNA and 3) Sign a Term Sheet to make certification official.
BLab: the nonprofit organization which certifies B Corporations, the same way Transfair certifies Fair Trade coffee or USGBC certifies green buildings.
Benefit Corporation: a new class of corporation that are required to create a material positive impact on society and the environment and to meet higher standards of accountability and transparency. Benefit Corporation legislation is B Lab’s public policy initiative.
Note: Becoming a certified B Corporation is one way to meet the Benefit Corporation statutory requirements to 1) create a material positive impact on society and the environment, as measured by a third party standard and 2) report on overall corporate social and environmental performance using a third party standard.
