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Evolving B Corp standards: the latest updates

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If you’re a part of the B Corp community, or aspiring to be, you’re most likely aware of the upcoming changes to the certification standards. Our previous blog post explains the transition from the current standards (Version 6) to the new standards (V7) in more detail if you’d like to refresh your memory.

This evolution has been a long process and is still underway, but B Lab have now shared their summary report on the second consultation on the draft new standards which took place earlier this year (January to March 2024). This is a significant milestone that brings more certainty around what we can expect the new standards to look like.

We’ve delved into the consultation report to pull out the six most notable updates:

  • ‘Fair Wages’ and ‘Workplace Culture’ are merging into a single ‘Fair Work’ Core Impact Topic, complete with sub-requirements on labour rights.
  • We’re saying goodbye to Complementary Impact Topics as B Lab has decided to remove this from the new standards. This was originally planned as a section in which companies would complete a version of the current B Impact Assessment, but presented implementation and verification challenges.
  • B Lab is moving forward with its proposed approach for performance recognition with companies being able to ‘meet’ or ‘exceed’ requirements, and implement Impact Business Models (IBMs) as differentiators. An IBM-specific consultation is planned for 2025 which will result in more detailed guidance.
  • The equity mechanism will be going ahead as planned, which allows a level of flexibility in compliance for companies operating in places with operational barriers.
  • A number of changes have been proposed to specific requirements and sub-requirements to address stakeholder feedback. See pp31-45 of the report for a deep dive, but a couple of examples include introducing more grievance procedure options under PSG3 and re-organising ESC3.3 to improve alignment with the waste hierarchy.
  • B Lab is working to incorporate the prevalent feedback highlighted in the report and their aim is to publish the new standard in early 2025.

In summary, B Lab’s report indicates that, while they are still working on improving and refining the new standards at the requirement and sub-requirement level, the overall structure and level of expectation on businesses are pretty much set.

This means it’s a great time to begin getting familiar with the new standards and assessing the areas you need to prioritise making improvements in your business.

If you’d like some help with this, our team of experts are on hand – just drop us an email to get in touch: contact@greenheartbusiness.com.

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