General B Corp Data and Insights
- Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, are for-profit companies dedicated to using business as a force for good.
- B Corps meet high verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.
- B Corps use the power of business to solve our most pressing global challenges.
- Unlike traditional corporations, B Corps are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on all stakeholders: customers, workers, communities, and the environment.
- People want to work for, buy from, and invest in businesses they believe in. B Corp Certification is the most powerful way to build credibility, trust, and value for your business.
- Over 6,700 Certified B Corporations in over 90 countries, across 160+ industries, are inspiring tens of thousands of other companies to follow their lead by measuring their impact, changing their corporate structure, and building better businesses.
- The total combined revenue of B Corps globally is over $184 billion.
- More than 200,000 businesses are actively following the lead of B Corps by using B Lab’s B Impact Assessment and benefit corporation governance structure.
About Certification
What are the benefits of becoming a Certified B Corp?
- Differentiate your business
- Protect your mission as you scale
- Raise mission-aligned capital
- Access technology, talent, and expertise
- Network with high-performing peers
- Pass legislation to advance sustainable business
- Set standards to drive impact investments
- Strategize with other leaders for collective action
How B Corps get certified
B Corp Certification is based on three essential pillars. Alone, none of these pillars are sufficient. It’s the combination that makes it unique, credible, and significant.
- Verified performance ensures that B Corps walk the talk. To meet the performance requirement, a company must earn a minimum, verified score of 80 points on the B Impact Assessment, which examines a company’s overall impact on its workers, community, customers, and environment.
- Transparency builds trust. Once certified, each B Corp must make its B Impact Report transparent on bcorporation.net, allowing the public to see the areas in which specific companies excel and compare B Corps’ scores against the performance of mainstream businesses.
- By meeting the legal requirement for certification, B Corps are better able to maintain mission as they scale, have more flexibility when evaluating future sale options, and are better prepared to lead a mission-driven life post-IPO.
Data & Insights Per Impact Area: Environment
- In 2022, the global B Corp community:
- Offset or saved 3.3 billion liters of water through their services.
- Protected 1.1 million hectares of land (about the size of Jamaica)
- Diverted 8.4 million tons of waste from landfill or incineration.
- Compared to ordinary businesses, B Corps are:
- 2.5 times more likely to be Carbon Neutral
- 4.5 times more likely to use 100% renewable energy.
- 2.2 times more likely to assess the environmental impact of their organization’s business activities.
- 1.5 times more likely to produce zero waste to landfill or ocean.
- 2.4 times more likely to have programs to reduce their end-of-life waste.
- 1.5 times more likely to implement some form of water conservation in the majority of their corporate offices or plant facilities.
Data & Insights: Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
- Women-owned businesses are more likely to certify as B Corps, and over 25% of B Corps are women-owned.
- Compared to ordinary businesses, B Corps globally are:
- 4.7 times more likely to have Supplier Diversity Policies or Programs that give preferences to suppliers with ownership from underrepresented populations.
- 1.6 times more likely to have Boards of Directors comprised of majority women or individuals from other underrepresented populations.
- 1.8 times more likely to perform a pay equity analysis based on gender/race/ethnicity or other demographic factors, and if necessary, implement equal compensation plans or policies.
- In the U.S. & Canada, B Corps are:
- 49% more likely to employ managers from traditionally underrepresented groups in comparison to ordinary businesses.
- 1.4 times more likely to offer employee DEI training.
- 1.3 times more likely to perform an analysis of job descriptions for inclusivity and equity.
- 1.6 times more likely to offer domestic partner or civil union benefits.
Data & Insights: Community
- B Corps are 49% more likely to give customers access to information about the sourcing of suppliers, including their location
- In 2021, B Corp workers spent 31,892 hours doing community service.
- Compared to ordinary businesses, B Corps globally are:
- 4 times more likely to hire the majority of their managers from local communities.
- 2.4 times more likely to donate more than 1% of their revenue to charity.
- 2.7 times more likely to perform policy advocacy for social and environmental causes by providing active staff time or financial support.
- 5.8 times more likely than ordinary businesses to screen suppliers based on positive social and environmental practices like environmental-friendly manufacturing processes or excellent labor practices.
Data & Insights: Governance
- 100% of B Corps have stakeholder governance embedded in their corporate structure.
- 15,000 businesses globally are now benefit corporations or local equivalents.
- In 2022, there were 22 separate policy initiatives underway to advocating for mandatory and voluntary transitions in stakeholder governance.
- Compared to ordinary businesses, B Corps globally are:
- 4.3 times more likely to tie executive compensation to social and environmental performance and include related accountabilities in their job descriptions.
- 2.4 times more likely to provide employee training that includes social or environmental issues material to the company or its mission.
- 2.9 times more likely to publish impact reports on their social and environmental performance.
- 3.9 times more likely to explicitly incorporate social and environmental performance into managers’ job descriptions.
Data & Insights: Workers
- Nearly 25% of all B Corps are fully owned by their employees.
- B Corps are 2.7 times more likely than ordinary businesses to seek input from employees prior to operational or strategic policy changes
- B Corps are 36% more likely than ordinary businesses to allow workers to freely associate and bargain collectively for the terms of one’s employment
- 87% of B Corps provide their employees with flex-time work schedules, and 83% offer telecommuting benefits.
- 69% of B Corps offer bonuses or profit-sharing to non-executive workers.
- Compared to ordinary businesses, B Corps globally are:
- 1.4 times more likely to have a 5:1 high to low pay ratio.
- 3.5 times more likely to have salaries for executives increase at the same percentage as non-executives.
- 2 times more likely to grant a majority of full-time employees’ stock, stock options, or stock equivalents in the company.
- 1.1 times more likely to 100% of their workers a family living wage
- 1.8 times more likely to perform a pay equity analysis based on gender/race/ethnicity or other demographic factors, and if necessary, implement equal compensation plans or policies.
- In the U.S. & Canada, B Corps are:
- 1.6 times more likely to offer a retirement plan than non-B Corps
- 1.8 times more likely to offer more paid time off, with 66% of B Corps offering 23 or more days off per year.
- 1.3 times more likely to keep workers’ schedules consistent and 1.4 times more likely to share schedules at least 2 weeks in advance.
