B Lab's New Standards Impact Topic: Government Affairs & Collective Action
B Lab’s standards define the performance that a company must meet and continuously improve upon to achieve and maintain B Corp Certification. Since 2006, we have evolved the standards to improve their impactfulness and clarify what it means to be a leading business, incorporating feedback from diverse stakeholders.
To achieve these goals, the new standards require companies to meet specific requirements across seven Impact Topics. While we have developed the new standards with the existing standards in mind, you can expect to see new topics and evolved requirements where topics overlap, designed to improve business impact.
After all, the B Corp community is built on the principle of continuous improvement.
Using business as a force for good starts with leadership inside a company—but it doesn’t end there. Meaningful impact requires engaging in collective efforts that tackle social and environmental challenges at their roots. That includes advocating for policies that benefit people and the planet, collaborating across sectors for shared solutions, and ensuring fair contributions to public infrastructure through responsible tax practices.
Grace Son explores how companies can lead the way in shaping a just and sustainable future, driving collective impact through responsible lobbying, fair tax practices, and working together for systemic change.
Describe the impact topic in a nutshell:
Businesses must engage in collective efforts to drive systemic change, advocate for policies that create positive social and environmental outcomes, and, for the largest companies, publicly share their country-by-country tax reports.
What is the purpose of the topic, and why does it matter in today’s world?
Collective action is when companies engage with external stakeholders to amplify their social and environmental impacts. When communities, companies, and governments collaborate towards a common goal, they leverage shared knowledge and resources, creating a multiplier effect and amplifying their impact for systems change. Examples of collective action include mentoring, external research, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and policy advocacy.
Advocacy, or lobbying, is an important part of how companies engage with governments. Some companies may lobby governments for legislation that benefits their own operations – but to the detriment of other stakeholders, such as local communities and the environment. Responsible lobbying means that companies only lobby for legislation that creates positive social and environmental outcomes.
Another integral part of government affairs is companies paying taxes. Taxes are the most sustainable source of government income and play a crucial role in financing the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Responsible taxes mean that companies make fair tax payments to the countries in which they operate. This is especially important for multinational companies, due to disparities in tax laws that legally exploit the global tax system.
How has the emphasis of the topic changed throughout the development process and what factors contributed to that?
The principles of collective action have long been central to the B Corp movement. To become a B Corp, companies sign the Declaration of Interdependence, committing to a shared purpose of transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities, and the planet. The B Impact Assessment already measures a company’s performance on external research, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and advocacy.
The main change to this topic is the integration of the Baseline Requirements on lobbying and taxes. These changes respond to stakeholder feedback emphasizing the importance of corporate influence and financial transparency, as well as emerging legislation such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which requires companies to be more transparent in their lobbying activities.
What Impact Topic requirement(s) are you most excited about - and why?
While individual stakeholders may sometimes feel overwhelmed by the enormity of global social and environmental challenges, there’s strength in numbers. Companies, when they come together with their communities, peers, and even governments, can amplify their impact in ways that would be impossible alone.
Tackling complex social and environmental challenges requires more than just resources—it takes diverse perspectives, expertise, and a willingness to collaborate. Collective action brings together people from all walks of life, with different cultures, backgrounds, and lived experiences. This diversity is what fuels innovation, allowing for new ideas and solutions that are both creative and effective. And it’s crucial to remember that these global challenges don’t affect everyone equally. Often, marginalized communities bear the brunt. Collective action encourages the sharing of responsibilities, ensuring that no one is left behind and paving the way for more equitable outcomes for all.
One powerful example of collective action is policy advocacy. By joining forces, companies can push for legislative changes that drive positive social and environmental impact. Imagine a world where businesses advocate for policies that align with the global goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, or push for stronger accountability and remediation for human rights violations in supply chains. Together, we can turn these goals into reality.
What similarities are there between this new Impact Topic and the existing standards?
The B Impact Assessment has long measured company performance in collective action, focusing on key areas like external research, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and advocacy. The new GACA collective action requirement builds on this foundation by expanding the scope to include mentorship and thought leadership as additional examples of meaningful collaboration. GACA also introduces minimum requirements for each type of collective action. For instance, larger companies must demonstrate a clear contribution to multi-stakeholder collaboration, whether that’s by taking on leadership roles or actively participating in working groups.
When it comes to lobbying and taxes, GACA builds upon the Baseline Requirements*, which already ask companies to have policies in place for lobbying activities and tax rates. The new GACA lobbying requirements go a step further, setting minimum standards that demand grounding lobbying efforts in scientific data, adopting a clear stance on anti-corruption and bribery, and ensuring transparency when working with intermediary organizations. Likewise, the GACA tax requirement strengthens alignment with the GRI Tax Standard, ensuring more rigorous and transparent tax practices.
Where are the biggest growth areas for companies?
In the last public consultation, some stakeholders raised questions about the role of taxes in a company’s sustainability strategy. While the conversation around taxes is still evolving, there are some exciting developments that highlight the growing importance of tax transparency in the sustainability landscape, such as the Tax for SDGs Initiative and the GRI Tax Standard.
Launched in 2022, the Tax for SDGs Initiative recognizes that taxes play a crucial role in financing the U.N. SDGs. Taxes reduce the need for international aid, support the repayment of national debt, and bolster a country’s ability to weather external economic shocks.
Furthermore, the GRI Tax Standard, introduced in 2019, stands as the world’s first global benchmark for tax transparency. It encourages companies to publicly disclose their business activities and tax payments on a country-by-country basis. This type of reporting, which includes an explanation for any discrepancies between statutory tax rates and actual tax payments, is in response to growing calls for greater tax transparency from stakeholders worldwide.
Today, one-in-four of the largest public companies globally use the GRI Tax Standard in their sustainability reports, and major players like the United Nations and the European Union are referencing the standard in their frameworks and regulations. With the GRI Tax Standard setting the global bar, the GACA tax requirements align with it, urging companies to adopt responsible tax policies and commit to country-by-country reporting.
What is your biggest tip for companies working towards the new standards / this topic in particular?
Start by identifying your most material social and environmental issues, along with challenges you face in addressing them (see Purpose & Stakeholder Governance). Once you have a clear understanding of your priorities, look for opportunities for collective action that directly relate to these issues. By leveraging your resources and expertise, you can engage with stakeholders and create impactful, collective solutions to drive meaningful progress.
How will the standards related to Government Affairs & Collective Action be responsive to the different contexts of companies?
The requirements in Government Affairs & Collective Action are tailored for company size to reflect differences in available resources and potential impact.
For example, in the collective action requirement, the number of actions increases based on company size. This ranges from a micro company taking part in one collective action to an XXL company taking part in four collective actions.
Likewise, the rigor of the actions also increases based on company size. A micro company may fulfill the mentoring option by mentoring one company to advance its social or environmental impacts. However, for an XXL company to fulfill the mentoring option, the company must demonstrate that their mentoring has a systematic approach targeting a specific group of mentees. A systematic approach to mentoring means having a defined program with a timeline, milestones, and deliverables.
If I’m a current B Corp, or seeking to become one, where should I focus my impact efforts for this core topic of Government Affairs & Collective Action?
In order to achieve the intent of the Government Affairs & Collective Action topic, the company should consider the following:
Demonstrate responsible lobbying by publishing a lobbying policy and publicly reporting on lobbying positions and political contributions.
Take part in collective action to advance social or environmental impacts through mentoring, external research, multi-stakeholder collaboration, or advocacy.
Improve transparency on tax payments by publishing a tax policy and publicly reporting on country-by-country taxes.
Do you have more questions on the content of B Lab’s new standards? Join the Q&A session with the Standards Management Team on 29 April 2025. Log in to your regional community hub or reach out to your regional B Lab team to register. Want to learn more about the other Impact Topics in B Lab's new standards?
🪧 Purpose &Stakeholder Governance
🪧 Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion [COMING SOON]
🪧 Fair Work [COMING SOON]
🪧 Human Rights [COMING SOON]
🪧 Environmental Stewardship & Circularity
🪧 Climate Action [COMING SOON]
*This applies only to Multinational Companies over US$5billion.