Guidelines for Acceptance to the Baseline Requirements document published online

Please visit this page for the most up-to-date guidance on Baseline Requirements for large multinationals, updated March 2024.

B Lab Global is excited to launch the Guidelines for Acceptance for the Baseline Requirements. The Baseline Requirements are extra requirements that large multinationals companies over US$5billion in revenue are expected to meet before they are able to Certify as a B Corp at the Group Level.

The Guidelines are the result of a 12 month consultation process with the Multinational Standards Advisory Council and the B Lab Standards Team as well as expert stakeholders in the fields of sustainable impact. They have been developed to provide guidance on Baseline Requirement interpretation and application for US$5billion+ companies that are either interested in or have begun to engage in the B Corp Certification process. As well as providing background to the creation of the Baseline Requirements, the Guidelines explain in detail the rationale behind each requirement, practical information on company actions that would likely be meeting each requirement, ways for company to verify those actions, examples of company actions that are not meeting the requirements and for companies that are already meeting the requirements, examples of best practices that goes above and beyond. Where possible, real world company actions have been added to help demonstrate what the requirements would look like in practice.*  A high level overview of the review and approval process is also included. 

The Guidelines for Acceptance are divided into the following sections:

Introduction and Background to the Baseline Requirements Application of the Guidelines For each Baseline Requirement:

• Rationale

• Guidelines for Acceptance 

• Actions Not Meeting the Requirements

• Best Practices

• Company Examples 

Process Overview

• Step 1: Baseline Requirement Consultation

• Step 2: Multinational Standards Advisory Council Approval 

For further information on the Baseline Requirements and other Certification requirements for Large Multinationals, please click here.

*The company examples outline real life company actions that would likely be meeting individual Baseline Requirement actions. No company examples to date have been formally reviewed and accepted by the Multinational Standards Advisory Council. Accepted company examples will be added to updated versions of the Guidelines for Acceptance on an annual basis.