B Lab publishes new B Corp standards, raising the bar for businesses worldwide
8 April 2025 — Today, B Lab unveiled new standards for B Corp Certification to galvanize business action on the world’s critical social and environmental issues, marking the most significant evolution in the nonprofit’s 19-year history.
As the climate crisis intensifies and societal inequality grows, the standards provide companies with clarity on how they can take meaningful and tangible action on issues facing people and the planet, raising the bar for all businesses, with B Corps leading the way. The new standards serve as an open-source blueprint for responsible leaders and are freely available in the B Impact app.
The new standards, B Lab’s seventh iteration, build on the success of the global B Corp movement, driving businesses to scale impact towards shared social and environmental goals. With the B Corp community on the cusp of a significant milestone — a groundswell of almost 10,000 companies across 100 countries, employing nearly 1 million workers in 160 industries — the potential for positive change across the economy is reaching new heights.
After engaging with diverse stakeholders through a multi-year consultation process, B Lab is introducing requirements that all B Corps must meet across seven critical Impact Topics and moving away from cumulative point scoring. This will create a mandate for B Corps to manage their impact holistically while increasing transparency and clarity for the public.
B Corps must meet performance standards across seven ‘Impact Topics’:
Purpose & Stakeholder Governance: Act in accordance with a defined purpose and embed stakeholder governance in decision-making, creating governance structures to monitor purpose, social, and environmental performance.
Climate Action: Develop an action plan to support limiting global warming to 1.5°C, and, for larger companies, include GHG emissions and validated science-based targets.
Human Rights: Understand how their operations and value chain may involve negative human rights impacts and take action to prevent and mitigate negative impacts.
Fair Work: Provide good quality jobs and have positive workplace cultures, implement fair wage practices, and incorporate worker feedback in decision-making.
Environmental Stewardship & Circularity: Assess their environmental impacts and take meaningful action to minimize them in their operations and value chain.
Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion: Foster inclusive and diverse workplaces, and contribute meaningfully to just and equitable communities.
Government Affairs & Collective Action: 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.
As businesses face increasing regulatory complexity and mounting pressure to retreat from climate and social justice initiatives, B Lab’s new standards provide a clear path for sustained commitment. Recognizing the pressures businesses face today, they incorporate data and methodologies from other certification schemes, sustainability-related frameworks, and disclosure reporting—including GRI, SBTi, and Fairtrade—enabling companies to focus on what matters: operating for the benefit of all stakeholders.
While B Corp Certification affirms that a business meets high standards of social and environmental performance, the commitment to progress doesn’t end there. Continuous improvement is a cornerstone of the new B Corp standards; businesses must demonstrate impact improvement over time, including milestones after 3 years and 5 years, empowering leaders to continue driving meaningful progress throughout their journey as a B Corp.
“At a time when other leaders are stepping back, business must drive progress. This isn’t merely an update; it’s a complete reimagining of business impact to respond to the challenges of our time,” says Clay Brown, Co-Lead Executive of B Lab Global. “B Lab’s new standards can serve as a roadmap for leadership on social and environmental issues when needed most.”
“After four years, two public consultations, and 26,000 pieces of feedback from businesses, the public, and experts, we are confident that the new standards are clear, ambitious, and truly capable of raising the bar for businesses worldwide,” says Judy Rodrigues, Director of Standards of B Lab Global. “We look forward to collaborating with our community as they embrace these new standards and create momentum for systems change.”
“More than ever, companies need a common language to assess and report on their environmental, social, and economic impacts. We commend B Lab’s focus on interoperability in their new standards, including their references to GRI’s own globally leading sustainability reporting standards,” says Robin Hodess, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). “All businesses, no matter their size, need to account for their impacts. B Lab's new standards will help make that process more achievable.”
“The climate crisis demands bold action. For long-term resilience and advantage, businesses must lead the way as the architects of a net-zero economy,” says Tracy Wyman, Chief Impact Officer of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). “B Lab’s new standards call on the most influential and well-resourced B Corps to contribute to a sustainable future by setting science-based targets using the SBTi’s rigorous standards, tools, and guidance. Through guidance that businesses must also mobilize their supply chains and networks, the standard looks to drive climate action at scale through systemic change. It’s another step forward in driving a universal climate movement.”
“It’s great to see that B Lab’s new standards call on businesses to advance a fair deal for farmers, workers, and our planet,” says Tytti Nahi, Director of Fairtrade International’s HREDD Centre for Excellence. “The Fairtrade Risk Map, referenced in the standards, can help B Corps assess their human rights and environmental risks and prevent harm before it happens. We congratulate the team at B Lab on reaching this milestone in improving the impact of business by drawing attention to the value chain beyond companies’ walls.”
“The new standards offer a clearer definition of what it means to be a B Corp, modelling what good business looks like and providing a powerful framework to amplify impact,” says Lindsay Zizumbo, Executive Director of the Sorenson Impact Foundation. “They will shape the future of business, creating a comprehensive blueprint for companies to transform the global economy to benefit all people, communities, and the planet.”
“At Armonia, we've always believed that transformative impact requires more than good intentions; it demands rigorous, transparent measurement,” says Alexandra Lunt, Principal of Armonia. “B Lab’s new standards provide us with a framework to assess and accelerate the positive change we seek across our portfolio.”
ENDS
For more information, please contact: press@bcorporation.net
About B Lab: B Lab is a nonprofit transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities, and the planet. A leader in economic systems change, our global network creates standards, policies, tools, and programs for business, and we certify companies, known as B Corps, who are leading the way. To date, our community includes 950,000 workers in over 9,600 B Corps across 102 countries and 161 industries. To learn more, visit bcorporation.net.
About B Corp Certification: Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, are companies verified to meet B Lab’s standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Based on stakeholder input, research, and established best practices, B Lab’s standards are the basis for B Corp Certification requirements and B Lab’s impact management tools, and they inform the network’s programs and collective action initiatives.