FAQs

Only for-profit businesses can certify as B Corp, as B Lab’s vision is to transform the capitalist system away from unfair capitalism to a fairer capitalist system. Not-for-profits and government organisations cannot certify, however, any type of organisation can use the B Corp framework for free to baseline their social and environmental performance and use it as an improvement roadmap.

Specific businesses which B Corp might be right for include:

• Businesses who have already committed to creating a positive environmental and social impact
• Businesses looking for a way to formalise that commitment with a third-party certification
• Businesses that are looking for a way to improve on their social and environmental performance and would like a holistic roadmap that shows them how to embed it into every area of the business

   

  The B Corp community has been growing rapidly since its inception in 2006, and it only keeps on growing, there are now over 10,000 B Corps worldwide, in 105 countries and 160 industries.

  The UK B Corp community includes over 2,500 certified B Corps, the majority of whom are micro and small businesses.

Benefits include:

• Attracting and engaging talent through improved financial security, health and wellbeing, career development, engagement, diversity and inclusion for staff
• Stronger growth: UK B Corps have shown faster annual growth in turnover and employee numbers than non-B Corps (Statistics from 2025 B Lab UK survey of 132 UK BCorps compared with UK government agency surveys of the wider UK SMEs)

• Mission lock: by embedding stakeholder governance into the company’s Articles of Association
• Benchmarking and improving performance through regular assessment and re-certification
• Third-party verification of social and environmental responsibility
• Collaboration & purpose-led business community: Through the B Corp community, you will have access to lots of different collaboration opportunities.
• Cost savings through reduced consumption of natural resources
• Attracting external investment focused on long-term business health
• Encouraging innovation, including higher uptake of R&D tax credits
• Positive press and storytelling opportunities
• Customer loyalty: B Corps generate customer loyalty because they offer more than just products—they offer purpose, trust, and alignment with personal values. For today’s conscious consumers, that’s often more powerful than price or convenience.
• Futureproofs your business: B Corp certification makes businesses think about the long-term health, productivity and risk management of the business. So once legislation catches up with where the world needs to be in terms of looking after People and Planet, as a standard, your business will be ahead of the game.

The overall process to become B Corp certified includes:

• Meeting the minimum mandatory requirements (around 30–35 requirements, depending on size and sector)

• Making a legal change to your Articles of Association to prioritise all stakeholders

• Having your B Impact Assessment verified

• Signing the B Corp Declaration of Interdependence

It can take 9–12 months of improvements to comply with the minimum mandatory requirements.

Verification can take a further 9–12 months, although the wait is being reduced all the time.

Under the new standards, certification follows a phased approach, with Year 0, Year 3 and Year 5 requirements, reflecting continuous improvement.

B Corp Certification involves a one-off submission fee, a one-off verification fee and an annual certification fee, which all depend on your annual revenue.

Some internal resource is always required, even when working with an external consultant.

Approximate internal time commitment:

• Around 5 days per month if completing the process internally

• Around 1 day per month with external support

The process requires input from different roles across the business, including leadership, finance, HR, procurement, sustainability, and marketing, depending on the impact topic.

1.      Firstly, Standards are tailored to company size, EITHER on full-time equivalent (FTE) OR revenue, whichever is lowest

2.     Secondly, by sector. Industry categories are:

a.     Agriculture (earns over 10% of its revenue from products grown on its farm or agro-processing facility)

b.    Manufacturing (A company that earns over 10% of its revenue from products it makes)

c.     Service with minor footprint (A company that earns 90% or more of its revenue from services without selling physical products or requiring a physical location for delivery)

d.    Service with significant footprint (A company that earns 90% or more of its revenue from services that involve significant machinery or equipment, or require a specific operational location (often key to delivering the service).

e.    Wholesale/retail (A company that earns over 10% of its revenue from selling physical products, but does not own or operate the manufacturing processes or facilities that produce them.)

3.    Thirdly, The new standards allow some companies to opt out of 10-15% of sub-requirements, depending on where they are based and if that country faces operational barriers. Only some sub-requirements are eligible.

The new B Corp requirements, being rolled out from January 2026 onwards, cover:

a.    Purpose & stakeholder governance

b.    Fair Work

c.    Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI)

d.    Human Rights

e.    Climate Action

f.     Environmental stewardship & Circularity

g.    Government Affairs & Collective Action