4

The Quick Start Guide

Welcome to the six-step Quick Start Guide. This section is designed both for businesses that want to become Certified B Corporations and for those that are unsure about certification but want a straightforward, step-by-step road map to help them measure, compare, and improve their social and environmental performance.

If you are unsure about whether B Corp certification is right for you, feel free to do as much (or as little) of the following section as you wish. This six-step guide can be seen as an informal resource to help you plan and implement improvements to your business. Those who wish to become certified should follow the same six-step guide, and there are a few extra tasks you will need to complete to meet the minimum requirements. These extra steps are marked “B Corps only” in each segment.

Keep your cool, work with the folks from B Lab, and don’t panic or fret. B Corp certification is more of a journey-based process than a destination-based reward.

Daniel Andrade, BILD—Bolivia

Just as “Dr. Jana’s Tips” on diversity, equity, and inclusion are included throughout the book, this section includes “Ryan’s Tips” on how to manage the B Impact Assessment and the B Corp certification process quickly and effectively.

Whether you are seeking B Corp certification or not, the size and complexity of your company will affect how quickly you can move through the following section. We have found that you will have the best chance of successfully completing this process if:

• you have the ability to see that “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” If you try to be perfect on the B Impact Assessment, you run the risk of getting bogged down and never finishing. Aim for good enough and continue to improve your score in the future.

• you or someone else in your company “owns” the project. If many people are working on a project, it often means that no one is actually responsible for moving it forward. Make sure that someone (whether it is you, an external consultant, or another employee) has taken ownership of the project and will dedicate the time and energy necessary to see it through to completion.

• you have access to financial, worker, supplier, community, and environmental data. If you don’t personally have access to this data, you need access to the people who are responsible for this data (e.g., the facility manager for energy usage or the human resources manager for employee metrics).

• you proactively engage with and provide value to the B Corp community upon completion of B Corp certification. Over the past few years, a few companies have certified as B Corps and then immediately started to pitch their products and services to a large number of B Corps. This is not a good approach. Although the community welcomes all new Certified B Corporations, we also want to build long-term relationships with you that are based on mutual respect and support. Try giving selflessly to the community. You may be surprised at how much value you receive in return.

Step 1: Get a Baseline

Objective: The objective during step 1 is to use the B Impact Assessment to establish a quick baseline of your company’s overall social and environmental performance and to create momentum before engaging others in the process.

End result: A rough B Impact Report for your company.

✓ Create your B Impact Assessment account. Create your free account online at bimpactassessment.net. As you register, you will be asked questions about your company’s size, industry, and location in order to generate a version of the assessment that is tailored to fit your business. For example, a marketing company with six employees will see different questions than a furniture manufacturer with six thousand employees.

✓ Start the Quick Impact Assessment. The first thing you will encounter is the Quick Impact Assessment. This is an abridged version of the assessment that provides a snapshot of your social and environmental impact. The goal is to give you a simple look at the practices your company already excels at and the practices you could improve upon. This can be a very useful starting point. If you want to get a numerical score (between zero and 200 points), you will need to move to the next stage.

✓ Convert to the full B Impact Assessment. Once you have answered all of the questions in the Quick Impact Assessment, you will be eligible to convert your assessment to the full version. All of your answers from the Quick Impact Assessment will be carried over. As you move through the full version of the assessment, remember to estimate your answers and to avoid spending more than a minute or two on any particular question. The goal is to get a rough baseline of your practices.

✓ Review your preliminary score. At the end of your first pass through the full assessment, you will receive a baseline B Impact Report that gives you a holistic look at your company’s overall social and environmental performance. This report will also contain benchmarks to allow you to compare your performance to more than fifty thousand other businesses that have completed the assessment.

✓ Did you score 20 to 40? Don’t get too discouraged about a low initial score. Some companies that started with a score in this range have made it all the way to B Corp certification (scoring above 80 points) with focused and consistent effort over time.

✓ Did you score 40 to 60? An overall B Impact Score of 40 to 60 is average. This means that you’ve got a solid foundation on which to build. The fun part will be working with your colleagues to determine which impact areas (Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, and/or Customers) you want to improve.

✓ Did you score 60 to 80? If you received an overall B Impact Score of 60 or higher, nice work! It sounds like your company has already adopted quite a few socially and environmentally responsible practices. From here, your goal will be to help mobilize your team to improve your performance in the areas that matter most to you and your company.

✓ Did you score 80 or higher? If you received an overall B Impact Score of 80 or higher, congratulations! Eighty is the minimum score necessary for B Corp certification. If you are interested, we highly recommend that you consider submitting your assessment to B Lab for verification and pursuing B Corp certification to give your company the recognition it deserves.

✓ Regardless of your initial overall score, remember that this is a journey of continuous improvement. Are there areas you and others in your company should be proud of? Are there areas you would like to work on? This will give you a few things to think about as you move forward into step 2.

Step 2: Engage Your Team

Objective: Identify coworkers who may be interested in helping you use your business as a force for good. During this part of the process you will have a chance to get different people involved and to get help answering any questions that you marked “revisit.”

End result: An informal working group to help you update your B Impact Report with more accurate information.

✓ Set up a meeting with key internal stakeholders. The first step to securing early buy-in and building project momentum is to organize a meeting with the key people in your company. The invite list for this meeting might include, for example, your CEO, CFO, COO, sustainability director, marketing director, human resources manager, or building manager. If you are in the manufacturing or wholesale sectors, you may wish to include key individuals from the product design, sourcing, and supply chain divisions. You want the decision makers in the room so you can bring everyone up to speed. This will help you build momentum as the project moves forward. Be mindful about including diverse perspectives, such as tenure, age, race, gender, ability, seniority, and more. Different perspectives will help you brainstorm more inclusive solutions.

✓ Explain the objectives and benefits. Explain what you are trying to achieve, what you think success would look like, and how this project will benefit the company. For example, you could say, “There is a big opportunity to use our business as a force for good, and we need your help figuring out how to drive our company toward this vision.” It can help to tailor your presentation based on who is attending the meeting, because certain objectives, metrics of success, and benefits will appeal to particular executives. For example:

• the CEO wants to attract and retain diverse talent;

• the CFO wants to attract investors and/or save money;

• human resources wants to motivate and engage employees;

• the marketing team may want to generate press, join a national ad campaign, or benefit from a trusted third-party standard;

• the sales team wants to increase consumer trust and/or create partnerships with other mission-aligned businesses;

• operations managers want to save money through operational efficiency;

• sustainability managers want to benchmark performance, share best practices, or earn recognition; and

• everyone wants a network with high-performing peers.

✓ Share the assessment process and results. Explain that you have already kick-started your company’s journey by completing a baseline and generating a preliminary score. Share what you have learned through the B Impact Report, the best practice examples, and any relevant case studies. Invite a discussion about the opportunities for the company. What matters most to different individuals? What matters most to the team? What are the biggest strengths and weaknesses?

✓ Identify a core project team. Although there may be a wide variety of internal stakeholders at this meeting, you should try to identify a core project team that can help you dig into the details, create an improvement plan, and implement any changes. Be thoughtful about diversity and inclusion by considering people from different backgrounds and at various levels of the organization. This project team may or may not include your management team. Line managers, associates, interns, and even board members can be a huge support in helping to turn ideas into action. Be thoughtful about diversity and inclusion.

Once you have a team, try to be mindful about the informal power dynamics. Who is speaking up more than others? Who gets to decide which areas of the B Impact Assessment to focus on? If the company scored poorly on the diversity section of the assessment, will your team focus on that? There is not necessarily a “right” answer for every situation. The goal is to seek to include traditionally underrepresented voices and appropriately balance the power dynamics of the team.

✓ Set clear next steps. Set up a meeting with your core project team. The goal of this meeting will be to start moving forward with the data collection and implementation process.

✓ Start discussing the B Corp legal framework (B Corps only). Discuss with key board members, legal counsel, and investors why it is important to maintain the company’s mission over the long term. Reference benefitcorp.net for information and resources about different legal options.

Step 3: Create a Plan

Objective: After you have identified your core project team, work with them to set a target B Impact Score and create an action plan with short-, medium-, and long-term goals. For example, if you started out with a score of 53, see whether you can implement enough practices to earn an additional ten points by the end of this Quick Start Guide.

End result: An action plan with specific people assigned to take the lead on each question, a target B Impact Score, and a rough timeline for completion.

✓ Use the improvement tools. Show your team the improvement report within the B Impact Assessment. This report contains any questions that you marked for improvement, alongside improvements that are suggested by B Lab.

✓ Prioritize. You can approach the process of improving your score in different ways. Initially, address easy practices that do not require a lot of work to implement. For example, tracking employee volunteer hours is much easier than making a legal conversion to a benefit corporation. Save the things that will require lots of time, energy, discussion, and senior-level approval for later in the process.

✓ Delegate responsibility. For example, your human resources manager might take the lead on figuring out how to implement a job-sharing program, and your COO might start gathering data on the environmental practices of your suppliers.

✓ Consider hiring a B Corp consultant. There is a growing community of B Corp consultants who can help you make progress on the B Impact Assessment. Reach out to Ryan and/or B Lab for recommendations about consultants who could help you.

Step 4: Implement

Objective: The objective during step 4 is for you and your team to dig in and start completing the items on your action plan.

End result: An increase in your B Impact Assessment score.

✓ Gather data and research. Depending on your action plan, this is where you start identifying the financial, worker, supplier, community, environmental, and customer data required to update your B Impact Assessment responses. If necessary, contact the people responsible for the data you need.

✓ Create policies and procedures. One of the best ways to earn points on the B Impact Assessment is to formalize your policies and procedures in writing. For example, your company can earn points by creating an environmental purchasing policy, a local purchasing policy, a community service policy, an employee handbook, a whistle-blowing policy, a code of ethics, a supplier code of conduct, or an external annual report that details your mission-related performance.

Step 5: Fine Tune

Objective: As your team is working through the action plan, keep track of your improvements by inserting your data into the B Impact Assessment. This will give you an updated score.

End result: A recalculated and refined B Impact Assessment score.

✓ Ready to tackle bigger items? Depending on the measures you have implemented, your score may have improved since your initial assessment results. Now is a good time to reconnect with the key internal stakeholders in your company, such as the people you invited to the summit during step 2. Update these key stakeholders on your progress so far and have a conversation about the remaining (and possibly bigger) action items on your list. If you have not done so already, have a discussion about whether your company is interested in becoming a Certified B Corporation.

✓ Submit your assessment (B Corps only). Are you all ready to move forward? Is your current score on the B Impact Assessment at least 80 points or higher? If so, go ahead and submit your assessment for review.

✓ Schedule an assessment review (B Corps only). After submitting your B Impact Assessment, B Lab’s staff will be notified and will reach out to you to schedule an assessment review. In preparation for the review call, B Lab’s staff will ask you to upload supporting documentation for six to ten randomly selected questions that were answered in the affirmative. For example, if you said you have an environmental purchasing policy, B Lab’s staff may ask you to upload that policy to the B Impact Assessment for review. You will be sent instructions about how to upload these requested documents prior to your review call.

✓ Complete the assessment review (B Corps only). During this call, B Lab’s staff will review each of your responses with you. The goal is to give you a better understanding of the intent behind each question and an idea of what it would take to implement that practice. Most businesses find that they make adjustments to their answers after they receive clarification from a B Lab staff member. Any representative of your company (whether an executive, an associate, or an intern) can complete this assessment review call.

✓ Did your score remain above 80 points (B Corps only)? After the phone review, did your score remain above 80 points? If so, the assessment will select an additional three to six heavily weighted questions and ask you to demonstrate detailed proof of those practices through more documentation. If your score dropped below 80, go back to the improvement report in the B Impact Assessment to identify practices that can raise your score. Your assessment reviewer at B Lab can give you basic recommendations to help you identify any low-hanging fruit. Alternatively, see step 3 for thoughts on hiring a B Corp consultant to help you finish your certification.

✓ Make it official (B Corps only). Once you get the final approval from your assessment reviewer, B Lab’s staff will send you an electronic version of the B Corp terms and conditions and the B Corporation Declaration of Interdependence to sign. B Lab also will ask you to pay the applicable B Corp certification fee to complete your certification process. A link to current B Corp certification fees can be found at bcorporation.net.

Step 6: Celebrate, and Next Steps

Objective: By this time, you will have made significant progress toward improving your social and environmental performance. If you have met the requirements to become a Certified B Corporation, congratulations on joining one of the most exciting and dynamic movements in business!

End result: Celebrate, and congratulate your team for taking this journey.

✓ Publicize your accomplishments. Use this opportunity to share your success widely. Write an article in your company newsletter about your journey, accomplishments, and long-term plan. Try convening a “lunch and learn” with your staff to share your progress and encourage other employees to get involved. You also can publicize your achievement on your website, in your newsletter, and on social media channels to engage external stakeholders.

✓ Consider building a stronger foundation. In the majority of U.S. states and several countries, including Italy and Colombia, the community of Certified B Corporations has helped pass legislation in support of a new corporate form called the benefit corporation. The benefit corporation gives entrepreneurs the freedom to consider shareholders, workers, suppliers, community, customers, and the environment when making decisions. This helps ensure that your social and environmental mission can better survive new management, new investors, or even new ownership. See appendix A for additional details on the difference between Certified B Corporations and benefit corporations. Note that other designations, such as limited liability company, limited liability partnership, low-profit limited liability company, and sole proprietor, also are open to structural changes that satisfy the legal requirement to become a Certified B Corporation. Go to bcorporation.net for details about your specific situation.

✓ Focus on continual improvement. Like many things in life, this is not a quick fix but a process of continual improvement. For example, can your team continue to meet on a recurring basis to identify improvements? What questions did you skip during this initial process that could increase your company’s impact before recertification in three years? What other big-picture goals do you want to strive for? Clarify how you and your team will continue to work toward achieving your social and environmental goals. Establish performance targets, and perhaps incentives, for achieving those ideal outcomes.

✓ Check out the B Hive (B Corps only). A great next step for new Certified B Corporations is to visit the B Hive. The B Hive is a platform the B Corp community can use to connect, access resources, collaborate, share knowledge, and offer discounts to one another. Any employee of any B Corp can register for the B Hive and start exploring the platform. Visit bcorporation.net for specific instructions about how to access the B Hive.