SBTi, Fairtrade: What are the New Standards to be a B Corp?

Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia and Tony’s Chocolonely – lots of well-known brands are certified as B Corps, meeting high standards of social and environmental performance.

Sustainability continues to evolve, so B Lab has updated its B Corp certification framework.

B Lab’s framework states that sustainability must be systemic, transparent and legally enshrined. 

The updated Foundation Requirements (FR), as outlined in B Lab’s documentation, offer a more rigorous and structured approach to corporate accountability, with implications far beyond certification.

A new era for responsible business

B Lab has launched a transformative update to its B Corp Certification standards – the most significant evolution in its 19-year history. 

As climate change accelerates and inequalities around the world deepen, the new standards aim to urge businesses into taking meaningful action on the world’s most critical social and environmental issues. 

B Lab provides companies with "clarity on how they can take meaningful and tangible action on issues facing people and the planet".

Designed as an open-source blueprint, B Lab’s standards could be a dramatic  shift in how companies measure and manage impact. 

The updated standards replace the previous cumulative scoring system, with a requirement to meet specific performance criteria across seven key impact topics. 

This shift aims to create a holistic mandate for B Corps and significantly increase transparency for stakeholders.

Ambition to action: seven impact topics

The revised standards require B Corps to perform strongly across seven critical areas:

• Purpose & stakeholder governance: Companies must embed a clear social or environmental purpose into their governance structure and ensure decision-making reflects the interests of all stakeholders.
   
• Climate action: All companies must develop a plan aligned with limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Larger firms must set validated science-based targets for greenhouse gas emissions.
   
• Human rights: Businesses must assess how their operations and value chains could involve negative human rights impacts, taking steps to prevent and remediate harm.
   
• Fair work: The standards mandate the provision of quality jobs, fair wages and inclusive decision-making, ensuring workers’ voices are heard and respected.
   
• Environmental stewardship & circularity: Companies must measure and actively reduce their environmental impact, embedding circular economy principles in both operations and supply chains.
   
• Justice, equity, diversity & inclusion (JEDI): Organisations must demonstrate meaningful action to build diverse, inclusive teams and contribute to equitable communities.
   
• Government affairs & collective action: Businesses are encouraged to advocate for systemic change, with large companies required to disclose country-by-country tax reporting to promote fiscal transparency.

This approach hopes to ensure certified B Corps do not simply excel in one area while neglecting others. 

It raises expectations across the board and calls for consistent, meaningful engagement on all material issues.

Accountability and exclusion criteria

A defining feature of the new standards is a strengthened legal requirement. 

All B Corps must amend their governing documents to enshrine stakeholder governance, ensuring that the interests of workers, communities, suppliers and the environment carry equal weight to shareholder returns.

B Lab is also drawing a firmer ethical line in the sand. 

Companies involved in industries that contradict the organisation’s “theory of change” are now ineligible if these activities account for even 1% of their annual revenue:

• Fossil fuel production
• Tobacco
• Gambling
• Pornography
• Weapons 
• Prison systems 

This aligns with the growing view that sustainability involves not just promoting positive impact, but actively avoiding harm.

Driving transparency 

Increased transparency is another cornerstone of the new framework. 

All certified companies must share their B Impact Assessment results, legal structure, majority ownership and basic company profile on the B Lab Global website. 

Public visibility helps build trust, allows benchmarking and drives improvement across the community.

But certification is no longer just a milestone — it is a continuous journey. 

The new requirements demand that companies demonstrate ongoing impact improvement, with specific progress targets at three and five years. 

This evolution reinforces the idea that social and environmental leadership is dynamic and must adapt to emerging challenges.

“This isn’t merely an update; it’s a complete reimagining of business impact to respond to the challenges of our time,” explains Clay Brown, Co-Lead Executive of B Lab Global.

“At a time when other leaders are stepping back, business must drive progress.”

Global sustainability frameworks

The standards integrate key methodologies and data from global frameworks including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and Fairtrade. 

This alignment reduces the reporting burden on companies and makes B Corp Certification a more useful tool for navigating increasing regulatory demands.

“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,” says Tracy Wyman, Chief Impact Officer at the SBTi.

“Mobilising supply chains and networks through these standards enables climate action at scale through systemic change”.

Shaped by the global business community

The development of the standards was itself a model of stakeholder engagement. 

Over four years, B Lab conducted two public consultations and received 26,000 pieces of feedback from businesses, experts and members of the public.

“We are confident that the new standards are clear, ambitious and truly capable of raising the bar for businesses worldwide,” explains Judy Rodrigues, Director of Standards at B Lab Global.

“We look forward to collaborating with our community as they embrace these new standards and create momentum for systems change.”

As regulatory complexity increases and some organisations retreat from climate and social justice commitments, B Lab’s new standards provide a clear and credible framework for action. 

They are designed not just for the B Corp community, but as a model for any organisation seeking to lead on sustainability.

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