Trailheads

In 2005, Jay Gilbert and Bart Houlahan sold AND1, the 12-year-old apparel and footwear company they founded in Paoli, Pennsylvania. Then, they watched with dismay as the new owners killed programs benefitting workers and the local community. A year later, Gilbert, Houlahan, and a third friend, Andrew Cassoy, launched the non-profit organization B Lab to inspire companies to be more socially and environmentally responsible.

B Lab manages a process that certifies benefit corporations (aka B Corporations or B Corps), which are for-profit businesses that meet high standards for social and environmental performance, legal accountability, public transparency, and impact on workers, the community, and customers. Rather than focusing on shareholders and the bottom line, B Corps aim to benefit all stakeholders.

In the last five years, the number of companies certified by B Lab has grown significantly, rising from 3,375 in 2020 to more than 9,500 today. And the B Corp concept resonates with a growing number of consumers. According to Forbes, today’s consumers have “increased awareness of environmental issues, ethical concerns, and desire to support products which are eco-friendly, ethically sourced, and produced under fair labor conditions.”

The B Corp ranks include several outdoor industry companies, including apparel and travel brands like Patagonia and Cotopaxi, gear manufacturers like LifeStraw, and service providers like Blaze Partners.

“It’s helped us become a better organization all around,” says Jenna Klein Johnsson of Blaze Partners, an advertising and marketing agency that became a B Corp in 2022 and works with companies such as REI and Maine Outdoors Brands.

Johnsson and others say the B Corp certification process helps companies accurately assess their policies, procedures, and programs as they strive to be a force for good. Plus, it enables them to solve problems and improve operations more effectively. Also, B Corp certification lends a company legitimacy as today’s consumers are scrutinizing companies’ environmental and ethical claims.

Serious Self-Analysis

To become a B Corp, a company completes an exhaustive Impact Assessment and then proceeds with a certification process that can take a year or more. Then, the company must re-certify every three years.

“The most challenging aspect of B Corp certification is doing the assessment itself,” says Annie Agle, vice president of impact and sustainability for Cotopaxi, which was founded in 2014 to not only produce travel gear and apparel but also help end poverty worldwide. Each year, the company donates one percent of its revenues to support anti-poverty programs. “Chances are, you’re not going to meet the requirement the first time you look at that assessment,” says Agle. “It’s going to be two years of changes in behavior before you actually certify.” 

Through this meticulous process, companies identify areas for improvement across all business sectors. “I like that it gives you a roadmap for constant progress because we all know being in the sustainability space isn’t about resting on your laurels. It’s about constant accountability and constant improvement,” says Agle.

Like Cotopaxi, water filter manufacturer LifeStraw was founded to impact the world positively. It was born from an effort to eradicate Guinea worm disease in the 1990s. Today, the company provides millions of filters to African countries and has ensured that nearly 12 million kids have access to safe water. In 2021, LifeStraw became a B Corp to ensure that every aspect of the company aligned with its humanitarian and environmental principles.

“We had this impact-driven business model, but we needed to take this value and expand it to every part of the business we touch, whether it’s environmental impact or sustainability mechanisms or material selection,” says Alison Hill, CEO of Life Straw. While the company was already doing many of the right things, B Corp certification helped improve the way it documents and reports its work. “The B Corp process professionalized that side of us,” says Hill.

One benefit of B Corp certification is that it can help a company identify weaknesses in its written policies. When a business finds a weakness, it can codify the policy, which prevents subsequent owners from easily abolishing it—something the B Lab founders experienced when they sold AND1. When Blaze Partners pursued B Corp certification, it found gaps in its employment codes.

“There was a question that said, ‘Do you have a policy that says you will not employ an intern for more than a year without offering them a full-time position?’ I was like, we would never do that, but we don’t have that policy, so let’s write it,” says Johnsson.

B Corp Collaborations

As a B Corp, a business not only gains deep insight into policies and procedures but also gains a family of like-minded companies that can help solve problems.

“There’s a really strong peer-to-peer network in the B Corporation community that I think has a huge upside for a lot of businesses,” says Agle. “We’re heavily engaged with a lot of collaborations,” she says, noting that Cotopaxi and Patagonia have partnered to address human rights concerns in Taiwan and “clean heat” technology for fabric production. Cotopaxi also worked with sock manufacturer Bombas to create a limited-edition collection with revenues addressing homelessness.

“With the collaborations between B Corps, there’s an ethical standard that both companies are meeting,” says Agle. “It makes those collaborations more comfortable, and there’s a basis of trust there.”

Cautious Customers

B Corp certification can also make a business seem more trustworthy to consumers, who are becoming more skeptical of companies and their motivations.

“They’re becoming quick to point out greenwashing,” reports Modern Retail, which notes, “Deloitte research shows that a third of customers say they have more trust in brands that are certified as ethical or sustainable by a third party.”

“There is some amount of consumer loyalty and trust with a B Corp,” says Hill of LifeStraw. “With volatility in our economics and political climate, consumers really care about what a company stands for.” While a business can make all sorts of claims, what matters most is its authenticity, says Hill, adding, “Does the company have the chops to sort of back it up?”

Agle agrees that B Corps have an advantage in addressing skeptical consumers. “If you want to go out into the world and say, ‘Hey, we’re a decent company who’s trying to be better,’ having a B Corporation certification provides the evidence to substantiate those claims,” she says.

While B Corps are working earnestly to improve and make a positive impact, they’re still imperfect, says Agle, and consumers can’t expect businesses to solve the world’s problems. “We’re still making products, and they have carbon footprints, and there’s still a lot of injustice baked into supply chains,” she says. However, B Corps are taking a big step in the right direction, says Agle, noting, “It really is the only standard out there that gives a consumer peace of mind that this company has considered all aspects of its impact.”