About Us | B Impact Assessment

We manage what
we measure.

This is one of the most basic truths in business. It follows that we ought to measure what matters most: the ability of a business to not only generate returns, but also to create value for its customers, employees, community, and the environment.

We are a global movement

of business leaders that seek to redefine success in business, so that one day all companies compete not only to be the best in the world, but to be the best for the world.

We envision that in a generation's time, all businesses will measure and manage their impact as readily as they do profitability.

To make it easy for all businesses to participate in this vision,
the B Impact Assessment provides:

Standards

Credible, comprehensive, transparent, and independent standards of social and environmental performance that allow businesses to assess their overall impact.

Benchmarks

Publicly available benchmarks on corporate impact that allow businesses to compare their impact.

Tools

Practical, easy to use tools to help businesses improve their impact over time.

Why?

Because it not only helps them become a better corporate citizen,
but also helps them be a better business.

Attract, Engage Employees

Earn Press and
Trust

Gain Competitive Advantage

“Surprisingly, one of the biggest reasons why job seekers apply to Azavea is because they see us measuring our impact and taking our sustainability efforts seriously.”

- Robert Cheetham, CEO, Azavea

See how Etsy has engaged their employees in a “Hackathon for Good” »

By either becoming a Certified B Corporation or by creating or auditing their sustainability report. Learn more:

Greyston Bakery King Arthur Flour The Redwoods Group Burt's Bees

Studies show that sustainability pays; here is compilation of the 40 most compelling studies from institutions like McKinsey and MIT that demonstrate why it pays off.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Who develops the standards

The standards are created and revised by the Standards Advisory Council (SAC), a group of independent experts in business and academia. Learn more about SAC members and their role, here.

Although the SAC creates the standards, we invite all interested to provide feedback to the standards. The best way to submit your feedback is to log into the B Impact Assessment and select “Leave Feedback” next to each question. If you are interested in learning about updates and opportunities to provide feedback as drafts are made available for testing and public comment, please subscribe to our V6 distribution list.

The Assessment also goes through a private and public beta period in which feedback is collected and integrated into final versions. Expert working groups are convened in order to explore our specific issues more closely in an objective manner. The Assessment is updated every three years in order to accommodate new and innovative practices, respond to the feedback of its users, and to more accurately assess the impact of all types of businesses.

In addition, B Lab has Regional Advisory Groups whose mandate is to deepen the engagement of regional experts in improving the Standards of the B Impact Assessment. Currently, B Lab has advisory groups in Latin America, East Africa, Australia and UK which provide constructive feedback and recommendations to B Lab and our Standards Advisory Council ( SAC) on regional specific issues. Learn more about the Regional Advisory Groups members here.
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How does this relate to other impact measurement systems

In general, the B Impact Assessment provides a judgment (via an objective, comprehensive rating) on how significant a company’s current impact is. The B Impact Assessment is commonly confused with reporting systems or definition frameworks that detail how a company should go about collecting that impact data, but not necessarily provide a judgment on how significant that company’s impact is.

For example, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or IRIS are platforms that are likely to define specific way to report impact metrics; As an example, they may define how to best report a company's carbon emissions, so that all carbon reports in the future can be easily comparable to each other (ie. Company X is responsible for producing 30,000lbs of carbon, based on its direct emissions from its plant and its electricity purchases). IRIS and GRI definitions and reporting standards are a critical part of the B Impact Assessment.

As a result, a GRI or IRIS indicator is more likely to tell you that the company is reporting its emissions according to best practice. On the other hand, the B Impact Assessment aims to evaluate whether the company has either increased or decreased its emissions relative to the company’s revenues or relative to the practices of other businesses, because this disctinction helps a growing number of consumers, investors, and institutions who want to support businesses who put their values into action.

The B Impact Assessment simply builds upon the important work that other organizations and industry groups are doing to define and measure impact.
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We manage what we measure.