Frequently Asked Questions

With the exception of circumstances outlined on our Controversial Issues page, any established for-profit company with at least one year in operation may pursue B Corp Certification. There is no minimum or maximum size. Certain companies, such as those under a year old, those with related entities, or large multinational and public companies, may have additional considerations and requirements.

All Certified B Corps share their B Impact Assessment overall scores and category scores on their public profiles on our Global Directory. Public companies and their subsidiaries have extra transparency requirements and make their entire B Impact Assessment public, with particularly sensitive information like revenue redacted. Companies that have material items, such as lawsuits, on their Disclosure Questionnaire may also be required to make that disclosure transparent as well.

We’re different, but highly aligned. B Corps are for-profit businesses that commit to creating a significant positive impact on society and the environment through their operations. Companies certify as B Corps by earning points on the B Impact Assessment, which evaluates their business practices and whether their business model addresses specific social or environmental challenges. Their score is independently verified by B Lab.

In the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, there is a growing awareness of businesses’ role in driving positive change. The region has a strong tradition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social entrepreneurship, supported by initiatives such as social enterprises, cooperatives, and impact-driven organizations. These models often focus on reinvesting profits for social good or ensuring long-term sustainability.

While some social enterprises in the Benelux region also certify as B Corps, the majority of B Corps do not necessarily classify themselves as social enterprises under national definitions. B Lab’s mission is to build upon the inspiring work of social enterprises and extend it to mainstream businesses—ensuring they apply the same level of transparency, accountability, and impact measurement to their social and environmental performance as they do to their financial returns. This approach creates an opportunity to drive change at scale and redefine the role of business in society.

For more details on social enterprise frameworks in the region, see organizations such as Social Enterprise NL (Netherlands), Social Enterprise Belgium, and Luxembourg’s Impact Ecosystem.

B Corp is a certification. Benefit Corporation is a legal form. Benefit Corporations and Certified B Corporations are often confused. The B Corp Certification is a third-party certification administered by the non-profit B Lab, based in part on a company's verified performance on the B Impact Assessment. The Benefit Corporation is a legal structure for a business, which exists in 34 states across USA, Italy and Colombia. Benefit Corporations are legally empowered to pursue positive stakeholder impact alongside profit. Some companies are both Certified B Corporations and Benefit Corporations, and the Benefit Corporation structure fulfills the legal accountability requirement of B Corp Certification.

Probably! There are Certified B Corps in more than 105 countries around the world. Use our Benelux Directory for B Corps in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Looking for B Corps worldwide? Then the B Corp Global Directory is your go-to. You can search by keyword, location, or industry.

Certified B Corporations pay an annual certification fee, which licenses them to use intellectual property like the Certified B Corp logo. This fee varies depending on size and structure. Visit this pricing page for further information.

A company is a B Corp when:

1. It has verified social & environmental performance. The company completes the B Impact Assessment, achieves a verified score of 80 points or more, and passes the disclosure questionnaire review.
2. It mission-locks its company. The company legally commits to considering the impact of its decisions on all stakeholders—a model known as stakeholder governance.
3. It embraces transparency. The company publishes its profile on the B Corp Directory, transparently showing its performance measured against B Lab's standards.

Learn more here.

B Lab takes complaints seriously and appreciates those who come forward with them. Material complaints are overseen by B Lab's independent Standards Advisory Council. Learn more about our complaints process on our global website.

Regular revisions have been made to the B Corp standards since B Lab's launch in 2006. B Lab is evolving the standards for B Corp Certification. Explore the latest iteration of the standards. Prior to the release of each new version of the assessment, B Lab conducts both a private and public beta period that allows all stakeholders to provide feedback to the standards before they are published. All are welcome and encouraged to provide feedback on how the BIA can be improved. Users can leave feedback directly in the BIA platform using the Leave Feedback button next to each question.

The standards for B Corp certification are created and overseen by B Lab's independent Standards Advisory Council (SAC), whose members bring industry and stakeholder expertise to the B Impact Assessment. Although the SAC creates the standards, we invite all interested to provide feedback on 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. 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 SAC on regional specific issues.

B Lab is the non-profit organisation transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities, and the planet. A leader in economic systems change, our global network creates standards, policies, and tools for business, and we certify companies — known as B Corps — who are leading the way. B Lab envisions that all businesses in the world will measure and manage their impact as readily as they do profitability. Read more about how B Lab hopes to achieve this vision here.

B Lab Global certifies companies. The development of the standards for B Corp Certification are overseen by B Lab's independent Standards Advisory Council. B Corp Certification is administered by B Lab Global.

Companies and other business forms wishing to become B Corps in the Benelux must meet a legal accountability requirement to maintain their certification, and will need to amend their governing documents to include a commitment to a ‘triple bottom line’ approach to business. In practice, for a typical business, this means amending the company’s Articles of Association to state that the company exists to promote the success of the business for the benefit not only of its shareholders, but also to have a material positive impact on society and the environment. The governing documents of B Corps will need to state the company’s commitment to consider a range of ‘stakeholder interests’ – including shareholders, employees, suppliers, society and the environment – when making decisions and, critically, that shareholder value is not the supreme consideration but is one factor amongst the many stakeholder interests. Learn more here.

After you have submitted your assessment, you will enter a review process with B Lab. In the Evaluation stage, an Evaluation Analyst will perform a number of checks to ensure you are eligible for B Corp certification, and are on the right track of the assessment. You will only be contacted directly during this phase if the Evaluation Analyst has any questions or requires some more information from you. You will then move on to the Verification stage, which usually includes one or more phone calls with a Standards Analyst to discuss any questions that they have about your assessment. This is also when you will be asked to provide additional information and evidence to support your answers as required. You can find information about the entire review process here.

If a B Corp does not meet B Lab’s assessment criteria (listed above), it cannot recertify independently of its corporate parent or related affiliate entities. This means that the parent company should start its own B Corp Certification process and include the initial B Corp as a subsidiary or brand within its certification scope. In cases where the parent company is already a B Corp or commits to achieving certification within a year, the subsidiary will not be required to recertify.

If a B Corp is acquired, it will need to notify B Lab of its intent to stay in the B Corp community within 90 days. The B Corp will then need to recertify within a year of the acquisition, or by the end of its three-year recertification term depending on which is sooner, to ensure the company continues to meet the standard for B Corp Certification under new ownership. For larger, more complex entities, this period is extended to two years. In order for the company to maintain certification independent of its corporate parent, it will need to meet B Lab’s assessment criteria and determine that it is complete and distinct; that is, a legal entity that is able to control its impact and meet the B Corp Legal Requirement. The intent of this is to ensure companies have control over their products and services and function as a ‘complete’ business, with executive accountability and management over the core day to day operations. These are the five criteria a company must meet to be able to certify independently:

• Operational for longer than 12 months
• Is a for-profit company (not just a brand or division)
• Is able to meet the B Corp Legal Requirement
• Meets B Lab’s standards on any controversial industries that the company is involved in
• Meets B Lab’s complete and distinct criteria
  • If a company does not meet all of the complete and distinct criteria, it is likely that it will be ineligible for B Corp Certification at the requested level (i.e. subsidiary level) and the scope would need to be expanded

B Corp subsidiaries may also need to meet an additional transparency requirement, listing their full B Impact Assessment on their B Corp profile.

Throughout the certification process, companies are required to:

1. Achieve a score of at least 80 points on the B Impact Assessment and submit it for review. The assessment is verified by independent analysts at B Lab Global and companies will be asked to provide documentation and other evidence to support and verify answers.
2. Meet the B Corp Legal requirement to amend the company’s Articles of Association, making a commitment to consider all stakeholders in the company's decision-making, not just shareholders.
3. Pay the company fees outlined on the pricing page to become a B Corp, based on a company’s revenue.

Learn more on this page.

Subsidiaries, franchises, and companies with related entities may pursue B Corp Certification, with certain limits. Subsidiaries of publicly traded companies also must meet additional transparency requirements.

B Corp Certification is available to for-profit businesses of any size, with no minimum or maximum company size requirement. However, nonprofits and government entities are not eligible. To apply, a company must have been in operation for at least one year. Startups looking to demonstrate their commitment early can opt for Pending B Corp status. Additionally, certain businesses—such as those with related entities, or large multinational and publicly traded companies—may need to meet extra requirements and considerations.

As more companies apply for B Corp Certification, B Lab and its Standards Advisory Council must develop models for how to effectively evaluate the impacts of many different industries, policies and practices. As part of your assessment, you will be asked to complete the Disclosure Questionnaire; the final series of questions your company will answer in the B Impact Assessment. While B Corp Certification is primarily based on assessing a business' positive impact, material negative impacts are also considered through the Disclosure Questionnaire, background checks, and a public complaint process. The Disclosure Questionnaire allows the company to confidentially disclose to B Lab any sensitive practices, fines, and sanctions related to the company or its partners. Responses to the Disclosure Questionnaire do not affect a company’s numerical score on the B Impact Assessment but can ultimately affect its eligibility for certification. Typically, the majority of these responses are minor in nature and therefore no further action is needed. However, if B Lab identifies one or more items in the Disclosure Questionnaire or in a background check of a company and its senior management to be material, it may merit further transparency, and the company will be notified to provide incremental disclosure of relevant information. In certain cases, the company will be required to implement specific remedies to obtain or maintain their B Corp certification. In rare cases the company's certification will be denied or revoked. You can read more on the global controversial issues page. Acceptance into and continued participation in the B Corp community is at the sole discretion of the Standards Advisory Council and B Lab's Board of Directors.

The length of the certification and verification process — from beginning the B Impact Assessment to fulfilling the legal accountability requirement to finishing with announcing your B Corp Certification to the world — varies based on a company’s size and complexity. Small to medium-sized companies should expect a wait time of 6-8 months. Large multinationals, companies with many related entities, or companies operating in controversial industries should expect a longer verification process.

To submit your assessment, go into the B Impact Assessment website and navigate to ‘B Corporation Certification’ then ‘Summary’. Here you will see any outstanding actions you need to complete in order to submit. Once the required actions have been completed, the padlock will turn into a submit button. Find out more here.

There are a number of different ways you can access support with the B Impact Assessment:

• The Improvement Report on the B Impact Assessment is a valuable tool and you can find out how it works here. The Improvement Report provides recommendations for how to improve your impact based on your current responses to specific questions on the assessment. Many companies actively use this as an improvement tool to increase their score over time.
• The Knowledge Base hosts useful articles to guide businesses through the assessment and certification process.
• If you require hands-on support to improve your score, B Lab Benelux trains experienced sustainability professionals in the B Corp certification process and impact measurement framework. These ‘B Leaders’ form a group of external consultants that can support companies through their certification. There are costs to working with these consultants but if that is of interest, you can find out more about B Leaders here and search, filter and contact those consultants that may be most appropriate for you.

The past twelve months or trailing twelve months is the recommended reporting period. We recommend using the 12-month period that most closely reflects the company’s operations as of today but is easy for your company to report consistently on. As a result, if using the last Fiscal Year is easier, we would encourage your company to use this period. Find out more on reporting periods.

Yes - you will receive questions that are tailored to the size (number of employees) and type (sector) of business when you register on the B Impact Assessment. Please indicate the appropriate number of employees at this time, so that we can provide you with the most appropriate assessment.

You can check on the status of your assessment at any time in the B Impact Assessment itself by clicking on the ‘Reviews’ tab from the left-hand menu. Find out more here.

The entity at the highest fiduciary level possible (i.e., the ultimate holding entity) should implement the legal clauses word for word. In addition, any majority-owned subsidiaries need to amend their articles separately.

Sole traders are eligible to become B Corps, however they are not able to meet the B Corp legal requirement as they do not have governing documents / Articles of Association. If you are a sole trader, you should select Option 1 in the Mission Lock question, worth 2.5 points.

We strongly advise incorporating the wording verbatim based on the guidance available here. Companies that do not think they can adopt the legal path as outlined may provide B Lab with a written letter from an attorney that explains why they are unable to meet the legal requirement, and may include alternative solutions which will be reviewed and either accepted or rejected by B Lab’s Certification & Verification Team and legal committee. However this may result in a longer overall timeline to certification.