Beyond certification: B Lab boss on why all B Corps must become advocates for change

When I speak to Sarah Schwimmer in April at the end of the ChangeNow conference in Paris, the B Lab co-lead executive has just had a very busy few days: together with the B Lab team (including global, regional and country-specific entities), she has spent the whole event in back-to-back panel discussions, meet-ups and workshops to shout about the B Corp movement and how business can be a force for good. Unfortunately, I’m asking her to shout some more, as every corner of the event space seems to be extremely noisy.

Two weeks before that, B Lab, the nonprofit behind the B Corp certification, launched its much-awaited new standards, the result of four years of consultations on how to change their assessment process in the face of a changing landscape – and growing criticism of the old system for being too lenient. 

• Read more: B Corp launches new standards as 'complete reimagining' of certification of businesses for good

The result was an overhaul of the assessment criteria, getting rid of a cumulative points-based system where companies could use high-performing areas to balance poor performing ones. Instead, the new rules require businesses to meet requirements over seven impact topics – so there's no way for a business to get away with dubious human rights practices in its supply chain by cutting packaging waste, for example.

The intent here is absolutely to raise the bar

B Lab describes the new standards as a “complete reimagining” of the certification, stating: “These new standards establish a stronger, more transparent foundation for all businesses committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative global economy.”

Schwimmer confirms it will be harder for companies to become a B Corp. The standards are intentionally more stringent, she explains, because B Corp is about “continuous improvement”. She adds: “The intent here is absolutely to raise the bar. That means most businesses will need to continue to improve how they behave.”

Ushering in a new era for B Corps

The new standards are the latest expression of a broader change in the B Corp movement in recent years: the B Corp community has grown considerably, with the number of certified companies nearly doubling in the past three years to 9,600; the concept of “business for good” has gained momentum (even if it's been recently facing political hostility), and B Lab as an organisation has shifted over the past three years from being founder-led to new leadership with Schwimmer and Clay Brown as co-lead executives.

In an interview with Pioneers Post three years ago, then CEO Andrew Kassoy, who co-founded B Lab with Bart Houlahan and Jay Coen Gilbert in 2006, said their original mission – somewhat ambitious, he admitted – was to “transform capitalism”. Nearly 20 years on, how is it going?

“The ambition is largely the same,” says Schwimmer. “Andrew hired me, he was my boss… he and I are very similar in really being motivated by the potential of this movement that we’ve all built together.” 

• Read our Pioneer Interview with Andrew Kassoy: The purist part of social enterprise ‘plants a flag’ for the rest of us

To transform capitalism, building partnerships outside the movement is central to her vision for change. “B Lab alone and the B Corp community alone won't cut it,” she says.

She is excited that the new standards feature “collective action” as one of the seven topics that companies must “pass” to certify, focused on incentivising businesses to not only pursue the certification but also become advocates for the B Corp movement and business for good generally.

“[Certification] is just a step in the journey,” she says. “There is much more work to do when we come together as a collective around some of the structural policy issues… around how we inform or influence the culture.”

Building outsized influence

It would be fair to say that Schwimmer has collective action in her DNA. Born in a family of “working class folks” who were labour organisers in Chicago, she “grew up with this understanding that these systems are built by other folks and don't work for most of us, or don't work as well for most of us,” she explains. 

After working at the World Wildlife Fund and several NGOs in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia-Pacific, she became disillusioned with the “band-aid” approaches that, while making a big difference in the communities where she was working, did not address the systemic roots of the problem. That’s what attracted her to B Lab.

She was hired in 2021 at a testing time for B Lab, as the organisation was trying to process a rising level of demand from companies seeking certification “that we were not structurally staffed to meet”, she remembers. “It was just an ‘all hands on deck’ period of trying to reduce the backlog of companies that wanted to try to join the community.” For those few years, it was hard to “lift our heads and focus on the ecosystem and structural sort of work”, she explains.

The B Corp community alone won't cut it

Now that the organisation has adapted to the new rate of certification demand, it can focus on its role as a systems-changer.

The growth of the community has demonstrated “beyond a shadow of a doubt” that businesses can be both profitable and positively impactful, Schwimmer explains, so the next question is: “How do we leverage this momentum and the proof points that we have for much more outsized influence?” Examples abound throughout history of smaller communities – labour unions, for example – that have succeeded in driving broader change, she says.

Without that behaviour, the certification is insufficient for the vision that we all have

“We don’t need every company to be a B Corp,” she argues. “We need really a validated, strong, robust community that is leading, showing the way, showing this is possible, and agitating to both bring other companies along, even if they don’t become a B Corp, and to move our policy makers, move our investors, move our communities and consumers.”

This, she explains, will require all B Corps to become active advocates of the movement. “Without that behaviour, the certification is insufficient for the vision that we all have.”

Facing the Trump effect

But this vision is facing a new challenge: the open war waged by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, against many of the core principles underpinning the concept of “business for good” – from diversity programmes to climate action.

“In the US, it has only been shocking,” she says. “Three, four months since the current president started, a lot has changed there. We are global, but what happens in that country impacts others.”

When Trump signed executive orders against diversity, equity and inclusion and climate action, “we met with our lawyers”, Schwimmer says. It was before the new standards were launched, but B Lab quickly grew confident that it knew well enough what business for good looked like to go ahead. 

“We are not backing away from what we know to be true, “ says Schwimmer. “So the standards were launched regardless, despite what some people might have felt as pressure in the United States.” 

There is a real opportunity to understand the role that business, for better or worse, plays in a healthy, democratic society

There were many examples of businesses that “almost immediately” backed away from their commitments on diversity and climate action, but she argues the B Corp community, as well as other companies, “are holding strong to their values”.

“We do have work to do to ensure that this community continues to be protected, and is able to operate in that way,” she adds. B Lab is monitoring any further legislation and executive orders that could impact the community, but Schwimmer points out that the backlash against “ESG” is far from new.

• Read more: Paul Polman at ChangeNow: 'Don’t drop impact commitments because the US president makes a phone call'

But it’s time to tackle the roots of the problem – and this is what the B Corp movement is actually all about, Schwimmer argues. “The erosion of democratic norms in the US and in other countries is largely rooted in growing wealth inequality. And where does that come from? That comes in large part from how businesses behave, who capitalism, as it is currently structured, prioritises – which is shareholders, not all of us,” she says. “So there is a real opportunity to understand the role that business, for better or worse, plays in a healthy, democratic society, and for us to really take a stand.” 

What “take a stand” looks like is going to be different in different places, she says. “What it means in the US for now, is that B Corps are saying, ‘we’re still in, and we’re committed to learning about and doing our best to meet the new standards’.”

Top picture: Sarah Schwimmer speaks at the ChangeNow conference in April. All pictures courtesy of ChangeNow.

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