B Corp Certification · B Lab Standards
B Corp certification consulting for a business that can prove it serves more than its shareholders.
Meet the new B Lab Standards with governance, practices and records that stand up to an independent audit. Sterling's expert and experienced consultants take your company through eligibility, the legal requirement and all seven Impact Topics, then prepare you for the assurance provider's audit, in 60+ countries. We ensure successful certification for our clients.
- Fixed scope, one proposal: consulting, Effivity software, Sterling Academy access and internal auditor training, as applicable to your standard, in one proposal
- A team of expert and experienced sustainability and governance consultants, with management system consulting across sectors and countries since 2003
- The Sterling Promise: 100% on-time completion, 100% success, 8,100+ client engagements. Sterling does not certify; a B Lab-approved assurance provider audits and decides
8,100+ client engagements in 60+ countries.
B Corp Certification client experience
What it is
What is B Corp Certification and what is it used for?
B Corp Certification is a designation for companies that meet B Lab's standards of social and environmental performance, write accountability to all their stakeholders into their governing documents, and are open about how they operate. B Lab, the organisation behind the B Corp movement, writes the standards and licenses the B Corp mark. It does not audit companies itself: approved, independent assurance providers carry out the audits and make the certification decisions, on a process based on ISO/IEC 17021-1.
Companies use the certification to give customers, investors, employees and partners a single, checked answer to the question "how responsibly do you run this business?", in place of a collection of self-declared claims. It covers the whole company, not one product.
Current edition. B Lab published its new standards in April 2025 after four years of consultation, and released B Lab Standards V2.1 in August 2025 with corrections, clarifications and updated requirements. B Lab began recertifying existing B Corps on the new standards in January 2026, and new companies became eligible to certify on them in March 2026. The new standards replace the single overall score of the previous B Impact Assessment with minimum requirements in every Impact Topic.
Who it is for
Who needs B Corp Certification?
No law requires it; companies choose it. The requirements scale with company size, sector, industry and geography, so a ten-person agency and a multinational manufacturer face very different lists. Companies usually come to us from one of four directions:
- Customers and consumers want proof. Retail buyers, brand partners and end customers increasingly question sustainability claims, and a verified certification answers them better than a marketing page.
- Investors or a tender asks about impact. Impact investors, procurement teams and grant programmes want evidence of governance and performance, not a policy statement.
- Regulation of green and social claims is tightening. Companies want their public claims to rest on audited facts; we work alongside your legal advisers on what each market's rules mean for your wording.
- A parent or group company has set the goal. A group certifying its subsidiaries, or a founder committing the business publicly, needs one approach that every entity can follow.
Requirements
What are the main B Corp requirements?
The new B Lab Standards are built in two layers: three Foundation Requirements every company must meet, then seven Impact Topics. Depending on size, sector, industry and geography, a company answers somewhere between 20 and 124 sub-requirements. They are phased over five years, with Year 0 requirements for certification and further requirements at Year 3 and Year 5. The titles below are B Lab's; the descriptions are our plain-language summary, and your gap analysis works from the full sub-requirements that apply to you.
- Foundation: Meet eligibility requirements: a legally incorporated company, operating for at least 12 months and complying with local and national laws.
- Foundation: Adopt the B Corp Legal Requirement: commit to stakeholder governance in your governing documents and sign the Declaration of Interdependence.
- Foundation: Conduct a risk assessment: build a risk profile with B Lab's Risk Tool, which decides any extra due-diligence sub-requirements.
- Purpose and Stakeholder Governance: a stated purpose and decision-making that takes account of the people the company affects.
- Fair Work: how the company treats and rewards its workers and involves them.
- Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion: fairness and inclusion inside the company and in how it deals with others.
- Human Rights: respect for human rights across operations and the value chain.
- Climate Action: understanding and reducing the company's contribution to climate change.
- Environmental Stewardship and Circularity: the use of resources and materials and the wider environmental footprint.
- Government Affairs and Collective Action: responsible public policy engagement and working with others on shared problems.
What does useful B Corp evidence look like?
Amended articles or an equivalent governing document, a board minute adopting stakeholder governance, the signed Declaration of Interdependence, the completed risk profile, worker policies with pay and engagement records, supplier due diligence, an emissions inventory with reduction plans, and records showing that each commitment is in use. We help you decide which records each sub-requirement needs and keep them in Effivity, so the assurance provider sees working practice rather than a file assembled for the audit.
Certification process
How do you get B Corp certified?
The route starts in B Impact, B Lab's self-assessment platform, and ends with an independent audit. Sterling prepares your company and stays with you through the audit; the assurance provider audits and decides, and B Lab licenses the B Corp mark.
- 01Register in B Impact and confirm the Foundation Requirements.Check eligibility, plan the legal requirement for your entity type and jurisdiction, and confirm the scope B Lab applies to your company.
- 02Gap analysis: compare current practice with the sub-requirements that apply.Run the risk assessment and self-assessment, record what already meets the bar, and agree actions, owners and dates for the rest.
- 03Close the gaps and complete the legal requirement.Put policies and practices into use across the Impact Topics, adopt stakeholder governance and gather the records the audit will sample.
- 04Submit and complete the independent audit.An approved assurance provider is assigned, audits the company, issues its report and asks for corrective action on any nonconformities before it decides.
- 05Hold the certificate through its five-year cycle.The certificate runs for five years; Year 3 and Year 5 requirements come into scope, with surveillance and recertification audits along the way.
Check the route before you sign. Genuine B Corp Certification comes only through B Impact and a B Lab-approved assurance provider; confirm the provider on B Lab's own website before you rely on any promise about the audit. No consultant can grant the B Corp mark or promise a result on B Lab's behalf. How to choose a credible B Corp adviser · The certification buyer's checklist
Cost
How much does B Corp Certification cost?
The cost depends less on paperwork and more on how far current practice is from the requirements. Every component of a Sterling proposal is shown and fixed.
| Cost component | What affects it |
|---|---|
| Consulting and implementation | Your size category, the number of sub-requirements that apply, gaps found and whether you choose Design™ or Drive™ |
| Audit and certification | The assurance provider's audit scope and duration, and any fees set by B Lab or the provider, confirmed with them directly |
| Legal requirement | Your legal form and jurisdictions, and the work your own legal advisers do on governing documents |
| Software and learning | Included in a Sterling engagement: Effivity for records and actions, and Sterling Academy access for your people |
| Continued support | Year 3 and Year 5 requirements, surveillance audits and recertification under Sustain™ |
What moves the price
- Company size, sector and the countries you operate in
- Extra due-diligence sub-requirements triggered by the risk assessment
- Existing climate, workforce and supplier data, and its quality
- The number of entities and legal forms involved
- Your target date and the time your team can give
What a Sterling proposal always shows
- Deliverables, responsibilities, assumptions and exclusions, in writing
- Audit and B Lab charges shown as separate items for you to confirm
- Effivity, training and Academy access listed at no additional cost
- Milestone payments linked to deliverables
- One all-inclusive proposal, agreed before work starts
Timeline
How long does B Corp Certification take?
Two clocks run. B Lab states that the certification process itself takes two to six months from submission. Before submission comes the preparation, which depends on your gaps, the legal requirement and your people's time. Across both, most companies should plan for six to twelve months.
| Phase | What determines the pace |
|---|---|
| Foundation Requirements and gap analysis | Access to data and people, and the risk profile's extra sub-requirements |
| Implementation and legal requirement | The changes needed in practice, board and shareholder approvals, and legal filings |
| Evidence | Practices operating long enough to produce the records the audit samples |
| Submission and audit | Assurance provider assignment, audit scheduling and closing any nonconformities |
If an investor round, a retail listing or a recertification date drives your deadline, tell us on day one and we will plan backwards from it accurately.
Your engagement
What your B Corp engagement includes
Sterling OS™ sets how we work with you. You choose one support level: Design™, where we guide and your team does the work, or Drive™, where we manage the programme and carry more of it. Either way the engagement covers:
Foundation review and gap analysis
Eligibility, risk assessment and the sub-requirements that apply to your size and sector, with an action plan and owners.
Legal requirement support
What stakeholder governance means for your legal form, prepared with your legal advisers, who sign off the changes.
Impact Topic implementation
Policies, practices and data built with your teams across all seven topics.
Effivity ISO & GRC software
Automate™: records, actions and evidence in Effivity, included with the engagement at no additional cost.
Training for your people
Internal auditor training, as applicable to your standard, and preferential Sterling Academy access, including complimentary awareness training for your people as part of the engagement.
Audit readiness and Sustain™
An internal check before submission, support through the audit and corrective actions, then Sustain™ for Year 3, Year 5 and recertification.
Sterling does not certify; certification decisions remain with the independent assurance provider approved by B Lab.
Often combined with
Standards organisations pair with B Corp Certification
- AA1000AA1000 implementation and requirements: apply the AccountAbility Principles and SES, then prepare for AA1000AS v3 assurance by a licensed provider.
- CBAMCBAM compliance and requirements explained: authorised declarant status, the 50-tonne threshold, verified embedded emissions and how Sterling helps you prepare.
- CDPCDP disclosure consulting: a complete, evidenced response on climate, forests and water, prepared with your team.
- CSDDDCSDDD compliance and requirements after Omnibus I: scoping, risk-based due diligence, complaints, monitoring and the 2029 start, delivered in one all-inclusive proposal.
- CSRD / ESRSCSRD and ESRS Sustainability reporting consulting: double materiality, ESRS disclosures and data prepared for limited assurance of your statement.
- EcoVadisEcoVadis rating consulting: evidence on environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement, prepared for the assessment EcoVadis runs.
Effivity · ESG and GRC software, included in every engagement
How Effivity helps you fulfil, automate and simplify the requirements of B Lab Standards V2.1.
Every Sterling B Corp engagement includes Effivity, the ISO and GRC automation platform built by the Sterling group and used in 50+ countries. Your consultant sets up the workspace within the agreed scope, so policies, risks, supplier checks, actions, training records, environmental data and reviews sit in one place, owners see what is due. Sterling consulting clients get their Effivity subscription included with the engagement, at no additional cost.
Eligibility, legal requirement and risk
Governing-document changes, the signed declaration and the risk profile stored with their approvals, and the extra sub-requirements the risk profile triggers tracked as actions.
Stakeholders, decisions and reviews
A stakeholder register, board and management decisions with their records, and scheduled reviews that show governance working between audits.
Workforce policies and engagement
Policies with versions and acknowledgements, worker feedback and the actions taken on it, kept against named owners and dates.
Commitments and follow-through
Commitments turned into objectives with measures, progress reported from the system and reviewed by management on a set schedule.
Supplier due diligence
Supplier evaluations, questionnaires and follow-up actions in one place, with risk ratings and review dates for the relationships that matter most.
Emissions data and targets
Energy and emissions data collected by site and period, reduction actions tracked to completion and progress visible to leadership.
Resources, waste and environmental aspects
Resource use, waste and environmental aspects recorded with their controls, so improvement shows as data over time.
Your own processes, forms and reports
Records of public policy positions, memberships and collaborative initiatives, on forms and workflows adapted to how you work, without code.
What this means at the audit
An assurance provider samples evidence across the Foundation Requirements and Impact Topics. In Effivity each record carries its date, owner and approval, so answering a request takes minutes, not a week of searching inboxes. Between audits, Sustain™ runs in the same workspace, and the Year 3 and Year 5 requirements are planned there long before they fall due.
In your engagement
- Subscription included with the engagement, at no additional cost
- Set up by your Sterling consultant within the agreed scope
- Existing policies, registers and data migrated, not retyped
- Admin and user training for your team
- Modules for EMS, OHSMS, ISMS, FSMS and more when you add ISO standards
Sterling Academy · e-learning for your people
Help every employee understand what your B Corp commitments ask of them.
Sterling Academy provides video-based e-learning with practice checkpoints, a final exam and a numbered Certificate of Completion that can be verified online. Sterling consulting clients benefit from preferential Sterling Academy course access and special pricing through their Sterling consultant, including complimentary awareness training for their people as part of the engagement.
- Awareness training for every employee, as part of the engagement
- Learning for the people who own policies, data and supplier checks
- Internal auditor training, as applicable to your standard, as part of the engagement
- Progress by department and training records ready for the audit
- New starters trained as they join, so records stay current through the cycle
- A Sterling consultant reachable when a learner has a question
Keep exploring
Explore more about B Corp Certification
Why Sterling
Want successful B Corp Certification? Come to Sterling.
B Corp touches governance, people, suppliers and the environment at once. Sterling brings management system discipline to the whole programme, so the practices you build for the audit keep working through Year 3, Year 5 and beyond.
Management systems in 60+ countries since 2003
Environmental, social and governance programmes for companies across sectors, with one engagement team accountable wherever your entities sit.
All-inclusive proposal
Consulting, Effivity, training and Academy access in one proposal, with audit and B Lab charges shown separately.
Practices, not paperwork
Policies your managers use and data your teams collect as part of normal work, so the evidence builds itself.
Expert and experienced consultants
Consultants who have built environmental, social and governance systems across sectors and countries, and who prepare your company properly the first time, so the audit confirms what already runs.
The Sterling Promise
What our B Corp Certification success guarantee means
We stay with you until your agreed B Corp Certification outcome is achieved, supporting implementation, preparation and the resolution of assessment findings. Clear explanations, practical delivery, included software and employee learning turn the investment into lasting capability rather than a certificate on a wall.
The engagement identifies the standard, scope, outcome and responsibilities. Your organisation supplies accurate information and puts the agreed controls into use. The independent, B Lab-approved assurance provider assesses conformity and retains its certification decision. Our commitment concerns the agreed certification support, not a promise of every future tender award or error-free delivery.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions about B Corp Certification
Is a B Corp the same as a benefit corporation?
No. A benefit corporation is a legal form available in some jurisdictions, while B Corp is a certification anyone eligible can pursue. Reincorporating as a benefit corporation is one of the ways B Lab accepts for meeting the legal requirement, but the legal form alone does not make a company a certified B Corp.
Is there still a minimum B Impact score to reach?
Not under the new standards. Instead of one overall score, a company must meet the minimum requirements set for each Impact Topic, and B Lab treats meeting that bar as the demonstration of performance.
Can a small company or start-up get B Corp certified?
Yes, once it has operated for at least 12 months. Smaller companies face fewer sub-requirements, and B Lab states that micro and small companies are audited at Year 0, Year 3 and Year 5 of their cycle.
Does Sterling issue the B Corp certificate?
No. Sterling prepares your company and supports it through the audit. An independent assurance provider approved by B Lab audits and makes the certification decision, and B Lab licenses the use of the B Corp mark.
Do our ISO 14001 or ISO 26000 practices count towards B Corp?
They help, but they are not a shortcut. An environmental management system or a social responsibility programme often already produces useful evidence, yet every B Lab sub-requirement is audited on its own terms, so we map what you have against each one.
Keep exploring
More on B Corp Certification and related standards
More in ESG & sustainability reporting
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