The “Benefit Corporation” Movement

A new corporate structure requires companies to look beyond the interests of shareholders and to consider the effect of decisions on employees, the environment and the surrounding community.

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Corporate adoption of sustainable business practices is essential to a strong market environment and an enduring society. What does it mean to become a sustainable business and what steps must leaders take to integrate sustainability into their organization?
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A new corporate structure requires companies to look beyond the interests of shareholders and to consider the effect of decisions on employees, the environment and the surrounding community.

Image courtesy of Eugene Chan of Hub Bay Area, via B Corporation Facebook.

There’s a young movement underway that takes a new twist on efforts toward corporate social responsibility and sustainability: it’s a push to get companies to incorporate as something called “benefit corporations.”

Ben Schreckinger, an Atlantic Media fellow reporting for National Journal, writes in “Virtue Inc.” in the Boston Globe that “the idea of a benefit corporation is to weave some social responsibility into the DNA of the company itself through its charter.” A benefit corporation, he writes, is ” required by law to create ‘a material, positive impact on society and the environment,’ and — while still making a profit — to consider the effects of its actions on its customers, its employees, society, and the environment.”

The idea emerged from nonprofit called B Lab. B Lab certifies companies according to its own standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency and calls those companies “B Corporations.” It says that “B Corp certification is to sustainable business what Fair Trade certification is to coffee or USDA Organic certification is to milk.”

B Lab’s website says there are 650 B Corporations in 19 countries and 60 industries. While some of the founding companies are smaller business, including Seventh Generation, Comet Skateboards and King Arthur Flour Company, they have been joined by larger profile companies that include Patagonia and Ben & Jerry’s. The program has received funding from donors that include the Rockefeller Foundation, Deloitte LLP and the United States Agency for International Development.

On December 1, Massachusetts will become the eleventh state to allow companies to incorporate as benefit corporations. See the state’s notice about the new legislation (pdf).

Boston law firm Foley Hoag clarifies in a press release that there is a difference beyond semantics between benefit corporations and B Corps: “Benefit corporations should not be confused with ‘B Corps’ . . . [whose] status is conferred by B Lab on business entities that meet certain criteria.

Topics

Leading Sustainable Organizations

Corporate adoption of sustainable business practices is essential to a strong market environment and an enduring society. What does it mean to become a sustainable business and what steps must leaders take to integrate sustainability into their organization?
More in this series

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Comments (6)
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rosariotoday
Although I like the idea of a 'benefit corporation' as a formal corporate structure, has not this been tried before?  What were similar type of corporations called?  What did we learn?
sonnglnv
Thank you for this f=great article.

I think this is a good start to break the long held slogan that the company goal is to maximize the shareholder value which is quite limited and may lead to maximization of the profit at any cost.

In addition, when considering the most successful & the greatest companies, evidence shows that they don't just pursue the profit/shareholder value maximization. That is only one of their goals. Other goals such as making the impact, make the world/community better, enrich people, including employees' life etc are also in their agenda. 

Those non-financial goals have become even more important in this uncertain environment & are what hold all people in the company to go thru crisis and become stronger. They have contributed to form a company identity & get support from employees, customers, partners and society at large.

I hope you'll spread this idea to as much people in the corporate world as possible.`