Growing for good
Added on 28 July 2023
In recent months, two indoor ag companies have become B-Corp Certified. One, indoor mushroom grower Smallhold, is on the cutting edge. Another, NatureSweet, is best known for its tomatoes and is a more traditional greenhouse operation.
For both companies, becoming B Corp certified was a long process, but one worth the time. Here’s what it means for the companies and how it impacts how they do business.
What does being B Corp certified mean?
Per the B Corp website, “B Corp Certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials. In order to achieve certification, a company must:
- Demonstrate high social and environmental performance by achieving a B Impact Assessment score of 80 or above and passing our risk review. Multinational corporations must also meet baseline requirement standards.
- Make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and achieve benefit corporation status if available in their jurisdiction.
- Exhibit transparency by allowing information about their performance measured against B Lab’s standards to be publicly available on their B Corp profile on B Lab’s website.”
Depending on the size of the company seeking certification, the process to become certified is different.
What other companies are B Corp certified?
In the broader corporate world, Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s and New Belgium Brewing Co. are among 6,000-plus B Corp Certified companies. Those companies are located in 80 different countries and in various industries.
Photo: NatureSweet celebrates B Corp certification. Photo courtesy of Naturesweet.
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