The certification process is roughly divided across five phases:

Intro & Exploration

Discussing internally the idea of B Corp, what it involves and starting to build collective commitment to the idea.

Set-Up & Scoping

Discovering what pathway you should be on and ensuring your B Impact Assessment is set up correctly.

First Pass

Learning your way around the B Impact Assessment tool and completing a first pass of the entire assessment to find your baseline score: learning where you stand today. Then, ideally, having this audited by some colleagues to ensure there is agreement on where you stand today.

Roadmap to 90

Planning how you will reach the 80 point threshold, with some margin in case B Lab pushes back on some of your answers. Creating a roadmap to navigate the low, medium and high hanging fruit.

Verification

Submission and navigation through the verification process. This should include an audit of everything answered and all the information to be submitted in support of the application.

An Illustration

Below is a visual illustration of the process. The time frame it takes for each phase is dependent upon your: track,  scale, experience, baseline score and internal resource.

Announcement

Following this is, hopefully, the announcement and communications exercise that follows your successful certification.