‘Beneficial’ Companies Can Seek Certification As ‘B’ Corporations

January 4, 2008

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When a larger conglomerate buys out a smaller, more socially-minded corporation, it often doesn’t maintain the company’s original standards for social good. To address this problem, a company called B Lab has created a set of standards to protect both the original companies and socially-minded consumers, ENN reports.

According to this plan, a company that amends its articles of incorporation to say that managers must consider the interests of not only shareholders but also employees, the community and the environment, can become a B Corporation. The B stand for beneficial.

Founding B Corporations include BBMG, Seventh Generation, Benchmark Asset Managers, Workplace Dynamics, and New Leaf Paper.

Other groups are also developing standards, but Jeffrey Hollander, CEO of Seventh Generation, thinks B Corporation is offering a significant plan. “I don’t want to say this is perfect, but this is desperately needed right now,”? Hollander said.

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