Top Tips to Achieve B Corp Certification Without the Help of a Consultant
Last month Seed achieved its B Corp certification, and we are proud to now be in the company of so many organisations making positive changes to the way we work. Achieving the B Corp certification appeared a daunting task when we set out to achieve it over 12 months ago.
As a small business, the opportunity to work with consultants to support us was out of the question, so we pursued it ourselves and 12 months on, we reached our goal. As with anything you do yourself gathering as much information as possible to smooth the way was key to our success, and so to pay it back, here is a list of our top tips if you are looking to go it alone!
These tips are based on our own experience on how to approach getting your B Corp certification without the help of a consultant and may differ for your business, but we hope they may help in some way.
These tips include reviewing the B Corp assessment, breaking it down into main areas, creating a B Corp Wiki to share examples, amending articles of association with Companies House, and holding regular meetings to review progress and identify areas for improvement. We found that these actions were crucial in helping us achieve our B Corp accreditation.
Tip 1: Review the B Corp Assessment
The first step we took was to thoroughly review the B Corp assessment. This assessment is a comprehensive evaluation of a company's performance in five main areas: governance, workers, community, environment, and customers. By carefully reviewing the assessment, we gained a deep understanding of the requirements and criteria that needed to be met to achieve B Corp accreditation. This allowed us to align our company's operations and practices with the B Corp standards.
B Corp Assessment
Tip 2: Break Down the Assessment into Main Areas
Once we had a clear understanding of the B Corp assessment, we broke it down into five main areas: governance, workers, community, environment, and customers. We assigned specific assessment questions to relevant team members who were responsible for different areas of our company's operations. This approach helped us ensure that each section of the assessment was thoroughly reviewed and addressed by the appropriate team members. It also allowed us to focus our efforts and resources on areas that needed improvement based on the assessment criteria.
Tip 3: Create a Wiki to Share Examples
To demonstrate our responses to the B Corp assessment, we created a Wiki. This Wiki served as a centralized platform where we shared examples and evidence of how our company met the B Corp requirements. It included documentation, reports, and data that supported our responses to the assessment questions. This wiki not only helped us organise and present our efforts effectively during the verification stage but also provided a convenient way for our team members to collaborate and contribute to the certification process. It also helped us see what processes needed better documentation or clarity, and using tools like Chat GPT can help build skeleton documents for processes and procedures.
Tip 4: Amend Articles of Association with Companies House
Amending the articles of association is a key governance requirement to equally focus your business operations on people, profit, and the planet, as per the B Corp standards. We downloaded a template of revised articles from the B Corp website and submitted these by post to Companies House along with a change document which included a board special resolution and a CC04 document. This allowed us to make changes to our records with Companies House and ensure that our articles of association were in line with the B Corp requirements. This was the most daunting part and area where we thought we needed to hire a solicitor, but it is as straightforward as we have said (once you understand the documents needed that we have shared), don't be put off by this!
Example Special Resolution document
BOARD SPECIAL RESOLUTION
At a meeting of the Board of Directors of xxxxxxx held at xxxxxxxxx on date.
WHEREAS, Company name requires a change to its Articles of Association in its pursuit of BCorp Status be it:
RESOLVED to amend the existing articles to reflect and support our pending BCorp status and mission.
FURTHER RESOLVED to submit these articles to Companies House to replace the existing memorandum to the Articles.
Approved: Date
Signatures of Directors/Board members
Official documents
CC04 document link
Articles of Association
Send all of these to Companies House
Tip 5: Hold Regular Meetings to Review Progress
We scheduled regular meetings to review our progress towards B Corp accreditation. These meetings were critical in keeping us on track and identifying areas that needed further work. We used the meetings as an opportunity to review the documentation and evidence gathered in our Wiki, discuss challenges, and brainstorm potential solutions. By holding regular meetings, we were able to stay accountable and ensure that progress was being made towards meeting the B Corp certification requirements.
In summary, achieving B Corp accreditation without the help of a consultant is feasible with careful planning and diligent execution. By reviewing the B Corp assessment, breaking it down into main areas, creating a Wiki to share examples, amending articles of association with Companies House, and holding regular meetings to review progress.
Good luck!🍀