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Find a B Corp

bcorporation.net

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Re: Find a B Corp

#31

Post by 0xffff2 »

mminer237 wrote: post #12

It's a nice idea and website, but the structure seems very…nonideal. Why should this be governed by a private entity that they have to pay to monitor and recertify them? What's to stop a company from being "for society and the environment" until they get big enough to not care? As far as I can see, nothing's legally binding. At any point, the shareholders can just amend the bylaws to give up their little badge and do…

I looked into it a bit, and it seems that you probably need to be a benefit corporation or L3C to qualify for certification. For example, here's what they say for US/Deleware/Corporation on their legal requirement page [0]:

> Your company can meet the legal requirement for B Corp Certification by electing public benefit corporation status...

I am very much not a lawyer, but they go on to say existing corporations can transition to PBC status with a majority vote. I wonder whether the reverse is true. If so, there's no legal hurdle to pulling the same bait and switch you describe with a benefit corporation.

0: https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/about-b-corps/legal-requi...

Re: Find a B Corp

#33

Post by neon_electro »

msesen wrote: post #3

I've been trying to find a meaningful job at a BCorp or other socially/environmentally responsible company for a while. Sadly, it doesn't seem like you get a lot of chances as a Software Engineer, since most of the corporations just offer services or physical products.

They appear to have a domain for finding jobs at B Corps: https://www.bwork.com/

Re: Find a B Corp

#34

Post by robertlagrant »

zahma wrote: post #13
lapser wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now it feels like many companies have made attempts to conform to the standards, which is no simple feat, especially for multi-nationals. You're right, actually conforming to the standard is no easy feat, but luckily, you can do the bare minimum[0] and continue your greenwashing processes. [0] https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp/company/nes...

Your comment is disingenuous. While there are certainly many businesses who do not undertake sustainability efforts in earnest or at all, we (as consumers) have to want companies to try. Otherwise they are even further disincentivized to make an effort. I agree that it’s a bad look when a Nestle company can obtain a B Corp score, but that’s not to discredit the entire program. B Corp certifying makes a critical disti…

> Will it single-handedly fix profit-incentivized business models that exploit natural resources?

It will do this not at all, indeed. It's the materials scientists and the VCs and the investors and the logisticians and the engineers who will solve the problems. B Corp is a marketing thing to allow companies to access middle class wallet share.

And fair enough; whatever differentiates you. But it's not going to solve anything.

Re: Find a B Corp

#35

Post by culi »

unmole wrote: post #30
culi wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually kinda find them useful. The overall "B Corp certification" is just too easy to get imo, but they do have detailed breakdowns of scores in each of their 5 categories (Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, Customers). For example, you can look at this company page[0] and see that they don't have worker ownership or bonus points for certain environmental initiatives they take In short, while the certif…

This looks all too similar to ESG: Taking arbitrary and subjective values and turning them into supposedly objective numbers.

The certification isn't just a vibe check. It's a very thorough rubric. The category names are the only thing that feels subjective

But you still have a valid point. Any rubric large and complex enough is gonna lead to room for subjectivity in what is and isn't looked at as thoroughly. I'm not at all saying it's 100% signal and no noise. Just that there is signal in there and could be useful to someone or just fun to play with for a side project/data visualization

Re: Find a B Corp

#36

Post by bdowling »

abound wrote: post #21

As another commenter noted, Nespresso is a B Corp [1] and a subsidiary of Nestlé, which isn't traditionally thought of as a particularly "good" company, to put it gently [2]. My opinion of the B Corp designation, which has been heavily colored by founding + running a nonprofit full-time, is that it's mostly a marketing tool, and otherwise doesn't carry much weight. A common context I come across them in is offering s…

> forcing a bit of transparency by publishing 990s (the nonprofit yearly tax filing).

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/205...

Re: Find a B Corp

#37

Post by mycall »

wnc3141 wrote: post #22

Many scholars note thay a B-corp is mostly a marketing strategy. There is little in B-corporate status that meaningfully differentiates from a traditional corporation, except to signal to customer and shareholders the intent of the firm to consider total stakeholder value. https://theconversation.com/b-corp-certification-wont-guaran...

There is one exception to the rule.

https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/how-mondragon-be...

Re: Find a B Corp

#38

Post by lapser »

zahma wrote: post #13
lapser wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now it feels like many companies have made attempts to conform to the standards, which is no simple feat, especially for multi-nationals. You're right, actually conforming to the standard is no easy feat, but luckily, you can do the bare minimum[0] and continue your greenwashing processes. [0] https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp/company/nes...

Your comment is disingenuous. While there are certainly many businesses who do not undertake sustainability efforts in earnest or at all, we (as consumers) have to want companies to try. Otherwise they are even further disincentivized to make an effort. I agree that it’s a bad look when a Nestle company can obtain a B Corp score, but that’s not to discredit the entire program. B Corp certifying makes a critical disti…

To be clear, I did not write my comment to discredit the entire system. B-Corp is certification is the best thing we have to make these decisions a little easier on the consumer.

I made the comment to make people aware that it should still be looked at with caution, as corporations are going to try to game the system.

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