For those that have been looking into the B Corp certification, you’ve likely come across the B Impact Assessment (BIA), a powerful tool to understand the true value of your organization. Starting the B Impact Assessment is the first step to get B Corp certified, as it allows you to measure and benchmark your social and environmental performance. But even if you’re not looking to certify (yet!), we also encourage poking around the tool. Why? For small companies that often have limited resources available to them, the BIA is a great tool that allows you to design positive practices in a way that strategically makes sense for your business goals. As consultants who have worked in the impact space for a while now, here are just a few tips we’ve learned about this assessment to help set you up for success! 

Why should you use the assessment?

While the B Impact Assessment is an assessment tool used to verify that a company meets the performance requirement to become a Certified B Corp, many other companies have used this assessment at various stages of their sustainability journey to measure, benchmark, and improve their overall impact. 

Here are some ways you can use the assessment today:

• Measure. The B Corp assessment looks at what is currently true within your business. It provides an objective rating of your company’s current impact performance on stakeholders affected by your company. 

• Assess. Understanding where you are today is an essential piece towards strategic improvement. There are many ways a business can be a force for good, and the assessment helps you understand what path is right for you. We always recommend leaning into your strengths, while being aware of what areas to improve on. 

• Design better Business Practices! We like to think of the BIA as a detailed guide towards better business practices. The assessment is chock-full of interesting design questions, best practice examples, resource guides and more. This helps companies set and track performance goals to prioritize and implement new ways to improve your impact.

Measuring your impact is the first crucial step needed in assessing where you stand in your social and environmental performance. Whether you’re looking to certify or using the tool for accountability, the BIA outlines which areas you excel in and which you might need improvement on. This assessment walks you through a series of questions to learn exactly what it takes to build your business as a force for good. 

What does the assessment help you measure?

At its core, the B Impact Assessment helps you measure your impact on all stakeholders (not just shareholders!). There are five sections to the B Impact Assessment, each relating to one or more stakeholder groups: Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, and Customers. 

Here’s a rundown of the following sections:

• Governance: This section primarily looks at how you have incorporated a focus on social and environmental outcomes into your core governance and decision-making process. It also looks at good corporate governance indicators such as ethics, accountability, and transparency.

• Workers: This section looks at how you look after your employee’s holistic well-being: financial, physical, professional, and social. Companies with strong People and Culture practices tend to score very well in this section!

• Community: This section evaluates your company’s positive impact on the external communities (suppliers, distributors, and the local economy) in which your company operates, covering topics like diversity and inclusion, economic impact, civic engagement, and supply chain impact.

• Environment: This area looks at your overall environmental stewardship, including specific focus on energy and climate, water use, and resource use. Interested in learning how your company can respond to the climate crisis? Start here!

• Customers: Finally, looking at your customers as stakeholders, this area evaluates the value that your company creates for your direct customers and the consumers of your product or services. Service companies often do well in this area!

An important - and very underappreciated - piece of the B Impact Assessment is the differentiation between “Operations” and “Impact Business Models”. In each section, there are two ways to evaluate your impact:  

• Operations: This section focuses on the operational performance of your company, specifically how you are operating your business in a responsible and sustainable way. All companies have an operational impact.

• Impact Business Models (IBMs): In addition to operational questions, there are optional “Impact Business Model” sections that look at the ways a business may be designed to create specific positive outcomes for one or more of your stakeholders. Impact Business Models are rare. They reflect your reason for being - a dedicated intention to using your business as a force for good in some way, shape, or form. 

To put this into context, take recycling. Every company can (and should!) recycle. Recycling is an operational practice for every company. However, if you were also a waste management company (such as local B Corp Sea to Sky Removal!), better recycling is also the core purpose of your business, and you would also see this as an impact business model. 

Be on the lookout for an upcoming post that does a deep dive into each of these sections!

How does the assessment help you certify as a B Corp?

After completing the B Impact Assessment, you will receive a B impact score, broken down by each section of the assessment. To be eligible for the B Corp certification, your score must be at least 80 points. Reaching this score is already an impressive accomplishment in itself showcasing your company's efforts towards a sustainable business model. Chances are, the first time you go through the assessment you may still have a ways to go to “Get to 80”. Don’t be put off. Use the assessment as an opportunity to evaluate both strengths and areas for improvement: a values-focused business design tool. 

Once you’ve completed your assessment, the B Impact Report will show you where your company outperforms other businesses and what you can learn from them! These benchmarks give your score context. Through sharing these results with your team members you can celebrate the progress you’ve made and work towards deepening your impact. There are numerous practices that can be implemented to help improve your score depending on what your impact business model is. (And if you need additional support as you complete this assessment and prepare for your certification, we’re always here to help!) 

“We are too small to be a B Corp.”

Too many times have we heard companies echo these words. We want to bust this myth now and say this is not true! The B Corp certification is open to businesses of all sizes and in fact, there’s a huge asset to being small as this allows you to align your business model to your impact from the very start. Small to medium-sized enterprises should seriously consider pursuing the B Corp certification since the chain of command is shorter, allowing for a quicker flow of information and more decision-making authority for each employee. It also helps you design in positive practices from the beginning, that set you up for intentional and sustainable scale. But regardless of your size or years of operation, there are always changes you can make within your company to let your purpose shine through. Business making better outcomes for all stakeholders is the heart and soul of the B Corp movement and Decade Impact aspires to lend a helping hand to those who are ready to start this path!

Are there still some burning questions you have about the B Corp Assessment? Is there a section you need more clarity on? Our inboxes are open! Feel free to contact us to see how we can help!