What is a B Corp
Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, are mission-driven companies that balance purpose and profit. B Corps receive certification for meeting high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.
How obtain certification
To be granted and to maintain certification, companies are scored based on B Lab’s B Impact Assessment, which is the most credible tool a company can use to measure its impact on its workers, community, environment, customers, and company structure. The BIA consists of approximately 200 questions, and the claims made in each response are tested and verified by two distinct certification analysts who review requested evidence and documentation to ensure accuracy. Companies must receive a minimum score of 80 from an assessment of their social and environmental performance, integrate B Corp commitments to stakeholders into company governing documents, and pay an annual fee based on annual sales. Companies must re-certify every three years to retain B Corporation status.
Why B Corp Certification Matters
From the everyday things you buy to the fashion you wear, you want these things to have a positive impact, to do no harm. We all do. B Corp certification makes it easy for people to shop their values and make a difference.
We believe people want their beautiful things to do beautiful things in the world. As a brand, being B Corp Certified allows us to tell our story and celebrate our impact alongside other brands who do it differently. It also helps us create a roadmap for continuing to make progress on our goals and impact while learning alongside an inspiring network of other B Corp brands working to do the same.
Strengths and Areas of Improvement
The opportunity presented by B Corp Certification extends far beyond mere recognition—it's a roadmap for continued growth and success. Through the assessment process, we gain invaluable insights that guide us towards becoming better stewards of our planet and advocates for social justice.Here is an overview of how we performed in each area of the B Impact Assessment and how we can continue to build upon what we have started.
| GOVERNANCE (15.2) The Governance Impact Area evaluates your company's overall mission, ethics, accountability and transparency through integration of social and environmental goals in employees’ performance evaluation, impact reporting and transparency, stakeholder engagement, and more. | |
| Strengths: We make decisions at the highest level based on the social and environmental impacts. We’ve amended our corporate governing documents, requiring us to consider all stakeholders in decision-making. | Improvements: Create a Board of Directors to review our social and environmental performance. Create a formal documented process to share financial information with FTE employees paired with financial education. |
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| Strengths: We have a formal onboarding process for new employees. All FTEs receive a performance review. We offer ongoing training on core job responsibilities to employees and work with employees to support them in their growth within the company (outside coaching, training for higher roles and responsibilities, etc.). We frequently promote internally first. | Improvements: We would like to offer healthcare and supplementary benefits, including dental, short- and long-term disability, HSA, and life insurance for our FTE, which will become more possible as we scale. |
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COMMUNITY (42.1) Community evaluates a company’s engagement with and impact on the communities it operates, hires from, and sources from. Topics include diversity, equity & inclusion, economic impact, civic engagement, charitable giving, and supply chain management. |
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| Strengths: Most of our employees are women, approximately 85-90%. Most of our managers are women. We have a small, highest-to-lowest pay ratio. For the first 10 years, we lived in Thailand and were on the ground with the suppliers we partnered with. We continue to talk weekly and make yearly visits to our artisans. We choose to do business with artisans in rural Thailand to support and build the economic vitality of local communities. We determine the price of our products in collaboration with suppliers. We have long-term commitments with suppliers and track our impact over time. We are transparent about our supply chain with you. Our leadership participates in panel presentations or other public forums on social or environmental topics. | Improvements: Given the size of our suppliers, they are not verified or certified by a third party. As we scale, we hope this becomes an opportunity for our suppliers to invest in. |
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ENVIRONMENT (4.6) Environment evaluates a company’s overall environmental management practices and its impact on the air, climate, water, land, and biodiversity. This includes the direct impact of a company’s operations and, when applicable, its supply chain and distribution channels. This section also recognizes companies with environmentally innovative production processes and those selling products or services with a positive environmental impact. Some examples might include products and services that create renewable energy, reduce consumption or waste, conserve land or wildlife, provide less toxic alternatives to the market, or educate people about environmental problems. |
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| Strengths: Our leather scraps are donated to a local University Art Department or re-purposed into art installations. A portion of all our packaging is repurposed from other businesses in our community. | Improvements: We need to measure our carbon emissions and have a plan to reduce emissions in our supply chain. As we scale, we want to walk alongside our tannery to become certified by the Leather Working Group. These tanneries are the most environmentally responsible in the leather industry and are verified for treating wastewater and responsibly managing chemicals. We need to create a recycle program for all Sapahn bags. |
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CUSTOMERS (4.1) Customers evaluate a company’s stewardship of its customers through the quality of its products and services, ethical marketing, data privacy and security, and feedback channels. |
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| Strengths: We monitor customer feedback and satisfaction and adjust our products and practices to customers’ preferences. We consider customer feedback when designing new products and adjusting current designs. We offer live support. We allow all customer product reviews to be public on our website and enable all comments to be public across social media channels. | Improvements: Obtain GDPR-compliance as we scale to ship to European customers. |
