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846 Companies Honored as Best for the World, Creating Positive Impact for Workers, Environment, Community

Evaluated by Comprehensive B Impact Assessment

846 Companies Honored as Best for the World, Creating Positive Impact for Workers, Environment, Community

Evaluated by Comprehensive B Impact Assessment

Published 09-12-17

Submitted by B Lab

Today, 846 companies worldwide were recognized for creating extraordinary positive overall social and environmental impact based on an independent, comprehensive assessment administered by the nonprofit B Lab with the release of its annual “Best for the World” list. Honorees are featured on B the Change, the digital Medium publication produced by B Lab, at bthechange.com/bestfortheworld.

The Best for the World list celebrates Certified B Corporations that earned top scores on the B Impact Assessment. The assessment measures a company's positive impact on its workers, community, customers and the environment. To certify as B Corporations, companies must complete the full assessment and have their answers verified by B Lab. Honorees scoring in the top 10 percent of all B Corporations—a global community of more than 2,200 businesses—set a gold standard for companies using business as a force for good.

B Lab simultaneously released 7  lists recognizing top-performing B Corporations representing:
  • Best for the World: Overall

  • Best for the Environment

  • Best for Customers

  • Best for the Long Term

  • Best for Community

  • Best for Workers

  • Best for the World: Changemakers. 

All honorees can be found on B the Change.

“Today's honorees inspire all companies to compete not only to be best in the world, but best for the world. We hope many will take the first step to follow their lead by using the B Impact Assessment to measure and manage their impact with as much rigor as their profits,” said Jay Coen Gilbert, co-founder of B Lab. “These companies exemplify what it means for a business to be a good citizen and we’re proud to recognize their achievement. Best for the World is the only list of businesses making the greatest positive impact that uses comprehensive, comparable, third-party-validated data about a company’s social and environmental performance.”    

A total of 846 Certified B Corporations were named 2017 Best for the World honorees, including: Patagonia; Seventh Generation; National Co+op Grocers; Business Development Bank of Canada; KeHE; Altschool; Warby Parker; and New Belgium Brewing. The honorees work in 52 industries, ranging from finance to restaurants to apparel. Forty-eight countries are represented, including Afghanistan, Kenya, Nicaragua and Turkey. The selection criteria for Best for the World honorees are available on bthchange.com.

The 2017 Best for the World lists are the sixth edition of the Best for the World honors, launched by B Lab in 2012. This year marks the launch of two new categories: Best for the Long Term and Best for the World: Changemakers. Best for the Long Term highlights Certified B Corps with exceptional performance in the area of corporate governance, honoring mission-aligned structures like the benefit corporation and positive practices around transparency and accountability. Honorees on the first-ever Best for the Long Term list include Rubicon Global, King Arthur Flour, and data.world. Best for the World: Changemakers honors the Certified B Corps that have made the most verified improvement across all impact areas over time; honorees include New Belgium Brewing, Cooperative Home Care Associates, and Traditional Medicinals. 

Currently, there are more than 2,200 Certified B Corporations across more than 130 industries and 50 countries, unified by one common goal: to redefine success in business. Any company can measure and manage social and environmental performance at http://bimpactassessment.net

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B Lab is a nonprofit organization that serves a global movement of people using business as a force for good.  Its vision is that one day all companies will compete not only to be the best in the world, but the best for the world and society will enjoy prosperity for all for the long term.

B Lab drives this systemic change by: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations to make it easier for all of us to tell the difference between good companies and good marketing; 2) passing benefit corporation legislation to give business leaders the freedom to create value for society as well as shareholders; 3) helping businesses measure, compare and improve their social and environmental performance with the free B Impact Assessment; 4) driving capital to impact investments through use of its B Analytics and GIIRS Ratings platform.

For more information, visit http://www.bcorporation.net.

B the Change is a Medium publication, produced by B Lab in collaboration with the community of Certified B Corps and the movement of people using business as a force for good. 

B the Change exists to inform and inspire people who have a passion for using business as a force for good in the world. Because we believe that storytelling is an essential element in the transformation of business and society, we commit ourselves to telling the most compelling stories possible to the largest audiences possible to propel the movement of business toward its destiny as a powerful force for good. We want to dramatically broaden and deepen engagement with entrepreneurs, managers, employees, investors and citizens in one of the most important discussions of our time.

Read all B the Change stories at http://www.bthechange.com.

B Lab logo

B Lab

B Lab

B Lab is a nonprofit organization that serves a global movement to redefine success in business. It's vision is that one day all companies will compete not only to be the best in the world, but best for the world.

B Lab drives this systemic change through a number of interrelated initiatives: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations who lead this movement and make it easier to tell the difference between “good companies” and good marketing; 2) passing benefit corporation legislation to create a new kind of corporation legally required to create value for society, not just shareholders; 3) helping investors invest for impact through use of the B Analytics data platform; and 4) helping businesses measure, compare and improve their social and environmental performance through use of the B Impact Assessment as a free powerful educational tool.

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