B Corp Certification Matters
After eight years of label fatigue in the sustainability world, a conversation in Greensboro changed my mind.
For the better part of a decade, I’ve lived and worked in the world of agricultural sustainability. We’ve been talking about certification labels for my entire career, many of which never left conversations in conference rooms.
Then I started looking into B Corp certification. It felt different. It’s a label that is not only easily recognized but seems to carry a genuine weight. The real moment of clarity came from a message I received from someone I met locally here in Greensboro whose business is B Corp certified.
What they told me was an effective sales pitch for putting a letter ‘B’ on your website:
“Clients and potential clients mention it often when we’re making pitches as something that sets us apart. Likewise, it’s helped a great deal with recruitment—it’s a quick signal to potential employees that we’re serious about living out our values, and that we’re willing to go to the extra steps to ensure we’re doing right by our staff, community, and environment.”
A certification, ultimately, is about the clarity of its signal and its use case. Who is the signal for? In this case, the answer is twofold, and both are incredibly valuable:
For the Buyer: It’s a powerful differentiator in a crowded market. It’s a tangible answer to the question, “Why should I choose you?”
For the Potential Employee: In a competitive job market, it signals that a company doesn’t just talk about its values—it has subjected them to a rigorous, third-party audit.
My work has always been focused on a simple equation: making the benefits of any certification outweigh the pain of achieving it. I know that process is a slog. It requires meticulous data collection, new processes, and a significant investment of time and resources.
From what I’ve learned, B Corp is no different. The initial certification is tough precisely because you have to build the systems to gather the data. But that’s also the point. The process forces a level of intentionality that doesn’t happen by accident. And once those systems are in place, the recertification becomes easier, and the benefits—as my Greensboro contact made clear—become an integral part of the business.
This one feels like it matters. It’s a clear signal in a world of noise.