B Lab and Social Value International announce new partnership

B Lab, the organisation powering the global B Corporation (B Corp) movement, has announced it is going into partnership with Social Value International. 

B Lab is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organisation in the United States which aims to support and serve entrepreneurs using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. Social Value International is a membership network which operates in over 40 countries and helps over 1,000 organisations embed core principles for social value measurement and analysis into their structures. 

By going into partnership, the two organisations aim to launch a coordinated effort to help companies improve how they measure and assess their accountability, transparency and social and environmental performance.

Jeremy Nicholls, CEO of Social Value International said: “This partnership is a further step towards providing companies with a more coherent and complete offering as to how they can become more accountable and transparent for their activities, whilst maintaining a competitive edge. 

“We hope that this collaboration will make it easier for companies to limit their negative impacts whilst increasing their positive impacts, at a time when the need to do so becomes ever more pressing.”

B Lab is currently in the process of applying for charitable status in the UK. One of the initiatives it coordinates is the B Corp certification, which is awarded to organisations that have passed rigorous standards of social and environmental performance. There are now over 1,300 B Corps operating in 41 countries and 121 industries around the world, including UK-based Charity Bank and Brazilian cosmetics brand Natura.

B Lab also brings together the B Corp community to campaign for legislative changes. To date, the community have been instrumental in new laws being passed in 26 states, creating a legal form for the benefit corporation. This is a new class of legally recognised corporation that voluntarily meets higher standards of corporate purpose, accountability, and transparency.

Co-founder of B Lab Bart Houlahan said: "Social Value International is a leader in the impact measurement movement, and we are very excited to be working more closely with them to encourage companies to commit themselves to impact measurement and accountability, inform our own methodology with leading best practices, and expand the scope of the B Impact Assessment and B Corp Certification globally." 

Header photo: Jeremy Nicholls, CEO of Social Value International