By Jim Epstein and Alicia Epstein Korten As an investment advisor and member of the Gamble family that founded Procter & Gamble, I (Jim) am often asked to sit on nonprofit boards. I have grown uncomfortable with the term not-for-profit to describe these organizations, which often embrace business principles in their operations. For example, DC [...]

By Jay Coen Gilbert, Co-Founder, B Lab The New York Times recently published an article by Joe Nocera entitled “What is Business Waiting For?” Nocera argues for businesses’ responsibility to address unemployment and hire more workers. He also references financial risk expert Marc Groz’s proposal of a “contingent commitment facility.” Using this facility, a company [...]

Business accounts for over 75% of our nation’s GDP— this provides businesses with a tremendous opportunity to create results beyond financial return. We are living in an era of rapid change, with the incredible resources of inspiring entrepreneurs and businesses addressing major social problems. One great example is Southern Energy Management, which offers an array [...]

B Lab: In April, Maryland became the first state in the nation to pass Benefit Corporation legislation, creating a new class of corporation which is legally obligated to create benefit for society, as well as shareholders.  We’re here with Maryland State Senator Jamie Raskin.  Sen. Raskin was the sponsor of Benefit Corp legislation in Maryland. [...]

Southern Energy Management became a Certified B Corporation in late 2009. They’ve now created this wonderful video to explain why it is important and what this means for their company. We love their creativity in spreading the word and are very proud to include them in our community. Visit their site to learn more. Interested [...]

B Lab’s new social impact investment tool, GIIRS, has been profiled in the Financial Times. This is an exciting step towards directing capital towards positive change. As co-founder Andrew Kassoy is quoted, “A lot of capital is being kept on the sidelines by the lack of a useful tool.” We hope to provide the solution [...]

In 2002, I worked with small producers in a township outside of Cape Town, South Africa to help launch a small business. The official unemployment rate in Cape Town at that time was around 30% and for many of the men and woman I worked with, running their own business was the first job they [...]

Over the past three years, we’ve had a lot of those late-night-over-beers conversations that ended with “wouldn’t it be great if there was a new corporate form built to enable social benefit and shareholder value? Yeah, we should work on that.” I’m not sure how clearly we believed it was a near term possibility, but [...]

B Corporations have voluntarily adopted a higher standard of legal accountability than their traditional corporate counterparts. B Corps are required to take into ‘due consideration’ the impact of their decisions not only on their shareholders, but also on non-shareholder interests, such as their employees, suppliers, community, and environment.   B Corp Legal Framework ‘Due consideration’.  What [...]