[HN Gopher] Find a B Corp
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Find a B Corp
Author : adrian_mrd
Score : 76 points
Date : 2023-06-29 09:30 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bcorporation.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bcorporation.net)
| thecosas wrote:
| It would be neat to have a feature that let you search for
| careers at these places as well. Maybe something on LinkedIn or
| another job search site?
| neon_electro wrote:
| They have a domain for that: https://www.bwork.com/
| rchowe wrote:
| What always bothered me about "B corps" was that the name
| suggests something analogous to C corp or S corp, which in most
| states is not actually the case. I think my home state of
| Massachusetts does it well and labels them as "Public Benefit
| Corporations" instead of "B corps".
| mminer237 wrote:
| While I agree, those aren't the same thing.
|
| C/S corporation status are two types of tax status for
| companies, whether regular corporations, benefit corporations,
| or even LLCs.
|
| Benefit corporations are a type of corporation provided for by
| state law that has society and the environment as inherent
| beneficiaries of the company, along with the shareholders.
|
| B corporations are a label B Lab (itself a not-for-profit
| corporation) gives to companies that comply with its ESG goals.
| It has nothing to do with its tax status or its legal
| obligations. B Labs requires amending the bylaws, but legally
| the shareholders are still supreme and there's nothing
| preventing the changes from being undone at any time.
|
| I realize that that makes the name even more misleading though
| lol
| unmole wrote:
| I apologise for a middlebrow dismissal but is there anything more
| to this than performative virtue signalling?
| culi wrote:
| I actually kinda find them useful. The overall "B Corp
| certification" is just too easy to get imo, but they do have
| detailed breakdowns of scores in each of their 5 categories
| (Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, Customers). For
| example, you can look at this company page[0] and see that they
| don't have worker ownership or bonus points for certain
| environmental initiatives they take
|
| In short, while the certification might not be the most useful,
| I think the comparative scores can be. I wonder if anyone's
| scraped the data already for projects
|
| [0] https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-
| corp/company/ple...
| unmole wrote:
| This looks all too similar to ESG: Taking arbitrary and
| subjective values and turning them into supposedly objective
| numbers.
| culi wrote:
| The certification isn't just a vibe check. It's a very
| thorough rubric. The category names are the only thing that
| feels subjective
|
| But you still have a valid point. Any rubric large and
| complex enough is gonna lead to room for subjectivity in
| what is and isn't looked at as thoroughly. I'm not at all
| saying it's 100% signal and no noise. Just that there is
| signal in there and could be useful to someone or just fun
| to play with for a side project/data visualization
| tdonoghue wrote:
| Yes! There's money to be made in the certification of the
| performative virtue signaling.
| mminer237 wrote:
| It's a nice idea and website, but the structure seems
| very...nonideal. Why should this be governed by a private entity
| that they have to pay to monitor and recertify them? What's to
| stop a company from being "for society and the environment" until
| they get big enough to not care? As far as I can see, nothing's
| legally binding. At any point, the shareholders can just amend
| the bylaws to give up their little badge and do whatever makes
| them more money.
|
| I think something like a benefit corporation or L3C is far more
| meaningful. Having all the capital legally tied into having
| society and the environment as beneficiaries thereof is way
| better than having a private company give you a little badge to
| advertise with as long as you do what they want.
| austinjp wrote:
| For anyone else who doesn't know what an L3C is, Google says
| it's L3C a low-profit limited liability company.
| 0xffff2 wrote:
| I looked into it a bit, and it seems that you probably need to
| _be_ a benefit corporation or L3C to qualify for certification.
| For example, here 's what they say for US/Deleware/Corporation
| on their legal requirement page [0]:
|
| > Your company can meet the legal requirement for B Corp
| Certification by electing public benefit corporation status...
|
| I am very much not a lawyer, but they go on to say existing
| corporations can transition to PBC status with a majority vote.
| I wonder whether the reverse is true. If so, there's no legal
| hurdle to pulling the same bait and switch you describe with a
| benefit corporation.
|
| 0: https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/about-b-corps/legal-
| requi...
| abound wrote:
| As another commenter noted, Nespresso is a B Corp [1] and a
| subsidiary of Nestle, which isn't traditionally thought of as a
| particularly "good" company, to put it gently [2].
|
| My opinion of the B Corp designation, which has been heavily
| colored by founding + running a nonprofit full-time, is that it's
| mostly a marketing tool, and otherwise doesn't carry much weight.
| A common context I come across them in is offering services to
| nonprofits (ex [3] [4]), which they seem to do at approximately
| market rates in most cases.
|
| In some ways (but certainly not all), I think the 501c3
| process/designation puts stronger guardrails in place to make
| sure an organization isn't doing anything particularly terrible,
| by 1) limiting the financial upside to doing "bad" things, 2)
| removing the tax-exempt status if the org deviates too far from
| their stated mission (filed in a 1023 with the IRS) or receives
| too much money from the wrong places, and 3) forcing a bit of
| transparency by publishing 990s (the nonprofit yearly tax
| filing).
|
| [1] https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-
| corp/company/nes...
|
| [2]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9#Controversies_and_...
|
| [3] https://www.wholewhale.com/
|
| [4] https://www.fatbeehive.com/
| [deleted]
| zschuessler wrote:
| This is the first I've become aware of B Corp and I like the
| idea.
|
| I dug into what defines a B Corp. Notably the self-described
| "stringent" rules for becoming licensed. Pardon my ignorance, but
| it seems like a lot of regulatory checks to adhere to for keeping
| the company accountable? Seems.. like a lot of overhead.
|
| I've been silently cheering on Teamshares.com over the past year
| hoping their idea catches on. I'm not sure if that's the same
| idea (emphasis being on employee ownership). But I'd be
| interested in hearing the account of others who have worked for a
| B Corp.
| nness wrote:
| From a brand perspective, being a B Corp is certainly a
| positive for both the socially conscientious end-consumer and
| any sustainable organisations which want a B2B relationship.
|
| That overhead is the extrinsic price you pay for B Corp status,
| and like any other organisation membership programme, I'm sure
| some organisations will eventually drop from the certification
| due to time or restriction on their trade. But that is actually
| desirable, if its valuable to you, you'll find a way for your
| organisation to do it. And if you can't meet those
| requirements, and drop/don't apply, then it only adds more
| value to those who do have the status.
|
| I'm not aware of anything which makes B Corp a particularly new
| idea -- there are a few membership programmes (or even
| corporate awards which require membership) which have
| sustainable or fair work requirements. Subjectively, I feel
| that B Corp is executed well and the brand value it provides,
| for the time being, is worthwhile for smaller organisations to
| consider.
| zahma wrote:
| This site is a solid way of seeking work at a good company or
| being a responsible consumer.
|
| When I was looking for work in environmental policy around
| 2016/18, I looked at this tool and it was sparsely populated. Now
| it feels like many companies have made attempts to conform to the
| standards, which is no simple feat, especially for multi-
| nationals.
|
| It's exciting to see alternate means of assessing value in a
| company. Such an evaluation is essential if we want to rethink
| classical economics and value companies who add value to their
| employees, the earth, or sustainable practices.
| lapser wrote:
| > Now it feels like many companies have made attempts to
| conform to the standards, which is no simple feat, especially
| for multi-nationals.
|
| You're right, actually conforming to the standard is no easy
| feat, but luckily, you can do the bare minimum[0] and continue
| your greenwashing processes.
|
| [0] https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-
| corp/company/nes...
| zahma wrote:
| Your comment is disingenuous. While there are certainly many
| businesses who do not undertake sustainability efforts in
| earnest or at all, we (as consumers) have to want companies
| to try. Otherwise they are even further disincentivized to
| make an effort. I agree that it's a bad look when a Nestle
| company can obtain a B Corp score, but that's not to
| discredit the entire program.
|
| B Corp certifying makes a critical distinction for consumers.
| Is it a panacea for climate crises? Of course not. Will it
| single-handedly fix profit-incentivized business models that
| exploit natural resources? Of course not. It's a start, and
| you shouldn't assume that all companies undertaking its
| certification are merely greenwashing.
|
| You could try to make the argument that enabling greenwashing
| is detrimental to them environmentalism effort, but then I'd
| have to get a sense for what you think is a meaningful step
| toward adjusting business practices.
| robertlagrant wrote:
| > Will it single-handedly fix profit-incentivized business
| models that exploit natural resources?
|
| It will do this not at all, indeed. It's the materials
| scientists and the VCs and the investors and the
| logisticians and the engineers who will solve the problems.
| B Corp is a marketing thing to allow companies to access
| middle class wallet share.
|
| And fair enough; whatever differentiates you. But it's not
| going to solve anything.
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| Your reply can be summarized as "even the biggest players
| are successfully abusing this to greenwash, but it's good"
| yunwal wrote:
| > I agree that it's a bad look when a Nestle company can
| obtain a B Corp score, but that's not to discredit the
| entire program.
|
| Can you explain why this shouldn't discredit the entire
| program? What distinction does b-corp certification
| _actually_ make? I realize the point is it 's _supposed_ to
| signify that the corporation intends to make a positive
| impact, but clearly that 's not actually a requirement.
| redeux wrote:
| One of my favorite tech conferences, All Things Open, is actually
| a B Corp[1]. Pretty cool.
|
| 1. https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-
| corp/company/all...
| terminatornet wrote:
| for those looking for b corp jobs, i'm not sure if this is
| actually maintained
|
| https://www.bwork.com/
| H8crilA wrote:
| I wonder if it works like the ESG scores, where an oil company
| can score max results because it is ranked against peers, i.e.
| other oil companies.
| wnc3141 wrote:
| Many scholars note thay a B-corp is mostly a marketing strategy.
| There is little in B-corporate status that meaningfully
| differentiates from a traditional corporation, except to signal
| to customer and shareholders the intent of the firm to consider
| total stakeholder value.
|
| https://theconversation.com/b-corp-certification-wont-guaran...
| hugoromano wrote:
| I run two SMEs in Tourism, and as their size is small we opted
| years ago, to spend certification costs into CO2e offsetting. We
| use United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a pillars for
| managing.
| msesen wrote:
| I've been trying to find a meaningful job at a BCorp or other
| socially/environmentally responsible company for a while. Sadly,
| it doesn't seem like you get a lot of chances as a Software
| Engineer, since most of the corporations just offer services or
| physical products.
| brightball wrote:
| dmarcian is one. I worked there for about 3 years. Good people.
| culi wrote:
| if you haven't already come across it:
| https://techjobsforgood.com/
| codetrotter wrote:
| https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp/?query=Soft...
|
| But beyond the ones matching that search, won't most of them
| actually need IT oriented people even if they don't explicitly
| say so?
| msesen wrote:
| Sadly none of them operating in Germany and/or don't have
| open roles.
|
| I assumed so as well. I thought it would be an easy task to
| get a job in that sector, you know how it is as a SE. But it
| turns out a lot of those companies either do some form of
| (non-technical) consulting or offer actual physical products.
| You don't need a guy doing backend stuff for tasks that a
| shopify page can solve.
| no_wizard wrote:
| >But beyond the ones matching that search, won't most of them
| actually need IT oriented people even if they don't
| explicitly say so?
|
| The pay is often substandard at organizations that consider
| software development IT in the first place
| neon_electro wrote:
| They appear to have a domain for finding jobs at B Corps:
| https://www.bwork.com/
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