The recent decision by Brazilian cosmetics and toiletries maker Natura to adopt B Corps status ‒ given to a for-profit corporate entity that pursues social and environmental goals beyond the profit motive ‒ has spurred others, such as consumer goods company Unilever, to consider pursuing the title, according to media reports.
Unilever CEO Paul Polman told the Guardian newspaper in an interview at the World Economic Summit in Davos that the company was considering seeking B Corps status. Any such move would require sustainability certification by B Lab, the non-governmental organization after a series of examinations on employee, community and environmental impact.
Natura became the largest, and first publicly traded, B Corps organization last month, and found no resistance among its institutional shareholder base, setting an example that could inspire other listed companies worldwide to follow suit, the Guardian reports.
But Polman said Unilever’s size and its operations throughout the world make pursuit of B Corps status much trickier than for smaller, more geographically focused companies and achievement of the title would take a considerable amount of time.
More than 1,100 businesses from 33 countries and more than 60 industries have achieved B Corp status, according to B Lab. B Corps companies include ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry’s, crowdfunding pioneer Kickstarter, Vermont energy company Green Mountain Power and other companies in sectors such as marketing, design, retail, tourism and financial planning.
Natura, however, with more than 7,000 employees and operations in several Latin American countries, is the biggest to adopt the status so far. Co-chairman Guilherme Leal said in another interview with the Guardian at Davos that B Corps certification is more complicated for larger companies.
But he added: ‘We are trying to demonstrate that it’s possible for larger organizations to become B Corps, even if the main target is the new generation of companies that are being created. I agree with Paul Polman that, for companies like Unilever working in many different countries, it’s not an easy process, but I believe in collective learning and I think B Lab and big companies such as Unilever could learn together.’
