How B Corp™ certification actually works – and what nobody tells you before you start

Programme director Alasdair McAlley looks at the process of becoming a B Corp™ and offers some tips for those considering or embarking on this journey 

I’ve been asked what it was like to lead our B Corp certification. My honest answer is that it was over four years of the most rewarding and most uncomfortable work I’ve done in my career.

This piece is about the process: what it involves, what we learned and why we’d make the same choices again.

Starting with honest conversations

It was clear to us after we’d taken a first pass at the B Lab Business Impact Assessment (BIA) and platform that we needed to unpick where we could change and understand what our stakeholders expected from us. Enter Greenheart, our external consultants, to help us get ourselves ready. This preparation phase turned out to be where almost all the real work happened.

What it looked like in practice wasn’t a tidy project plan (though that came later). It was a series of honest conversations about where we genuinely stood. Which policies existed on paper but needed strengthening in practice. Which areas of the business were already performing well but had never been articulated in a way that would satisfy an external assessment. Which gaps we needed to close before we could credibly submit our B Corp application.

This candour was only possible because of the relationship we built with Greenheart. This wasn’t a consultant relationship in the traditional sense. It felt genuinely collaborative, with their experienced B Corp methodology and understanding alongside our knowledge of how the firm and professional services firms operate. Between the two of us, we built super-solid foundations.

The mock audit nobody forgot

One moment stands out above almost all the others in the pre-submission phase: a mock audit Greenheart ran with us before we formally completed a new BIA.

You’d think this would be familiar territory for a firm of accountants. It absolutely wasn’t! Greenheart played good cop and bad cop. Questions came from unexpected angles. Evidence we thought was airtight was challenged. Assumptions we hadn’t even recognised as assumptions were surfaced and tested. It was, at times, really uncomfortable, and it was exactly what we needed.

This gave us two things. First, a clearer picture of where our submission was genuinely strong and where it needed more work. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it gave us the confidence to submit our actual BIA. Walking into the real evaluation having already been through something so rigorous changed the experience entirely.

From preparation to the platform

Submitting a fresh BIA marked a distinct psychological shift. Up to that point, the work had felt preparatory, something we could still adjust, refine, pull back from if needed. Committing on the B Lab platform made it real. There was a moment, clicking through the questions and answers, where the weight of it landed heavily on my shoulders.

The evaluation that followed, where B Lab reviewed our submission and score, required patience more than anything else. You’ve done the work. You’ve answered the questions. Now you wait to see whether the assessment holds up. For a project leader accustomed to being able to influence outcomes, that period of managed uncertainty was a new challenge.

Verification brought a different dynamic and level of scrutiny. A dedicated B Lab analyst examined not just what we’d submitted, but whether it reflected reality. Having done the hard work with Greenheart upfront meant we could face that process of supplying evidence, data and reasoning quickly and with reasonable confidence. That said, it still focused the mind.

Signing the contract

When our CEO Paul Crocker signed the certification agreement, I felt proud for the team and what we’d collectively achieved.

B Corp certification has a reputation for being difficult to achieve and that reputation is well earned. But what the process demands of you, the honest self-assessment, the cross-business collaboration, the willingness to identify problems and solve them, produces something more valuable than a score. It produces an organisation that understands itself more clearly than it did before and where it wants to go next.

If you’re thinking about doing this

My single strongest piece of advice is don’t try to do it alone. Not because the process is beyond you, but because an external viewpoint changes the nature of the work entirely. Greenheart brought challenge and a deep understanding of what B Lab and what B Corps expect and are seeking.

Without that partnership, I think we’d have taken even longer, worked even harder and ended up with a weaker submission.

Find the right people. Have the honest conversations early. Give it the time it deserves.

It took us over four years. It was worth every month of it.

If you’re at the start of your B Corp journey, or still deciding whether to begin, please get in touch; I’m happy to share what we learned. If you’d like the broader picture of what drove us to pursue certification, my first article covers the why behind all of this.

Read more:

How B Corp™ is helping us to change our firm for good

B Corp™ and the client experience

People, culture and our journey to B Corp™

More than a badge: what leading our B Corp™ certification taught me

This blog was written by Alasdair McAlley, programme director at PKF Francis Clark.