A B Corporation or Benefit Corporation is a corporate operational model certified by the non-profit. B Lab. While a Benefit corporation is a legal status administered by the state, a certified B Corporation is a certification conferred by the B Lab, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that serves a global movement of entrepreneurs using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. B Lab serves these entrepreneurs through three interrelated initiatives that provide them the legal infrastructure and help them attract the customers, talent, and capital to scale.
However, a B Corporation does not address the invisible ownership structure of a corporation, as provided by state charters.
According to B Lab, benefit corporations operate the same as traditional corporations but with higher standards of corporate purpose, accountability, and transparency. They give leaders legal protection to pursue a higher purpose than profit, and offer the public greater transparency to protect against pretenders.
Today, there is a growing community of over 1,000 Certified B Corps from more than 30 countries and 60 industries working together toward one unifying goal: to redefine success in business.
In principle, all corporations should operate as benefit corporations serving first and foremost society’s great good and advance the quality of life.
But the B Corporation ownership structure can be just as concentrated as a non-B Corporation, because the B Corporation legislation does not address the ownership composition of corporations. What we need is a movement that advocates broadening personal share ownership of private corporations and provides the knowledge about various financial tools that can be used to empower EVERY child, woman and man (EVERY citizen) to acquire personal ownership shares in the FUTURE growth of America’s corporations without having to have or pledge past savings or equities as security for capital credit loans used to acquire ownership shares. Insured, interest-free capital credit loans should be use to finance America’s economic growth with the FUTURE earnings of the investments pledged first to pay off the loans and once paid the full earnings would accrue to the new capital owners.
One set of policies that would implement this approach is the proposed Capital Homestead Act. Support the Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/capital-homestead-act-a-plan-for-getting-ownership-income-and-power-to-every-citizen/ and http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/capital-homestead-act-summary/.
I’m a fan of B-Corps and similar ways to hold corps accountable by objective measures of ‘Benefit.’
to workers the community, and environment.
I’d use certified measures of each as a classifier of the corporation, for use in public policy, taxation and regulation of the corporation.
I’m also a fan of flexibility in the way corps could provide benefits to employees by a combination of methods, including salary, improved work life quality, stock options and ownership.
B-corps are an instance of classifying corporations by their purpose and profit motive.
A certification process could be used to rank corps as
I see a continuum from charity not-for profit to just-for-profit, and everything in between, such as public utility and NGOs in between.
Along this continuum, taxes and other constraints should be imposed on the publicly owned corporations in varying degrees: such as
limits on lavish salaries, tax rates, eligibility to participate in government projects, degrees of immunity from civil and criminal prosecution. etc.