Completing Your Operational Highlights

Instructions

Your Verification Report has a customized list of questions based on your responses in the B Impact Assessment(BIA) for which your company is scoring highly. Please select two questions in each Impact Area section of the BIA (i.e. Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, and Customers) and tell us more about your company’s practices related to that question topic. 

Select the questions that you want to highlight. Under Activity, type your responses under Comments and click Send when complete.  

Note: If there are fewer than two questions in an Impact Area, comment on as many as appear; you do not need to comment on additional questions in other sections. If there are more than two questions in an Impact Area, you may choose which practices you would like to highlight for us. For instance, Operational Highlights may represent practices you:

• Currently report or market publicly (on website, social media, impact reports, etc.).

• Are most proud of.

• Recently implemented to improve the company’s social or environmental impact.

• Believe to be unique for your company’s industry, size, geography, etc.

Like the entire BIA, Operational Highlights should only represent implemented practices, and not future plans. If you notice your response does not apply yet, add that as a Comment for your reviewer.

Comments should provide B Lab with an understanding of that practice at your company to help us in the review of your company’s BIA. Please Include what the practice is at your company, to whom it applies, when it was implemented, and context as to why you are proud/it’s unique, if relevant.

To assist you in completing this step, below is an example of a completed Operational Highlights for Review.

You will have an opportunity to discuss any question with your Standards Analyst on an Assessment Review call shortly after completing your Highlights commentary. If you have questions about this process that cannot wait for the review, feel free to submit a ticket to our B Lab Global Support team via our KB Portal. 

Examples

Below are screenshots with examples of how to select and comment in the Verification Report to questions that represent Operational Highlights for your business.

Selecting Questions to complete the Operational Highlights step in the certification process

1. Since this Impact Area (Governance) only has one available question, you are only required to provide a comment on that single question. Likewise, if an Impact Area does not contain any questions or it does not appear on your Verification Report- you are not required to respond to any questions from that section.

2. When there are multiple questions available in an Impact Area, please select 2 questions to provide Comments with additional details. (I.e. In the Workers section above, you would select only 2 out of the 4 questions of your choice to comment as an Operational Highlight.)

3. When you decide which questions in the Verification Report you would like to select as an Operational Highlight, expand the question and enter your answer rationale in the “Activity” section. Note: Please remember to click “Send” in order to submit your comment.

Examples of Comments to complete the Operational Highlights step in the certification process:

Below are a list of questions in each Impact Area and a sample Operational Highlight Comment that provides supporting information regarding that practice for B Lab’s review process.

1. Governance

Question: Social/Environmental Key Performance Indicators

Response:  We measure social and environmental outcomes over time (examples: 3rd-party impact assessments, progress out of poverty indexing, beneficiary outcome surveys, etc.)

Sample Comment: One of our company’s values is to be good for society and the planet. Three years ago we developed social and environmental metrics around the Sustainable Development Goals. Some examples of metrics include: planting more trees in our facilities to offset our GHG emissions and allocating 10% of our building projects towards sustainable, resilient infrastructure projects for underserved communities. We publish an annual report where we report our outcomes from these goals, which is linked on our website here [www.companywebsite.com/annuareport]. 

2. Workers

Question: Supplementary Health Benefits

Response: Options 1-3, 5-6

Sample Comment: We have an Employee Handbook that outlines the benefits we provide to our employees, which include: dental insurance, life insurance and short and long-term disability. These benefits are provided by and paid for by our company. All staff (full time and part time) and their dependents are eligible for these benefits upon hire. At this time 100% of staff have registered for these benefits. 

3. Community

Question: Impactful Banking Services

Response: Options 2, 5 and 6

Sample Comment: The majority of our company’s assets are managed by ABC Bank. We have banked with ABC Bank for the past five years. ABC Bank is located in our town and is privately owned. ABC Bank is also a Certified B Corporation. We choose this bank because of their commitment to our local community and their shared values of inclusivity and sustainability. 

4. Environment

Question: Environmental Management Systems

Response: Options 1-3

Sample Comment: We conduct an internal environmental audit every year that measures the following metrics: water usage, energy usage, greenhouse gas emissions and waste produced. Our Chief Operating Officer manages this audit and publishes the data into a report she sends to the entire team. The report is also used by management for goal setting and to determine operational strategies. Last year, the EMS audit motivated our company to install a composting bin in our office to reduce waste and to have more virtual meetings to reduce our carbon footprint.