What to know about the Eligibility: Ownership type section in certification setup

The certification setup experience will take you through a personalized questionnaire to check your company's eligibility for certification and understand the scope of your company's operations. By getting to know more about your company, we'll be able to tailor your assessment to your company's size, industry, and location.

Once you've completed all sections, you will receive your company's assessment and can start measuring your company's impact.

What is the purpose of the Eligibility: Ownership type section in setup?

The Eligibility section asks questions about your company’s ownership structure and operations to determine if the company is eligible for certification. This section addresses some general aspects of the company’s profile that may exclude it from pursuing B Corp certification. Without this information, we may miss key aspects of the business that make it unsuitable for B Corp certification.

What questions are asked in the Eligibility section?

You can expect to answer questions about your company relating to: 

• Ownership type

• If it has been operational for at least the last 12 months

• If it has characteristics of a for profit business that operates in a competitive market.

What does preliminary eligibility mean? 

The purpose of the Certification setup experience is to evaluate if your company has attributes that make it ineligible for B Corp certification. Your company’s answers will be verified by B Lab once you submit the B Impact Assessment for certification. A company may engage in additional practices that make it ineligible for certification, based on B Lab’s background check and the company’s disclosure question responses. See more on our controversial industries list.

What does it mean to be operational for a company?

See the guide Operational Date Explained. 

What are the possible outcomes of this section? 

Companies who provide information in this section can expect the following outcomes:

• Preliminary eligibility for B Corp Certification met. That means that your company is eligible to submit their assessment for B Corp certification, to be verified by B Lab. 

• Ineligible for B Corp certification. Your company is still encouraged to use the B Impact Assessment as a free tool to measure your impact.

Please note these results are based on the responses to this section so if you are having trouble understanding the questions or describing your company, please contact our Support Portal.