Change Log for B Lab's Self Assessment/New Standards

Modified on Thu, 31 Jul at 3:07 PM

General Change Log (i.e. changes that apply across the entire standards)

Changes to Foundation Requirements

Changes to Purpose & Stakeholder Governance

Changes to Fair Work

Changes to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Changes to Human Rights

Changes to Climate Action

Changes to Environmental Stewardship & Circularity

Changes to Government Affairs and Collective Action

The B Lab Standards, version V2.0, were published on 8 April 2025. Further changes and improvements to the standards will be implemented as we continue to learn from company self-assessments, verification processes, and the roll out of the new standards.

As updates to the standards are published, the following sections provide the specific changes to the Foundation Requirements and Impact Topics.

General Change Log (i.e. changes that apply across the entire standards)

Version & publication date	Scope of Change	Description of Change
B Lab Standards V2.1 - 12 August 2025	Combined standards PDF document	Included introduction and table of contents
	Multiple topics’ PDF documents	Made edits for clarity and improved the formatting
	Definition of Wholesale/Retail	Removed "e-commerce" for accuracy
	Definition of Services with minor footprint	Reworded for clarity
	Definitions of Hazardous chemicals and Hazardous substances	Added
	Definitions of Employee-resource group, Base Wage, Affinity Group, Extra wage component, Gender affirmation leave, In-kind benefit, Total wage.	Updated the usage of the terms “workers” and “employees” in the definitions for accuracy.
	Definitions of Living wage and Living Income	Updated to state “persons” instead of “workers” for accuracy.
	Multiple topics	Corrected errors and improved the formatting (included within V2.0 on April 28).

Changes to Foundation Requirements

Version & publication date	Scope of Change	Description of Change
B Lab Standards V2.1 - August 12, 2025	FR1.1	Made updates to Clarifying the Compliance Criteria for clarity
	FR1.2	Updated Compliance Criteria for financial services companies, for companies with revenue from being linked to impacts on affected stakeholders in the listed industries, and for including a transition pathway for B Corps certified against version 6 of the standards. Included the European Investment Bank's exclusion list under Intent. Updated Clarifying the Compliance Criteria and further guidance for providing more details on terms used in the Compliance Criteria.
	FR1.3, FR1.4, FR1.5, FR2.1, FR2.2	Updated Compliance Criteria and accompanying Clarifying the Compliance Criteria to refer to “an Agreement committing to the B Corp Certification process” instead of B Corp Agreement since companies will sign an agreement at the beginning of the certification.
	FR1.4	Corrected numbering within Clarifying the Compliance Criteria.
	FR2.1	Included Clarifying the Compliance Criteria for cases where there is a change of legal form. Added a recommendation about the Legal Requirement Tool. Updated Recommendation for companies with complex legal structure.
	FR3.1	Updated a compliance criterion, Clarifying the Compliance Criteria, and Further guidance to provide more information and guidance on how the Risk Tool works
	FR3.1.a - FR3.1.n	Content of the Risk Tool added under FR3.1.a - 3.1.n in the form of questions the company answers and any additional expectations resulting from the company’s responses
	Terms and Definitions	Added Terms and Definitions related to FR3

Changes to Purpose & Stakeholder Governance

Version & publication date	Scope of Change	Description of Change
B Lab Standards V2.1 - August 12, 2025	PSG2.1, PSG2.2	Updated Compliance Criteria to include mapping of stakeholders.
	PSG2.3, PSG5.1, PSG6.3	References to “years” converted to “months” for clarity in Compliance Criteria and accompanying Clarifying the Compliance Criteria.
	PSG1.1, PSG2.1, PSG2.3, PSG2.4, PSG4.1, PSG4.2, PSG5.3, PSg5.4, PSG5.5	Updated Implementation resources to include the latest versions of the resources.
	PSG2.2, PSG6.1, PSG6.2	Updated Further guidance for clarity and to avoid redundant information.
	PSG2.4	Removed a compliance criterion that was redundant.
	PSG4.1	Updated the Compliance Criteria for clarity
	PSG5.4	Updated a compliance criterion and Clarifying the Compliance Criteria for further clarity around incentive remuneration schemes.
	PSG6.1, PSG6.2	Transferred notes on what does not meet the sub-requirement from Further guidance to Clarifying the Compliance Criteria given that it pertains to compliance.

Changes to Fair Work

Version & publication date	Scope of Change	Description of Change
B Lab Standards V2.1 - August 12, 2025	FW2.4, FW2.5, FW2.6, FW2.7, FW4.3, FW4.4	Updated the Compliance Criteria and Clarifying the Compliance Criteria to clarify how headcount determines the applicability of these sub-requirements
	FW2.5	Updated time period in the compliance criterion to “annual”
	FW2.6, FW3.1, FW4.2	Removed and merged some redundant Compliance Criteria, resulting in other criteria being renumbered
	FW2.7	Reordered and renumbered the Compliance Criteria
	FW3.1	Removed the compliance criterion “All employees have the opportunity to become a representative” given there may be legal and legitimate reasons for some employees to be ineligible (e.g. those on probation or about to retire)
	FW4.3	Made not applicable to Medium-sized companies to align with the approach to determine the applicability based on headcount
	FW2.4, FW2.6, FW2.8, FW2.8.a, FW2.8.c, FW3.1, FW3.2	Updated the term from “worker” to “employee” in Clarifying the Compliance Criteria, Further Guidance, and Recommendations for accuracy.

Changes to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Version & publication date	Scope of Change	Description of Change
B Lab Standards V2.1 - August 12, 2025	JEDI1.1	JEDI1.1 and the previous JEDI1.2 merged to ensure headcount determines the applicability of the Compliance Criteria The new merged JEDI1.1 made applicable to Medium, Large, X Large, XX Large companies
	JEDI1.2	Renumbered the sub-requirement and Compliance Criteria after merging JEDI1.1 and the previous JEDI1.2 (see above) Moved the compliance criterion “The company uses terms to represent the chosen social identities that are suitable for its context and respect people’s dignity” to Recommendations given challenges around objectivity and verifiability Renumbered the remaining Compliance Criteria
	JEDI1.1, JEDI1.2, JEDI2.g	Removed implementation resources no longer available
	JEDI2.1	Renumbered Compliance Criteria to correct an error
	JEDI2.2, JEDI2.3, JEDI2.4, JEDI2.5, JEDI2.6	Updated the Compliance Criteria for clarity. Added content to Clarifying the Compliance Criteria to clarify how to interpret the Compliance Criteria.
	JEDI2.g	Updated the Further Guidance for accuracy and clarity
	JEDI2.h	Changed “workers” to “employees” to set a more reasonable expectation

Changes to Human Rights

Version & publication date	Scope of Change	Description of Change
B Lab Standards V2.1 - August 12, 2025	HR2.1	Added new Compliance Criterion and accompanying Clarifying the Compliance Criteria linked to additional expectations under FR3 for applicable companies
	HR2.1, HR2.5	References to “years” in the Compliance Criteria converted to “months” for clarity
	HR2.3, HR3.1, HR3.2, HR4.4	Updated sub-requirement references in Clarifying the Compliance Criteria and Further guidance for accuracy
	HR3.2	HR3.2 and the previous HR3.3 merged as they had the same content. The new merged HR3.2 made applicable to Large, X Large, XX Large companies
	HR3.3, HR3.4, HR3.5, HR3.6	Renumbered the sub-requirements and Compliance Criteria after merging HR3.2 and the previous HR3.3 (see above)
	HR4.5	Added an implementation resource Added an example to Further Guidance

Changes to Climate Action

Version & publication date	Scope of Change	Description of Change
B Lab Standards V2.1 - August 12, 2025	CA1.1	Included ISO 14064-1:2018 as an accepted standard for emission measurement in the compliance criterion to be more inclusive of methodologies. Removed the compliance criterion about usage of tools and recognized databases that was redundant due to CA1.2. Updated Clarifying the Compliance Criteria for removing content on how to determine relevance of scope 3 categories which is already available within the GHG Protocol.
	CA1.2	Removed the compliance criterion about completeness and accuracy of the GHG inventory, to avoid redundancy as specific qualifications for verification already address the credibility of the GHG inventory. Updated a compliance criterion to synchronize with the changes in Compliance Criteria of CA1.1. Clarifying the Compliance Criteria updated to harmonize content across various parts of the standards and to add clarity about valid verification standards.
	CA1.2, CA3.6, CA3.7	Made applicable to all sectors to correct an error in the previous version.
	CA2.1, CA2.3, CA3.4	References to “years” converted to “months” for clarity in Compliance Criteria.
	CA2.3, CA3.5	Corrected typographical errors.
	CA3.1	A compliance criterion updated for clarity Updated Clarifying the Compliance Criteria for adding further clarity around incentive remuneration schemes.
	CA3.2	Moved content about kinds of resources for demonstrating contribution to advocacy from Clarifying the Compliance Criteria to Compliance Criteria for accuracy and clarity.
	CA3.6, CA3.7	Made not eligible for the equity mechanism to correct a typographical error.

Changes to Environmental Stewardship & Circularity

Version & publication date	Scope of Change	Description of Change
B Lab Standards V2.1 - August 12, 2025	ESC1.2	Added units to Compliance Criteria to allow more units and updated accompanying Clarifying the Compliance Criteria. Removed the compliance criterion about low-impact renewable sources to ensure global relevance and consequently renumbered the Compliance Criteria. Moved content that was not binding from Clarifying the Compliance Criteria to Recommendations.
	ESC1.3	Updated a compliance criterion to remove redundant content.
	ESC1.5	Merged two Compliance Criteria for clarity resulting in consequent renumbering of the rest of the Compliance Criteria.
	ESC1.1, ESC1.2, ESC1.3, ESC1.4	Updated Compliance Criteria to allow a phased approach to facilities for tracking and recording environmental parameters. Updated Clarifying the Compliance Criteria to emphasize operational control of facilities.
	ESC1.7	Added a new compliance criterion and accompanying Clarifying the Compliance Criteria linked to additional expectations under FR3 for applicable companies.
	ESC1.5, ESC1.7, ESC2.1, ESC3.2, ESC3.4, ESC4.2, ESC4.3, ESC4.4, ESC4.5	References to “years” converted to “months” for clarity in Compliance Criteria and Clarifying the Compliance Criteria.
	ESC1.8	Made not eligible for the equity mechanism to correct a typographical error. Updated a compliance criterion for clarity and specificity and added accompanying Clarifying the Compliance Criteria.
	ESC2.1	Updated Further guidance to add examples.
	ESC2.3, ESC3.1	Updated Compliance Criteria for clarity
	ESC2.6, ESC2.7, ESC5.5, ESC4.1, ESC4.2, ESC4.4, ESC5.5	Corrected typographical errors and formatting errors.
	ESC3.2, ESC3.3	Added further clarifications in Clarifying the Compliance Criteria around the scope of the applicability of the Compliance Criteria in case of legal barriers
	ESC3.4	Updated Clarifying the Compliance Criteria to state the end goal of the sub-requirement. Removed redundant content from Recommendations.

Changes to Government Affairs and Collective Action

Version & publication date	Scope of Change	Description of Change
B Lab Standards V2.1 - August 12, 2025	GACA1.1, GACA2.1d, GACA2.3d	Updated Implementation Resources to include more resources.
	GACA1.2	Included a recommendation for public reporting of financial and in-kind contributions to non-campaign activities.
	GACA1.2, GACA1.3	Corrected typographical errors.
	GACA3.1, GACA3.2	Removed redundant content from Further Guidance.