What to know about scoping your company for certification

Scoping is a foundational step in the B Corp Certification process. It’s how we define the boundaries of your assessment and certification—basically, “what’s inside the circle” of your certified business. A clear scope ensures your certification accurately reflects the areas you control, helps your team focus resources, and makes the audit process efficient.

Because B Corp Certification evaluates entire businesses rather than individual products or sites, scoping plays a critical role in making sure dynamic, multi-layered business structures are assessed fairly and consistently.

This article explains why scoping matters and how B Lab applies to scoping rules to accurately assess the boundaries of your company’s assessment. You can learn in-depth about B Lab’s Scoping Requirements in the Certification Requirements Process and Scoping Requirements for B Corps. 

Why Scoping Matters

Scoping shapes the entire certification process from beginning to end. An accurate scope: 

• Defines boundaries: Scoping determines which entities, sites, and operations are included in your certification.

• Focuses resources: Your team can direct time, budget, and effort towards implementing B Lab’s standards to areas within the scope of your certification.

• Ensures accurate auditing: When your company answers questions in the B Impact Assessment, those responses are assumed to apply to all operations within your certification scope, and auditors verify them accordingly. This makes it essential that your scope is defined accurately and includes only the areas where your business has real control and can uphold the required practices.

• Protects the certification claim: Only entities and operations in scope can use the B Corp brand. This is especially important for companies with shared brands, multiple subsidiaries, or several product lines.
  
  

Think of scoping as drawing a clear circle around the parts of your business you can manage and report on. Anything outside that circle is not assessed and cannot use the B Corp claim.

Defining Your Certification Scope

There are two overarching rules that guide how a company’s certification scope is defined:

Rule 1: A company must include all entities under its control in the certification scope.

This means any entity the company financially or operationally controls must be part of what is being certified.

Rule 2: All entities within the certification scope must meet B Lab’s Independence Criteria, including operating under a single sustainability management system.

Every entity included in the scope must be aligned in governance, decision-making, and sustainability oversight.

Let us unpack how each rule is applied to define your certification scope. 

Applying Rule 1: Control 

Your scope includes all parts of your company that you own or control and which you want to certify. This includes:

• Legal entities – subsidiaries or affiliates. If a legal entity is included in the scope of certification, B Lab requires that all sites/ employees/ revenue/ business operations that exist under that legal entity are considered within scope of the assessment and certification. 

• Sites – for example, offices, factories, stores etc.

• Business operations – day-to-day activities, products, or services
  
  

Control means having the power to direct an entity’s leadership, daily operations, or key business decisions.  Control can be exercised in several ways. If a legal entity (subsidiary or affiliate) meets either of the control criteria listed below, it must be included in the scope:

• Financial control: The entity is consolidated in your accounts.
  
  

• Operational control: Your executive team makes decisions over its operations, regardless of financial consolidation.

You only include areas where you have the ability to influence management, finances, or daily operations.

Applying Rule 2:  Independence 

For companies that have multiple entities or sites in scope according to Rule 1, B Lab applies Independence Criteria to ensure that your company operates as a full, independent business. To meet Rule 2, there are certain criteria multi-site companies must meet: 

Sustainability Management System

• The company must operate under a single sustainability management system covering all the controlled entities and/or sites within scope, and have authority to develop and implement the associated policies, practices and procedures required by the B Lab Standards. Learn more about an SMS in our article What Is a Sustainability Management System and Why it Matters

Executive Accountability

• The company must have its own executive team with the authority to create and implement the policies in the company’s sustainability management system. 

• If the company shares an executive team with an out-of-scope business, they must track the time they spend on each business and cross-charge the relevant portion to the applicant’s P&L.

      Legal Accountability

• The company must be a distinct legal entity operating as a private-sector business.

•  It must have a legal structure that allows it to adopt B Lab’s legal requirement (where a legal pathway exists). Learn more about the legal requirement. 

Distinct Reporting

• The applicant company must be able to provide complete reporting on both financial and impact performance for all in-scope operations.
  
  

      Distinct Branding

• The applicant company must have a distinct public identity to ensure the B Corp certification is only associated with entities in scope. This requires having either an independent website or a clearly differentiated company name, such as one with a geographic or industry qualifier.

If your company and its entities in scope meet the Independence Criteria outlined above, you can certify independently under one assessment and one certification. 

In Summary 

Getting your certification scope right is essential — it ensures your B Corp Certification accurately reflects the parts of your business you truly manage and can stand behind. For detailed and formal guidance, including all scoping rules and definitions, refer to the Certification Scope Requirements. If you have questions, please reach out to your region’s Global Partner.