Introduction

What is a Major Nonconformity?

What is Minor Nonconformity?

How to address Major and Minor Nonconformities?

Summary and next steps

Frequently Asked Questions

Introduction

When your company goes through a B Corp Certification audit, the auditor assesses how well your practices align with the B Lab Standards. Sometimes, they identify gaps where your current practices do not fully meet a requirement. These gaps are called nonconformities and can be classified as major or minor based on their severity, and are raised against B Lab Standards sub-requirements or compliance criteria.

This article is for companies preparing for their first B Corp Certification audit on the B Lab Standards V2.1. You will learn what nonconformities are, how auditors distinguish between major and minor findings, what timelines apply to each, and what your company should do if a nonconformity is raised. Understanding the difference between major and minor nonconformities is essential because it will determine the actions you need to take to correct nonconformities in order to achieve and maintain your certification.

Having a nonconformity does not mean you cannot be certified. What matters is you address it within the required timelines.

What is a Major Nonconformity?

A major nonconformity is a total failure to implement or meet a B Lab Standards requirement

and/or failure to conform that indicates an imminent significant risk to:

• Workers or the community from human rights violations in connection with a company’s operations, products, or services (e.g., forced labor);

• Livelihood (e.g., lack of fair wage practices);

• The environment from damages in connection with a company’s operations, products, or services;

• The company’s or B Lab’s reputation (e.g., failure to comply with regulatory requirements); and/or

• The credibility of the scheme (e.g., B Corp logo misuse or miscommunication about B Corp certified status).

Major nonconformities can occur when there is:

• A total absence of implementation of the standard requirement

• A group of related, repeated, or persistent minor nonconformities, indicating inadequate implementation

• An unaddressed or recurring minor nonconformity

• A persistent (or isolated high-impact) lapse in the performance, discipline, or control of a company’s business practices

• A systemic failure or total lack of the controls needed to comply with the B Lab Standards

For example, under the Purpose & Stakeholder Governance Impact Topic, sub‑requirement PSG2.3 asks the company to conduct regular materiality assessments and identify material topics.  A major nonconformity would apply if your company has not conducted a materiality assessment, or it has  not identified material topics as part of its materiality assessment.

Similarly, in Environmental Stewardship & Circularity, sub-requirement ESC1.4 asks the company to identify its facilities in areas at water risk and monitor their water consumption or withdrawal. A major nonconformity could be raised if your company has not identified facilities in areas of water risk or has identified at risk facilities but has no process to monitor their water consumption.

What is Minor Nonconformity?

A minor nonconformity is a failure to wholly conform to the relevant B Lab Standards

requirement, due to an isolated lapse in performance, discipline, or control that does not

indicate a breakdown of the systems that underpin conformity, nor does it result in an

imminent significant risk to the company stakeholders (e.g., workers, the community, the

environment, customers). 

A nonconformity may be considered minor when a single observed lapse is identified if:

• It is a temporary lapse, or

• It is unusual/non-systemic, or

• The impacts of the nonconformity are limited in temporal and spatial scale; or

• Prompt corrective action has been put in place to ensure that it will not be repeated.

For example, under the Purpose & Stakeholder Governance Impact Topic compliance criteria 2.3.1 asks companies to engage several required stakeholder groups or their representatives in a materiality assessment. A minor nonconformity could be raised if your company has an engagement process in place, but, in practice, you only engaged some of the required stakeholder groups rather than all of them.

A minor nonconformity may become a major nonconformity, for example, when isolated

lapses occur together. For example, Fair Work sub-requirement FW2.8a for payment of living wages. If auditors find multiple instances where workers are not paid a living wage or repetitive nonconformities with compliance criteria a.1-3, it indicates a systemic failure. Because this shows the policy to pay living wages hasn't been fully implemented, it would be raised as a major non-conformity.

How to address Major and Minor Nonconformities?

After your audit, the assurance provider issues a Corrective Action Report and an Audit Report within 30 days from the audit closing meeting. The Corrective Action Report sets out each nonconformity (major and/or minor), along with instructions and timelines for addressing them.

You must then prepare a Corrective Action Plan, including:

• A root cause analysis for each nonconformity.

• Short‑term corrections to address current instances of the issue.

• Longer‑term corrective actions to eliminate the root cause and prevent recurrence.

• A clear timeframe and supporting evidence for implementation. 

If the auditor issues nonconformities, consider the Corrective Action Report as a roadmap for improvement rather than a penalty. A practical approach is to:

1. Review the report carefully and ensure you understand each finding, including whether it is major or minor and what part of the Standard it relates to.

2. Confirm the timelines for response, especially for major nonconformities.

3. Conduct a thorough root cause analysis that goes beyond symptoms (for example, “policy not consistently applied”) to understand why the issue occurred.

4. Prioritise actions to close major nonconformities first, while also planning to address minors before the next audit.

5. Coordinate across relevant teams (e.g., HR, sustainability, legal, operations) to design and implement corrections and longer‑term corrective actions.

6. Collect and organise clear evidence of implementation to submit alongside your Corrective Action Plan and follow‑up responses.

Table 1: Deadlines for closing nonconformities at each type of audit, including consequences and required actions if a nonconformity is not addressed.

A positive certification decision can only be made when all major nonconformities have been closed within the timeline defined by the assurance provider. B Lab’s model also allows certification with open minor nonconformities, as long as they are addressed within the agreed timelines and there is no fixed cap on the number of minor nonconformities.

Summary and next steps

In summary:

• Nonconformities are findings where your current practices do not fully meet a B Lab Standard requirement; they are classified as major or minor depending on severity and risk.

• Major nonconformities indicate serious or systemic failures or significant risks and must be closed within defined timelines for certification to proceed or continue.

• Minor nonconformities are isolated lapses that can be resolved over a longer period, usually by the next audit, but they can be upgraded to major if not addressed.

Next steps for your company:

• Before your audit, review the  nonconformity requirements in the Certification Process Requirements for B Corps to ensure you understand what the implications and timelines are depending on the type of audit.

• If nonconformities are raised, focus on identifying root causes, designing robust corrective actions to address the root cause to avoid repeats, and submitting your Corrective Action Plan and evidence within the specified timelines.

• Use nonconformities as an opportunity for continuous improvement of your policies and practices, and strengthen your governance, social and environmental impact.

Additional Resources: 

• Certification Process Requirements for B Corp 

• Certification Scope Requirements

• What to know about scoping your company for certification 

• How to determine which sites are in scope for certification

• What is a Sustainability Management System