The Foundation Requirements is a tool that assesses the business across four key aspects related to business risk: employees, productions, operations and reputation. The Risk profile is an aspect of Foundation Requirements that must be complete for any company opted into certification. The Risk profile is only available for companies with company sizes higher than Micro.

Once you have submitted your setup experience, you will see the Foundation Requirements on your home page. Select "Get started" on the Foundation Requirements card. 

Like other parts of the setup experience, you can complete it overtime, rather than in one moment. Please save your progress as you do so and track your progress on the right side of the page.

Completing the Risk profile

Once all questions are completed, the status card on the right will track the team member and date completed. 

A status card will indicate any updates to the assessment made for your company, based on the risk assessment. If there were no changed made, this card will not show up on the page.

There will be up to two cards:
The top card will be the list of identified risk flags.
The following card will be a list of identified safe zones.

You are able to edit your responses in the Risk Profile easily at any time before assurance begins. If you have submitted your setup application, any changes to the responses can result in changes to the applicable sub-requirements, but please update them if the responses to the Risk Profile have changed.

Please note the view of the Requirements under Self Assessment tab will not correspond to the responses to the Risk Tool or the other Foundation Requirements. It is critical to make sure all the Foundation Requirements are addressed to ensure that B Lab has all the information regarding your eligibility.

These can be found by navigating to the Home page and selected Risk Profile. From the Risk Profile on the top page by the ‘home’ icon, you can select the Foundation Requirements to see all of the Eligibility, Legal Requirements and Risk Profile view. This is the example in the second screenshot above.

To achieve B Corp Certification under Version 1.6 (“V6”) of the B Impact Assessment, companies with annual revenue of US$5 billion or more must meet minimum baseline requirements alongside the core certification requirements. These include adopting stakeholder governance, achieving an overall verified score over 80 on the B Impact Assessment, and successfully completing the Disclosure Review process for controversial issues. 

These additional requirements reflect the greater scale, influence, and responsibility of these companies, ensuring that Certified B Corps of this size demonstrate strong, verified performance on key social and environmental issues in addition to achieving a score of 80 or above on the B Impact Assessment. 

In November 2023, the Multinational Standards Advisory Council (MNC SAC) approved the integration of the Baseline Requirements into the new B Lab Standards. Aligned with B Lab’s new company size categories, these requirements primarily apply to XX Large and X Large companies, but may also apply to smaller companies, with compliance criteria scaled based on  company size and impact to reflect business relevance. 

The sub-requirements apply to both parent companies and independently certifying subsidiaries, with adjustments made accordingly. As a result, all sub-requirements for US$5billion+ Certified B Corps pursuing recertification are now incorporated under the new B Lab Standards.

Given their complexity, some of the Baseline Requirements have been broken down and separated into several sub-requirements across the various impact topics. To accommodate varying governance structures, the term "Board of Directors" has been replaced with "highest governing body within the scope of certification." This ensures that oversight responsibilities rest with the most relevant governing body—whether at the subsidiary or parent level—recognizing that subsidiaries often follow group-wide policies that may not be directly overseen by the parent board. 

Certified B Corps that have had their Baseline Requirements approved are likely to already fulfill many of these new integrated sub-requirements. However, additional compliance criteria may apply. These companies are strongly encouraged to conduct a gap analysis to identify any areas requiring further action to align fully with the new Standards. 

This guidance outlines for each Baseline Requirement:

a) The corresponding sub-requirement under the new B Lab Standards 

b) Any changes to compliance criteria 

c) Adaptations for smaller companies where applicable

The existing Guidelines for Acceptance remain largely applicable and have been integrated into the new B Lab Standards, however, most corresponding sub-requirements now include expanded compliance criteria. 

The most significant change to the original Baseline Requirements involve aspirational goal setting and the grievance procedure.

• Governance oversight previously assigned to a Board of Directors is now designated to the highest governing body within the scope of certification, recognizing the diversity of governance structures across B Corps. Additional requirements under PSG5 require highest governing bodies to oversee social and environmental impacts as well as stakeholder considerations, ensuring that these are integrated into the company’s strategy and operations. 

• A company’s highest governing body within the scope of certification will be identified during the pre-verification process. For instance, the highest governing body of a parent company would be different to that of a subsidiary pursuing independent certification. Reliance on the parent company’s Board is no longer sufficient. This shift ensures accountability for implementation and meaningful application of group policies at the certifying level. 

• Impact reporting must now be overseen by the highest governing body to ensure top-level accountability for transparency and performance.

• The grievance procedure has been separated from the materiality assessment and is now treated as a stand-alone requirement (PSG3), with an emphasis on oversight, transparency, and accountability. This recognizes that many existing grievance mechanisms are not used effectively, and therefore companies are required to disclose sufficient information to ensure the adequacy of the company response as well as implementing management and company learnings. 

• Aspirational goals have been removed and replaced with PSG2.4, which asks companies to set targets and report annual progress on material topics not addressed in the B Lab Standard through a gap analysis. This is because formerly acceptable aspirational goals, such as setting science-based targets and living wage goals, now sit in their own sub-requirements. The new Standards set a high bar for larger companies, and PSG2.4 ensures that the company’s B Impact Assessment provides a holistic overview of a company’s impact. 

• Lobbying disclosures have been strengthened to include mandatory reporting on political contributions. 

• Country-by-country tax reporting is now required as part of the broader tax disclosure, and both parent companies and subsidiaries must meet this requirement.  

• Companies are no longer able to meet the human rights policy requirement by either committing to the key human rights covenants or by identifying their salient human rights issues; a formal human rights policy is now required with specific compliance criteria.  

They only apply to version 1.6 and not the new standards.

The Risk Tool is being integrated into B Impact as an automated, interactive feature. In the meantime, to give companies more time to prepare, we created FR3.1.a to FR3.1n to temporarily share the 14 questions and resulting actions from answering “yes”. This is a temporary layout using the existing sub-requirement structure, which is why the content looks different.

 FR3.1 is a sub-requirement that sits under the broader Foundation Requirements and is one of several ways our new standards tackle a company’s potential negative impacts, such as risks, and help guide companies through continuous improvement. This updated version of FR3.1 now includes a new Risk Tool to help companies assess their potential negative impacts and support them in identifying, preventing, and mitigating them. 

To meet sub-requirement FR3.1, companies must complete the Risk Tool, which contains 14 questions about priority risky practices not covered elsewhere in the standards. Based on their responses, specific sub-requirements will be added to their assessment. The answers to the 14 questions will be displayed on the B Corp public profile.

These additional requirements represent due diligence practices—the steps companies take to identify, prevent, and mitigate their negative impacts. This ensures that companies with higher-risk activities face proportionally stronger oversight requirements.

When fulfilling additional due diligence requirements, the company will need to consider the associated risk, such as, including the risk in any company materiality assessments. 

For further details, please refer to this Knowledge Base Article: Managing Negative Impact through the Foundation Requirement.

FR3.1 applies to all company sizes, except those without workers and micro companies. 

If your company is considered micro or a company without workers, then you are exempt from FR3.1. These smallest companies are exempt, recognizing their inherently lower risk profiles. Read this article for more information about company size.

Will my company become ineligible if I answer “yes” to any question?

No. Ineligible industries are covered by Foundation Requirement 1.2. Foundation Requirement 3.1 can only result in the additional due diligence expectations explained in this article.

When do I have to meet the added requirements?

The added requirements are met by the Year stated in the specific sub-requirement. For example, if the company has to create a human rights strategy (HR2.3) then it does so by Year 3. The applicable Year never changes.

The added requirements are met as part of the regular verification and certification process.

What do I do if I’m unsure about an answer?

Read through the guidance and definitions. Answer the question using the precautionary principle to risk. If you remain unsure, then answer “yes”.