What is a Site Review? 

The Site Review process is a deeper level of verification that helps B Lab guarantee the credibility of the B Corp certification by further ensuring the validity of B Impact Assessment (BIA) answers. The Site Review is considered to be B Lab’s highest level of verification, and has been established by the B Lab Standards Advisory Council in accordance with best practices for credible certifications. Site Reviews may be conducted virtually (via video call) or onsite (in-person) depending on the company size, location and other standards-related factors. Note that companies on the Large Enterprise & MNC Approach will always have in-person Site Reviews.

What is the main difference between regular verification and a site review?

A site review means that in addition to regular verification,  B Lab analysts will visit the company’s facility and have conversations with pre-selected employees.

Companies also receive an additional deliverable from B Lab towards the end of the site review process – a final Site Review Report which will summarize the site review findings and include highlights of the company’s best practices and improvement opportunities.

Why does our company have to go through a Site Review? 

Every year, 10% of recertifying B Corps are selected to go through the Site Review process as part of their recertification. While a large percentage of the selected group of companies are picked randomly, others are selected based on a number of standards-related factors, including but not limited to, ownership structure, additional certification terms (established in a previous certification review), company size, disclosure questionnaire topics, industry and sector. 

Most companies can expect to be selected for this review at least once in their tenure as a Certified B Corp. However, some B Corps with specific ownership structures have a requirement to go through the Site Review process during initial certification and/or every recertification term (3 years). B Lab conducts mandatory Site Reviews at its discretion, and at the company’s expense, during each certification term for wholly owned subsidiaries, publicly traded companies, companies with revenue over $1 billion, and companies whose majority ownership is held by publicly traded companies or whose parent company has revenue over $1 billion. For these companies, the Site Review is a mandatory component of their certification requirements.  

In addition, B Lab can elect to do a site visit to evaluate risk in light of public complaints against

a company. Companies will be informed about these site reviews shortly before the visit. 

Which site will you be visiting and when?

The company will be asked to fill out a template to provide an overview of its facilities, including information on size, number of employees, location, and type of facility. Based on this, B Lab analysts will select and inform the company about the selected facility. Once selected, B Lab will then discuss and align on an immediate but feasible timeline with the company. B Lab analysts will not visit any facilities in cases of a production pause, and the timeline may be adjusted. 

If applicable, the management at the selected site can send specific visitor instructions to B Lab analysts prior to the visit. 

What is required of my company to prepare for a Site Review?

In the initial notification email your company receives about the Site Review, you will be asked to complete either of the following requirements to get the process started:

• Complete the Global Scoping Template, attached below and in the initial email, with updated company ownership and related business entity information.  This is particularly essential  if your business has more than one related or affiliated business entity.

 OR

• Complete the Company Details page within the B Impact Assessment platform.

The updated company information shared through one of the above mechanisms will be reviewed and used to confirm the scope of your company’s business that needs to be included in the review process.  

Once this initial review (scoping) is completed, B Lab will communicate to you the next steps for preparing for the Site Review process. Please keep in mind that although your company may have already begun its B Impact Assessment in preparation for recertification, finalizing and submitting the BIA will need to wait until the aforementioned scoping review is completed.  

These are the general guidelines for preparing for your company’s Site Review, whether conducted virtually or in-person (onsite):

1. Ensure that your company’s B Corp Legal Requirement has been met prior to submitting the BIA for recertification.  

2. Begin to update your B Impact Assessment, keeping in mind that finalizing and submitting the BIA will need to wait until the scoping review is completed.  

3. Prepare to provide supporting documentation for a substantial number of your assessment answers. This could be 20-50 questions, depending on your company size. The exact questions which require documentation will be determined prior to and during the Verification stage of the review process. 

4. If selected for a Virtual Site Review: Participate in a virtual meeting with B Lab Verification Analysts (2.5-3 hrs). The Virtual Site Review will include interviews with the company’s employees and may include a virtual facilities tour.

5. If selected for an Onsite Review:  Plan for and host an in-person meeting with B Lab Verification Analysts (½ - full day visit).

What is to be expected when planning for the Site Review meeting? 

Virtual

• Have a functioning web camera and be able to conduct a virtual tour with a web camera.

• Make employees available for the virtual employee interviews.  Employees will be selected by B Lab based on a company employee roster, and interviews may be scheduled outside of the main Site Review meeting time. 

• Ensure that employees have a private space available in order for interviews to be conducted.

Sample Agenda for Virtual Site Review meeting:

• Introductions & Overview presentation of Virtual Site Review Process (~15 min)

• Assessment and Documentation Review (1-1.5 hr) 

• Employee Interviews (~60 min) 

• Virtual Facility Tour, if requested by B Lab (~15 min) 

• Wrap-up & Review of Next Steps (5 min)

Onsite

• Provide a private conference room with wifi/internet connection and slideshow presentation capabilities (monitor/screen/projector/etc.)

• Make employees available for employee interviews. Employees will be selected by B Lab based on a company employee roster, and interviews may be scheduled outside of the main Site Review meeting time. 

• Provide a private room for employee interviews to be conducted (could be the same as the conference room).

• Provide access to the company’s facilities related to production, warehousing and/or wherever environmental practices at the company might occur (i.e. recycling, environmental management systems, energy and water efficiency systems, etc.)

Sample Agenda for Onsite Review visit: 

The visit will be a half or full day visit depending on the Analysts’ recommendations. 

• Introductions & set-up (~30 min)

• Overview of Site Review Process (~30 min)

• Assessment and Documentation Review (1-2 hrs)

• Employee Interviews (1-1.5hrs)

• Facility Tour (30-60 min)

• Wrap-up & Review of Next Steps (15-30 min)

All times listed are approximations.These agendas will vary depending on the company size, sector and industry and based on Analyst discretion.

What is the timeline for the Site Review process? 

Once the company has submitted their BIA and a Verification Analyst is assigned, the company is ready for the verification process. A timeline will be proposed in an initial kick off call with the company and discussed in alignment with the company. The timeline for Onsite Reviews can be expected to be longer due to the travel planning required for an in-person visit. The process steps are as followed: 

1. Kick off call 

2. Documentation requests

3. Site review

   1. Review meeting

   2. Facility tour

   3. Employee conversations

4. Follow up round

5. Site review report delivery (incl. score)

From start to finish, most companies will need to be engaged in the Site Review process anywhere from 3-6 months.

Who should participate in the Site Review meeting from my company? 

The B Corp Certification Lead at your company, who coordinates the updating of the B Impact Assessment and completion of other certification requirements, is asked to attend the full meeting (excluding the employee interview portion).

Any other representative from departments who helped complete sections of the assessment may also wish to attend the Assessment and Documentation Review portion of the meeting in order to answer questions related to the company’s assessment answers and related documentation provided.  

Employees who are randomly selected for the employee interview section of the Site Review will only be required to attend for approximately 30 minutes, to be coordinated on the day of the meeting.

What do the analysts need to see on the facility tour component of the Site Review?

A site review of a facility would ideally be provided by a Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) Manager or

Plant Coordinator. It provides a good opportunity to get to know the company and see how you operate, while also verifying some BIA questions. The facility review is typically no longer than an hour. For production facilities, we recommend starting with the inbound process and ending with the finished goods. Questions that relate to the BIA that may be included in the facility review include: health & safety practices, and energy/waste/water monitoring and practices.

What does the Site Review cost? 

The Site Review cost depends on whether the company is on Standard Approach or Large Enterprise & MNC Approach:

Standard Approach Companies

The Site Review cost for Standard Approach companies is determined by our partners in your global region.  Please see their specific websites for related fees. 

Large Enterprise & MNC Approach Companies

Costs of Site Reviews are covered in the company’s Verification fee pricing structure, however, out of pocket expenses incurred by B Lab (if applicable) will still need to be covered by the company. Out of pocket expenses include the cost of round-trip travel, 2-3 nights of accommodation (depending on location), meals, and any Site Review-related transportation costs for two B Lab employees.The Onsite Review out-of-pocket fee ranges on average between $2500-$5000 USD.  B Lab always aims to minimize the cost of travel, as best as possible, by deploying analysts from our closest business hubs in the U.S., Amsterdam, London, Melbourne, and Sao Paulo. If needed, B Lab analysts can provide a cost estimate to the company once the site review date and location have been confirmed.

What can be expected after the Site Review is conducted?

Upon completion of the Site Review process, if all certification requirements are met, your company will be certified (or recertified) for a three year term and will receive a summary report detailing the results of the Site Review. Companies with a required Site Review in the terms of their certification can plan on going through the Site Review process again during each recertification period.  B Corps who do not have the Site Review requirement as part of their certification terms will be removed from the list of companies that can be randomly selected for a Site Review for the next recertification term, unless the company’s certification terms change due to a material change in ownership.  Review your company’s signed B Corp Agreement for guidelines related to changes in ownership.

Employee Conversations

What does B Lab mean by employee conversations?

Part of the site visit entails organizing individual and group conversations with employees of the company as added input for the verification process. The objective of the employee conversations is to speak with employees about their personal experience working for the company, to get a sense of what the culture is like at the company. 

How will employees be selected, and how many?

At the start of the verification process, the company is requested to provide an anonymized employee roster with tenure, nationality or preferred language, role, and gender, for the selected location/facility (as feasible). The analysts will make a selection based on this list. The number of employees will depend on the size of the company, but it can be up to 15 employees.

Our company works with shift workers, how are these arranged?

Conducting interviews with production workers or warehouse staff (i.e. shift workers) can be more difficult to arrange ahead of time since these workers might not have regular access to a computer to accept an invitation and they might not have insight into whether or not they’ll be available on the day itself. We will work with the company to understand what is possible in the selected production facility. This may include selecting the workers when the shift list is available, or selecting the workers on the morning of the site visit.

B Lab recommends involving the plant manager or specific shift supervisors in the arranging of these employee interviews. We will work with your team to make sure the employee conversations are at a suitable time in relation to shift hours, as well as discussing the maximum number of employees that can be pulled from the line at any given time.

What questions will our employees be asked?

The main questions that will be asked concern the employee's experience during their time at the company. B Lab won’t share a full list of questions with the company to mitigate risks of influencing or coaching employees.

Our employees don’t speak English. How will the translation work?

English is the main communication language at B Lab. B Lab aims to match analyst language skills, if available, to the company to the degree capacity planning allows. If there is an identified challenge of a language barrier for the employee conversations, this can be resolved through hiring an external translator for the hours of the employee conversations. This would be at the expense of the company. Note that other employees may not act as translators. If there are employees that do speak English, B Lab analysts may also prioritize these for selection as an alternative to bringing in a translator.

What should we inform the employees about potential interviews with B Lab?

B Lab can support the company in preparing internal communication material to prepare the plant for the site visit. This can be circulated either only to the employees selected for a conversation with B Lab, or the entire facility. It’s encouraged to provide information to all employees for better understanding of B Lab’s presence at the facility.

Some recommended points in the messaging to employees include:

- Explanation of B Corp certification, emphasizing that B Lab analysts are external and independent reviewers

- Some employees will be pulled in for conversations. This is entirely optional and voluntary. The topics of the conversation relate to an employee's personal experience at the company.

How exactly will interviews be conducted on the site visit?

We ask that the company appoints someone to gather each worker when it is time to hold their interviews. Appoint someone who knows the employees by name and who can reiterate the objective of the conversations and assure them who the B Lab analysts are and what their visit is about.

Two private rooms are requested on site to conduct the employee conversations. We ask that the company books these in advance to make sure they’re available day-of. B Lab’s objective is to make the employees feel comfortable, so our general guidance for such

rooms includes:

● No see-through glass so other people cannot look into the room

●Away from busy open offices where everyone can see who is walking into the room

● No monitoring equipment, such as recorders or cameras

Can other people from the company join the employee conversation? Or, can we know what was said?

Employee conversations are confidential. The employee’s comfort and anonymity is very important to B Lab. Therefore, employee conversations are conducted without the presence of anyone else. B Lab will not share any information related to who said what with the company.

What will B Lab do with the findings of the employee conversations?

B Lab assesses systemic issues revealed through employee conversations. If there are any concerns, they will be raised and discussed with the company in the follow-up after the site review. B Lab will write a Site Review report with best practices and recommendations for improvement, which will be shared only with the company. This may include findings from employee conversations, if they are deemed relevant.