Assessing a Company with Multiple Locations

In order to provide a comprehensive assessment of a company’s social and environmental performance, the B Impact Assessment considers all of a company’s operations even if it operates in multiple locations. In order to allow a business to get a comprehensive assessment of their performance, there are three approaches to completing the BIA that vary based on the structure and complexity of your business:

• In most cases, you should complete one assessment and answer questions based on all company operations across all locations.

• In cases where the company’s structure and operations are particularly complex with distinct business units, it may be appropriate to complete multiple B Impacts Assessments for discrete parts of your operations.

• If your company earns more than $100M USD in annual revenue and is interested in pursuing B Corp Certification, the first step of the process will be to contact B Lab to begin the Discovery process, as you are likely to have a more complex structure that requires a nuanced approach to impact management and verification with the BIA. This process will help determine the best certification approach for your company, including the number of assessments to complete and the appropriate way to structure them. More information is available on our website.

Using the B Impact Assessment across multiple locations can be challenging because specific practices vary by location for a variety of reasons. In order to make the process more efficient while maintaining the comprehensive approach of the BIA, questions include specific guidance  on the scope of a company’s operations that should be considered when answering, particularly in the Workers and Environment sections, as benefits and wages offered to employees, as well as the exact characteristics of facilities, are likely to vary by location.  

When your company has multiple locations, two general pieces of guidance apply:

1. Always take into consideration all locations - do not be selective.

2. Unless otherwise specified, answer questions only if they apply to 80% of your relevant operations, either your workforce or your facilities (i.e. by square feet or square meters)

To see more specific guidance on how to answer questions in the Workers Impact Area, see this article.