This post was first published in May 2026 and centres on the B Impact Assessment's points system (Version 6). Any B Corp certification or recertification submitted after 1 January 2026 is assessed against B Lab's new standards instead: Foundation Requirements plus minimum requirements in seven Impact Topics, scaled to company size and phased in at Year 0, Year 3 and Year 5. There is no 80-point total any more. Version 6 is still available free on B Lab's B Impact platform as a self-check, and much of what it asks about (wages, governance, emissions, suppliers) is covered by the new topics too. See what changed in 2026.
What the B Impact Assessment is
The B Impact Assessment is a free scoring tool developed and maintained by B Lab, the nonprofit that administers B Corp certification globally. Its current version, Version 6, scores a business across five pillars: Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, and Customers. The maximum possible score is 200. Until 2026, the minimum threshold to qualify for certification was 80 points.
For any certification submitted after 1 January 2026, the 80-point total no longer applies. B Lab's new standards require businesses to meet minimum requirements in each of seven Impact Topics, and a strong area can no longer offset a weak one. Full breakdown of what changed in 2026 →
The B Impact Assessment no longer decides certification, but it is still free and still a useful self-check. Version 6 remains available on B Lab's B Impact platform, alongside the new self-assessment. You can begin scoring today without engaging B Lab or paying anything. Before going through the full BIA, the free 2-minute assessment gives you a directional read on where your business stands.
How the five pillars break down
Version 6 of the BIA is organized around five pillars. The 2026 certification standards replace them with seven Impact Topics, but much of the same ground (pay, governance, emissions, suppliers) is covered there too, so the pillars are still a useful starting point.
How the business is structured to consider all stakeholders. Mission lock provisions, transparency, board diversity.
Compensation, benefits, flexibility, health and safety practices, and employee feedback systems. Often the highest-weighted pillar.
Supplier diversity, local economic impact, charitable giving, and civic engagement. Supplier data gaps hit here hardest.
Energy use, emissions, waste, water, and supply chain environmental practices — relative to your industry benchmark.
Whether products or services directly benefit underserved populations or address a documented social or environmental problem.
Not every pillar applies equally to every business type. B Lab adjusts questions based on your industry, company size, and geography. A manufacturing company faces different environmental questions than a professional services firm. A 12-person craft brewery isn't assessed the same way as a global supply chain business. The tool adapts to your context.
What actually determines your score
Most businesses are surprised to find that the biggest gap between where they are and what certification asks for isn't operational. It's documentation.
A business might already pay living wages, run flexible work arrangements, track its energy use, and source from local suppliers. If none of that is formally documented, the assessment can't score it. The BIA is evidence-based. What you do matters. What you can prove matters equally.
"The gap is documentation, not an overhaul. Most businesses already operate more responsibly than their unaided B Impact Assessment score reflects."
This is the core insight that changes how you approach certification. You're not rebuilding your business. You're making your existing practices legible. Policy drafts. Tracking systems. Evidence compilation. That's the work.
Under the 2026 standards, the self-assessment happens on B Lab's new B Impact platform, not in the Version 6 BIA. Year 0 is the set of requirements you must meet at certification across the seven Impact Topics; more come due at Year 3 and Year 5, and smaller companies get some of them later. See what the 2026 standards require for the full context.
How B Lab verifies your score
Completing the self-assessment is the first step. Meeting the requirements on paper is the second. The third is verification — and this is where underprepared businesses stall.
Once a business submits for certification, B Lab assigns a verification analyst who reviews the submission and schedules a call. On that call, the analyst requests supporting documentation: HR policy documents, governance records, financial data, supplier information. The analyst uses this to validate the answers claimed in the self-assessment. Answers without documentation don't count.
When a first submission stalls, the reason often isn't that the business falls short on paper — it's that their documentation didn't support their answers when the analyst reviewed it. Under the 2026 standards there's no total score to fall back on: every topic's requirements have to be evidenced.
The audit will tell you what actually needs to change. Some businesses discover their score is higher than expected. Some find a specific topic with a concentrated gap that's straightforward to close. Either way, you're working from fact, not assumption.
Candor runs your business through B Lab's self-assessment as the first step of every engagement, identifies the specific documentation gaps, and maps out what preparation work actually looks like. If you want to know where your business stands before deciding anything, that's the right starting point. It's also worth reviewing what the full process costs and how long it realistically takes alongside this.
Common questions
What is the B Impact Assessment?
The B Impact Assessment is a free scoring tool developed by B Lab. Its current version (Version 6) scores a business across five pillars: Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, and Customers, out of a maximum of 200. Until 2026, 80 points was the minimum to qualify for B Corp certification. Any certification submitted after 1 January 2026 is assessed against B Lab's new standards instead: Foundation Requirements plus minimum requirements in seven Impact Topics — Purpose & Stakeholder Governance; Fair Work; Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion; Human Rights; Climate Action; Environmental Stewardship & Circularity; and Government Affairs & Collective Action. Version 6 remains available as a free self-check.
What score do you need to become B Corp certified?
For any certification submitted after 1 January 2026 there is no minimum total score. B Lab's new standards require businesses to meet minimum requirements in each of seven Impact Topics, scaled to company size and phased in at Year 0, Year 3 and Year 5; a strong area can no longer offset a weak one. Before 2026, the threshold was 80 out of 200 on the B Impact Assessment.
What are the five pillars of the B Impact Assessment?
In Version 6 of the B Impact Assessment, the five pillars are Governance (mission lock, transparency, board diversity), Workers (compensation, benefits, flexibility, health and safety), Community (supplier diversity, local impact, charitable giving), Environment (energy, emissions, waste, water), and Customers (benefit to underserved populations or social and environmental problems). B Lab's 2026 certification standards replace them with seven Impact Topics.
Why do businesses fail their first B Corp verification?
Often it is documentation gaps, not operational gaps: the business's documentation doesn't support the answers claimed in the self-assessment. Under the 2026 standards every Impact Topic's requirements have to be evidenced, so there is no overall score to fall back on.
How does B Lab verify your B Impact Assessment score?
After submitting, B Lab assigns a verification analyst who reviews the submission and schedules a call. The analyst requests supporting documentation — HR policies, governance records, financial data, supplier information — to validate the answers claimed. Under the 2026 standards the analyst checks that evidence against each Impact Topic's minimum requirements rather than a points total; claims without documentation don't count.