The Implications of the B Corp Movement in the Business and Human Rights Context

Abstract

In recent decades, issues of corporate accountability and social responsibility have risen to the forefront in international debates. The U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (Guiding Principles), unanimously endorsed by the U.N. Human Rights Council in June 2011, authoritatively lay out the State duty to protect and the corporate responsibility to respect human rights. In an effort to operationalize the Guiding Principles, the U.N. Human Rights Council called on all States to develop National Action Plans (NAPs) for domestic implementation of the Guiding Principles. A key first step in the creation of a NAP is the completion of a national baseline assessment of the current frameworks and conditions affecting the protection and promotion of human rights by the State and businesses alike. With over thirty-five countries now committed to the creation of a NAP, it is increasingly important to evaluate existing corporate structures that claim to be socially and ethically motivated. The “B Corp” movement began in earnest in 2006, through the work of U.S.-based non-profit B Lab. A B Corp is a business certified by B Lab as a corporation committed to creating and supporting social and environmental rights. The B Corp movement has grown in size and stature, spreading into over thirty countries and garnering a reputation for excellence. Boosts to the movement have recently come from the certification of large multinational companies and the interest of businesses that followed. As the B Corp movement continues to proliferate, its technical and normative value within the business and human rights field merits close consideration. Through a comparative analysis between the B Corp certification requirements and the Guiding Principles, this paper seeks to answer the following questions: Do B Corps fulfill the Guiding Principles’ corporate responsibility standards to respect human rights? Are they a desirable normative shift in the business and human rights context?