B Lab’s biggest B Corp standards overhaul in 19 years eliminates the points-based system that allowed fashion and beauty brands to offset poor environmental records with good governance scores.
The B Corp logo has long served as a shorthand for doing good. That shorthand, though, is being rewritten.
Last spring, B Lab, the nonprofit behind the B Corp certification, launched its most sweeping standards overhaul in nearly two decades after backlash over its vetting process. Now, it’s reshaping what it takes — and what it means — to carry that mark. The previous system, where brands accumulated points across five categories and needed to hit a total of 80 out of a possible 200, is now gone. A company could score poorly on environmental impact and still qualify by excelling in corporate governance or worker satisfaction — a flexibility that critics said too easily rewarded optics over substance.
The new framework demands that every certified company meet mandatory minimums across seven specific impact topics: Purpose and Stakeholder Governance, Climate Action, Human Rights, Fair Work, Environmental Stewardship and Circularity, Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and Government Affairs and Collective Action. There are no points, no trade-offs, and no averaging out a weak supply chain record with strong HR scores. Third-party audits — replacing what was largely self-reported data — now verify compliance.
Part of the impetus comes from new EU regulations: the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition directive now requires that any company claiming an ethical standard have it independently verified. For the roughly 10,000 companies currently certified, recertification — required every three years — will put that compliance to the test.
Fashion and beauty have the most to prove
The fashion and beauty industries entered this moment carrying significant credibility baggage. The certification of ultra-fast fashion brand Princess Polly under the old standards in 2024 drew immediate backlash, with observers questioning whether a brand built on constant newness belonged in the same category as genuinely sustainable labels. B Lab’s position — that building a meaningful certification community requires including “high-impact sectors like fashion” — did little to quell the skepticism.
Among B Corp’s more than 250 certified apparel companies, some are better positioned than others. Patagonia, with a score of 166 points under the old system, and Danish label Ganni, at 90.6, are in relatively strong standing. Longchamp earned certification for its leather goods division under the updated model and committed to reducing its carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2033. Brands hovering near the old 80-point minimum — and there are hundreds — face a significantly harder road. The certified roster includes Eileen Fisher — now in its tenth consecutive year as a B Corp — alongside Patagonia, Allbirds, Veja, Reformation, Ganni, Chloé, Faithfull the Brand, and R.M. Williams, plus newer entrants Camilla and Longchamp, among others. On the beauty side, Weleda, Aesop, Aveda, Sunday Riley, and Arbonne all carry the certification. However, the community’s most vocal former member — Dr. Bronner’s, the top-scoring natural soap brand in North America — walked away last year, citing standards it considered too easy to game.
“Sharing the same logo and messaging regarding being of ‘benefit’ to the world with large multinational CPG companies with a history of serious ecological and labor issues, and no comprehensive or credible eco-social certification of supply chains, is unacceptable to us,” David and Michael Bronner, the brothers who now helm the company started by their grandfather, said in a joint statement.
The new standards are a direct response to that criticism. Fashion and beauty brands will now be required to map and address human rights risks throughout their supply chains, develop science-based climate action plans, and — for larger companies — disclose tax policies and set validated emissions targets aligned with a 1.5-degree warming scenario. The process is also phased: companies must meet baseline “Year 0” requirements to certify, then demonstrate measurable progress at three and five years.
A stricter B Corp bar
“As the B Corp community has grown, so too have consumer expectations; businesses must keep up with these evolving demands to stay competitive and remain innovative,” B Lab UK said in a statement. “Our goal is not for every business to become a B Corp, but for every business to behave like one.”
Andrea Chase, VP of Corporate Responsibility and Social Impact at Arbonne and co-chair of the B Corp Beauty Coalition, had the clearest read on what happens next. “I will expect, sadly, to see some brands not able to meet the new standards,” Chase told BeautyMatter, “and I think that will take care of some of the concerns that we’ve seen in the past.”
“For B Lab to help folks be successful in this transition, [it] will need to provide resources, especially to smaller businesses that don’t have the internal resources for measurement of these types of things,” she said. “For those that want to walk the path with us, it is a journey, to say the least.”
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