EcoVadis vs B Corp vs PAS 808 vs ISO 37011: UK Guide 2026

EcoVadis, B Corp, PAS 808 and ISO 37011 Compared: UK Employer Guide 2026

Sustainability frameworks usually arrive as somebody else's deadline. Procurement forwards an EcoVadis questionnaire from a major customer with a month to complete it. The board asks whether the business should become a B Corp. Someone mentions that a new ISO standard on corporate purpose, ISO/DIS 37011, went to an international vote on 24 September 2026. Whoever picks it up, whether that is the impact or sustainability manager, the people and culture lead, or a leader with a working group behind them, gets the same thing: a request for evidence. Policies, training records, workforce data, and proof that inclusion and wellbeing are more than intentions.

It is easy to treat all of this as admin. The same evidence that earns an EcoVadis medal or a B Corp certificate can also tell a board where to invest, give an employee resource group something to work from, and give marketing a story it can prove. Benedict Heaver, chief executive of Streets Heaver, one of the first UK companies certified under B Lab's new standards, said when the cohort was announced in September 2026 that being a B Corp "isn't about having a badge on the wall."

The frameworks look alike from a distance, but they do different jobs. EcoVadis is a rating a customer asks you for. B Corp is a certification for the whole business that you choose to pursue. PAS 808 and ISO 37011 are guidance on how a purpose-driven organisation makes decisions, with nothing to pass. B Lab UK counts more than 3,000 UK B Corps, EcoVadis says it has rated more than 150,000 companies worldwide, and ISO 37011 is still a draft.

What is the difference between a rating, a certification and a guidance standard?

A rating scores your organisation against others, a certification confirms you meet a fixed set of requirements, and a guidance standard describes what good looks like without anything to certify against.

• Ratings: EcoVadis
• Certifications: B Corp
• Guidance standards: PAS 808, ISO 37011, ISO 30415 and ISO 45003
• UK employer schemes: Disability Confident and Investors in People
• Reporting frameworks: GRI, the EU's CSRD and the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards
• Climate target validation: the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)

The type decides what you can say in public. A business can describe itself as a certified B Corp. It cannot describe itself as PAS 808 certified, because there is no certification. B Lab UK says its new model was built to meet the Advertising Standards Authority's anti-greenwashing rules and the EU's Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive, both of which tighten the rules on unproven claims.

What is EcoVadis and how does the rating work?

EcoVadis is a sustainability rating that large buyers ask their suppliers to complete. Founded in Paris in 2007, it says it has rated more than 150,000 companies. The rating is always requested by the company being rated, usually because a customer has asked for it.

EcoVadis scores 21 criteria across four themes: Environment, Labour and Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement. Seven of the 21 criteria are about people: employee health and safety, working conditions, social dialogue, career management and training, child and forced labour, discrimination and harassment, and the human rights of external stakeholders.

The score rests on documents. EcoVadis's Medals methodology, version 2.0, applicable from January 2026, credits only answers backed by uploaded evidence, caps each assessment at 55 files, and treats a missing document as a missing management approach. Documents have to be formal, complete and dated. The same methodology admits the limitation: a practice that runs well but is not written down scores lower than one that is.

Medals are relative. Platinum goes to the top 1% of companies rated in the previous 12 months, Gold to the top 5%, Silver to the top 15% and Bronze to the top 35%. A company with any theme score below 30 out of 100 gets no medal, and a medal lasts 12 months. Companies with 1 to 25 employees are scored on a simpler formula. EcoVadis does not publish a price list: its support pages say the subscription depends on company size, plan and location.

What is B Corp Certification under B Lab's new standards?

B Corp is a certification of the whole business against B Lab's standards for social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. B Lab UK reported on 2 September 2026 that the UK has more than 3,000 B Corps and the global community more than 10,000, across more than 100 countries.

B Lab published its new standards in April 2025 after four years of consultation. Under them, every B Corp has to meet minimum requirements in seven Impact Topics: Purpose and Stakeholder Governance, Climate Action, Fair Work, Human Rights, Government Affairs and Collective Action, Environmental Stewardship and Circularity, and Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI). An independent assurance provider audits the evidence, with milestones at Year 3 and Year 5 of a five-year cycle. B Lab UK announced the first UK companies certified under the new standards on 2 September 2026, among them Mulberry, Huel and Vivobarefoot.

From January 2027, B Lab UK charges an annual IP licence and community fee that starts at £600 plus VAT for revenue under £150,000 and rises with turnover, plus an audit fee set by the assurance provider in audit years. Our guide to how to become a B Corp in the UK covers the four steps and the JEDI evidence in detail.

What are PAS 808 and ISO 37011?

PAS 808 is BSI's guidance on purpose-driven organisations: what corporate purpose is, the worldviews, principles and behaviours of an organisation run by its purpose, and how to match decisions to that purpose. BSI published it in 2022 and made it free to download. The steering group that wrote it included B Lab UK, Business in the Community, the Chartered Management Institute, KPMG, the John Lewis Partnership and Anglian Water, and BSI says Anglian Water has adopted it.

ISO/DIS 37011, Purpose-driven organizations: Guidance, is PAS 808 converted into an international standard. ISO's technical committee on the governance of organisations, ISO/TC 309, registered the 36-page draft on 22 July 2026 and opened a 12-week ballot of national members on 24 September 2026. ISO says it is written for governing bodies and executive managers in organisations of any size, including the public sector, and covers embedding purpose in policies, processes, practices and value chains. UK organisations can comment on the draft through BSI, the UK's national standards body. When BSI announced the project in September 2024, it expected the standard to launch in early 2027.

Both are guidance, so there is no audit and no certificate. Their value is as a reference a board can test its own decisions against, and because purpose shows up in how people are hired, led and treated, the test reaches the people and culture lead and the managers who run teams day to day as well as the board.

The people standards: ISO 30415, ISO 45003, Disability Confident and Investors in People

ISO 30415:2021 is the international guidance on diversity and inclusion in human resource management. It sets out prerequisites, accountabilities, recommended actions, measures and outcomes, and ISO's HR committee says it follows the employment lifecycle from workforce planning to the end of employment. It is guidance, so nobody certifies against it.

ISO 45003:2021 gives guidelines for managing psychosocial risk, the work-related causes of stress and poor mental health, inside an occupational health and safety system based on ISO 45001. ISO lists it as under systematic review in 2026.

Disability Confident is the Department for Work and Pensions' free, voluntary employer scheme, launched in November 2016. It has three levels: Committed, Employer, which is a self-assessment, and Leader, where that self-assessment is independently validated. DWP last updated its list of signed-up employers on 15 September 2026.

Investors in People accredits people management through a practitioner-led assessment. We Invest in People is awarded at Standard, Silver, Gold or Platinum, and Investors in People says the assessment, not the applicant, decides the level. A separate We Invest in Wellbeing accreditation covers wellbeing.

The reporting and climate frameworks: GRI, CSRD, UK SRS and SBTi

GRI Standards are free, modular reporting standards. GRI 401 covers hires, turnover and parental leave, and GRI 405 covers the diversity of governance bodies and employees and the ratio of women's to men's basic salary.

CSRD is the EU's sustainability reporting law. EU Directive 2026/470, adopted by the Council on 24 February 2026 and in force from 18 March 2026, limited CSRD to companies with more than 1,000 employees and more than €450 million in net turnover, with separate tests for non-EU groups. It also limits what in-scope companies can demand from suppliers with 1,000 employees or fewer. Most UK SMEs will meet CSRD only through a customer's questionnaire.

UK SRS are the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards, S1 for general sustainability disclosures and S2 for climate, published by the Department for Business and Trade on 25 February 2026. Any organisation can use them voluntarily, and the Financial Conduct Authority decides how they apply to listed companies.

SBTi validates climate targets and has nothing to say about people. Its Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0, published in June 2026, takes effect on 31 January 2027 and replaces the separate SME route with company categories.

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Sources: EcoVadis Medals methodology V2.0 (2026); B Lab UK (September and October 2026); BSI; ISO; DWP (September 2026); Investors in People; GRI; EU Directive 2026/470; Department for Business and Trade (February 2026); SBTi (June 2026). Full references below.

Every Framework Asks About Your People

Eleven of the twelve frameworks in the table ask about people, and they ask for overlapping evidence. EcoVadis wants dated policies and records on discrimination, training and working conditions. B Corp wants workforce data under JEDI and fair pay and worker feedback under Fair Work. GRI 405 wants the diversity of your board and workforce. ISO 30415 and ISO 45003 describe what good looks like for inclusion and for mental health at work.

One well-run data set can answer several of them. A voluntary, anonymous Self-ID survey, reported in a way that protects small groups, gives you the workforce data B Corp asks for under JEDI1, the diversity figures GRI 405 asks for, and a baseline for a board report.

None of the frameworks builds the culture underneath. They score it, certify it or describe it. A business that has never agreed who owns inclusion, how mental health support works day to day, or what its leaders are accountable for will struggle in every one of them, because the evidence does not exist yet. Building that evidence only to satisfy a framework wastes most of the effort. The data, plans and reports behind a submission are worth producing when the organisation goes on to use them to make decisions.

Framework Evidence Works Harder When Teams and Working Groups Share It

Each framework tends to arrive through a different door. EcoVadis usually comes through procurement or sales, because a customer has asked for it. B Corp is often championed by the leadership team and run day to day by an impact or sustainability manager. CSRD questionnaires and UK SRS come through finance. Every one of them needs evidence about people, so the same questions reach the people and culture lead, line managers and employee resource groups three times in three formats.

Many organisations hand the work to a working group that meets alongside the day job, drawing in people from impact, people and culture, operations and comms. A group like that can carry the evidence for every framework at once, as long as the data, policies and decisions sit in one place and someone owns them.

The organisations that find it easiest build the evidence once and share it. Dave Holby-Wolinski, Director at Includability, has taken businesses through B Corp more than once: "Each time, what made it straightforward was structure: knowing what was needed and keeping the evidence as we went."

“The organisations that get the most from a framework are the ones that would have done the work anyway. A Self-ID survey that only ever goes into a submission is a missed opportunity. That same data should be on the board agenda, in the hands of your employee resource groups and behind your decisions on recruitment and progression. If the evidence isn’t changing a decision somewhere, it isn’t doing its job.”
Sara Matthews - Includability

Which framework should a UK employer start with?

The best starting point is usually the one someone is already asking for. Build the evidence once and it carries over to the others.

• A customer has asked for EcoVadis: start there, because a customer relationship depends on it.
• You want a public, independently audited commitment: B Corp, which means changing your articles of association and an audit at Year 3 and Year 5.
• Your board wants to define its purpose: PAS 808 is free to download now, and ISO 37011 will follow.
• You want a benchmark for inclusion: ISO 30415, with Disability Confident as a free place to begin.
• Mental health and wellbeing come first: ISO 45003 for managing psychosocial risk, or We Invest in Wellbeing for an outside view.

Framework evidence in practice: a Committed Employer example

Tyler Grange is an environmental consultancy, a certified B Corp and an Includability Committed Employer. In an article published on 16 October 2026, the business set out what it has built for its people and why, starting from a sector where many people still arrive through the same degrees and networks.

The detail is specific. The whole team has worked a four-day week since 2022, and everyone can see a clinical psychologist. In 2025 Tyler Grange added a confidential WhatsApp support service and mindfulness coaching. Its own TG Alertness app lets people log their daily happiness and fatigue, so managers can see how their teams are doing. It became an accredited Living Wage Employer in 2024 and is open about salaries and how progression works.

Its Cultural Roadmap, built across the six pillars, gave the business a clear direction and actions for its inclusion strategy, from recruitment through to leadership and governance. Lucie Waldron, People and Culture Lead, describes the aim as creating more opportunities for people to gain skills, particularly people who have not had those opportunities before. Tyler Grange says it can already see that decision-making improves when different ways of thinking are properly supported.

The evidence is doing more than one job. The alertness data informs managers week to week, the roadmap sets the inclusion priorities, and the article turns the work into a story for recruits and clients. Tyler Grange connects it to ESG as well, noting that clients are paying more attention to how a business operates day to day.

Five Framework Actions for This Quarter

1. List every framework request received in the last 12 months, who asked, what they asked for and the deadline, by the end of this month.
2. Map your existing people documents against the seven EcoVadis Labour and Human Rights criteria and the B Corp Fair Work and JEDI topics within six weeks.
3. Date every people policy with an issue and review date, because EcoVadis does not accept undated documents.
4. Collect workforce data once, through a voluntary and anonymous Self-ID survey, and use it for B Corp, GRI, your board and your employee resource groups this quarter.
5. Download PAS 808 and ask the board to test two recent decisions against it before ISO 37011 is published.

The Evidence to Keep for EcoVadis, B Corp and Board Reporting

Evidence should be used, not filed. A report, data set or slide deck built only for a submission sits in a folder until the next one. The same material can support a board decision, give an employee resource group or working group the data to set its priorities, feed your impact reporting, or become a communications pack that tells staff, customers and candidates what has changed.

Keep documents, not descriptions. EcoVadis accepts policies and actions for eight years and performance figures for two, so a policy written now can support several reassessments while your data needs refreshing.

• People policies with an owner, an issue date and a review date
• Training records showing who completed what and when
• Workforce data with participation rates and the privacy notice used to collect it
• An action plan with named owners, deadlines and progress
• Records of worker feedback and what changed as a result
• Board minutes showing oversight of people, inclusion and wellbeing

EcoVadis, B Corp and ISO 37011: Frequently Asked Questions

Is EcoVadis a certification?

No. EcoVadis is a rating: it scores your sustainability management out of 100 and awards a medal if you rank in the top 35% of companies rated in the previous 12 months. The scorecard and any medal last 12 months.

What is the difference between EcoVadis and B Corp?

EcoVadis rates how well your policies, actions and reporting manage sustainability risks, usually because a customer asks. B Corp certifies the whole business against minimum requirements in seven Impact Topics, includes a legal change to your articles of association, and is independently audited over a five-year cycle.

Can you be certified to PAS 808 or ISO 37011?

No. Both are guidance documents, so there are no requirements to audit against. Organisations use them as a reference for how a purpose-driven organisation makes decisions and behaves.

When will ISO 37011 be published?

ISO 37011 is a draft. Its 12-week ballot of ISO members began on 24 September 2026, and BSI expected an early 2027 launch when the project started in 2024. The final date depends on the ballot result.

How much does EcoVadis cost?

EcoVadis does not publish a price list. Its support pages say the annual subscription depends on company size, the plan chosen and location, and covers the assessment, scorecard and platform access.

Does a small UK business need CSRD or EcoVadis?

Usually not directly. Since March 2026, CSRD applies only to companies with more than 1,000 employees and more than €450 million turnover, and EcoVadis is voluntary. Small businesses tend to meet both through a large customer's supplier questionnaire.

Which framework covers diversity and inclusion best?

ISO 30415 is the most detailed guidance on diversity and inclusion in people management. B Corp's JEDI Impact Topic is the most demanding certified requirement, asking for workforce data and a set number of actions that rises with company size.

Does Includability rate or certify organisations?

No. B Lab and its assurance providers certify B Corps, and EcoVadis rates companies. Includability partners with organisations to build the culture and the evidence those frameworks ask about, through the Cultural Roadmap.

Where Includability Fits

EcoVadis, B Corp and the ISO standards all ask what your culture looks like and what evidence sits behind it. Most organisations can describe plenty of activity across inclusion, mental health, wellbeing and talent, but few can show how it fits together or whether it works, and the evidence gathered for one framework is rarely used for anything else.

As a Committed Employer, an organisation gets a Cultural Roadmap: six conversations with independent Partner Experts, one for each pillar, built into a board-ready plan with a JEDI Gap Analysis and a Burnout Risk Review inside it. Where the gaps call for it, the JEDI Toolkit turns the work into evidence, and an Insight Self-ID Survey collects the workforce data confidentially. If B Corp is the goal, our guide to how to become a B Corp in the UK sets out the steps.

If a framework request has landed on your desk, book a call with James and Dave and we will talk it through.

About Includability

Includability | B Corp is a UK workplace culture business and a certified B Corp. We partner with organisations to build inclusive, diverse, mentally healthy, evidence-based workplace cultures, and we do it by developing Cultural Roadmaps that make them more commercially attractive to the people they want to recruit, keep and develop.

We work alongside clients as a strategic partner to the board, a trusted colleague to the people leading the work, and a community of Partner Experts and more than 100 Committed Employers and Partners. We are not a certification body, a rating agency or a training provider. B Lab certifies B Corps and EcoVadis rates suppliers, and we help organisations do the work those frameworks look for.

Sources and References

1. EcoVadis, About EcoVadis, accessed October 2026. ecovadis.com/about-us
2. EcoVadis, EcoVadis Medals: Methodology disclosure document for the public, rating users and rated items, version 2.0, applicable from January 2026. ecovadis.com
3. EcoVadis Support, EcoVadis Subscription Costs, accessed October 2026. support.ecovadis.com
4. B Lab UK, First UK companies certify as B Corps under B Lab's most ambitious standards yet, 2 September 2026. bcorporation.uk
5. B Lab UK, Celebrating the next generation of B Corps in the UK, September 2026. bcorporation.uk
6. B Lab UK, B Corp Certification Pricing, accessed October 2026. bcorporation.uk/b-corp-certification/pricing
7. BSI, PAS 808:2022 Purpose-driven organizations. Worldviews, principles and behaviours for delivering sustainability. Guide, 2022. knowledge.bsigroup.com
8. BSI, 66% of consumers will abandon hypocritical businesses, shows new research, January 2023. Polling by OnePoll of 2,000 UK consumers and 350 UK business leaders, June to July 2022. bsigroup.com
9. BSI, Work underway on first global corporate purpose standard, 16 September 2024. bsigroup.com
10. ISO, ISO/DIS 37011 Purpose-driven organizations: Guidance, DIS ballot initiated 24 September 2026. iso.org/standard/86112
11. ISO/TC 260, ISO 30415:2021 HR management: Diversity and inclusion, 2021. committee.iso.org
12. ISO, ISO 45003:2021 Occupational health and safety management. Psychological health and safety at work. Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks, June 2021. iso.org/standard/64283
13. Department for Work and Pensions, Employers that have signed up to the Disability Confident scheme, updated 15 September 2026. gov.uk
14. Department for Work and Pensions, Level 3: Disability Confident Leader, accessed October 2026. gov.uk
15. Investors in People, Investors in People Accreditations, accessed October 2026. investorsinpeople.com
16. GRI, GRI Standards: English language, including GRI 401: Employment 2016 and GRI 405: Diversity and Equal Opportunity 2016. globalreporting.org
17. Clifford Chance, Omnibus I: the European Union concludes CSDDD and CSRD reforms, February 2026. cliffordchance.com
18. Latham and Watkins, EU Sustainability Omnibus Published in the Official Journal, February 2026. lw.com
19. Norton Rose Fulbright, Regulation Tomorrow, Omnibus I CSRD and CS3D simplification: Council of the European Union adopts final text, February 2026. regulationtomorrow.com [Flag: 17 to 19 are law firm summaries. Swap in the EUR-Lex text of Directive (EU) 2026/470 as the primary source if preferred.]
20. Department for Business and Trade, UK Sustainability Reporting Standards, February 2026. gov.uk
21. Science Based Targets initiative, Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0: Main Changes Document, June 2026. sciencebasedtargets.org