How to become a B Corp in the UK: a step-by-step guide

Customers are asking where things come from. Candidates are asking about culture in the first interview. Boards want to see the good intentions in the numbers. Running a business with a clear purpose has become one of the most interesting things a company can do, and B Corp is one of the ways more and more organisations are choosing to prove it. B Lab UK reported in September 2026 that the UK community had passed 3,000 B Corps, and its research found that awareness of B Corp among UK consumers grew from 34% in 2022 to 51% in 2024.

If you're thinking about joining them, the route is clearer than it looks. There are four steps, an independent audit at the end, and under B Lab's new standards, a minimum to meet in every area of your business. B Lab UK estimates 2 to 6 months from submission to certification. For many companies, the part that needs the most preparation is Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, or JEDI.

Wherever you're starting from, it helps to know what's coming.

How do you become a B Corp? The short answer

• Check you're eligible. Any for-profit company that has traded for 12 months or more can apply.
• Set up your assessment. Create a free B Impact account and complete the Assessment Setup, so the requirements match your size, sector and location.
• Meet the Foundation Requirements. These cover eligibility, the B Corp legal requirement and a risk assessment.
• Complete and submit your self-assessment. Meet the mandatory requirements and upload evidence across all seven Impact Topics.
• Pass the audit. An independent Assurance Provider reviews your evidence and lists anything you need to fix.
• Get certified, then keep it up. Your certificate lasts five years, with a Year 3 audit and a recertification audit in Year 5.

What is a B Corp?

A Certified B Corporation is a business that meets B Lab's standards for social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. B Lab UK is the charity that runs the movement here, and B Lab reported in September 2026 that the UK community had passed 3,000 companies.

B Corp is a certification for the whole business, not a product label. It looks at how you treat your people, your community, your customers and the planet, and it asks you to prove it.

Who can become a B Corp?

Any for-profit company that has been operating for 12 months or more can become a B Corp, according to B Lab UK's guide to certifying. You can check your eligibility on B Lab's site before you start.

You also need to meet the B Corp legal requirement. For most UK companies that means updating your articles of association so your directors consider all your stakeholders, not only shareholders, when they make decisions. B Lab checks this as part of the Foundation Requirements.

What changed with B Lab's new standards?

B Lab published its new standards, known as V2, on 8 April 2025, and the current version, V2.2, came out on 20 February 2026, according to B Lab's standards change log. Companies applying for the first time now certify under these standards.

The biggest change is the scoring. The old model let companies collect 80 points from wherever suited them. Under V2, every B Corp has to meet minimum requirements in all seven Impact Topics, and requirements scale with your size, sector and where you operate.

B Lab UK announced on 2 September 2026 that the first 18 UK companies had certified under the new standards. The bar is higher, and the evidence matters more than it ever has.

The seven B Corp Impact Topics

These are the seven areas you'll need to meet requirements in, as listed in B Lab's performance requirements:

• Purpose and Stakeholder Governance: how your purpose and your stakeholders shape decisions at the top.
• Fair Work: good quality jobs, fair pay practices and worker feedback in decision-making.
• Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI): your workforce data and the actions you take to make your workplace fairer.
• Human Rights: understanding and managing your human rights risks, including in your value chain.
• Climate Action: measuring your emissions and acting to reduce them.
• Environmental Stewardship and Circularity: assessing your wider environmental impact and reducing it in your operations and value chain.
• Government Affairs and Collective Action: working with others for systemic change and using your influence responsibly.

How to certify as a B Corp: the four steps

B Lab UK sets the process out in four steps. Here's what each one involves in practice.

Step 1: Set up your assessment

Start by signing up for a free B Impact account and completing the Assessment Setup. Your answers decide which requirements apply to you, based on your size, industry and location.

If your company has a complex structure, B Lab UK will contact you to agree your Scope: which entities and brands are included. Then you check your business against the Foundation Requirements, and B Lab confirms you're eligible to carry on.

Step 2: Complete and submit your assessment

This is where most of the work happens. In the Self Assessment you work through the requirements for each Impact Topic and upload evidence that you meet them.

When everything is in, you review your submission and sign the certification agreements. Evidence means real documents: policies, plans, data, records of what was done and when.

Step 3: Audit

B Lab assigns an Assurance Provider, an independent third-party auditor, to review your assessment and run your audit. The audit report lists any nonconformities, with timelines for fixing them.

Major nonconformities must be fixed before you can certify. Minor ones can be fixed before your next audit. B Lab has a guide on how to prepare for audit.

Step 4: Certification and staying certified

Once you meet the requirements, you're certified as a B Corp, with a certificate valid for five years. Every B Corp has a Year 3 audit and a recertification audit in Year 5, and depending on size and sector, some also have smaller surveillance audits every year or two.

How long does it take to become a B Corp?

B Lab UK estimates 2 to 6 months from submission to certification, depending on how complex your business is and how many major nonconformities you need to fix. That clock starts when you submit, so the preparation before it is the part you control.

The companies that move fastest are the ones whose evidence already exists before they open the assessment.

How much does B Corp certification cost?

From January 2027, there are three fees, set out on B Lab UK's pricing page. Companies submitting in 2026 pay the 2026 fees, which B Lab UK froze this year to give the first companies on the new standards time to adjust. B Lab UK told its community in October 2026 that the new pricing applies to every B Corp from January 2027, whenever they are due to recertify, and that fees for most UK B Corps had not changed since 2022.

• Application and Scoping Fee: only for first-time applicants with £10m or more in revenue and a complex structure, from £1,000 + VAT.
• Annual IP Licence and Community Fee: paid every year by all B Corps, from £600 + VAT for revenue under £150,000, rising with turnover.
• Independent Audit Fee: set and invoiced by the Assurance Provider, based on your size, sector and complexity, and only paid in audit years.

B Lab UK also offers equity pricing, a 40% reduction in the annual fee, for businesses under £5m revenue that are more than 50% owned by people from groups facing systemic barriers to business ownership.

The reason for the change is the audit. Under V2, every B Corp goes through an independent third-party audit, run by the Assurance Providers To-Cert and SCS, so certification meets the ASA's anti-greenwashing rules and the EU's Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive. B Lab UK is a registered charity and reinvests its fees in the movement.

To see your own figures, the B Lab UK pricing page has a calculator that estimates your audit fees across a full five-year cycle. It's worth running before you take the decision to your board.

Where most companies need the most preparation: JEDI

Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is the Impact Topic many companies find hardest to evidence. The intent is usually there. What's missing is the data, the plan and the paper trail.

There are two parts to it:

• JEDI1 asks you to collect workforce data, from Small companies upwards.
• JEDI2 asks you to choose actions from nineteen options across three sets: Foundation, Within the Workplace and Beyond the Workplace. The number you need rises with company size and certification year.

Start with your workforce data

Workforce data takes the longest to get right, because people only share personal information when they trust why you're asking and what happens next. A Self-ID survey done well is voluntary, anonymous where it needs to be, and reported in a way that protects small groups.

Our free Self-ID Surveys module shows you how to do it yourself. If you'd rather hand it over, our Self-ID Survey service builds and runs the survey and gives you a headline report, from £2,500 + VAT per survey for organisations of up to 250 people.

CTA: Download the Self-ID Survey guide → https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628a1d021491772c3a74d22b/6ad0ab032ba9da405638dbf2_Includability-Insight-Self-ID-Surveys-v2.pdf

Choose your actions and write them into a plan

JEDI2 actions need to be chosen from evidence and recorded in a plan, with owners, deadlines and progress. Our Creating and Implementing a JEDI Action Plan module gives you the guidance and a template with a baseline, action plan, dashboard and comms plan in one file.

Do the work, and keep the proof as you go

Each JEDI action needs its own evidence. The JEDI Inclusion Toolkit has a module for the areas companies most often choose, including Inclusive Leadership, Reviewing and Updating Policies With a JEDI Lens, Gathering Worker and Stakeholder Feedback, Inclusive Hiring, Onboarding and Induction and Creating Inclusion Assessments.

Dave Holby-Wolinski, Director at Includability, says:

"We've been through B Corp multiple times, with different businesses. Each time, the hardest part was the proof: pulling together evidence when someone asked to see it. Under the new standards every Impact Topic has a minimum, and your auditor will want to see the evidence for each one. My advice is to start your JEDI work early. Good workforce data takes time, because people only share it when they trust what you'll do with it."

How Includability helps you get ready

Includability is a UK B Corp workplace culture business. We partner with organisations to build inclusive, diverse, mentally healthy, evidence-based workplace cultures. Our three directors have more than 30 years of experience across HR, diversity and inclusion, mental health and wellbeing, talent management, inclusive communications and digital accessibility.

We know B Corp from the inside. Our directors have been through the process three times with two different businesses, and Includability has been a certified B Corp since March 2023. with a B Impact score of 143.2 under B Lab's previous standards, where 80 was the qualifying mark and the median for ordinary businesses was 50.9.

B Lab and its independent Assurance Providers assess and certify B Corps. We don't. We help you do the work and build the evidence you supply to them.

Not sure where your gaps are? Start with a Cultural Roadmap

A Cultural Roadmap is an expert-led review of your workplace culture, with a board-ready plan at the end. For B Corps it includes a JEDI gap analysis, so you can see what you already have and what's missing before you open the assessment.

The Roadmap shows the gaps. The toolkit closes them and produces your evidence.

Book a call →

Close the gaps with the JEDI Inclusion Toolkit

The JEDI Inclusion Toolkit is thirteen self-paced modules on the Includability Academy, with guidance documents, templates, videos and knowledge checks. Every module names the JEDI criteria it supports and the evidence it produces, and there's no write-up at the end: your plans, policies and data are the evidence.

It's self-paced, so it can fit into your busy day. Four modules are free, the rest are £100 or £300 + VAT each, and the full toolkit is £999 + VAT. Our Committed Employers get the full toolkit for £650 + VAT.

Get the toolkit → | Start with a free module →

Need the data first? Run a Self-ID Survey

We build and run your Self-ID Survey and give you a report you can take to your board, so your JEDI1 evidence is in place before you start on actions.

Talk to us about a Self-ID Survey →

Ready to become a B Corp?

Sign up for B Impact, read the Foundation Requirements, and be honest about where your evidence is thin. If JEDI is one of those places, you're in good company, and it's the part we know best.

For more on how we work with companies certifying and recertifying, see our B Corp support page.

Book a call with James and Dave →

Questions we get asked

How do I become a B Corp in the UK?

Set up a free B Impact account, complete the Assessment Setup, meet the Foundation Requirements, then complete the self-assessment and upload evidence across all seven Impact Topics. An independent Assurance Provider audits your submission. Once you meet the requirements, B Lab certifies you as a B Corp for five years.

Who can become a B Corp?

Any for-profit company that has been operating for 12 months or more can apply. You also need to meet the B Corp legal requirement, which for most UK companies means updating your articles of association so directors consider all stakeholders in their decisions.

How long does it take to become a B Corp?

B Lab UK estimates 2 to 6 months from submission to certification, depending on how complex your business is and how many major nonconformities need fixing. The preparation before you submit depends on how much evidence you already have.

How much does B Corp certification cost in the UK?

From January 2027 there are three fees: an Application and Scoping Fee for larger, complex first-time applicants, an Annual IP Licence and Community Fee from 600 pounds plus VAT, and an Independent Audit Fee set by the Assurance Provider. Companies submitting in 2026 pay the 2026 fees. Check the B Lab UK pricing page for current figures.

What are the seven B Corp Impact Topics?

Purpose and Stakeholder Governance, Fair Work, Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion, Human Rights, Climate Action, Environmental Stewardship and Circularity, and Government Affairs and Collective Action. Under the new standards every B Corp must meet minimum requirements in all seven.

What does B Corp ask for on JEDI, and is it the same as EDI or DEI?

JEDI stands for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. It covers the same ground as EDI, DEI or diversity and inclusion, and adds justice, which means checking whether your systems and decisions are fair. JEDI1 asks you to collect workforce data. JEDI2 asks you to choose actions from nineteen options, with the number rising by company size and certification year.

What is the hardest part of becoming a B Corp?

For most companies it is the evidence. Under the new standards you need documents that prove you meet each requirement, and Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is often where that evidence is thinnest, because workforce data and a written action plan take time to build.

Does Includability certify B Corps?

No. B Lab and its independent Assurance Providers assess and certify B Corps. Includability is a UK B Corp workplace culture business. We help you do the work and build the evidence you supply to them, through our Cultural Roadmap, the JEDI Inclusion Toolkit and our Self-ID Survey.

Do I need a B Corp consultant?

You can certify on your own using the B Impact platform and B Lab guidance. B Lab UK also lists B Corp Consultants trained to support you through the process. Many companies add specialist support for the areas they find hardest, such as Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

Where should I start if I want to be a B Corp?

Check your eligibility, create a free B Impact account and read the Foundation Requirements. Then look honestly at where your evidence is thin. If you are not sure, a Cultural Roadmap with a JEDI gap analysis shows you what you already have and what is missing.