Idaho for Good Mix + Mingle: BIA Best Practices + Sharing
February 2022
On February 16, 2022, seven local leaders from Idaho-based B Corps gathered to share their best practices and learnings for completing the B Impact Assessment (BIA) at Idaho for Good’s first event of 2022!
The BIA is a digital tool that helps businesses to measure, manage and improve their positive impact on the environment, communities, customers, suppliers, employees, and shareholders. Used by more than 150,000 businesses worldwide, companies must receive a minimum verified score of 80 (out of a maximum 200 points available) to certify as a B Corp.
Speakers from a wide range of industries – from beloved Boise-based brewery and taproom (Lost Grove Brewing), to reputable and responsible investment firm (Figure 8 Investment Strategies) from progressive sustainability consulting firm (Warm Springs Consulting) to a coffee company (Our Gorongosa) making a big impact, from a trailblazing B Corp in baby food (Happy Family Organics), to an innovative and sustainable period care company (Saalt) – gathered to share their best tips for completing the BIA with an impact-minded community of attendees.
Each speaker spoke to one of the five impact areas measured by the BIA including: governance, workers, community, environment, and customers, as well as the impact business model (which is woven throughout much of the assessment)l, followed by short bursts of audience conversation and a brief Q+A.
Here are just a few of the many insights shared by B Corp leaders throughout the evening:
GOVERNANCEThis section includes policies and practices pertaining to a company’s mission, ethics, accountability and transparency.
“The BIA will challenge you to consider your mission statement and to create an actionable plan for how you’ll do what you say you do. Be prepared to engage your stakeholders, put things to a vote (when needed), and get an early start on the legal requirements of B Corp Certification– because it may take longer than anticipated!”
-Kylie + Jake, Lost Grove Brewing
WORKERS
This section includes what a company can do to contribute to their employees’ financial, physical, professional and social well-being.
“The worker portion of the BIA includes the financial aspect of how you value your employees– all of your employees (including interns!) The BIA has prompted us to consider how we might develop a minimum salary, and has affirmed that having programs in place like our employee assistance program is important. This program offers counseling, tax help, and financial support to all of our employees. Ultimately, for me, having a staff that’s truly aligned with the purpose of our business, and passionate about our values are two of the true benefits of B Corp certification. The BIA has helped create a culture of gratitude and a place where people are empowered to engage.
When it comes to the worker portion of the BIA, my recommendation is to check-in with your team as often as you can and include them in decision-making processes – and – as you complete the BIA– consider the questions as suggestions for future ideas you might be able to implement on your own team!”
-Deb, Warm Springs Consulting
COMMUNITY
This section includes what a company can do to contribute to the economic and social well-being of the communities in which it operates.
“Something I found really wonderful and equally challenging about the BIA was how to translate our business into the assessment. While our business model is totally unique, the BIA is, in a way, a bit like a standardized test, so being able to understand what’s unique about your organization and how it connects back to the community you intend to benefit all in a way that’s translatable is huge.
I recommend attending events like these to learn from your own community, tracking all metrics of how you contribute to the community, and setting achievable goals. When you talk with other B Corps, ask them about how to consider the BIA as a menu of options, how they incorporated the B Corp values into their own business, and how you might align these values in a way that uniquely aligns with your business structure too.”
-Samantha, Our Gorongosa
ENVIRONMENT
This section includes what a company can do to improve its overall environmental stewardship.
“This is our third B Corp re-certification and when it comes to the environment, I’d start by considering what environmental policies and frameworks your organization has in place. This is a great way to earn points, but also a wonderful entry point for connecting with other B Corps! B Corps are really willing to share their own policies so you don’t have to recreate the wheel. At Happy Family, for instance, we capture our entire carbon footprint and zero out all of our owned emissions. Also, as an organic company, we receive nearly 13 points for selling mostly organic products.
Since the questions of this portion of the assessment will be unique to your business model, I’d recommend leaning on the B Lab, they’ll be able to point out the places where you may be missing points and help you to identify different opportunities to improve your practices and points in the future.”
-Katie, Happy Family Organics
CUSTOMERS
This section includes what a company can do to improve the value they create for their customers and consumers.
“We’re just about five-years old and have six employees. As a company, we manage money and do investment planning that’s focused on sustainability and the impact investments have, as well as help people to meet their financial goals. It turns out that we got a good enough score on the customers portion of the BIA to receive a ‘best for the world’ award. Given that our industry is heavily regulated and we have a lot of policies and disclosures, my advice is this: put it in a policy and disclose, disclose, disclose. Be consistent about how much you integrate social and environmental concerns and constantly seek new ways that you can write this all down, it will make completing the BIA that much easier.”
IMPACT BUSINESS MODEL
This section helps a company identify any potentially sensitive industries, practices, outcomes, or fines/sanctions that are not explicitly called out in the rest of the assessment.
“Documenting as much as you can is really important while you complete the BIA! If you have a specific mission statement for your company and/or for any impact programs you have in place, that can really help you create tangible metrics for documenting your impact.
For instance, the pillars of our impact program here at Saalt include sustainability, menstrual health, and women’s health and empowerment. From there, we’re able to measure how many products we donate, how much waste we prevent by donating sustainable products, etc. and we can document this in our annual impact report, which, by the way, if you don’t already, you should definitely have! In addition, we give 2% of our profits to causes within our impact areas through a holistic program that includes educational and community support opportunities for our impact partners… For your own impact, ensure that you build these programs and write every.single.one. of them down– it’ll help a lot when it comes time to complete the BIA!”
-Rachel, Saalt
If you weren’t able to join us for this month’s event, don’t fret! You can download Idaho for Good’s BIA Starter Kit featuring tried and true tips, insights, and advice for completing the B Corp Certification.
Don’t forget to join us for our next event: B Corp on a Budget on Wednesday, May 18 from 4:00-5:30PM MST (location TBA).
And last but not least… a huge thank you to our friends at the one-of-a-kind – KIN – for providing us with a safe & friendly meeting place to host February’s Idaho for Good event!