Getting B Corp ready as a small business

A UK small business can become a B Corp by meeting B Lab’s new standards: a set of minimum requirements across seven impact topics, scaled to your size and sector, checked by an independent auditor. You also need to change your articles of association to include B Lab’s legal wording and pay an annual fee based on revenue. Most of the effort goes into getting policies, targets and evidence in place before you submit.

That last part is where small businesses tend to underestimate the work, and where a little groundwork saves a lot of time.

How B Corp certification works now

B Lab released its new standards in April 2025. It began recertifying existing B Corps against them in January 2026, and new companies have been able to certify on them since March 2026. The biggest change is that the old points system, where you needed 80 out of 200 on the B Impact Assessment, has gone. Instead you must meet every requirement that applies to you.

The process, in broad terms:

1. Foundation requirements. You must be legally incorporated, trading for at least 12 months and compliant with the law. You complete a risk profile, which may add extra due diligence requirements if you work in higher-risk areas.
2. Self-assessment in B Impact. You work through the requirements for your size and sector, uploading evidence for each one.
3. Independent audit. A B Lab-approved assurance provider checks your evidence.
4. Corrective actions. Any major gaps the auditor finds must be resolved before you can certify.
5. Five-year cycle. You meet the Year 0 requirements to certify, then additional requirements at Year 3 and Year 5.

B Lab estimates two to six months from submission to certification, depending mostly on how many major gaps the auditor finds. Full details are on B Lab’s standards page.

What are the impact topics?

Every B Corp has to meet requirements in each of seven impact topics covering social, environmental and governance areas. Two that every small business should look at early are:

• Purpose and Stakeholder Governance. A clear purpose and decision-making that considers all stakeholders.
• Climate Action. For micro, small and medium companies, a public climate action plan with SMART targets.

B Lab’s standards page sets out all seven topics and the full requirements for each.

The requirements are tailored to your company’s size, sector and industry, which B Lab calls your “track”. A small consultancy will face fewer requirements than a large manufacturer.

What does Climate Action require from a small company?

This is the topic small businesses ask about most. Under the new standards, micro, small and medium companies must publish a climate action plan at Year 0 with specific, measurable, time-bound targets. By Year 3 they need to show and publish progress against it.

A full carbon footprint is not strictly required for smaller companies. B Lab says measuring emissions can be particularly resource-intensive for smaller companies, so the topic focuses on action, and their targets do not have to rely on emissions data. But without numbers, it is hard to know which targets matter, and harder still to prove progress at Year 3. Measuring your Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions once gives you a baseline, shows where to focus and gives your plan credibility.

For a typical office-based team, the biggest sources are usually electricity, heating and business travel. For a shop, cafe or workshop, add premises energy, waste and materials.

The legal requirement

B Corps must commit to stakeholder governance in their constitution. For a UK company limited by shares, that means adding B Lab’s current legal wording to your articles of association, word for word. The wording commits the company to having a material positive impact on society and the environment, and requires directors to consider employees, suppliers, the community and the environment as well as shareholders.

Changing your articles needs a special resolution of shareholders, and the amended articles then go to Companies House. For a small, closely held company this is often straightforward, but take advice if you have outside investors. B Lab UK’s legal requirement page has the wording and guidance.

How much does B Corp cost?

There are two main costs. An annual licence and community fee paid to B Lab UK, and an independent audit fee paid to the assurance provider. From January 2027, B Lab UK’s annual fee is £600 for revenue under £150,000, £950 for £150,000 to £499,999 and £1,400 for £500,000 to £2.499m (excluding VAT). Audit fees depend on size, sector and complexity, and only apply in audit years.

Companies submitting in 2026 pay B Lab UK’s 2026 fees. A 40% reduction on the annual fee is available to businesses under £5m revenue that are more than 50% owned by women, people of colour, LGBTQ+ or disabled people. Check the B Lab UK pricing page before you budget.

Then there is your time. Many small businesses also pay a consultant to help, which is optional.

How to get B Corp ready as a small business

Before you open the assessment, get the basics in place. They make the rest of the work much easier:

• A carbon baseline for your most recent year, so your climate action plan has real targets
• An environmental policy that names who is responsible and when it is reviewed
• A code of conduct covering bribery, conflicts of interest, gifts and how to raise concerns
• Written people policies: pay, benefits, training, health and safety, and how staff can give feedback
• Supplier checks, even a simple questionnaire for your main suppliers
• A named owner for B Corp and ESG within the business

Our ESG checklist for SMEs covers each of these in more detail. For the policy documents, see the environmental policy template and code of conduct template.

How ESG Now helps

ESG Now is not a B Corp assessment, and it will not certify you. What it does is get your groundwork done quickly. The questionnaire works out your carbon footprint using the GHG Protocol and UK government factors, records your people and governance practices, and produces a private action plan that shows your gaps in order of priority, including any policies worth adding.

Most small businesses finish in under 30 minutes, and your first report is free. Our B Corp preparation page explains how the report lines up with the B Corp topics.