It was just about 3 1/2 years ago, on a dark & cold night outside of Philly, Jim and I met Jay Coen Gilbert (then with AND1), Ben Bingham (now of Benchmark Capital), and others for a dinner to discuss the beginning ideas around the B (for Benefit) Corporation concept – how to take the idea of social and environmental corporate responsibility & add some teeth, structure, guidance, and support for companies choosing to take that path. Those thought-provoking conversations and a great deal of work by Jay and others led to the formal launch of B Lab some weeks ago at the BALLE conference in Berkeley, CA. B Corporations™ are a new type of corporation that are purpose-driven and create benefit for all stakeholders, not just shareholders.
With a number of initial B Corporation signatories, including Method, Seventh Generation, Give Something Back and BetterWorld, B Lab is featured in the upcoming issue of Inc. Magazine, which is now hitting the newsstands. We have some info on the B Corp. model below – but please visit www.bcorporation.net for the complete picture, how to join and make sure you check out the new article in Inc. Magazine.
Peace,
Matt
Posted in: Partners
