B Corp Certification Certification Explained

The Certified B Corporation logo applies to an entire company, not to individual products. It signals that the company met B Lab's threshold for overall social and environmental performance at the time of certification. It does not indicate that any product is vegan, plant-based, or free from animal-derived ingredients.

The B Impact Assessment does not require companies to avoid animal products or animal testing. Dairy producers, meat companies, and brands using wool or leather can and do hold B Corp certification. Ben & Jerry's, a dairy ice cream maker, is a well-known example. For a shopper, the logo indicates general corporate ethics: labor practices, environmental management, governance. It makes no statement about animal welfare or ingredient sourcing.

Vegan assurance requires a product-level vegan certification. That mark can sit alongside B Corp status or replace it.

Vegan and cruelty-free certifications operate at the product or brand level with narrow, specific criteria. The Vegan Society trademark and Vegan Action's Certified Vegan logo verify that a product contains no animal ingredients and involved no animal testing. Leaping Bunny certifies that a brand does not conduct or commission animal testing across its supply chain, but says nothing about ingredients. B Corp, by contrast, evaluates the whole company across governance, workers, community, environment, and customers. It carries no vegan or animal-testing requirements.

These schemes measure different things, so they complement each other without being interchangeable. A company can be a certified B Corp while selling dairy, and a vegan-certified product can come from a company with no broader ethical accreditation. Shoppers who want both plant-based products and broader corporate accountability check for each certification separately. Some companies hold both. Neither implies the other.

"Certified B Corporation" is often confused with "benefit corporation," but the two are distinct. A benefit corporation is a legal corporate form available in many US states and in analogous versions elsewhere, which obligates directors to consider stakeholder interests. B Corp certification is a voluntary third-party assessment from B Lab, a nonprofit, and is open to companies regardless of legal form. A business can be one, both, or neither.

B Lab operates as a global network, with regional organizations supporting certification in their own markets. The legal accountability requirement is adapted to local company law. In the United States it often involves adopting benefit corporation status where the form is available. Elsewhere companies typically amend their articles or charters to embed stakeholder commitments.

Certified companies exist in more than 80 countries, so the logo is recognizable internationally. Consumer awareness of what it covers varies by region.