[September 08, 2016]

Best for the World Fetes Business's Top Impact Firms

Which are the very best companies on Earth and how did they get that way? The names and the stories behind them were revealed today as B the Change Media released the Best for the World lists, the globe's most outstanding socially and environmentally impactful businesses. The 515 winning companies, which span 20 countries and 44 industries, were honored at the first annual Best for the World Gathering, a conference and celebration held at the University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with the Haas School of Business and the Center for Responsible Business.

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The Best for the World honors are awarded only to those Certified B Corporations that score in the top 10% of the B Corp community on the B Impact Assessment, a comprehensive set of standards that rigorously measures each company's impacts on its employees, its community, and the environment. B Corp Certification and the B Impact Assessment are both administered by the nonprofit organization B Lab.

"It's extraordinary just how much these winning companies are doing to create better jobs and happy employees, enhance community life, and keep the environment healthy," said Bryan Welch, B the Change Media CEO. "Their stories are remarkable and their success is, too, which is perhaps the most important message: sustainability doesn't come at the expense of profitability. The two can and do march in lockstep."

In addition to overall honors, which were divided among micro, small, and mid-sized businesses, B Lab and B the Change Media also acknowledged the winning ompanies' individual areas of excellence with the release of lists recognizing those that are "Best for the Environment," "Best for Community," and "Best for Workers."

The 2016 Best for the World honorees include Colorado beer maker, New Belgium Brewing, which ranked best in overall performance, and Roshan, a groundbreaking Afghanistan-based telecom, which took top honors for its community work. In addition to these firms, California's Revolution Foods, creator of healthy childhood foods was celebrated as being the top business for customers; American solar provider Sungevity was named number one for the environment; and Vermont retailer and direct marketer Gardener's Supply Company was the leading company for workers. Other companies earning top grades were Cooperative Home Care Associates, a South Bronx home healthcare company, and Brazilian personal care product manufacturer Natura.

"These are the businesses that are not only getting it right but expanding the possibilities," said B Lab co-founder Jay Coen Gilbert. "They're the world's top sustainability innovators, the companies who are pushing the envelope and showing the rest of the corporate community not only how it's done, but just how much more can be done in the name of human and environmental sustainability."

Each company honored at today's ceremony is a Certified B Corporation that has met rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Currently, over 1,800 Certified B Corporations in 121 industries and 50 countries are using the power of business to address social and environmental challenges. These organizations are redefining success in business, and any company can join them and manage its social and environmental performance using tools available at bimpactassessment.net.

About B the Change Media
B the Change Media, a partnership between B Lab and CEO Bryan Welch, former head of Ogden Publications, began publishing in 2016 in order to inspire and empower others to use business as a force for good. Building on the belief that storytelling is an essential element in this effort to transform society, the organization's flagship publication, B Magazine, reports on the creative corporate visionaries, pioneering companies, groundbreaking products, and cutting-edge ideas that are reinventing the world through positive business-led social and environmental change. B the Change cultivates these and other vital conversations via print, digital, video, and live event platforms. The company is headquartered in Lawrence, Kansas with offices in New York City.

About B Lab
B Lab is a nonprofit organization that serves a global movement of people using business as a force for good™. Its vision is that one day all companies compete not only to be the best in the world, but the Best for the World® and as a result society will enjoy a more shared and durable prosperity. B Lab drives this systemic change by building a global community of Certified B Corporations™ who meet the highest standards of verified, overall social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability; promoting Mission Alignment using innovative corporate structures like the benefit corporation to align the interests of business with those of society and to help high impact businesses be built to last; helping tens of thousands of businesses, investors, and institutions Measure What Matters, by using the B Impact Assessment and B Analytics to manage their impact-and the impact of the businesses with whom they work-with as much rigor as their profits; and inspiring millions to join the movement through storytelling by B the Change Media.

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