The Benefit Corporation Revisited

John Montgomery

June 28, 2015

The “B” Economy has continued to spread since John Montgomery’s last presentation to the Humanist Community on June 1, 2014. 27 US jurisdictions (26 states and DC) have adopted benefit corporation legislation with 14 others currently considering it. A benefit corporation is a for profit corporation that must balance the interests of stockholders, society and the environment. A California benefit corporation, for example, must provide a material positive impact on society and the environment.

Since the first benefit corporation law was passed in Maryland in 2010, over 2000 benefit corporations have been formed in the US. In addition, there are now more than 1,300 Certified B Corporations, businesses that have passed B Lab’s Certified B Corporation assessment, in about 40 countries. And there are now two publicly listed Certified B Corporations, Rally Software and Etsy, both of which must convert into Delaware benefit corporations by 2017 in order to maintain their Certified B Corporation certification. It’s just a matter of time before we have our first publicly traded benefit corporation in the US.

Soon, we will have a clear choice between doing business with and in corporations that are legally committed to doing the right thing by stockholders, society and the environment and those that are legally committed to maximizing profit for stockholders and externalizing as many of the negative costs of corporate behavior on society and the environment as possible. Please join us for an update on recent developments in the rapidly emerging B Economy.

Humanist Community Forum (2015-06-28): The Benefit Corporation Revisited (John Montgomery) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.