Beyond the B: Latest on the B Corp Movement

Hannah Sandmeyer, founder of Steward Market and CEO of Up & Over Advisors, joins Ryan Honeyman on Beyond the B to discuss how mission-driven companies can use mergers and acquisitions to grow and how founders can plan ownership transitions that protect their mission. They cover why B Corps often think about selling rather than buying, how acquisitions have helped employee-owned companies like...

Ryan Honeyman talks with Brigitta Nemes of B Lab about the purpose and stakeholder governance impact topic in the new B Corp standards. They discuss how it operationalizes the B Corp legal requirement, including public purpose, stakeholder mapping, materiality, responsible marketing, grievance procedures, and board oversight. Brigitta also explains what assurance providers are likely to look for a...

Equator Coffees co-founder Helen Russell and Director of Coffee Culture Devorah Freudiger join Ryan Honeyman to share how the company has kept its founding values intact through 30 years of growth, pivots, and change. They explore how B Corp certification helped Equator codify and protect its values, why long-term supplier relationships sometimes require choosing partnership over short-term optimi...

What happens to a values-led company when its founders or longtime owners are ready to step away? Ryan Honeyman speaks with Miren Oca of Ocaquatics and Claire Randall of Grand Central Bakery about employee ownership trusts, perpetual purpose trusts, seller financing, and the culture required before an ownership transition can work. They share what they learned from rejecting more traditional exit...

Maria Emilia Correa, cofounder of Sistema B and a pioneer of the B Corp movement in Latin America, joins Ryan Honeyman to explore why better individual companies are necessary but insufficient to build a better economy. Drawing on Sistema B’s origins, benefit corporation policy, business education, and her work with small and midsize businesses in Colombia, Maria Emilia makes the case for collecti...

Professor Christopher Marquis joins Ryan Honeyman to examine what we can and cannot yet prove about the financial ROI of B Corp certification. They explore why Christopher supports B Lab’s shift from an 80-point threshold to minimum requirements across seven impact areas, what may be lost without clearer recognition of leading companies, and how businesses such as Tony’s Chocolonely, Dopper, and T...

In this rebroadcast of one of our most listened to episodes of all time, we dive into the prominent role of circularity in the new B Corp standards with Nellie Cohen, creator of Patagonia's Worn Wear project, and Dan Kurzrock, CEO of Upcycled Foods. Nellie and Dan share strategies for transforming waste into value across diverse industries like textiles and food. We also highlight how smaller...

Bernard Gouw joins Ryan Honeyman to unpack the new Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion topic as part of the V2 B Corp standards. Drawing on his four and a half years at B Lab developing the Human Rights, Fair Work, and JEDI topics, Bernard explains how companies can use data, stakeholder feedback, and context-specific action to move beyond good intentions. Ryan and Bernard also explore the a...

Douglas Lamont, CEO of Tony’s Chocolonely, joins Ryan Honeyman to discuss how Tony’s is using business to help end exploitation in the cocoa industry. Drawing on his experience at Innocent Drinks and Tony’s, Douglas shares how Mission Lock, Open Chain, and the 5 Sourcing Principles help the company protect its purpose while scaling its impact. Listen in for a practical conversation about ethical s...

What does it mean for a company to respect human rights, and how can the new B Corp standards help companies focus on the places where they may be causing or contributing to harm? Social impact specialist Bernard Gouw joins Ryan Honeyman to unpack the Human Rights topic in the new B Corp standards, including human rights due diligence, salient human rights issues, supply chains, procurement, clien...

In this episode of Beyond the B, Andy Schmidt guest hosts a conversation with Ryan Honeyman and Amy Bourbeau on the 20-year evolution of the B Corp movement. They reflect on what the movement has gained as it has grown from a small community of early adopters into a global network of more than 10,000 companies, and what has become harder to preserve along the way. Together, they explore the new B...

Eric Ries, creator of The Lean Startup and author of Incorruptible, joins Ryan Honeyman for a conversation about why B Corp certification and benefit corporation status are no longer enough to protect a company’s mission over time. Drawing from both mainstream tech and business worlds and purpose-driven examples like Patagonia, Tony’s Chocolonely, and Mondragon, Eric explores how financial pressur...

What happens when a values-driven business movement tries to scale without losing its soul? In this episode, Ryan and Emmy speak with Todd Schifeling and Suntae Kim about their research (and article in the Harvard Business Review) about the “paradox” at the heart of the B Corp movement—balancing growth with authenticity. They explore why this tension is unavoidable, how B Lab has navigated it so f...

The B Corp movement stands at a critical inflection point, with growing urgency to move beyond certification and toward true systems change in business and society. Marcello Palazzi, civic economist, entrepreneur, and co-founder of B Lab Europe, joins Ryan Honeyman to reflect on the evolution of the B Corp movement and what it will take to realize its original ambitions. View the show notes: https...

Ryan Honeyman and Emmy Allison speak with Corey Lien about the original promise of the B Corp movement, what it meant to build B Lab Taiwan in the early days, and why the movement now feels more fragmented and uncertain. Corey reflects on authenticity, interdependence, and the tension between certification as a tool and movement as the larger purpose. Together, they explore whether this is a momen...

Ryan Honeyman and Emmy Allison speak with Rooney Castle, President and CEO of Rhino Foods, about what it actually means to lead in a way that reflects an organization's values. Rooney shares how Rhino Foods has built a culture you can feel from the moment you walk through the door, through consistent small gestures, deep proximity to employees across all shifts, and a commitment to shared res...

Ready or not, a new B Corp era has begun. Former B Lab standards analyst Jeffrey Stewart joins us to unpack what Version 2 means in practice. We discuss AI-enabled audits, mandatory documentation, digital audit platforms, major versus minor nonconformities, the shift to a five-year certification cycle, and more. If your company is preparing for recertification or trying to understand how European...

In this resurfaced 2019 conversation, Ryan Honeyman speaks with Vincent Stanley, Director of Philosophy at Patagonia, about what it really takes to operationalize values at scale. The discussion covers KPIs, pricing, materials, fair trade labor, transparency, repair, and the internal systems Patagonia uses to stay accountable as it grows. Vincent also explains how Patagonia’s benefit corporation s...

This resurfaced 2019 conversation with Patagonia’s Vincent Stanley remains one of the most replayed episodes in our archive because it offers a grounded look at how culture, strategy, and operations work inside a company that has shaped the global conversation on responsible business. In part three of our four part series, Vincent reflects on Patagonia’s evolution, its approach to marketing and ac...

Originally recorded in 2019, Patagonia’s Vincent Stanley joins host Ryan Honeyman (for part two of a four part series) to explore how a small dirtbag climbing company became a global business in service of “saving our home planet.” They dig into Patagonia’s culture, the Bears Ears lawsuit and benefit corporation status, tools for grassroots activists, and what it really means for businesses to tak...

This episode begins a four-part case study on Patagonia with a conversation on vision and values with Vincent Stanley, Patagonia’s Director of Philosophy. Originally recorded in 2019, the discussion explores how Patagonia’s founding experiences in climbing and environmental activism shaped its long-term purpose and moral orientation.  View the show notes: https://go.lifteconomy.com/blog/patagonia-...

In this year-in-review episode, Ryan Honeyman and Emmy Allison take an honest look at what worked, what didn't, and what they’re still wrestling with on Beyond the B and across the B Corp movement. They reflect on controversial moments, listener engagement, and how the new B Corp standards are starting to land in practice. The conversation moves beyond metrics to ask bigger questions about sc...

In this episode, Ryan and Emmy dig into the newly released 14-step B Corp certification process and make sense of what companies can expect as the standards shift. They walk through each phase in plain language, highlight what has changed, and offer practical context on where organizations tend to feel overwhelmed. Along the way, they share their own reactions and insights as they sort through the...

From politically motivated attacks to basic configuration errors, purpose-driven orgs are now on the front lines of cyber risk. In this episode, Steve Sharer and Garrett Miller walk through five areas where B Corps are more vulnerable than they realize — and the practical steps that strengthen each one. They explain why these gaps matter and how to close them with straightforward practices that do...

People & Planet First is a global, participatory verification system designed for enterprises that put purpose ahead of profit. In this episode, Rebecca Dray breaks down the five core standards, why the badge is gaining traction, and how it complements the B Corp movement. If you're a B Corp or values-led business looking for a way to signal deeper structural commitment, this conversation...