B Impact Clinic for Partners

Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. B Corps are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.

B Corp certification is about a decade old. There are now over 5500 companies across 150 industries that are certified including Patagonia, Danone, Ben & Jerry’s, Cabot, Seventh Generation and Eileen Fisher. New Hampshire is proud to be home to several leading B Corps including Stonyfield, W.S. Badger, Pete and Gerry's Organic Eggs, ReVision Energy, Veris Wealth Partners, and Mascoma Bank.  

Benefit corporations and Certified B Corporations are often confused. The B Corp Certification is a third-party certification administered by the non-profit B Lab, based in part on a company's verified performance on the B Impact Assessment. The benefit corporation is a legal structure for a business, like an LLC or a corporation. Benefit corporations are legally empowered to pursue positive stakeholder impact alongside profit. Some companies are both Certified B Corporations and benefit corporations, and the benefit corporation structure fulfills the legal accountability requirement of B Corp Certification. Learn more about the difference.

The standards for B Corp Certification are overseen by B Lab's independent Standards Advisory Council. Members of the Standards Advisory Council bring industry and stakeholder expertise to bear during the three-year update cycle for the B Impact Assessment, complaints made against Certified B Corps, and material disclosures made by companies pursuing B Corp Certification.

We have space for five clients per semester (fall or spring) and applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

Complete our online application to participate in a future semester. We'll reach out to talk about your needs, answer questions, and discuss timeline. Based on your needs and the cohort of students, we'll match a small team of motivated, cross-discipline, UNH students with your business to help complete the B Impact Assessment. You'll gain an understanding of your performance on a full range of sustainability dimensions, including workers, customers, community, environment, and governance. Companies can also use the tool to pursue B Corp Certification. 

 Questions? Contact Jennifer.Andrews@unh.edu

The work and scope of projects vary from each group and client company. We ask that you identify a single point person within your company to serve as a primary contact with the student team and commit at least 1 hour per week for a virtual video meeting with your student team.  Any additional follow-up work shouldn’t exceed 1-3 hours per week.

We also ask you to come in person if possible three times throughout the semester:

• Company Kick-off: Clients present their businesses and goals for the semester to the student consultants.
• Mid-semester meeting: A chance to meet in person with your student consultants to reflect on the progress you’ve made and plan for the final few weeks.
• Final Presentation Showcase: Each team shares their completed work and the lessons they learned from the Clinic in a 10-minute presentation to clients, UNH faculty and staff, family and friends, followed by time for networking.

Weeks 1-3
Students are introduced to the B Corp movement, form teams, and start to become familiar with their client. The typical team size is 3-5 students from various majors. We strive to create interdisciplinary teams to bring a wide range of knowledge and perspectives. Each student team is led by a peer mentor, who is a student that has been through the Clinic at least once before and is your main point of contact.

Week 3
Clients meet their student team for the first time, and the first order of business is to create a consulting agreement of what the expected deliverables will be at the end of the semester, as well as allowing student access into the client assessment.

Weeks 4-12 
Teams work through each section of the assessment to verify and accurately answer each question with supporting documentation and weekly communications with their client.

Weeks 13-15
Teams wrap up all final deliverables and provide the client with documentation, and finally, present their work at our final showcase event.

Deliverables: It depends on what you agree to in your consulting agreement set up in Week 3 with your team. Typical deliverables could include a roadmap to submit for certification, templates for policies, or an employee handbook. All teams work through the entire B Impact Assessment in detail to help answer questions and assist with applicable documentation.

We do require you to take an initial pass through the B Impact Assessment prior to participating in the Clinic, however in-depth knowledge is not required. A commitment to change and contribute to businesses acting as a force for good will make your Clinic experience successful! Your student team will help you work through all questions and help clarify any outstanding items.

• Participating companies must complete the B Impact Assessment prior to the program start. While not every question has to be answered with 100% certainty, an initial pass through of all the questions you are able to answer is an invaluable time saver. This will allow the students to dive into helping you with the intricacies of the assessment as well as documentation and suggested improvements as soon as possible.

The B Impact Assessment is administered by B Lab, a nonprofit that serves a global movement of people using business as a force for good. The assessment examines a company's impact on their workers, community, environment, and customers along with the company's governance structure and accountability. To become a certified B Corp a company must score 80 out of 200 available points.

We mutually invest with clients, in the learning experience of each student team and the impactful outcome of each project to support your sustainability goals. Clients are asked to contribute at the following rates*:

Student Team Fee: $5,000

* UNH raises funds to enable partners to participate in the B Impact Clinic, even if they are not able to contribute at this level. In the online application, clients have an opportunity to state the level at which they can contribute. Through generous support, UNH is able to offer grants to offset a portion of the partner’s contribution for many organizations.