Join hosts Lauren Everett and Max Hayes on Getting Down to Business, as they chat with Solar States founder Micah Gold-Markel and CFO Jael Blankenship. Solar States is focused on using solar energy as a tool for sustainability, economic development, and workforce training, and the company has installed solar projects on homes, schools, and businesses across Philadelphia, while also training the next generation of green energy workers.

Micah and Jael join Lauren and Max to discuss governance, one of the key pillars of the B Corp impact assessment. “Good governance ensures that a company's mission and values aren't just words on a page, but are embedded into its decision-making structure,” Lauren explains. In this episode, she explores with her guests how transparency and accountability shape businesses for long-term success.

Solar States’ journey to B Corp

When Micah founded Solar States in 2008, he knew he wanted his business to have a connection to the community. He describes being attracted to the idea of becoming a certified B Corp, but knowing the cost would be challenging, he thought he might postpone the certification process. He recalls being prodded by his colleague Akil March. “He said, of course we're living by the standards we set, but people have to be able to verify that,” Micah recalls. “How do they know you're telling the truth? Well, third party verification, that's it. That's when it started to make more sense.”

Solar States was certified officially in 2013, a process Micah describes as rightfully difficult. For the first few years, the company maintained the certification but wasn’t sure about the benefits, feeling that since they believed so strongly in those values, they would meet all the B Corp standards whether they paid for the certification or not. But once they landed a large contract on the strength of their mission and their B Corp status, the value became clear. “That was a real launch pad for us because we had consistent work, and it put us into a network where other folks were hearing about us and what we did, Micah says. “So it was a real game changer.”

Governance as a tool for transparency and accountability

Another big component of becoming a B Corp is that it’s a rigorous process, and governance plays a critical role. And as Max explains, B Corps need to expand their fiduciary duties to legally allow them to consider more than just profit when making business decisions. For Solar States, Jael notes that this has been a beneficial but not overly burdensome part of the process. We've done three recertifications and another one this year coming up. And so every single time we're putting in new policies, we're putting in new reports, we're tracking new metrics for the company.”

That exercise has been helpful, Jael notes. “Rather than just saying, this is what we do, or knowing that this is what we do, really proving that this is what we do,” he adds. “And it’s helped to professionalize us a little bit. In the beginning, when I started, we were very, very small. And since we've grown, it's really helped us to add structure and be organized about the whole thing.”

That rigorous governance has also helped Solar States to build in steps to ensure transparency and accountability in decision making. They’ve formalized policies and been transparent with employees and the public to bring them into the fold of the values and mission and what it means to be a B Corp. One way they’ve instituted transparency among employees is around transparent compensation structures, and another is by sharing both the good and the bad company-wide. As Micah sums up: “I think when people feel like they understand what's going on around them and there's transparency such that they feel like they're being treated the right way, then that sort of reflects into other areas of their lives.”

For more information about B Corp Certification and how to measure your company's impact, visit https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/programs-and-tools/b-impact-assessment/

The Getting Down to Business podcast series takes listeners on a journey to discover what it means to become a B Corp, why it matters, and what comes next—for B Corps and for the rest of the world. Throughout the series, host Lauren Everett explores the certification process firsthand with B Corp leaders who have taken the leap, and together they break down what it really means to use business as a force for good. In this first episode, Lauren sits down with Jorge Fontanez, CEO of B Lab U.S. & Canada, to dive into these topics.

B Lab and B Corps

Jorge describes B Lab as the nonprofit engine behind the standards that are used by companies to assess themselves and then ultimately certify against those standards—or to become a B Corp. B Lab, he says, strives to address environmental, social, and governance issues within the framework of all stakeholders. “We see ourselves as being one of the most comprehensive standards on the planet,” he tells Lauren. “Literally in the way that Fair Trade helps to certify coffee companies and ensure fair trade practices for growers or the LEAD certification supports the built environment and ensuring that buildings are safe for the people that inhabit them.”

Jorge describes the history of B Corp certification in three parts. The first phase, which started less than 20 years ago, was to create a set of performance standards to help companies be held to account for how they are measuring their impact on the world and on the stakeholders that they affect. The second phase began about a decade ago and included establishing what is often called the legal requirement, but is more simply an alternative corporate structure. “It is the way in which we lock the mission for companies to make decisions for the benefit of all stakeholders,” Jorge says. “So that tension around shareholders versus stakeholders in some ways gets resolved by the legal structure that we call a public benefit corporation.”

The third and current phase of what it means to be a B Corp addresses what Jorge calls the future of the movement. “Our vision of the future is to create an economic system that is equitable, regenerative, and inclusive,” he tells Lauren. “And if that is what we believe, then we also should be talking about how the rules of the game need to change and how policies operate more for the benefit of companies and shareholders than they do for workers or suppliers or the communities at large.”

The mission and the journey

Jorge discusses his own journey from marketing and academics to joining B Lab. During the pandemic, he says, he became engaged in a conversation with B Lab Global about the future of the organization and the birth of B Lab U.S. & Canada. “For many of us as a society, we were grappling with what it would mean to come out of the pandemic and how we would successfully think through community care, but also what did this mean for business,” he recalls. “Something about the opportunity really spoke to me because I saw within the strategy a theory of change that really aligned with my values. And in some ways my career path has been a journey in identifying and saying yes to those opportunities that feel most in alignment with my values.”

He also discusses the idea of a regenerative economy, and says his definition of that is to leave the planet better than you found it by creating policies and practices that actually improve the ecosystem in which we all exist. “The unfortunate truth about capitalism is that it has been built on the premise that companies can take whatever resources they need to create a profit and that's what we're looking to combat,” he says.

For more information about B Corp Certification and how to measure your company's impact, visit https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/programs-and-tools/b-impact-assessment/

Discover the eye-opening stories behind businesses making a positive impact on the world. Get Down To Business delves into the journey of B Corp Certified companies, exploring the unique challenges and rewards of achieving this prestigious certification.

In each episode, we'll learn about a different B Corp, unpacking their inspiring business practices and focusing on a specific aspect of the B Corp Certification process. From environmental sustainability to ethical labor practices, we'll provide in-depth explanations and real-world examples to illustrate the significance of these standards.

Join us as we navigate B Corp Certification, examining the growing demands within the community, alongside changing requirements. Discover what it truly means to be a part of the B Corp movement and how these businesses are shaping a more sustainable and equitable future.