BENEFIT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS IN SLOVENIA AND CROATIA

Abstract

The contemporary business environment is strongly influenced by sustainability demands that come from customers, employees, regulators, and communities. To prove themselves and to the environment the benefit impact of their operations and to improve their impact many companies around the globe use the Benefit Impact Assessment tool. The purpose of the paper is to analyze the Benefit Impact Assessment scores of the Certified B Corporations in the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Croatia, and the activities which enabled their achievements. The research is based on the qualitative analysis of theme-relevant publicly available secondary data. The results have shown that B Corp movement is at an early stage in Slovenia and Croatia, with 4 companies leading the way. The current BIA scores of the analyzed Slovenian and a Croatian company show that they put much weight to the investments in workers and community, while the Croatian Certified B Corp stands out in the environment area with its business model oriented towards resource conservation and toxin reduction. Although limited by the secondary data on which the research was based, the research results offer valuable insights for Chief Sustainability Officers and team members across organizations who think about the most appropriate way to measure, communicate and improve their impact on the society.

Headnote

ABSTRACT

The contemporary business environment is strongly influenced by sustainability demands that come from customers, employees, regulators, and communities. To prove themselves and to the environment the benefit impact of their operations and to improve their impact many companies around the globe use the Benefit Impact Assessment tool. The purpose of the paper is to analyze the Benefit Impact Assessment scores of the Certified B Corporations in the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Croatia, and the activities which enabled their achievements. The research is based on the qualitative analysis of theme-relevant publicly available secondary data. The results have shown that B Corp movement is at an early stage in Slovenia and Croatia, with 4 companies leading the way. The current BIA scores of the analyzed Slovenian and a Croatian company show that they put much weight to the investments in workers and community, while the Croatian Certified B Corp stands out in the environment area with its business model oriented towards resource conservation and toxin reduction. Although limited by the secondary data on which the research was based, the research results offer valuable insights for Chief Sustainability Officers and team members across organizations who think about the most appropriate way to measure, communicate and improve their impact on the society.

Keywords: Benefit Impact Assessment, Certified B Corporations, Croatia, Slovenia, social responsibility

1. INTRODUCTION

The contemporary business environment is strongly influenced by sustainability demands that come from customers, employees, regulators, and communities. Hence, more companies are trying to differentiate themselves from the growing greenwashing practice and considering different paths to assess and improve their impact. Among them there is a growing community of Certified B Corporations (currently 9.402 companies in 105 countries) using Benefit Impact Assessment, a free publicly available online tool for measuring and improving impact developed by a non-profit organization, B Lab (B Lab, 2024a). The purpose of the paper is to analyze the B Impact Assessment scores of the companies currently certified as B Corporations in the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Croatia, and the activities which enabled their achievements. Our research questions are formulated as follows: in which industries and countries are operating Certified B Corporations in Slovenia and Croatia, what is their size (number of employees), what is their impact in the governance, workers, community, environment and customers area, and overall, and which activities supported the achievement of their impact. To do so, we conducted qualitative research based on the theme-relevant publicly available secondary data. After the introductory part in the first chapter, the chapter two elaborates the theoretical background of benefit impact assessments. The research methodology and results are presented in detail in the chapter 3, after which the discussion of the results follows in the chapter 4, and the concluding remarks in the chapter 5. At the end of the paper all literature sources used in the research are listed.

2. BENEFIT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS - THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The contemporary business conditions characterized by growing expectations regarding social responsibility of companies' operations and conduct have encouraged many organizations to adopt stakeholder governance models, i.e. to consider the impact of their business decisionmaking on various stakeholders. Due to regulatory and social demands related to public communication of a company's overall social impact (both direct and indirect) more organizations are dedicating their resources to impact assessments with the aim to improve their positive impacts and to mitigate their negative impacts. By the term social impact, we mean any change to social, economic and/or environmental welfare of individuals, organizations, communities, and the society, that is the direct or indirect outcome of a company's activities (IMPACT, 2011, as in Bachnik et al., 2024). When conducting impact assessments companies can choose out of a wide range of approaches to impact measurement (see in Olsen and Galimidi, 2008, Corvo et al., 2021, Sandri et al., 2021, Alomoto et al., 2022, Zimek and Baumgartner, 2024), from SROI (Social Return on Investment) Toolkit through SIA (Social Impact Assessment) to B Lab's B Impact Rating System that integrates aspects of many approaches including GRI, HIP, LEED, SROI, SVN and Wiser Earth (Olsen and Galimidi, 2008) and that utilizes third-party industry, products, and practice specific standards' systems for verification purposes (e.g. FSC, Fair Trade International, USDA Organic, GRS-Global Recycle Standard) (B Lab, 2020). Among them, some approaches serve as rating systems, and other serve as assessment systems or management systems. Few approaches serve as both rating and assessment systems (as the B Impact Assessment analyzed in this paper) or assessment and management systems (Olsen and Galimidi, 2008). By defining, measuring and managing their overall impact, companies embrace total impact thinking in their decision-making (PwC, 2013). Comprehensive impact assessments usually include several stages: clarification of the context for measurement, planning for measurement, designing the outcomes measurement program, understanding what to measure, development of an outcomes framework, data collection and monitoring, analysis of impact, communicating impact and implementing change (Ramia et al., 2021). Social impact assessments' inherent measurement challenges that companies should be aware of include failing to distinguish between input, output, outcome and impact, inconsistency, causal validity errors, blindness (hidden factor correlation), over-simplification (ignoring multi-determination), partiality (failing to capture both downside and upside risks), and over-assuming (lack of generalizability) (Durand et al., 2019). These challenges as the ones related to communicating impact in a way tailored to each stakeholder's information needs should be addressed to successfully manage the company's impact. The numerous impact assessment approaches used in practice that differ in both measuring and reporting methodology have shown the need for unification of practices (e.g. developing the same typology of reports - independent impact reports, Management Solutions, 2022) that would enable the comparability of impact results between different organizations. The B Lab's impact assessment, analyzed in this paper, represents a standardized approach to measuring and communicating impact that allows inter-organizational comparisons and sets industry benchmarking frameworks. The B Impact Assessment (BIA) is a comprehensive tool that enables measurement of a business' positive impact on society and the environment through a set of a company's size-, market- and industry-customized questions that reflect impact indicators, best practices, and outcomes. A company receives a composite score on a 200-point scale representative of its overall impact achieved in 5 key impact areas: governance, employees, community, environment and customers. The BIA is evaluative and improvementoriented tool, used for B Corp Certification and GIIRS Impact Ratings (B Lab, 2021), but also used as a self-evaluation tool. To be eligible for B Corp Certification a company must achieve a minimum verified score of 80 points on the BIA, incorporate stakeholder consideration in company decision-making by changing its articles of association and/or adopting Benefit Corporation or similar legal form/status, and publish the BIA summary results on the B Lab's official website. The negative impacts of a company are separately assessed through B Lab's evaluation of a company's answers given in the BIA Disclosure Questionnaire, background checks and the public complaints procedure, aimed at identifying and taking action on intentional misrepresentation or misconduct of Certified B Corporations (breaches of the B Corp Community's core values) (B Lab, 2024e). B Lab's risk standards and processes are additional minimum standards that companies in controversial industries, or those with potentially negative practices, must meet in order to be eligible for B Corp Certification (B Lab, 2024e). From November 2024 companies not directly involved in a controversial industry or practice, but who have clients in such industries, must meet additional requirements depending on the client industry classification (controversial/ineligible) and the nature of certifying's company involvement with their client's potentially harmful activities (based on the UN's Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, UN, 2011). These additional requirements are related to transparency, grievance and whistleblowing mechanisms, and remediation including reduction in revenues from harmful industries (B Lab, 2024c). B Lab's Standards Advisory Council, an independent, global, multi-stakeholder group with specific expertise in responsible and sustainable business, governing the continuous evolvement of B Lab's impact tools, and the required recertification every three years as well as random in-depth site reviews for 10 % of B-certified companies per year contribute to the credibility of the certification. Although not perfect (some authors argue that companies may prioritise what is easier to implement versus what is better for the environment and with that add to a growing climate of greenwashing, Bennett, 2024), more companies around the globe are using the BIA tool to better understand, measure, improve and communicate their impact, and are embarking on the B Corp Certification process as part of their broader sustainability strategies. The following chapter presents the achieved BIA scores of the Slovenian and Croatian Certified B corporations and the activities and policies which enabled their achievements.

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS

The research is based on the qualitative analysis ot theme-relevant publicly available secondary research data (research studies referenced in relevant scientific databases, including the Web of Science, the Scopus, the Science Direct, and the Google Scholar database, media reports, B Impact Assessment summaries of analyzed companies and the companies' official websites' content). The research included all currently Certified B Corporations in Slovenia and Croatia. Although the impulse for more significant growth of Certified B Corporations in Europe was the establishment of a European partner of B Lab Global, B Lab Europe, in 2013, it took almost 10 years for the first certifications to happen in the analyzed Republic of Slovenia and Republic of Croatia. To date (beginning of December 2024) there are 3 Certified B Corporations in Slovenia, and 1 Certified B Corporation in Croatia (only the B Corps with headquarters in these countries are included in the research). The basic information on them is given in the table below (table 1).

As the data shows, the here analyzed Certified B Corporations belong to the SME sector, the predominant sector in both the Slovenian and the Croatian economy. SMEs represent most of all business entities in Slovenia (99.8% of all of them), of which 90.8% are micro enterprises. In 2022, SMEs contributed 66.9% to the added value of the economy and employed 73.3% of all employees in Slovenia (OECD, 2024). The Croatian Bureau of Statistics has found that out of all active enterprises, the overwhelming majority (99.8%) were SMEs employing more than two thirds of persons (69.5%) and generating more than half of the value added (60.2%) of the non-financial business economy. Within the SMEs group itself, micro-sized enterprises were the most numerous, with their share of 92.1% in the total population of the non-financial business economy (DZS, 2022). Two of the here analyzed companies are micro-enterprises, and other two are small companies. Tosla and Miret are operating only in the country of their headquarters, while other two companies operate internationally. Visit GoodPlace operates in Austria, Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia, and Sito operates in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, United Kingdom, and United States. The companies are relatively new, founded in the period from 2000 (Sito) to 2018 (Miret). Tosla was founded in 2014 and Visit GoodPlace in 2015. From the Slovenian companies two have their headquarters in the capital city of Slovenia (Ljubljana City Municipality), and Tosla's headquarters are in Ajdovščina Municipality. The Croatian Miret d.o.o.' headquarters are in the Karlovac County. Visit GoodPlace is a boutique cycling and outdoor tour operator, Sito is an innovation and industrial design studio offering services including green transformation (sustainability) strategy and circular product design, Tosla Nutricosmetics specializes in researching, developing, and manufacturing high-performing liquid supplement products for the beauty and wellness industry, and Miret is developing and selling environmentally advanced footwear that are designed to have the lowest possible impact on the environment. They are all registered as limited liability companies (d.o.o.). We first present (in the table 2) the overall B Impact score of analyzed companies and the scores they achieved in each impact area.

Although the achieved overall BIA score of analyzed companies is not high, it must be noted that achieving the minimal 80 points which qualifies for B Corp certification is not easy (the median score for ordinary businesses who complete the assessment is currently 50.9). If we look at the five impact areas scores, two of them stand out: workers and community, the areas in which the analyzed companies achieved the greatest scores, especially the Slovenian ones, while the Croatian Miret d.o.o. stands out in the environment area with 49.8 points achieved. Sito has achieved the most points in the workers area, and Visit GoodPlace in the community area, although the other Slovenian companies' score is very close to that. In the governance area the most points has achieved Sito, and in the customers area Visit GoodPlace. Points achieved in each area' key dimensions are presented and elaborated in the following paragraphs. First, we present the governance area scores in the table 3.

In the governance area a company's overall mission, engagement around its social/environmental impact, ethics, and transparency is evaluated. This section also evaluates the ability of a company to protect their mission and formally consider stakeholders in decision making through their corporate structure (e.g. Benefit Corporation) or corporate governing documents which is reflected in the additional points companies have achieved for mission locked (B Lab, 2024b). Each Certified B Corporation must change its articles of association to incorporate its socio-economic mission. The points achieved in the workers area are given in the table 4.

In the workers area a company's contributions to its employees' financial security, health and safety, wellness, career development, and engagement and satisfaction is evaluated. Additional points are awarded for companies with business models designed to benefit workers, such as companies that are at least 40% owned by non-executive employees and those that have workforce development programs to support individuals with barriers to employment (B Lab, 2024b). The analyzed companies, as the data shows, have taken different approaches to their employees, from Sito and Visit GoodPlace focusing of financial security, through Tosla focusing on health, wellness and safety to Miret focusing on engagement and satisfaction. The data presented at the companies' official websites gives more insights in several aspects of their approaches to employees. E. g., Visit GoodPlace's employees have in 2022 attended more than 15 trainings and workshops (online and onsite) in the field of development of professional competencies, and gained new knowledge in the area of sustainability. In the same year the company introduced a new handbook for employees and several benefits are offered to them, including a free bike rental, blood tests, bonus for sports activities and participation in trainings/workshops of choice (Visit GoodPlace, 2023). Sito invests each year around 5% of its time towards educating its employees and gaining skills in the field of sustainability (Sito, 2024). Tosla achieved in 2023 a gender pay gap of 24% - in favour of women, and a representation of women in leadership positions at 37.5%, surpassing the 2023 targeted minimum of 30%. Its basic monthly salary exceeded the minimum wage in Slovenia by 17.6% in 2023 (Tosla, 2024a). In 2023 the company announced its partnership with Triiije Architects, architectural firm known for innovative and sustainable designs, to construct TOSLA 3, its new headquarters and manufacturing facility (Super Factory). The building's design will prioritize employee well-being, featuring spaces that promote a healthy work-life balance (Tosla, 2023b). The scores achieved in the community area are given in the table 5.

In the community area a company's engagement with and impact on the communities in which it operates, hires from, and sources from are evaluated. In addition, this section recognizes business models that are designed to address specific community-oriented problems, such as poverty alleviation through fair trade sourcing or distribution via microenterprises, producer cooperative models, locally focused economic development, and formal charitable giving commitments (B Lab, 2024b). The Slovenian companies have realized larger economic impact and are more committed to civic engagement and charitable giving then the Croatian company. All analyzed companies consider local community benefits while making decisions related to supply chain management and diversity, equity and inclusion. Suppliers who implement sustainable standards and policies are prioritized. Visit GoodPlace prioritizes local boutique family-run accommodations and encourages its customers to purchase local products and to experience local cuisine and donates used printer cartridges to a company that collects them for charitable purposes. It also donated money to the Tolmin fire brigade (to support the local community where company's outdoor festival takes place) and mountain rescue service. As part of its Soča Outdoor Festival and in collaboration with external partners Visit GoodPlace organized a special sport event for people with disabilities - Parafestival (Visit GoodPlace, 2023). Sito donates 1% of its annual profit to different organisations focused on environmental preservation and wellbeing of socially vulnerable children and youth (Sito, 2024). Tosla invests in the community (Vipava Valley) through charitable donations, volunteer initiatives, or partnerships with local organizations such as the National Theater Opera and Ballet, paradancers, women's football club, art symposiums, workshops and exhibitions (e.g. Slovenia Open to Art), local music and sport festivals, local library (Tosla, 2024a). When choosing suppliers, Tosla prioritizes those who follow the ESG policy. Tosla's production is based on the use of responsibly sourced collagen peptides (derived from upcycled by-products of the meat and fish industry) (Tosla, 2024a). Miret sells ecological sneakers (now sold under the new brand Earthbound) which are made of wool processed and weaved in the EU (with the raw material from Great Britain, Norway and New Zealand), and of latex that comes from the Amazonian rubber trees of FSC certified forests (Earthbound, 2024a). The environment area scores are presented in the table 6.

In the environment area a company's overall environmental management practices as well as its impact on the air, climate, water, land, and biodiversity is evaluated. This includes the direct impact of a company's operations and, when applicable, its supply chain and distribution channels. Additional points are given to companies with environmentally innovative production processes and those that sell products or services that have a positive environmental impact (e.g. products and services that create renewable energy, reduce consumption or waste, conserve land or wildlife, provide less toxic alternatives to the market, or educate people about environmental problems) (B Lab, 2024b). The Croatian Miret d.o.o. stands out in this area due to its environmental management practices, its impact on the land and life, and due to its resource conservation (additional 15.5 points) and toxin reduction/remediation impact business model (additional 13.3 points). The Slovenian Visit GoodPlace has gained additional 3.2 points for environmental education and information. This company is offering tours that are designed in a way to minimize carbon footprint. The company also implements programs for CO2 compensation by supporting reforestation in a Slovenian region that most of its customers visit during the tour. It created special codes of conduct for responsible behaviour for its guides, accommodation providers, luggage carriers, and customers to show them how they can contribute to the tours being more sustainable. It also informs its customer how to offset the carbon footprint of their transport before and after the tour (the carbon footprint calculator is available at the company's website and the company invites its customers to offset their carbon footprints through one of company's climate-friendly projects) (Visit GoodPlace, 2024). In its offices Visit GoodPlace uses energy saving lighting and energy efficient equipment and during summer natural ventilation is used instead of air conditioning. The company purchases goods without or with little packaging (in bulk where possible), buys second-hand electronic equipment (PCs and monitors) and pays special attention to reducing paper consumption, waste management, and transport reduction (Visit GoodPlace, 2023, Visit GoodPlace, 2024). Sito is working towards digitizing its processes and going paperless, reducing the amount of business travel and employee commute, and lowering its energy consumption. Sito's website has been built following low-carbon principles and uses 0.31 g of CO2 for each visit (Sito, 2024). Tosla achieved in 2023 a 10% reduction of the carbon footprint per liter of its products and strives to achieve a net-zero carbon footprint by 2050 (Tosla, 2024a). To follow this committment, it has bought electric cars for employees who travel more than 80 km to work and can share a ride (Tosla, 2023a). In 2023 it also decreased the average output waste volume per unit of its products by 30%. It is committed to leveraging its current solar power plan to cover a minimum of 60% of the company's total electricity consumption in 2024 (a solar power plant with battery storage was built at company's facilities), and to executing a minimum of one green project every three years (Tosla, 2024a). Miret d.o.o. sells ecological footwear with no chemicals toxic to human health. By focusing on renewable bio-based materials and sustainable practices Miret/Earthbound™ sneakers emit up to 65% less CO2 then the industry average (based on Earthbound's internal calculation, Earthbound, 2024a). Earthbound™ sneakers are 97 % natural (made of wool, hemp, cotton, and other plants, including the rubber tree latex, cork oak tree, poplar tree and eucalyptus tree) and 97 % plastic-free (the 3% of non-bio-based materials are synthetic glue and polyester thread). The sneakers are designed and manufactured in Europe, in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Earhtbound, 2024b). The points reached in the customers area are given in the table 7.

In the customers area a company's stewardship of its customers through the quality of its products and services, ethical marketing, data privacy and security, and feedback channels is evaluated. In addition, this section recognizes products or services that are designed to address a particular social problem for or through its customers, such as health or educational products, arts & media products, serving underserved customers/clients, and services that improve the social impact of other businesses or organizations (B Lab, 2024b). Visit GoodPlace has reached most points in this area while also receiving additional points for customers' health and wellness improvement. This company is a result of the project initiated by the Institute Factory of Sustainable Tourism GoodPlace, the leading NGO in sustainable tourism development in Slovenia and the author of the Green Scheme of Slovenian tourism (a national certification program Slovenia Green). The founding members of the GoodPlace Institute have founded the Visit GoodPlace travel agency as a continuation of their mission to bring sustainable tourism products to life (GoodPlace, 2024). Visit GoodPlace's mission is to create authentic and unique experiences for its guests while taking care of the environment and making local stakeholders an important part of its tours. Together with GoodPlace Institute it developed a system of Green Routes (Visit GoodPlace, 2024), and in 2022 it introduced Bike Slovenia Green Wellness Route (South route and North route), which gives attention to its customers' well-being (Visit GoodPlace, 2023). Tosla' s manufacturing facility is an FDA-registered facility that holds both cGMP (good manufacturing practice) and FSSC22000 certificate (food safety management systems certification) (Tosla, 2024a). Miret sells Oeko-tex Standard 100 certified handcrafted footwear (Earthbound, 2024a), and Sito offers services related to sustainability strategy development and circular product design (Sito, 2024). From the above analyzed companies only Sito was required to publicly disclose information from disclosure questionnaire related to clients in controversial industries (while products and services to clients in controversial industries could help mitigate potential negative impacts or serve only as commonplace goods and services for the companies, they also could have the potential to enable the growth of the industry and indirectly contribute to its negative impacts; therefore Certified B Corps are required to make transparent their involvement in such industries, B Lab, 2024c). Sito d.o.o. is currently involved or has had involvement within the last five years in providing services and/or products to companies in the fossil fuels industry (other, excluding coal, oil sands) which is considered controversial industry by B Lab Global. Any party aware of specific company practices that have had a negative impact related to its involvement in these or other controversial industries, and which may constitute a violation of the B Corp standards, may contact B Lab via its public complaints procedure (B Lab, 2024d). The B Corp certification of all the analyzed companies was a natural step forward on their sustainability journey and is not seen as an end in itself, but as a valuable benchmarking and improvement tool in their socioeconomic endeavours. One of the Miret founders said: "We wanted to have irrefutable proof that we really live and do what we advocate and that our sustainability statements, our vision, mission and the science behind our products do not need to be questioned. After obtaining the Oeko-tex certificate we lacked a certification that would prove that we work for the benefit of society, employees, investors and customers. We will probably present this certificate less to customers and more to investors, business partners and other stakeholders." (Oršulić, 2024). The certification process is especially demanding for micro- and small enterprises which do not have large teams that can dedicate themselves to the certification steps, and that makes the journey to certification especially challenging. E.g., the certification process in Miret d.o.o. lasted over two years, and occasionally it was so frustrating that they considered giving up (Oršulić, 2024). Its Chief Sustainability Officer, which managed the certification process, explained the improvement character of the BIA tool: "Assessments help us see what we need to focus on. There is room for improvement until the next recertification in three years, and our challenge will be also the growth. We must carefully plan the increase of revenue, team and production in order to keep sustainability at a high level." (Oršulić, 2024).

4. DISCUSSION

The research results analysis shows that B Corp movement is at an early stage in Slovenia and Croatia, with 4 companies leading the way. All 4 analyzed companies are dedicated to proving their socio-economic orientation and impact to themselves and their stakeholders. Obtaining the B Corp certificate is therefore only a continuation of their sustainability efforts. The lessons learned from the certification process help them to improve their impact in the forthcoming years, and the achieved BIA score serves them as a benchmarking tool. The current BIA scores of the analyzed Slovenian and a Croatian company showed that they put much weight to the investments in workers and community, while the Croatian Miret d.o.o. stands out in the environment area with its business model oriented towards resource conservation and toxin reduction. The Slovenian and Croatian Certified B Corporations are micro- and small enterprises registered as limited liability companies. Their size (small number of employees) proved to be a challenging factor in the certification process. An ad hoc search has shown that the first B Corp certifications in Slovenia and Croatia did not gain much of attention in the regional mainstream media, neither the moment of obtaining the certificate nor the 1st Slovenian B Corp Summit, co-hosted by Visit GoodPlace, Sito and Tosla (a summit gathered representatives of B Lab Europe, of the international B Corps, and CEOs of Visit GoodPlace, Sito, Tosla, and of the Croatian Certified B Corporation, Miret d.o.o., Tosla, 2024b). Little media coverage may indicate the unrecognizability of the B Corp Certificate in the region or the ignorance of the local media. As the B Corp label is still not recognizable in the region, the first Certified B Corporations in Slovenia and Croatia play a significant role in educating the environment about Benefit Impact Assessments. To better show their impact on workers, community, customers and environment more transparency is needed. Until now, only Visit GoodPlace has published the Sustainability Report, and Sito, for example, has very limited information related to its impact on its official website. However, the small number of employees will probably dictate the dynamics of these endeavours too.

4. CONCLUSION

The research results show that currently 3 Slovenian and 1 Croatian company have publicly published the achieved Benefit Impact Assessment results summary while obtaining the B Corp Certificate. The currently small number of Certified B Corporations in both analyzed countries could indicate that for now most companies in these countries have not recognized the value of the certificate or are not acquainted with them (there is no currently available research that could reveal the number of companies currently considering the certification and/or number of companies that considered the certification but have given up due to the hard long-term work the certification demands). However, the here presented companies are paving the way for others. By sharing their story and experience they can motivate others to follow their path, and by educating the environment about their approach to impact assessment they can promote sustainability practices with a common goal to improve positive impacts and reduce negative impacts on the customers, workers, communities and the environment. As shown in the paper, the BIA tool enables companies to inform customers, employees, suppliers, partners and communities about their sustainability efforts, but it also gives them a valuable benchmarking and improvement tool. Although based on self-reporting the B Corp certification process involves several control and transparency mechanisms that ensure the credibility of the certificate. Among others, B Lab requires from Certified B Corporations to publicly disclose their involvement in providing services/products to clients in controversial industries (a requirement that one of the Slovenian Certified B Corps presented in the paper had to comply with). The paper contributes to the ESG reporting and compliance research and gives valuable insights from the practice of the first Certified B Corporations in Slovenia and Croatia. Although limited by the use of publicly available secondary data the research results represent a valuable start point for future primary research on challenges and effects of obtaining B Corp Certificate, research that should explore perceptions of founders, employees, partners, local community representatives, and customers of the regional Certified B Corporations. The research results can be of interest for Chief Sustainability Officers and team members across organizations who think about the most appropriate way to measure, communicate and improve their impact on the society.

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