Dr. Bronner’s dumped its B Corp certification. Was it the right move?

Nevertheless, Dr. Bronner’s quickly became an exemplar of the stamp. It started out with an overall B Corp “impact” score of 148.8 (80 points are needed to qualify for certification), which it boosted over the course of ten years to 206.7 — the scheme’s highest score ever and one that clearly asserts the company’s commitment to “Farms Communities Planet Life!” as its famously verbose label touts.

So, when Dr. Bronner’s announced this February that it was dumping its B Corp certification, it triggered an avalanche of opinionated chatter both inside and outside the B Corp community: Was this a commendable and principled move, or a blow to the better-business movement?

The company’s decision is not a huge surprise; as “FoodPrint” reported in 2022, an onslaught of consternation greeted B Corp when it granted certification to Nespresso — a subsidiary of Nestlé with a troubling track record of child labor, factory worker abuse, wage theft and a rash of environmental ills in its supply chain. Dr. Bronner’s was one of 33 signatories to an open letter to B Lab that decried Nespresso’s “extractive” business model that’s “publicly known to be fundamentally at odds with the ethical and just future” of B Corp.

In announcing its decision to end its relationship with B Lab, Dr. Bronner’s called the nonprofit’s certification scheme “compromised” by its willingness to work with industrial agriculture and factory farming interests that are “ecological and social disasters, and key drivers of climate change and the sixth mass extinction,” according to the statement. And the company expressed hope that its exit from B Corp would “prompt necessary and overdue action” to improve.

On social media, there was support for Dr. Bronner’s decision. In one Reddit forum, posters celebrated the significance of a values-based powerhouse like Dr. Bronner’s turning its back on a scheme they said had lost its value. Others wondered if B Lab would take heed and work toward setting a higher bar for its standards. (“We have been actively engaging with our global community to strengthen standards,” wrote a spokesperson in response to a request for comment from “FoodPrint.” In early 2025, B Lab will publish new standards to “address today’s most urgent social and environmental challenges.” Time will tell if Dr. Bronner’s complaints will be reflected in them.)

On Dr. Bronner’s LinkedIn page, a variety of brand representatives weighed in. “We made the same decision [as Dr. Bronner’s] last year for similar reasons. We repeatedly urged B Lab Europe to strengthen its criteria, but unfortunately, no meaningful action was taken,” wrote Daisy Scholte, impact manager of Dutch responsible-tour company Better Places. Tour companies can gain certification, she pointed out, despite the industry’s use of exclusivity contracts that harm small local entrepreneurs. “While we appreciate the original mission of B Corp, the inclusion of large multinationals with unsustainable business models has significantly reduced its value.”

Jessica Yinka Thomas, director of the Business Sustainability Collaborative at North Carolina State University, who studies B Corps, pushes back on the idea of diminished value. “A larger part of the B Corp movement’s goal is to chart a path for companies to measure and manage and improve their impact, with certification just being one step along that pathway,” she says. “I think it can continue to be that [but] there is no perfection in this space.”

Trade publication “ModernRetail” reported on a number of sustainable brands celebrating Dr. Bronner’s decision, including a mattress company called Earthfoam. “I applaud the fact that [Dr. Bronner’s] are willing to constantly reexamine their own policies and positions, even when it is not in their immediate financial interest to do so,” said Earthfoam’s CEO, Karl Shevick. He added that he’d found B Corp certification not necessarily meaningful to consumers, which influenced his decision to instead pursue certifications with Fair for Life’s Fair Trade, the Global Organic Textile Standard and the Global Organic Latex Standard.

Mark Neal, owner of Neal Family Vineyards in Napa Valley, echoed this sentiment. His company has opted for certifications from California Certified Organic Farmers, Biodynamic and Regenerative Organic Certified over B Corp. However, there’s a certain danger that comes along with that patchwork strategy: As a 2024 article for BBC pointed out, “The sheer volume of different certification schemes means that consumers are becoming confused about which of these schemes is legitimate.”

A handful of LinkedIn posters mused about the potential for a middle ground. Dr. Bronner’s split from B Lab “highlights a core tension in sustainable business: purity vs. progress,” wrote Adam Roy Gordon, CEO of sustainability strategy firm GlacialEdge Advisory. “But is it possible for sustainable business standards to scale while still maintaining relevance for the highest performers?” Says NC State’s Thomas, “I do think that certifying companies like Nespresso creates some confusion in the minds of consumers about which are the companies that are really, truly leading when it comes to sustainable business models and sustainable products.”

Some business leaders, however, believe the move by Dr. Bronner’s was misguided. “As a proud B Corp, we believe in pushing for change from within,” wrote Celia Gaze, CEO of a UK-based sustainable wedding venue. “B Corp has been a game-changer for a business like ours, providing a framework to measure and improve impact in a way that holds us accountable to people and the planet.”