Jessica Yinka Thomas Weighs In On Dr. Bronner’s B Corp Exit

In the 77 years of its existence, the Dr. Bronner’s soap empire has morphed from niche health-food store darling to meaningful global consumer brand with almost $200 million in revenue in 2023. 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?

Jessica Yinka Thomas, Poole professor and director of the Business Sustainability Collaborative, 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.”

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