B Corp Champions Retreat 2026

Centering our work on the Serious Business of climate change, environmental justice and ecosystem collapse can feel like a heavy lift that leaves us feeling depleted. It might sound counter-intuitive to be playful in a time of crisis, but letting go of the serious seriousness from time to time can actually help us envision and work toward the outcome we all want: a cleaner, safer, healthier, and more just world.

In this active workshop you'll learn a bit about the science of play and you'll experience LEGO Serious Play methodology as one playful thinking, communication, and problem-solving tool that can amplify your impact and unlock your team's potential to do their best work.

The new B Lab Standards V2 are significant enough that many teams and companies don’t know where to start. They’re not sure who owns what, or how to turn policy goals into measurable progress. This session shows what happens when software, strategy, and business practice come together to transform confusion into coordinated action.

Through a real-world case study, attendees will see how Ecolytics, Profitable Purpose Consulting, and their joint client, Climate First Bank, mapped the B Corp V2 requirements, assigned accountability across departments, and collected impact data efficiently. Their experience cut months off the prep timeline and created a repeatable framework others can follow.

Attendees will leave with the repeatable framework and roadmap they can use to create ripples from their own company. The more companies that certify and recertify, the greater the impact and the more worthwhile it becomes for everyone.

This session explores how King Arthur Baking Company’s regenerative agriculture program, Grains for Good, is scaling through decades of agronomic research and deeply rooted regional partnerships. Anchored in the story of Golden Wheat—an identity-preserved flour line grown using regenerative practices—the session will trace how collaboration across the value chain, from farmers and millers to researchers and brand partners, supports continuous learning and improvement.

Participants will learn how ongoing feedback loops and shared data help refine practices over time, strengthen regional grain systems, and balance environmental outcomes with farmer viability and product quality. By centering long-term relationships and place-based knowledge, Grains for Good offers a model for how regenerative agriculture programs can remain adaptive, credible, and resilient as they grow—contributing to broader shifts in how food is produced and valued.

Attendees will walk away with practical insights into:

• How research partnerships and on-farm implementation inform the adoption and evolution of regenerative practices
• Strategies for aligning farmer needs, environmental goals, and brand commitments
• Why underwriting risk for farmers is essential to enabling durable, long‑term regenerative change
• How regional partnerships and place‑based value chains build transparency and trust while enabling continuous improvement at scale

How can purpose-driven businesses and nonprofits activate the next generation of changemakers? With nearly one-third of the U.S. population involved in K–12 schools, authentic engagement with students is one of the most powerful ways to build a just, sustainable and community centered future.

In this interactive session, Green Schools National Network (GSNN), a national leader in whole-school sustainability, and peer organizations such as Natural Pod, both committed to advancing sustainable learning environments, explore how student voice and agency can drive authentic climate action while shaping brand purpose and community impact. Drawing from GSNN’s Green Spark Innovation Showcase — a virtual experience designed for students and educators nationwide — we’ll examine how collaboration between businesses, educators, and youth can inspire meaningful behavioral change and measurable climate results.

Participants will learn how companies can co-design initiatives that align with B Lab’s Climate Action and Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) pillars while amplifying student-led storytelling and innovation. Through examples of school-business collaborations and firsthand reflections from diverse student leaders, attendees will leave with clear takeaways on how to:

• Build authentic partnerships with schools and youth organizations
• Integrate student perspectives into sustainability and marketing strategies
• Create collective impact that advances both educational and corporate sustainability goals

This session will feature perspectives from GSNN, Natural Pod, students and additional B Corps dedicated to systemic change. Together, we’re cultivating intergenerational leadership for climate action and inspiring others to turn purpose into practice.

Across boardrooms and communities, trust in business is eroding. Polarized politics, misinformation, and backlash against equity and sustainability have created an environment where a company doing what’s right can feel risky. Yet instead of pulling back, this moment calls for courage. We can seize this moment of confusion and fear to reclaim the true meaning of free enterprise: an economy grounded in fairness, accountability, and opportunity for all.

This session, rooted in the Reclaiming Free Enterprise initiative, will explore how companies can act with purpose and embed stakeholder governance in ways that strengthen both trust and long-term value. Aligned with B Lab’s new Purpose and Stakeholder Governance standards (V2.1), the conversation will equip participants to connect mission to measurable action, even amid politicized and uncertain conditions.

Through case studies and facilitated discussion, participants will examine how business leaders are:

• Embedding inclusive governance and transparency practices that reflect a genuine commitment to all stakeholders.

• Integrating fiduciary duty and public trust to balance profitability with shared prosperity.

• Communicating values and purpose effectively across differing political and cultural contexts.

• Collaborating across sectors to uphold fairness, accountability, and freedom as core business principles.\

Attendees will leave with practical tools to manage this time of uncertainty with governance, decision-making, and accountability frameworks that reflect the evolving expectations of employees, investors, and communities.

This session will challenge the notion that profit and purpose are in competition. Instead, the session will offer a roadmap for how purposeful, stakeholder-driven companies can lead the way toward a more inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy—one where freedom and fairness are not political ideals, but the foundation of sustainable enterprise.

When most people hear “M&A,” they think consolidation, culture loss, and extraction. But what if acquisitions were mission amplifying and became the most catalytic tool for scaling purpose across the B Corp ecosystem?

This panel brings together the complete deal table: the operator and buyer in the trenches building a “Deloitte for Do-Gooders” (karmadharma), the CFO and funding partner ensuring post-acquisition cash flows truly work (Profit Reimagined), the legal strategist locking mission into governance (Impact GC), and the matchmaker sourcing values-aligned deals others cannot see (Up & Over Advisors).

Each voice contributes a critical piece: preparing for a transaction with impact baked in, structuring deals that protect people and customers, governing with purpose post close, aligning capital to real-world cash flow, and implementing operations that set the business up for success.

Together we will map how even small, local deals can become waves of systemic change by democratizing ownership, redistributing wealth, and proving that M&A does not have to suck. It can scale good, and it can be the strategy that helps B Corps step into their transformative power.

The Great Lakes region is home to one of the world’s largest freshwater reserves.

In this session, we will explore how individuals and businesses, working in partnership with investors, and policymakers can turn small ripples of impact into waves of systemic change.

This session will connect innovation, investment, and advocacy around one of our most essential shared resources: water. Panelists will discuss how Zevia’s product - bubbly water - is a force for good; how The Water Council fosters collaboration between businesses and innovators to solve global water challenges and incorporate water stewardship into their operations; and how policymakers and investors can align individual action, capital allocation, and regulation to sustain equitable access to water.

Through this interactive discussion, attendees will gain:

• A deeper understanding of water as both a business risk and an opportunity.
• Concrete ways B Corps can embed water responsibility into their operations, supply chains, and advocacy.
• Inspiration to take collective action—from policy engagement to investment choices—to protect our most vital resource.

Together, we’ll explore how mindful stewardship of water can drive both purpose and profit—turning ripples of good into lasting waves of change.

As a certified B Corporation, your business has already committed to delivering positive impact for people, the planet and communities. But one of the most overlooked levers in your environmental footprint remains—the location of your corporate cash assets. Banks and other financial institutions may seem neutral, but in reality, they play an outsized role in financing an extractive economy.

When your deposits are held at institutions that invest in carbon-intensive industries, your company’s ambient “Scope 3” greenhouse gas footprint extends well beyond your direct "Scope 1" and indirect "Scope 2" operations. Join us to explore how you can close that gap—how selecting a mission-aligned, B Corp certified bank can help your business dramatically reduce its "Scope 3" emissions, strengthen your brand, reinforce your values, and support a regenerative economy.

You’ll hear from senior executives from B Corp certified banks that channel deposits into social, environmental and community-first lending rather than carbon-intensive sectors. They will share how their institutions use customer deposits to deliver tangible environmental and social returns, how they structure their loan portfolios and underwriting practices, how they think about transparency and impact reporting, and how partnering with this kind of bank becomes a competitive advantage for B Corps.

B Corps tackle one of the thorniest, most complex problems in business: how to “be the change” for something that is much larger than yourself. How do you find your peers and build strategic alignment together around pillars as broad as Fair Work, Human Rights, Climate Action? This 90-minute, hands-on workshop will guide teams of B Corp leaders through building a Theory of Change for their focus area, using a proven facilitated framework.

Participants will work in small affinity groups organized by the B Lab Impact Topics they care about. Each group will design the broader outcome that they wish to collectively achieve in that space. They’ll work out what preconditions will have to happen in order to achieve that outcome. And they’ll develop an understanding of how their own organizations and allies fit into creating that change. Each group will be guided through this process using proven methods and facilitators.

Participants will leave with a concrete map of their Theory of Change, and a picture of how their organization and their allies fit with creating positive change within their sphere of influence. They’ll also leave with connections to their new allies who share a worldview of change, and how their organizations fit into it. And B Lab itself will leave with several pictures of strategic impact in their Impact Topics, as designed by the B Corp community members themselves. Visual blueprints of how we, as a movement, can be the change together across our Impact Topics.

To amplify the vision, our group facilitators will include several respected B Corp community connectors. Their role will be to help B Corps get unstuck, spot alignment opportunities, and carry momentum beyond the session—creating an ongoing network of collaboration around shared visions for change.

With global temperatures rising and climate impacts accelerating, businesses can no longer afford to delay climate action centered in justice and equity. The Climate Action Impact Topic is designed to accelerate measurable progress so that companies meaningfully contribute to limiting global warming to 1.5°C and to achieving global net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. This workshop will introduce participants to the Climate Action Impact Topic within the B Lab Standards V2.1, exploring how this topic challenges companies across the globe to take meaningful, measurable steps to reduce emissions, align with climate science, and contribute to a just and sustainable transition. The climate crisis is global, and so should our action towards curbing it.

Through real-world examples and interactive exercises, participants will learn about the new B Lab Climate Action sub-requirements:

• CA1: The company has a process to measure its greenhouse gas emissions annually.

• CA2: The company is committed to contribute to help keep global warming below 1.5 °C. 
• CA3: The company implements and makes progress on its climate action plan.

Participants will also gain a better understanding of:

• The business responsibility to pursue bold climate action that also helps advance a just transition.
• The core components of a robust climate action plan.
• How to start to measure and inventory your greenhouse gas emissions annually.
• How to set ambitious, science-based climate action targets.
• The difference between scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions and strategies for tackling them.
• Tools, resources, and consultants available to support your climate action journey.

Right now, many purpose-driven businesses are struggling with how to talk about their impact and values. But there’s never been a more important time to speak up. From the risk of greenwashing to increased scrutiny on corporate social and environmental responsibility, it’s hard to know when to speak up and what to say. This panel will discuss how B Corps can avoid silence and instead lean into clear, values-driven, and credible communications that reflect real action.

Drawing on B Lab’s recent Greenshouting Guide, the new B Lab Standards, and meaningful B Corp examples, panelists will unpack authentic communications, how to speak on the things that matter to your business, and the importance of collaboration and community. 

We hope that attendees will walk away feeling energized to communicate confidently about their mission, values, and impact.

What would it look like if integrity, courage, and collective care were the foundations of the systems that shape our work and relationships? What happens when we ground in reflection and truth-telling, inviting transformation over transaction?

In this interactive workshop, Roanhorse Consulting, LLC, an Indigenous women-led firm based in Albuquerque, NM, invites participants to explore how values-driven systems design can transform the way we govern, collaborate, and hold one another accountable at work. Members of our team, composed of Indigenous and non-Indigenous collaborators, will share stories from our organizational journey to become a certified B Corp and present living examples of relational governance in action.

We will share how our values-anchored firm operationalizes integrity and accountability through relational governance, transparency, and healing practices that ripple outward into culture, policy, and structure. Grounded in our company’s culture foundations and values, we will illustrate how we’re unlearning extractive work systems and designing new ones rooted in reciprocity, transparency, and collective well-being.

Through storytelling, reflection, and hands-on design, participants will examine how values-driven governance builds trust, integrity, and courage within teams. They will be invited to translate those insights into tangible shifts through policies, rituals, and practices that weave transparency, rest, and healing into the fabric of daily work.

This immersive and playful session invites changemakers to step out of analysis mode and reconnect with creativity as a source of renewal. Through guided reflection, movement, and collaborative art-making, participants explore how imagination fuels resilience and purpose in justice-centered work. We will journal, collage, and co-create visual “resilience maps” that express where we are and where we want to grow… no artistic experience required. Drawing from trauma-informed facilitation, mindfulness, and design-thinking practices, the session helps participants translate internal insights into tangible expressions of collective well-being.

Participants leave with a creative artifact of their leadership journey and concrete tools to integrate art, reflection, and play into their teams’ cultures of care, sparking new ways to sustain energy and joy in purpose-driven work.

B Lab’s new Government Affairs & Collective Action (GACA) standards expand what it means to be a B Corp by asking companies to use their voice for systemic change. But what does responsible advocacy actually look like in practice? This session will explore the fundamentals and reasoning behind the new GACA standard. You'll hear from B Corp founders, B Local leaders, and advocates about how to put the standards into practice.

Following a panel discussion, which will include an overview of the standard and the imperative of advancing critical actions in today’s socio-political climate, participants will be invited to select one of two workshop options to dive deeper into the GACA standards:

• GACA1: This company takes a responsible and transparent approach to lobbying.
• GACA2: This company works collaboratively to advance collective social or environmental impacts.

Attendees will learn:

• Practical steps to align with the new B Lab standards without performative compliance
• What it means to lobby (it’s not as scary as it sounds!) and why transparent lobbying practices strengthen trust with your brand audience
• How to build internal policies that make advocacy and transparency sustainable
• How small and midsized businesses can influence systems change

Respecting human rights is no longer optional for businesses — it’s an expectation. As global standards evolve and stakeholder scrutiny increases, companies are expected to understand how their operations and value chains may involve negative human rights impacts, and take meaningful action to prevent, mitigate, and remediate harm. This workshop will introduce participants to the Human Rights Impact Topic within the B Lab Standards V2.1, explore embedding a “responsibility to respect” across company culture and decision-making, operationalizing human rights due diligence in practice, and identifying salient human rights issues. The session also clarifies how respecting human rights — “doing no harm” — fits within a broader commitment to creating positive impact.

Through real-world examples and interactive exercises, participants will learn about the new B Lab Human Rights sub-requirements:

• HR1 The company commits publicly to respecting human rights.
• HR2 The company knows its salient human rights issues and has a strategy to address them.
• HR3 The company prevents, mitigates, and remediates actual and potential negative human rights impacts.
• HR4 The company works with suppliers to achieve its human rights objectives.

Participants will also gain a better understanding of:

• The business responsibility to respect human rights and its foundation in the UNGPs
• The core components of human rights due diligence
• How to identify and prioritize salient human rights issues within operations and value chains
• Effective approaches to preventing, mitigating, and remediating negative impacts
• Recognizing the role of suppliers and value chain partners in achieving human rights objectives
• Distinguishing between managing negative impacts and creating positive social impact

B Lab’s Standards V2 call for a significant organizational shift that requires whole team buy-in, but managing this internal transition while tackling the complex requirements can feel daunting. In a new way, these standards can not be implemented alone, but how do you get your entire organization prepared and excited for the journey?

Join B Lab U.S. & Canada team members for this hands-on workshop dedicated to change management and internal activation. You’ll spend dedicated time dissecting the most valuable resources, learning strategies to turn standards compliance into a unifying, exciting team initiative, and drafting a roadmap for the work ahead.

Attendees will walk away fully prepared with three essential tools:

• A Customized Action Plan: A clear roadmap for communicating the V2.1 changes, educational resources, and pulling in champions. (B Keeper roadmap)

• A Resource Toolkit: Familiarity with online courses, events, templates, and other educational materials for employee learning. (Introduction to all of B Lab’s resources)

• Community Support: Connections to B Corp leaders and prospects who are tackling the same challenges, ready to share best practices and mutual support. (Networking)

In a time of growing polarization and pushback, advancing Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) is not optional—it’s essential to resilient, values-driven business. This interactive session moves beyond rhetoric to action, helping B Corps translate the new JEDI Impact Topic in the new B Lab Standards (V2) into everyday practice.

We’ll begin with a candid conversation about what it means to advance bold, justice-centered action in a time of social division and moral urgency. Then, participants will roll up their sleeves in a hands-on workshop, rotating through learning stations focused on collecting data, building leadership capacity, collective action, and inclusive hiring. You’ll leave with an understanding of how to continue advancing this work in the current landscape and a clear next step to strengthen your organization’s JEDI efforts.

Structure:

• 30 min panel: high-level overview of the standard and the imperative of advancing critical actions in today’s socio-political climate

• 60 min workshop: participants invited to cycle through two 25-minute stations for a deeper dive into a selection of Actions included in the standard

Takeaways:

• JEDI is essential to a resilient, values-driven business. Advancing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion forms a core pillar of what it means to operate with integrity, courage, and genuine commitment to a more just economy.

• The new JEDI standards give B corps a concrete roadmap for action. Moving beyond rhetoric requires practical tools and clear direction. The JEDI standards actively help organizations translate bold, justice-centered values into everyday business practice—from making public commitments to advancing leadership diversity to embedding JEDI principles throughout operations.

• Hands-on learning accelerates real organizational change. This workshop's interactive, station-based structure invites participants to engage deeply with the actions that matter most to their organizations—leaving with not abstract inspiration but tested strategies and a clear, concrete next step they can act on immediately.

• Advancing JEDI requires honest conversation about the moment we are in. Moral urgency and social division serve as the very conditions that call us forward, making honest, courageous conversation about justice-centered action more essential than ever.