B Corp Champions Retreat 2026

This dynamic session explores how purpose-driven transformation happens at every scale—global, national, and organizational. Moderated by Mike Rowlands of Junxion Strategy, the conversation opens with global expert Victoria Hurth sharing insights on systems change and the critical role of international standards, highlighting ISO 37011 and the global definition of organizational purpose. Hurth demonstrates how global alignment is emerging as an enabler of impact and as a core B Corp topic. Rowlands then spotlights the Canadian Purpose Economy Project (CPEP), introducing its innovative, systemic intervention strategy that targets key leverage points—from CEOs to business schools—to accelerate change across Canada. This national movement exemplifies how collective action, another key B Corp impact pillar, can shift the trajectory of an entire economy. 

Finally, two case studies—IQVF and GreenShield—bring the discussion to the organizational level, showing how purpose, stakeholder engagement and collective action show up in practice. These distinct and complementary perspectives offer practical examples and actionable inspiration for leaders seeking to drive ripples-to-waves systems change from the inside out.

Attendees will learn insights about:

• Purpose-driven transformation gains power when global alignment, collective action, and organizational commitment work together, and every scale, from international standards to individual organizations, matters.
• International frameworks like ISO 37011 actively create the shared language that purpose-driven leaders need to accelerate change, and understanding their connection to B Corp principles opens exciting new pathways for deeper impact.T
• he Canadian Purpose Economy Project powerfully demonstrates how targeting the right leverage points, from CEOs to business schools, can build a national movement that transforms how business gets done at every level.

The ripples your organization creates today have the potential to become the waves of global systems change tomorrow—and this session shows you exactly how to start.

Post-Session Message from the Organizers:
Here is the B Corp innovation toolkit we created to accompany this breakout session: https://www.mightybytes.com/bcorp-innovation/
It includes our slides, links to additional resources for more information, plus examples under each impact area and questions to ask your team as you apply these methods to the V2 certification standards. 
You can also learn more and sign up for our upcoming B Corp Innovation Mastermind at this link: https://www.mightybytes.com/bcorp-innovation/#mastermind
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Many small and mid-sized B Corps are feeling the pressure of the new standards. Instead of seeing recertification as a chance to grow, many treat it as a box to check—a necessary headache rather than a strategic opportunity. With ongoing uncertainty in the economy and the rise of AI reshaping how we operate, these businesses often struggle to balance growth goals with compliance demands. The result is costly: some miss out on using purpose-driven innovation to stand out, while others pour time and money into compliance efforts that don’t improve their bottom line or impact.

This interactive workshop flips that narrative. We’ll explore how to turn B Corp recertification into a powerful driver of innovation and growth. Participants will learn a practical framework for finding high-return opportunities hidden within the new standards, and how to test ideas quickly through rapid prototyping—without overextending their resources. You’ll also learn how to build internal support for purpose-led initiatives that spark both business success and positive social impact.

Building on the “Ripples to Waves” theme, we’ll show how even small, strategic actions by individual companies can create ripple effects—fueling innovation that leads to real market differentiation, stronger customer loyalty, and sustainable growth. 

Takeaways: 

• Shifting from a compliance mindset to a growth mindset actively transforms recertification into a powerful engine for innovation, differentiation, and lasting impact.
• This workshop equips participants with concrete, actionable tools for identifying opportunities hidden within the new standards and for testing ideas quickly through rapid prototyping, without overextending time, energy, or resources.
• Doing good and performing well reinforce each other powerfully, and building internal support for purpose-driven initiatives actively fuels stronger customer loyalty, meaningful market differentiation, and sustainable long-term growth.
• Even the most modest, well-targeted moves by individual B Corps can spark momentum that extends far beyond their own walls, contributing to the broader systems change that the movement is working so courageously and joyfully to achieve.

As the B Corp movement enters a new era of heightened standards and global urgency, the call for meaningful advocacy has never been clearer. This session challenges our community to reconnect with the movement’s activist roots by treating advocacy not as an ideal pursuit, but as a core strategy for meeting the 2025 B Lab Standards.

Many of us joined the B Corp community because we were seeking something missing in the traditional business world: a place where impact matters as much as profit. The movement offered a collective of leaders committed to using business as a force for good. But as we face accelerating social and human-rights crises, the question is no longer whether or why we care—it’s how we respond and, most critically, act.

This session will explore how the 2025 B Lab Standards create a framework not just for compliance, but for courageous advocacy—both internal and public-facing. The conversation will share new case studies of local activation, including Raising the Voice of Sustainable Business sessions led by B Local Mid-Atlantic and a B Local Illinois training that mobilized companies to protect immigrant employees and communities in response to raids in Chicago and beyond.

Speakers will share practical examples of how companies and B Locals can translate the new standards into concrete advocacy actions such as developing action-driven policies, engaging and responding to stakeholders, and using collective voice to publicly stand up for and protect communities—while navigating risk and political complexity with integrity—rather than staying silent.

Through candid discussion, panelists will show how advocacy advances all of the seven Impact Topics, and how the new standards turn advocacy into measurable impact.

Three B Corp leaders will discuss how B Corps are building equitable training and employment pipelines that pay young people to learn and to lead in industries where the need is high, but so are the barriers (shown through the example of lobstering and farming, which are two fields that need more new entrants yet have significant cultural, financial, and other barriers to entry).

Each B Corp will briefly describe their youth career development program, explain why they feel it's worth it to look outside the typical recruiting pipelines, and how they ensure it's worth it for students to explore opportunities in their industries.

As we dive deeper into the discussion, we'll cover the difference between typical "workforce development" initiatives, which center employer needs and tend to push people into low-wage work, and career development programs that center the new entrant's needs and help them achieve living wage work and entrepreneurship opportunities in industries that sustain life.

Given that all our programs serve young people from populations that are typically excluded from our industries, we'll specifically discuss how the Principles for Partnership with Frontline Communities are crucial for creating programs that truly fulfill community needs (and stumbles some of us have experienced when not following those principles). Attendees will get practical, actionable tips from real-world experience on how to structure programs that make their workplaces or industries more welcoming to and help new entrants feel a sense of belonging.

In a world where the pursuit of equity and social progress feels more fraught than ever, what does it look like to build the relationships your work actually needs to succeed?
In this session, The Brand Scientist™ N. Chloé Nwangwu explores the science behind building social gravity: the collection of forces that make it easier for the right people to adopt the ideas and behaviors your work calls for.
You’ll learn a practical, instantly applicable framework for building a circle of recognition – a strategically designed network that amplifies your ideas, fuels collaboration, and strengthens relationships with the stakeholders who shape the decisions you’re looking to influence. And you’ll be equipped to try it out at the Champion’s Retreat, right away. 
We all understand the promise of conferences. They can spark partnerships and momentum that build our businesses and advance social change. But all too often the reality of networking falls short–feeling complicated, performative, time-consuming, and draining.
This session will help you replace scattered networking with intentional relationship architecture. You’ll leave with a repeatable system for building networks that move people — not just exchange business cards.
Whether you’re representing your company, leading a team, or simply seeking to contribute more meaningfully to the B Corp movement, you’ll discover how to turn every interaction – here at the Champions Retreat and beyond – into a deliberate act that secures the future you’re working to build.

If you’ve worked hard to build a great place to work, a great work culture, and a great business, how can you ensure long-term stewardship of the business and employees? And how can you do so as you raise capital for growth—or plan an eventual exit and retirement—without compromising quality jobs, mission, or legacy? This panel will offer a candid look at values‑aligned capital for founders, owners and executive teams considering growth, acquisition, or succession.

• Founders, owners, and executive teams will discover that genuine alternative financing and acquisition paths exist, allowing them to honor the mission, culture, and legacy they have worked so hard to build.
• Attendees will leave with a clear, granular map of how growth equity, inorganic or acquisition capital, expansion equity, and exit and succession-stage capital can each be structured to protect workers, their families, and their communities.
• This session equips attendees with a compelling understanding of how values-aligned capital — already reshaping outcomes for businesses and the communities surrounding them — is evolving, and what thoughtful next steps owners and management teams should consider.

Access to affordable childcare is not a perk — it’s foundational to a just economy. For employers with frontline workforces, caregiving directly shapes retention, productivity, equity, and community stability. Yet childcare remains largely absent from how “good jobs” are defined and delivered.

This panel explores how care sits at the intersection of fair work, community wellness, and long-term business performance. By examining childcare as both a community anchor and a workforce strategy, speakers will connect the dots between employment stability, health, facility design, and economic mobility—especially for frontline workers and women of color who have been historically excluded from investment. B Lab’s new Fair Work standards remind us that good jobs go beyond wages. They start with listening to workers and addressing the conditions that shape their lives. For many teams, caregiving is that condition.

This session will highlight how intentional investments in childcare ecosystems can catalyze inclusive growth while strengthening retention, productivity, and resilience across industries. We hope you leave the discussion with fresh data, real-world examples, and a commitment to experiment with care solutions that fit your organization.

Takeaways for attendees:

• Employers who recognize caregiving as a foundational business investment actively build stronger, more resilient organizations and more just economies.B
• Lab's new Fair Work standards remind us that truly good jobs address the full conditions of workers' lives, and for many frontline teams, caregiving is that condition.
• Intentional childcare solutions create meaningful pathways to economic mobility for frontline workers and women of color who have been historically excluded from workplace investment.
• When employers treat childcare as a community anchor rather than an individual benefit, they catalyze inclusive growth that strengthens employment stability, health outcomes, and economic resilience across entire industries and neighborhoods.

How can a game accelerate the climate journey from awareness to action? Action to Zero transforms climate planning from a technical process into a participatory, regenerative experience—blending systems thinking, collaboration, and creativity.

Developed by Planning Communities, a Certified B Corporation, the game equips B-Corps, nonprofits, organizations, municipalities, and other changemakers with an interactive pathway to explore collective actions needed to reach net-zero emissions and build resilient and regenerative organizations and communities.

In this highly interactive session, participants will play a condensed version of the game, forming teams that navigate climate solutions across key climate action areas that align with the B Lab’s New Standards. Through gameplay and reflection, attendees experience how gamification can break down silos, center frontline voices, and inspire tangible commitments toward climate action and justice.
The workshop closes with a collaborative debrief linking individual “ripple actions” to organizational “waves of change,” offering a Climate Action Playbook to bring back to their own B Corps, networks, and communities.

This session embodies the spirit of Ripples to Waves — proving that playful, participatory design can drive deep systems change when grounded in purpose, equity, and collective accountability.

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.