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News > Let’s walk into 2026 with Collective Courage and Stubborn Optimism

Let’s walk into 2026 with Collective Courage and Stubborn Optimism

  • Blog Post

Vogue says 2026 is about soft living and polka dots.

If you ask us, the words that will be trending in our dictionary (check them out below): stubborn optimism. collective courage. stakeholder accountability. greenshouting. just transition.

Did you think 2025 was the worst year for all of us who care about the wellbeing of our planet, and that 2026 would be a clean reset after a heavy year? Snowy, calm, uncomplicated?

Think again.

Some are asking: Can we afford to think about climate, the green transformation and social justice when the rule of power in politics threatens the institutions and alliances securing our safety, democracy and peace?

Well… we think the real question we need to ask is the opposite.

 

In 2025, approximately 240,000 people around the world were killed in conflict-related violence worldwide.

Every year, between several hundreds of thousands and millions of people (estimates vary) are killed because of climate change; from heat, pollution, hunger and diseases related to climate change.

Different crises. Same truth.

Both conflict and climate change are deadly.

Both demand leadership that steps up.

 

So here we ask again: Can we afford not to act on climate, the green transformation, and social justice, when inaction is already costing lives and weakening the foundations of peace and democracy?

Let’s make sure there is a planet worth living on when the geopolitical tensions ease.

 

Our commitment at B Lab Nordics is clear.
Supporting businesses in meeting B Lab’s new, higher standards; raising the bar for what responsible business means.
And building a Nordic economy with all businesses using their power as a force for good.

 

We need you with us.
Be our ally in 2026!

 

  • We are inviting more Nordic businesses to join in our movement. Know one? Introduce us.
  • Encourage people to support and buy from companies that are verified for real impact. Looking for one? You’ll find them in the B Corp directory
  • Encourage citizens to vote for politicians who care about the next generations.

 

Vogue says 2026 is about soft living and polka dots.If you ask us, the words that will be trending are: stubborn optimism. collective courage. stakeholder accountability. greenshouting. just transition.

Because progress doesn’t come from waiting for perfect conditions.

It comes from people and businesses choosing to move and use their power where possible, together, especially when it’s hard.

So yes, 2026.
Bring it on!

News > Reimagining Fashion: How European B Corps Are Driving a More Responsible Industry

Reimagining Fashion: How European B Corps Are Driving a More Responsible Industry

  • English
  • Blog Post

European fashion B Corps are reshaping the industry by embracing circularity, worker well-being, material innovation, and transparent supply chains. Their commitment to accountability and continuous improvement shows how fashion can evolve into a more responsible sector.

News > What a year! ..and not a small one for change.

What a year! ..and not a small one for change.

  • English
  • Blog Post

As the year draws to an end, at B Lab Nordics, we are counting our blessings and reflecting on 2025.

And what a year it has been!

 

With the launch of our new Standards for business impact in April, B Lab took a huge leap forward in raising the bar for what it means to be a good business in today’s world – and make B Corp certification ready for upcoming EU regulation. We plough on, even though the EU reduces scope. Since April, B Lab has been working out all of the changes required to every single process, from scoping to pricing and verification. Causing an unusually heavy workload for our small, but dedicated B Lab Nordics team (we won’t bore you with the details) to help transition our Nordic B Corp community safely to B Lab’s new  Standards. We know there have been many changes, updates (and emails!) for you to navigate and digest. We have found ourselves pendulating between excitement and exhaustion.

And when the change becomes a bit too heavy, we remind each other that it’s not just about meeting a standard – it’s about taking responsibility, driving progress, and shaping a future where business helps restore and protect the planet. That’s also why we are so grateful for your patience and willingness to rise to the challenge: More than 200 Nordic companies are already engaging with B Lab’s new Standards’ self assessment

Even with all of these changes going on behind and on the scene, we managed to onboard an impressive 45 (so far!) new B Corps to our Nordic B Corp community – now counting 185 B Corps in the Nordics. We managed to keep up the rhythm with B Keeper meetings, Onboarding events and CEO meetings, Recertification webinars, Become a B Corp webinars and Open Office hours.

Although some of our events are necessarily online, we believe strongly in the power of physical, embodied connections, and went to Finland for Protect our Winters, to Norway for Travel Better Together, and to Sweden for a UN Global Compact event as well as a Stockholm B Corp gathering. Plus, we sailed to Folkemødet in Denmark with 10 B Corps. And in September, we hosted the biggest Nordic B Corp event to date. Nordic B Together 2025 gathered more than 100 B Corp participants from across the Nordics for a full day in Copenhagen to learn from each other and mobilize around the need for collective action.

More than 16,000 people work at a Nordic B Corp. Can you imagine? Together we hold a lot of power to change the status quo. Especially if we dare to use our voice and share our message to the world.

We pushed this agenda with a new website, and a Meet the B Corps-series to showcase our Nordic B Corps. Members of our Nordic B Corp community also signed B Lab’s letter to the COP30 leaders, urging governments to require credible climate action, as well as embed stakeholder governance into law, and make human rights and environmental due-diligence mandatory for all companies, everywhere.

2025 has been filled with action-oriented energy, getting things done, accomplishing much more than we would have thought possible. And we hope that even if 2026 will still require a lot of that energy, there will also be time for deeper reflection and connection, for enabling and mobilizing the B Corp community, and for acknowledging that any real systems change needs to start from within. Not just for our team, but for all of us. Directing our attention and presence, knowing that we have enough and are enough as we are, can help us resist the logic of the old world and access the future as it emerges. An economy of sufficiency, community and care for every living thing.

To the Nordic B Corp community: Thank you. You are the ones moving things forward.

With that, may you have a wonderful holiday season, and may the force for good be with you.

 

Gitte and the team of B Lab Nordics

News > Certifying on the New B Lab Standards: How Companies in Europe Can Lead the Way in 2026

Certifying on the New B Lab Standards: How Companies in Europe Can Lead the Way in 2026

  • Blog Post

Get an update on the new B Corp certification process and timelines under the B Lab Standards V2.1. Learn how becoming an early adopter can strengthen your market leadership and ensure compliance with the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (ECGT) Directive.

News > How B Corps can align with EU legislations through environmental stewardship and circularity

How B Corps can align with EU legislations through environmental stewardship and circularity

  • Blog Post

Explore how the B Corp Environmental Stewardship & Circularity (ESC) Impact Topic aligns with the EU’s CSRD, CSDDD, and deforestation regulations — and what it means for companies ready to lead.

News > COLLECTIVE ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER! Impressions from Nordic B Together, September 2025

COLLECTIVE ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER! Impressions from Nordic B Together, September 2025

  • Blog Post
  • Updates from B Lab

This was the theme of our first Nordic B Together, bringing together more than 100 B Corp people for a full day to think about how B Corps can amplify our impact to make all Nordic businesses a force for good.

The sun was shining from a deep blue September sky, as more than 100 B Corps – frontrunners, changemakers, and role models – came together at this year’s Nordic B Together.

To inspire Nordic B Corps to raise their voices and become more active in advocating for necessary changes, both within and across their industries! This was B Lab Nordics’ ambitious goal with hosting the event. And on a practical level the goal was for every participant to find a new B Corp friend or connection, a new idea that can make their business or work life better, and a change they want to advocate for.

“HELP PEOPLE TO STOP BUYING CHEAP SHIT” …and “REGULATE US!”

Those were some of the actions that the B Corp industry tribes brought to the table when asked what changes they want to drive in their industries.

Conversation starters from Fredericia, Næste, 50 Degrees North, Blue Lagoon, Impact Agency Fabrik, &Robin, Jespers Torvekøkken, Tekla, MINI A TURE, Skandinavisk,Yrolí and Summa Equity shared experiences and opened conversations around questions like: “What changes do we want to see in our industries?” And  “How can we act and use our voices to create the impact we aim for?”

Many conversations circled around how to educate consumers and to “HELP PEOPLE TO STOP BUYING CHEAP SHIT” as the Design/Building/Furniture tribe made clear. But the messages to the system were also clear – for instance from the Fashion and Textile tribe – whose message was “REGULATE US!”.

That message was echoed by the Food and Drink tribe who also called for “LESS BUT BETTER REGULATION” and for a transition to “LOCAL, SEASONAL AND SLOW” food production. The Finance and Investment tribe called for a requirement to “DISCLOSE HARMFUL EXTERNALITIES”, but also to focus on “FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR ALL” as a tool for change.

Whether you are in the same tribe or not, there is so much to learn from, collaborate on – and to fight for – across the community. One example was when members of the Hospitality and Travel tribe spontaneously joined forces with the Beauty and Personal Care tribe to discuss what unites them across their industries. Potentials for collaboration were identified such as sharing knowledge on future trends (i.e. the measurement and use of data), using the knowledge of their supply chains to understand the local and environmental context within their operations, defining the role of quality, standards and competition, and also getting closer to their common goal of wanting to educate consumers and providing transparency. Because, as some participants shared, “as a service provider we are at the mercy of the hotels, and you, (as a hotel) are at the mercy of your clients, so it ends up with the end consumer.” B Corps share a strong motivation to “lift each other up” and use the “benefits and potential of collaboration with other B Corps.”

“We do not need to agree on everything to drive change”

Some B Corps want more regulation, others less, but better regulation. In her conclusion on why the B Corp movement is so effective in driving change, Gitte Rosholm concluded, “And the good news is that to drive change we do not need to agree on everything. In a way it is less important exactly which change you want to drive because we need loads of different people with loads of different issues, because social change is an eco-system”.

She explained, “Social change needs different people filling different roles, applying their different skills and advocating for change. It needs big fish and small fish, the ambition of CEOs and start-up founders, the idealism of sustainability professionals, the analytical minds of scientists and engineers, the creativity of communicators and the people skills of HR professionals, it even needs lawyers and accountants. It needs your radical flank, but it needs your moderate flank as well”

“The other certifications we do. But B Corp is who we are”

There is something rather unique about the B Corp community. Meeting another B Corp is like meeting a friend you did not know you had. Businesses that commit to purpose and stakeholder governance and voluntarily meet high standards of environmental and social performance have a lot in common. So conversations are easy and can quickly go deep.

In the impact topic workshops, B Corps like Summa Equity, Hevea, Kaffe Bueno, Wehlers, ZeroMission, Goodwings, 24slides, Youpret, D_b_Journey, Folks, Icebug and Søren Jensen Consulting Engineers shared their experiences working within the topics from B Lab’s new standards.

Conversations went from the importance of responsible marketing, to the challenges in changing consumer behaviours and understanding that buying sustainable products is not accessible to all. And from inspiration on how to achieve real circularity, managing waste, pricing, putting people and fairness first, tackling new recruitment dilemmas and cultural inclusion in an age of artificial intelligence, having nature as a stakeholder in all companies, to discussing if the system is too broken or if changing it one profitable and responsible business at a time is how we rebuild trust in business as part of the solution, not just part of the problem.

B Corps don’t shy away from discussing big hairy dilemmas: Not wanting people to buy more stuff, yet wanting them to buy from your company… Considering if your products are strictly ‘needed’ or if they are substituting more harmful products… But also agreement to fight overconsumption, and to right-size your company – being mindful of how much it should grow.

As one participant asked: “If all businesses were like ours, would we then be okay?”

And another asked “Even if we don’t want people to buy more, isn’t it better when a B Corp grows than when a conventional business grows?”

“The world is not what it was, and it certainly won’t be what it’s been”

Juliette  Caulkins from B Lab Europe congratulated the Nordic community and the B Corps for being one of B Lab’s “front-running regions and growing tremendously” and reflected on how ”Sustainability has gone from a differentiator in 2015 to an expectation in 2025”.

And from this realisation, Juliette asked the question, “In a fragmented world, how do we lead with global responsibility and local resilience—without losing our sense of direction or purpose?”, and she added more dilemmas to the agenda:

“How do you execute long-term sustainability transitions inside a system still addicted to short-term metrics? How do you navigate supply chains that stretch across oceans but are fraying under geopolitical pressure?”

“In the Nordics, soft power is our superpower.”

 

 

 

Those were the words of Niina Aagaard, Head of Communication at the Nordic Council of Ministers, as she introduced the vision of the Nordic region becoming the most sustainable and integrated region in the world by 2030, and the role business can play in making that happen.

She encouraged the crowd not only to collaborate across the region, but also to use their right to vote in their national contexts on the topics where they want to see change. The Nordic voice can be a shortcut to get there. And she also reminded us that the Nordics may be small in size, but together the countries represent one of the largest economies in the world.

“We are the Nordic B Corps, and this is our message to the world”

In a guided meditation and visioning session, participants visualized a meaningful future, and noted their reflections on the values, roles, and relationships that make communities thrive and created a shared visual of the group’s collective vision.

With the help of artificial intelligence insights were synthesized into a draft manifesto (see below), capturing the community’s shared aspirations for the future. B Lab Nordics promised to use our human intelligence to review all the input and evaluate the manifesto generated by the Nordic B Corp community:

What stands out is the strong alignment within the B Corp community around values of inclusivity, compassion, honesty, and integrity, aligned with nature and responsibility for each other and the world.

The manifesto highlights the need for a culture of transformation built on positivity, possibility, and openness to change. At its core it is a vision where people and planet thrive together, supported by individuals and businesses willing to reframe, learn, and grow. Co-creation is central, where collective effort generates impact greater than its parts.

A few themes that could have been highlighted more in the manifesto are the need to balance challenge and support and stability and change — creating safety and fostering trust to experiment with bold steps forward, and supporting businesses in finding pathways to change.

“We are the Nordic B Corps, and this is our message to the world. We are here because the world is out of balance and because business as usual is no longer an option. Because people deserve dignity, not disposability. Because our communities and ecosystems deserve care, not extraction.

We believe in a different future. And we are building it together. A future rooted in love, compassion, and respect for each other.
A future where equity is non-negotiable, where regeneration is the norm, and where curiosity and courage guide us forward.
Where we invite, not exclude. Where together we lift each other up instead of pushing each other down. Where co-creation means that 1 + 1 can equal 11.

We believe that businesses can thrive economically while also being a force for repair and resilience. Being good for the world can also be good for business. Profit and purpose can be partners. Companies that are brave, caring, and responsible are the ones built to last.

We are connectors, listeners, and space-holders. We depend on others who lead by example, who nurture, protect balance, and challenge what prevents change. We are not perfect, but we are committed—rooted in humility, honesty, and care.

And we know we cannot do this alone. We depend on others who share knowledge, show empathy, act with integrity, and bring joy. We honor those who build trust, protect ecosystems, and reimagine what success means.

A better world is not only possible—it is already in motion. If this vision speaks to you, join us. Add your voice, bring your values, and step into the work.
Because collective action speaks louder than words.“

“I didn’t understand that”

The B Corp Consulting tribe brought a coordinated set of messages back from their workshop on the change they want to see in their industry and how to take collective action to make it happen:

INSPIRE by example

ACT by example

SHOW your example

LEAD by example

B the example

WIN by example

And as a little afterthought to this collection of impressions from Nordic B Together, AI is the talk of town everywhere these days, and obviously also featured in many of the conversations at Nordic B Together 2025. It also created one of life’s little fun and magical moments when a baffled AI notetaker interrupted the Consulting tribe plenary presentation.

 

Watch it here:

 

 

 

 

Curious to see the full programme?

Nordic B Together 2025: Collective Action Speaks Louder
News > The B Corp Movement Set Sail for Folkemødet

The B Corp Movement Set Sail for Folkemødet

  • English
  • Blog Post

Each June, the small island of Bornholm transforms into Denmark’s largest gathering for democracy, values, and political dialogue: Folkemødet. This year, the Nordic B Corp community showed up in a different way: By sea.

Together with B Corps, allies and friends, B Lab Nordics boarded the historic schooner Mira and sailed to Bornholm. We wanted to bring our message into the heart of national debate: that business can, and must, be a force for good.

A call to policymakers: Recognize businesses driving change

At Folkemødet, many conversations revolve around the future of society, climate, and economy.We were there to add a clear voice:

  • Yes, B Corps exist and they’re already doing the work many only talk about.

  • Yes, we believe in triple bottom lines where social and environmental responsibility stands alongside financial health.

  • And yes, regulation matters but we think those not taking responsibility should carry the documentation burden, not the ones already leading the way.

Voluntary standards like the B Corp Certification show what’s possible. But we need political will, incentives, and frameworks to help make good business the norm, not the exception.

Impact on board

Our schooner became a space for a packed Friday program with events centred around redefining the role of business in society:

  • Social run and ocean dip with our friends from Meyers

  • Talk on Good Money with Merkur Andelskasse, Planetary Impact Ventures, and Klimate

  • Imagination workshop with MäRK Cph

  • Green transition panel featuring voices from Rudolph Care, Sinatur, Plandent, Meyers, and Round

  • Treasure hunt for the sustainable bottom line with ESG4Business

It was personal. It was political. It was about redefining the role of business in society.

This is just the beginning

We left Bornholm with stronger connections, new allies, and a shared sense that the B Corp movement belongs in every conversation about the future. We’re not here to do business as usual. We’re here to help shift the entire system.

Thank you to everyone who came aboard (literally and figuratively).

Let’s keep the wind in our sails.

Find a video online: https://bcorporation.dk/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/B-Corp-Final-V4_WithMusic.mp4
News > A Call to Action: Reflections on ChangeNOW 2025

A Call to Action: Reflections on ChangeNOW 2025

  • English
  • Blog Post

At ChangeNOW 2025, B Lab Global shares five bold calls to action for business and policy leaders ready to help drive a just, inclusive, and regenerative economy.

News > B Lab’s New Standards: Foundation Requirements

B Lab’s New Standards: Foundation Requirements

  • English
  • Blog Post

The Foundation Requirements set the baseline for what it means to be a B Corp. From eligibility to stakeholder governance, Grace Son explains how these requirements lay the groundwork for credible, accountable, and values-driven businesses.

News > B Lab’s New Standards Impact Topic: Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (JEDI)

B Lab’s New Standards Impact Topic: Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (JEDI)

  • English
  • Blog Post

From inclusive hiring to supplier diversity, advancing Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) helps build a more equitable economy. Bernard Gouw shares how B Lab’s new standards support companies in breaking down systemic barriers.