Starting on January 1st for 100 days I will be posting 100 innovative examples of how business schools around the world are engaging in sustainability and the SDGs. This acts as a complementary resource to my latest book, The Future MBA: 100 Ideas for Making Sustainability the Business of Business Education.
Credit: NC State University Sustainability Office
The Business Sustainability Collaborative at the Poole College of Management at North Carolina State University developed the B Corp Clinic, which matches students from across disciplines as volunteer consultants for local companies seeking certification as a B Corporation (B Corp). B Corps are certified by the nonprofit B Lab for best practices in environmental responsibility, social impact, community engagement, accountability and transparency. Over 2,000 companies in 50 countries are B Corp certified.
The B Corp Clinic is a collaboration between the Business Sustainability Collaborative, the NC State Net Impact chapters and HQ Raleigh, a community of purpose-driven businesses. During the fall 2016 semester, 28 students helped six companies navigate the rigorous B Impact Assessment. Companies participating in B Corp Clinic range in size from small startups to global corporations such as Red Hat, an open source technology company. Since B Corp Clinic began in 2015, the program has involved 72 students as volunteer consultants for 16 local businesses.
Though the clinic is among about a dozen similar programs nationwide, called B Impact Teams, NC State’s is the only to include students from multiple universities, including UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University and Davidson College. Each team has a coach familiar with the B Corp certification, as well as a representative from the company. The teams work with local businesses to help them, in real time, to transform how they operate and work with them to make progress on certification.
For more read Developing Social Entrepreneurs Through B Corp Clinic.
