B The Change Submission Guidelines

Editor’s note: These guidelines were updated November 30, 2021

B Lab, the nonprofit responsible for certifying B Corporations and advancing benefit corporation governance structures, owns and sets the editorial lens for B The Change. The articles on B The Change tell the stories of the Certified B Corporation movement and provide a platform for thought leaders and active participants in the community of people using business as a force for good to share their viewpoints and experience to further the movement. By sharing these stories, B The Change builds awareness of how companies in the B Corp community are creating and advancing a more inclusive and equitable economy — and how individuals can be a part of the movement. These articles are shared in B The Change Weekly, an e-newsletter that reaches about 75,000 subscribers.

B The Change’s coverage includes Certified B Corporations; benefit corporations; impact-rated funds; and the people, foundations and organizations committed to these initiatives. We seek to share the stories of how people are making business as a force for good work — in terms of finance, society, and the environment. B Lab and B The Change are committed to advancing climate action, racial justice, and a stakeholder-centered economy. We direct our stories to:

1. Inform the public of ways their purchases and/or activism can have an impact.
2. Give power to employees at any company to make a change in how where they work does business.
3. Provide roadmaps of successful changes/pitfalls from people who are leading businesses with positive impact as the goal.
4. Supply thought leadership on why these shifts are necessary, what the global and economic context looks like, and how our economy could systemically change to address global problems and create a shared and durable prosperity for all.

If you work at a B Corp and are interested in contributing an article to B The Change, fill out this form after you review the guidelines. If you are not with a B Corp, fill out this form after you’ve read through the following. (If you’ve already been in touch, just keep reading and reach out to your contact for next steps!) To become familiar with what we share, you can read our stories on B The Change and see what we’re sharing through our LinkedIn (@b-lab-us-and-canada) and Instagram (@bcorpuscan) channels.

Share a Real Story

We love promoting uplifting stories about the individuals and teams lifting humanity and creating a better world. How the company succeeds in being a force for good while running a profitable, sustainable business is our bread and butter. Profits feed purpose and are a part of the discussion alongside the B Corp touchstones of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Our stories share inspiration but also get down to brass tacks. What would you need to know to implement a change where you work? To convince a supervisor to try a new program? That’s what we aim to share.

Our goal is to treat each component of the triple bottom line (people, planet, and profit) equally in our coverage. We provide concrete examples, rather than solely theoretical ideas. We also seek to provide the viewpoint of those most immediately affected from within the business — the employees who execute the daily tasks of the enterprise — and those directly impacted by the company’s practices outside the business.

Businesses can do no good for the world if they are no longer in business, and it will be harder for people to follow their example if we don’t lean into the B Corp value of transparency.

The Types of Stories We’re Interested in Covering

We identify that, with the story ideas we’re interested in, there are different audiences that make up the community of people using business as a force for good.

• The public: Products with impact; lifestyle decisions that incorporate ways people can support B Corps and benefit corporations.
• Employees: The voices of workers and practices that have positive, demonstrated effects on employees, as verified from their experience. Also, ways for employees to be agents of change in their organizations and find meaningful work.
• Business leaders/thought leaders: What strategies and policies have other businesses put into place? What have been their effects? What’s the 30,000-foot view on where we are in advancing a global shift? How can leaders keep improving the positive impact of their businesses?

We are currently focusing on the following story categories:

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) and Anti-Racism Leaders

Companies, employees or business leaders who are building an economy that works for all people and dismantles racism embedded in systems and policies. This could include companies’ stories of launching or continuing anti-racism initiatives, reviewing current policies or implementing new ones to be more inclusive, becoming advocates in the community on relevant topics, and more.

• Examples for employees/the public: 4 Steps That I and Other White People Can Take to Fight Racism; A Time for Manifest Equity; Anti-Racism Resources: 47 Books, Podcasts, Movies, and More
• Examples for business leaders: Dear America: Asian Americans Are Not Your Model Minority; Notice, Shift, and Rewire: Starting the Journey to Dismantle White Supremacy; Want to Retain Employees of Color? Let Them Be Themselves; How Small Businesses Can Activate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Plans Now

Climate Action Leaders

Businesses and organizations working to create an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economic system for all people and the planet. This can include companies taking bold and urgent action on climate while using advocacy, collaboration, and corporate action to stop emissions, draw down carbon, and build just and inclusive companies and communities. Climate justice is an important component of these efforts as businesses can ensure the voices and needs of those most affected by — and least responsible for — the climate crisis shape their climate action and advocacy.

• Examples for employees/the public: 8 Offerings from B Corps That Give Back: An Earth Month Guide; Achieving Zero Waste From the Bottom Up at Cascade Engineering
• Examples for business leaders: The Top 5 Green Building Words of 2020; How B Corps Are Leading the Way in Sustainable Retail

Stakeholder-Focused Impact Leaders

Businesses or individuals setting a strong example in a specific impact area. This can include the environment, community development, employee engagement, stakeholder governance, distinct impact business models, and more.

• Examples for employees/the public: Making a Meaningful Career Change; Soul Searching: Considering the Legacy of Ourselves and Our Work
• Examples for business leaders: Leaning into the Real Work of a Better Business Model; B Corp Makes Good Business Sense

Entrepreneurial and Investment Leaders

Rapidly growing startup companies with high impact. Often these will be investor backed. Stories can include tools for these entrepreneurs, such as seeking mission-aligned investors, as well as examples from companies integrating impact from the start and creating governance structures for long-term mission alignment.

• Examples for business leaders: A 2021 Investing Imperative: Measuring and Managing Impact Across Your Portfolio; What If a Stock Exchange Prioritized Long-Termism Instead of Short-Term Gains?

Large Public and Private Companies

Large private ($1 billion in revenue) or public (>$1 billion in market cap) companies that have substantial national or multinational scale, reach and brand awareness/reputation and/or are mainstream with compelling impact-improvement stories. Also includes stories that can help these companies engage more with impact. These companies should demonstrate connectedness to the B Economy or use B Lab’s tools.

• Examples for business leaders: Danone Sees Long-Term Value of Becoming a Global Benefit Corporation; The B Corp Movement Achieves Multinational Scale

Side note: To get stories like the ones above delivered to your inbox once a week, plus updates and other goodies, subscribe to our newsletter here.

Sensitive Topics

B The Change aims to share articles of relevance and inspiration for its readers. As the B Corp community grows to include new industries and products, article topics related to controversial issues as identified by B Lab as well as political-oriented content will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. We welcome submitted articles on these important topics and will give them the sensitive review process they merit.

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Contributor Stipends

B The Change offers a $350 commission payment for approved article topics for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color authors. Approved authors will need to create a Medium account and B The Change/B Lab will work with the author on any edits before publication. To submit your topic idea, please fill out this short form and indicate you are applying for a stipend with your pitched topic. The editors will be in touch upon review of the topic.

Please be patient as we review the topics — B The Change launched this as a new initiative in 2020 and will be working with a team of stakeholders to review, approve, and edit the pieces to do our best to include a range of voices and topics. The submissions should still adhere to the guidelines on this page for content, audience considerations, photos, and other details.

Submission Details

If you want to contribute, you can send article ideas through our Content Submission Form. (B Corps: Please submit ideas via this form.) We will be in touch within a couple of weeks to discuss the ideas and, if needed, help you set up a Medium account and begin submitting. (If you have already been in touch with an editor, you can ignore the submission form and continue through email.)

If accepted as a contributor, you will send in stories via Medium. Here’s how to get started with the Medium platform and how to submit content (as drafts!) to the B The Change publication.

Quality

Each submission should be between 800 and 1,200 words. We’re looking for stories that have been carefully structured and edited for grammar, spelling, readability and cohesiveness. We suggest that writers get help from places like Hemingway App, Grammarly and friends who can provide critical feedback (prior to submitting your piece!). B The Change makes use of inclusive language, referencing style guides by Sum of Us and GLAAD. Please use Medium’s formatting features (headers, quotes, italics, etc.). Careful use of formatting is what helps make an article easy to read and share.

Images

All submissions should have a featured image below the title. We prefer real photos related to your story. (You can see an example of the size we run our header images here.) Header images need to meet the following specifications:

• are able to be placed across the entire page, as seen in the example
• prefer an image that doesn’t look too busy
• do not cob multiple images together for the header image
• do not submit a tight headshot, which will look awkward at this size
• do not submit an image that includes an advertisement for a related program (podcast, etc.), as these don’t work well with the other images and don’t scale to the correct size well

If you do not have an image that meets the above requirements, please use a related image from a stock photo site. If using a stock photo, please try to find images that show visible diversity. We recommend these sources for inclusive stock images or unsplash.com.

Articles with beautiful, rich media (video, data, charts or even GIFs) throughout the story get bonus points. All images must be owned by you or include a cited source. We retain the right to remove images from submissions and replace them with those our editors pick.

Please Only Submit Unpublished Drafts

In the spirit of trying to get your article the most exposure possible, we prefer unpublished drafts over published stories. Medium’s algorithm favors fresh stories, and our homepage is sorted by date of when the article was published (not when it was accepted into the publication). The longer it has been since a story’s original publish date, the poorer it will usually perform.

We Reserve the Right to Alter, Edit, or Not Publish Your Story

The B The Change team can edit the content of your story if grammatical errors are found, and add logos, bylines, ads, images and other elements to your story. If you remove this content after your story is published, it will be removed from B The Change and you will be removed from our list of contributors. B The Change also reserves the right to determine when, and whether, to publish an article on the platform.

Response Time

Our response time varies, but we’re usually pretty quick. If you haven’t heard back about a submission within a week, please assume it won’t be published.