(Knowledge @ Wharton) Bart Houlahan worried about how the coronavirus pandemic would affect B Lab, a nonprofit he co-founded to certify socially responsible companies that create value beyond shareholder portfolios. Thousands of companies around the world have earned the coveted “Certified B Corporation” title since B Lab began in 2007, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, Houlahan and his partners expected the application pool would shrink as so many businesses struggled just to keep their doors open.
“We started running our scenarios for planning what could be a pretty horrific collapse of our community,” he said “We froze hires, we cut $3 million from our budget, we prepared for just a huge drop. And what was remarkable is it never did. For our movement, 2020 was our biggest year by orders of magnitude.”
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