Inclusive Economy Challenge

A living wage for all workers. A boardroom with the same mix of people as the factory floor. Business that works for everyone.

An inclusive economy is one that creates opportunities for people of all backgrounds and experiences to live with dignity, support themselves and their families, and make a contribution to their communities. The Inclusive Economy Challenge is a call to action for the community of Certified B Corporations to improve our collective impact and move toward an inclusive economy. B Corps sign on to participate by committing to making at least three measurable improvements from the Inclusive Economy Metric Set developed out of the B Impact Assessment.

Building an inclusive economy

The Inclusive Economy Challenge was created to support B Corp leaders in realizing important equity, diversity, and inclusion goals. Since the challenge started 3 years ago, B Corp leaders rose to the occasion to implement practices like increased supplier diversity, gender pay equity, and hiring chronically unemployed populations. We are beyond proud of all the notable accomplishments leaders in the challenge like Beneficial State Bank, Geneva Global, Aisle (formerly Lunapads), and many other businesses have realized. 

Over the course of 3 years, more than 554 companies joined the challenge. Together, these trailblazers realized more than 1,136 impact goals related to equity, diversity, and inclusion. Beyond reaching — and often exceeding — their targets, companies also created powerful culture change within their organizations. Through participating in the challenge, key decision-makers better understood and took greater action to create more equitable, diverse, and inclusive work environments, and a more just economy.

We are now taking the opportunity for a period of discernment about how to best evolve the Inclusive Economy Challenge. During this period we will assess both the impact and outcomes we had originally hoped to achieve. With your support, we hope to co-create even more dynamic and engaging ways to support companies in realizing internal and external goals related to equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Receive updates about future Inclusive Economy Challenge planning

One step we’ll take to ensure that the next iteration of the Inclusive Economy Challenge carries its strengths and relevance forward is through the development of a co-creation team made up of B Corp leaders like you. There are multiple possibilities going forward — for example, the next version may not even be called a challenge, but a summit, day of action, or community network. These are simply thought-starters that we will think through with a dedicated team of leaders within and outside of the B Corp community. If you’re interested in learning more about, and possibly joining this co-creation team, please sign up here for updates.

Learn more about other ways to amplify your business impact

Want to keep improving your impact performance? Learn about the SDG Action Manager, a new impact management solution designed to help businesses worldwide set goals, track progress, and stay motivated on their actions toward the SDGs.

The SDG Action Manager brings together B Lab’s impact management platform and the principles-based approach of the UN Global Compact to enable meaningful business action through dynamic self-assessment, benchmarking, and improvement. It is informed by the work and feedback of a range of stakeholders, including experts in corporate sustainability, civil society, UN, and academia. Learn more at SDGActionManager.com.

Acknowledging our leaders

With the third year of the Inclusive Economy Challenge complete, we want to acknowledge the B Corp community’s efforts and share our gratitude for the energy their companies put into this important initiative. See the full list of IEC Changemakers below. Thank you for an amazing three years of dedicated equity, diversity, and inclusion work. We’re excited for what’s ahead!

Organizations listed are companies in the US and Canada who made progress toward at least one of the goals set in the Inclusive Economy Challenge. In 2019, Changemakers improved on 2.89 goals on average!