The new B Corp JEDI requirements significantly raise the standard businesses must meet to achieve or renew B Corp Certification. Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is no longer an area where businesses can collect a few optional points, publish a policy and move on.
Under B Lab’s new V2.1 standards, JEDI is one of seven mandatory Impact Topics. Businesses must demonstrate that they have gathered meaningful evidence, listened to stakeholders, chosen appropriate actions and implemented them. In short, saying your business is inclusive is no longer enough. You need to show the evidence.
What are the new B Corp certification criteria?
B Lab published the biggest rewrite of its standards in April 2025. The new model moves away from businesses collecting points across different areas of the B Impact Assessment. Under the previous approach, stronger performance in one area could help compensate for limited activity elsewhere. Under the new standards, businesses must meet defined requirements across seven Impact Topics:
- Purpose and Stakeholder Governance
- Climate Action
- Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
- Government Affairs and Collective Action
- Fair Work
- Human Rights
- Environmental Stewardship and Circularity
Businesses must first meet the Foundation Requirements, which cover eligibility, stakeholder governance and risk assessment. They must then demonstrate the required action across all seven Impact Topics. This means JEDI cannot be quietly avoided because the business performs well on environmental action, governance or employee benefits. Every company must engage with it.
The precise B Corp certification criteria depend on the organisation’s size, sector and certification track. The requirements are proportionate, but JEDI is now part of the minimum standard.
What do the B Corp JEDI requirements cover?
B Lab’s JEDI Impact Topic is designed to help businesses create inclusive and diverse workplaces while contributing to more just and equitable communities. The requirements are divided into two connected parts:
JEDI1: Collecting and understanding evidence
Businesses collect information to understand how people’s experiences, opportunities and outcomes may differ across their workforce.
JEDI2: Choosing and implementing action
Businesses use that information, alongside stakeholder feedback, to choose relevant JEDI actions and implement them.
That order is important.
A business should not simply select the easiest activities, repeat work it has already done or choose whatever will look best in its B Corp submission.
The evidence should determine the action.
What workforce data is required for B Corp JEDI?
JEDI1 requires applicable businesses to collect information that helps them understand what is really happening across the organisation.
Depending on the organisation’s size and circumstances, this may involve:
- A voluntary employee or worker survey
- Facilitated discussions or listening sessions
- Individual stakeholder interviews
- Analysis of existing workforce data
- A review of recruitment and progression information
- Analysis of complaints, grievances and workplace experiences
The information considered could include:
- Workforce representation
- Recruitment and appointment rates
- Employment categories and contract types
- Promotion and progression
- Retention, attrition and turnover
- Access to training and development
- Pay and wage differences
- Working hours and conditions
- Complaints and grievances
- Perceptions of workplace culture
- Representation within leadership and governance
Businesses may also need to examine how these outcomes differ across social identities such as gender, disability, ethnicity or another locally relevant characteristic. B Lab uses the term workers, rather than only employees, in parts of the JEDI requirements. This can include other people working for the organisation, such as independent contractors.
Small, medium and larger businesses must meet JEDI1.1 at Years 0, 3 and 5. Large, extra large and extra extra large companies must also collect information relating to an additional social identity under JEDI1.2 at Years 3 and 5.
Companies without workers and micro businesses are exempt from JEDI1, but they must still take proportionate action under JEDI2.
Does B Corp require demographic data collection?
The new B Corp JEDI requirements do not give businesses permission to collect every piece of personal information possible. Data collection must still be voluntary, proportionate, secure and appropriate within the organisation’s legal and cultural context.
Businesses should be able to explain:
- Why the information is being collected
- How it will be used
- Who will have access to it
- Whether responses are anonymous or confidential
- How small numbers will be protected
- How long the information will be retained
- What action may follow from the findings
This distinction is important.
Anonymous does not simply mean removing somebody’s name. In a small team, information about a person’s job, location, identity or experience may still make them identifiable. Businesses must also consider non-response. If only a small proportion of the workforce completes a survey, the results cannot automatically be treated as representative of everyone.
The objective is to identify barriers and differences in experience. It is not to pressure people into disclosing sensitive personal information.
What evidence could support the B Corp JEDI requirements?
B Lab’s evidence guidance includes examples such as:
- Copies of workforce surveys
- Survey results from the relevant certification year
- Notes from facilitated discussions
- Dates, agendas and materials from listening sessions
- Records of stakeholder interviews
- Communications explaining why information was collected
- Evidence that participation was voluntary
- Demographic data-collection forms
- Anonymised and disaggregated workforce information
- Recruitment, promotion and turnover analysis
- Pay and wage data
- Complaint and grievance information
- Workplace-culture findings
- Records of how the findings informed business decisions
The purpose is not simply to produce more documents.
The evidence should help the business understand where people may be excluded, disadvantaged or experiencing different outcomes.
How should stakeholder feedback be gathered?
Workforce data will not tell a business everything it needs to know.
Numbers may show that one group is leaving at a higher rate, but they may not explain why. Recruitment figures may show where candidates are dropping out, but they may not reveal which part of the process created the barrier. This is why stakeholder feedback matters.
Depending on the business, relevant stakeholders might include:
- Employees
- Contractors and other workers
- Job candidates
- Customers
- Suppliers
- Investors
- Volunteers
- Community groups
- People affected by the company’s products or services
Feedback methods could include anonymous surveys, focus groups, listening sessions, interviews, worker representatives and existing grievance or feedback routes. Businesses should be clear about why they are asking for feedback, how it will be used, who will see it and what will happen next.
Listening without taking action can damage trust more than not asking in the first place.
How should stakeholder feedback be gathered?
JEDI2 includes a menu of 19 actions across three areas.
Foundation actions
These establish the foundations of a credible JEDI approach:
- Making a public commitment to JEDI principles
- Improving JEDI knowledge and capability among leaders
- Reviewing and updating policies through a JEDI lens
- Improving diversity within the governing body and executive team
- Undertaking an equity audit
Actions within the workplace
These focus on employees, workers and workplace practices:
- Supporting at least two employee resource or affinity groups
- Implementing inclusive recruitment practices
- Providing sponsorship and mentoring opportunities
- Developing an inclusive-language guide
- Increasing representation of underrepresented groups
- Providing paid leave beyond legal minimums
- Making internal communication tools accessible
Actions beyond the workplace
These extend JEDI into customers, suppliers, products and communities:
- Making the company website accessible
- Publishing the JEDI action plan and progress
- Promoting diversity among local suppliers
- Creating an inclusive communications and ethical-content guide
- Assessing how inclusive a product or service is
- Redesigning a product or service to make it more inclusive
- Participating in collective action to advance JEDI principles
The flexibility is intentional. The most relevant barriers will differ between businesses, countries, sectors and communities. But flexibility does not mean picking random activities.
For small businesses and above, the chosen actions should connect directly to the evidence and stakeholder feedback collected through JEDI1.
How many B Corp JEDI actions are required?
The number of required actions depends on company size and where the business is within the certification cycle.
At Year 0:
- Companies without workers complete one action
- Micro businesses complete two actions
- Small businesses complete two actions
- Medium businesses complete two actions
- Large businesses complete two actions
- Extra large businesses complete two actions
The requirements increase at Years 3 and 5:
- Micro businesses complete three actions
- Small businesses complete four actions
- Medium businesses complete five actions
- Large businesses complete six actions
- Extra large and extra extra large businesses complete seven actions
This reflects B Lab’s focus on continuous improvement.
B Corp Certification is not supposed to represent one successful assessment followed by several years of doing nothing. Businesses are expected to revisit their evidence, review their priorities and build on their action over time.
What should a B Corp JEDI action plan include?
Small businesses and larger organisations must record their selected actions within a plan.
A practical JEDI action plan should include:
- The priority or barrier being addressed
- The evidence that identified it
- Relevant stakeholder feedback
- The action being taken
- The intended outcome
- The person responsible
- The resources required
- The timescale
- The current status
- How progress will be measured
- How workers and stakeholders will receive updates
The connection between evidence and action is critical. If your recruitment data shows disabled candidates are dropping out because the application process is inaccessible, another unconscious-bias workshop may not solve the problem.
If employees from an underrepresented group are leaving at a significantly higher rate, publishing a public commitment is not enough. If people do not trust your reporting process, launching an employee network will not repair that trust on its own.
The action needs to address the actual barrier.
Is a diversity policy enough for B Corp Certification?
No.
A policy can provide useful evidence, particularly if it has been reviewed through a JEDI lens. But a policy alone does not demonstrate:
- What employees experience
- Whether outcomes differ between groups
- Whether recruitment is inclusive
- Whether people trust reporting processes
- Whether leaders apply the policy consistently
- Whether barriers have been identified
- Whether meaningful action has been implemented
- Whether the organisation measures progress
The new B Corp JEDI standards are focused on implementation and evidence, not simply written intent.
Common mistakes businesses make with B Corp JEDI
The biggest risk is treating JEDI as another paperwork exercise.
Businesses may struggle if they:
- Choose actions before collecting evidence
- Rely entirely on policies
- Use training as the answer to every issue
- Collect sensitive information without a clear purpose
- Ignore non-response or incomplete data
- Publish percentages that could identify individuals
- Examine representation without considering experience
- Exclude contractors or other relevant workers
- Fail to involve employees and affected stakeholders
- Create an action plan that nobody can access
- Communicate activity without measuring its impact
- Select the easiest actions instead of the most relevant ones
- Present a perfect picture while ignoring difficult feedback
Businesses do not need to prove that every inequality has disappeared. They need to demonstrate that they understand their impact, recognise where barriers exist and are taking proportionate action.
How to prepare for a B Corp JEDI audit
A B Corp JEDI readiness review should examine more than policies.
It should consider:
- Workforce and leadership data
- Recruitment and selection processes
- Progression and development
- Pay and reward
- Retention and employee turnover
- Employee experience
- Workplace culture
- Complaints and grievances
- Accessibility
- Internal and external communication
- Products and services
- Suppliers and procurement
- Current JEDI activity
- Evidence of implementation
- Governance and accountability
The purpose of an internal JEDI audit is to identify what evidence already exists, where the gaps are and what action is realistically required before certification or renewal. This should result in a clear, prioritised roadmap rather than a huge list of generic recommendations.
Frequently asked questions about the B Corp JEDI requirements
Yes. JEDI is one of seven mandatory Impact Topics under the new standards. The exact requirements vary according to company size and certification stage.
Micro businesses and companies without workers are exempt from JEDI1. They must still select and implement the required number of JEDI actions under JEDI2.
Not every business must use the same method. Depending on the requirement and company context, evidence may come from a survey, facilitated discussion, workforce data or a combination of approaches.
No. A policy may contribute to the evidence, but businesses must demonstrate appropriate data collection, stakeholder feedback, action and implementation.
At Year 0, most companies complete two actions. The number increases at Years 3 and 5 according to company size.
A B Corp JEDI audit or readiness review examines how an organisation’s workforce evidence, policies, recruitment, culture, employee experience and current activity align with the JEDI requirements.
It is not the formal certification audit conducted by an approved assurance provider. It helps the business identify gaps and prepare appropriate evidence.
B Lab allows actions to be selected and implemented more than once where the company continues to meet and improve the relevant requirement across the certification cycle.
Final audit and certification decisions are made independently by B Lab’s assurance providers. Following guidance or completing an internal readiness review does not guarantee certification.
Start preparing before you are asked for the evidence
If your business is preparing for B Corp Certification or renewal, do not wait until the audit to discover that your JEDI evidence is incomplete.
Start by asking:
- What workforce and recruitment information do we already hold?
- What can we analyse safely and meaningfully?
- Whose experiences are missing?
- How are we gathering honest stakeholder feedback?
- What barriers does the evidence suggest?
- Which JEDI actions would address those barriers?
- Can we prove those actions have been implemented?
- How will we measure and communicate progress?
The new B Corp JEDI requirements are not about appearing inclusive.
They are about building the evidence, accountability and action needed to become more inclusive.
That is a higher bar. It is also exactly where the bar should be.
Need help with your B Corp JEDI requirements?
Your D+I supports businesses preparing for B Corp Certification and renewal through JEDI audits, workforce and culture reviews, employee surveys, inclusive recruitment reviews, policy assessments and practical action planning.
We can help you understand what evidence you already have, identify where the gaps are and build a proportionate roadmap aligned with the new requirements.
No tick-box theatre. No generic policy pack. Just an honest assessment of where you are, what the evidence says and what needs to happen next.
