Walden, N.Y. (December 13, 2011) - Companies who want to make a deeper commitment to being progressive, green, sustainable, and socially innovative but who could risk the wrath from financially-driven shareholders, now have a solution. It's called the "B" (Benefit) Corporation and it will be available as of January 1, 2012. New York now joins a small but growing list of states that provide for a new corporate structure that designed exclusively for those companies with a strong orientation towards social responsibility.
"It's the kind of corporate structure that a socially & environmentally oriented company like Ben & Jerry's would have wanted had they had a B Corporation option", noted Gary Schuster, a Jacobowitz attorney who has been promoting the new law since it passed the NYS legislature earlier this year.
"When Ben & Jerry's made the decision to pay their local dairy farmers more for their milk than the market rate, more than a few of their shareholders balked. Corporations that have shareholders are held to a stricter standard in the context of 'profitability'. Having a B Corporation designation would have helped Ben & Jerry's withstand the ire of their shareholders and perhaps reduced the chances of them getting acquired by Unilever", says Schuster.
"The new "B" Corporation was designed for companies who are seeking to brand themselves as green, progressive and sustainable. A "B" Corp designation provides the financial and legal basis for protecting the socially responsible mission that more and more corporations are seeking to adopt", noted Schuster.
