B Corp vs. JUST Certifications
Which Standard, Why and When?
Key takeaways
Rewild Agency's experience demonstrates that pursuing both B Corp and JUST delivers a stronger, more transparent approach to environmental, social and governance leadership than either certification alone.
The B Corp is the most recognised ethical business certification in the world, with more than 10,000 companies across 60 countries carrying the logo. The JUST label is also increasing in popularity, driven by companies seeking to demonstrate their ‘social licence to operate’, in line with its founding organisations’ (the International Living Future Institutes) principles of creating a world that is ‘socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative’.
For those working in the regenerative design space, it is frequently wondered whether they are seeking the same goal, and whether in fact one could be used instead of the other?
The following article examines the backgrounds, aims, similarities of both, drawing on personal experience of achieving both certifications within the Australian context.
Introduction to the B Corp and JUST certification schemes
B Corp Certification was created in 2006 by B Lab in response to a fundamental challenge within modern business: most companies are legally structured to prioritise shareholder value above all else. B Lab's vision was to create a framework that recognised organisations generating value for all stakeholders, including workers, communities and the environment.
Today, B Corp is one of the most recognised sustainability and impact certifications globally, with more than 10,000 certified companies across over 100 countries. To achieve certification, organisations must demonstrate performance across seven impact topic requirements, supported by third-party verification and recertification requirements. B Corps impact topics require businesses to take meaningful action and demonstrate leadership across purpose & stakeholder governance (PSG), fair work (FW), justice, equity, diversity & inclusion (JEDI), human rights (HR), climate action (CA), environmental stewardship & circularity (ESC) and government affairs & collective action (GACA).
The JUST Label was developed by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), the organisation behind the Living Building Challenge. Rather than assessing overall business impact, JUST focuses specifically on social justice, equity and transparency within organisations.
It asks questions that are not captured by other certification schemes on the internal equity within the organisation. Do employees earn a living wage? What parental leave is offered? How diverse is leadership? How does the organisation address inclusion and equity? Rather than providing a single score or pass/fail outcome, JUST publicly displays performance across a range of indicators, creating transparency around both strengths and opportunities for improvement.
Where They Overlap
There is significant alignment between the two frameworks, as both examine worker wellbeing, fair wages, diversity and inclusion, ethical supply chains and organisational accountability.
There are also similarities in how the certifications are structured for certification, as neither is designed as a one-off achievement, and require ongoing review, renewal and continuous improvement. Importantly, both provide a safeguard against greenwashing by requiring organisations to substantiate their commitments with policies, data and documented outcomes.
Where B Corp goes further
Within the B Corp framework, environmental performance is a key metric - including climate action, resource use and environmental stewardship. Governance is also a key differentiator, with certified organisations required to embed stakeholder consideration into decision-making structures and legal governance frameworks.
The certification extends beyond employees to consider customers, community investment, supply chain impacts and broader societal influence. As a result, B Corp provides a holistic view of how an organisation creates value across its entire ecosystem.
Its scale and recognition also remain unmatched. For many consumers, investors and procurement teams, B Corp has become a globally recognised symbol of responsible business.
Where JUST Goes Further
The JUST framework offers a more detailed examination of employee experience, workplace equity and organisational culture. Areas such as compensation, benefits, diversity and inclusion are broken into individual indicators, creating a level of transparency that broader frameworks often struggle to achieve.
One of JUST's most distinctive features is that it does not aggregate performance into a single score. Instead, organisations publicly disclose their performance across each indicator. This makes strengths and gaps equally visible and creates a level of accountability that is difficult to hide behind.
JUST is also accessible to a wider range of organisations, including not-for-profits, educational institutions and government bodies that are not eligible for B Corp Certification.
The process to obtaining a JUST label requires self-assessment and reflection on the current position of the organisation, as well as taking into account future goals and objectives. JUST labels operate as a baseline and enable an organisation to make direct comparisons against itself.
For organisations within the built environment sector, JUST also provides pathways that support broader sustainability frameworks including the Living Building Challenge, LEED and WELL.
Why Companies Are Seeking Both
Increasingly, organisations are recognising that each framework addresses blind spots within the other. An organisation can be an exceptional employer while lacking a robust approach to climate action, environmental stewardship or stakeholder governance. B Corp addresses these broader impacts.
B Corp asks whether a business is creating positive impact across its stakeholders. JUST asks whether it is creating an equitable, healthy and transparent workplace. Both questions matter.
Rewild Agency’s Journey
As active practitioners in the sustainability space, our journey started with B Corp Certification in 2025. It reflected a commitment to ensuring our internal practices matched the advice we provide clients every day, and enabled us to provide valuable insight into the challenges, opportunities and operational changes required to meet the standard.
In 2026, we added the JUST Label to our credentials. The decision was driven in part by our involvement in a Living Building Challenge project, in part by our involvement with the Living Building Challenge community, and also in part as it aligned with our philosophy of leading by example and publicly disclosing how we perform as an employer.
One of the unexpected benefits of the JUST process was that it encouraged us to look more closely communicating our own diversity credentials. As a female-founded and female-owned business, the assessment prompted us to pursue formal certification through the WeConnect Women-Owned business program as part of the ‘Alternative Pathway’ demonstrating a Qualified Business could help achieve a higher level of achievement. While we had always considered diversity and inclusion to be core parts of our business, obtaining third-party verification provided greater transparency and credibility for clients, partners and procurement teams.
Achieving Women-Owned certification has delivered benefits well beyond recognition alone. It formally qualifies Rewild as a diverse supplier, opening opportunities within government procurement programs and supplier diversity initiatives. It also provides an avenue for project teams pursuing sustainability outcomes through frameworks such as Green Star, where engagement with minority-owned and diverse businesses can contribute to responsible procurement and social sustainability credits.
Having completed both certifications, our experience was that B Corp is the more rigorous and resource-intensive process. It requires organisations to examine governance structures, environmental impacts, employee practices, customer relationships and community contributions through a detailed verification process. The journey demands significant evidence gathering, policy development and organisational reflection.
What we found, however, was that the work undertaken to achieve B Corp created a strong foundation for JUST. Many of the policies, procedures and datasets required by the JUST framework were already in place, making the process considerably more straightforward. In many ways, B Corp helped us build the systems, while JUST provided another layer of transparency around the people and equity dimensions of our business.
The experience also highlighted the importance of local context. Several JUST indicators recognise outcomes influenced not only by individual employers, but by the broader social systems in which they operate. In Australia, access to universal healthcare through Medicare helps remove barriers to employee wellbeing and preventative care. The National Employment Standards establish minimum entitlements around leave, flexible working arrangements and workplace protections. Government-funded Paid Parental Leave, combined with employer-funded schemes, supports family wellbeing and workforce participation, and compulsory superannuation creates a baseline expectation around long-term financial security and retirement savings.
