With their trend-led offering, large production volumes and typically low prices, fast fashion brands aren’t an obvious contender for B Corp certification. But earlier this month, Australian fast fashion brand Princess Polly joined the ranks of Patagonia, Eileen Fisher and Chloé as a certified B Corp, fuelling concerns as to whether it can still be considered a reliable kitemark of excellence in social and environmental standards.
“B Corp certification is rigorous and holistic; it doesn’t evaluate a product or service, nor is it exclusively focused on a single social or environmental issue. It assesses the entire business and its impact,” said a spokesperson for B Lab, the non-profit that runs the B Corp scheme, in response to criticism from sustainability advocates.
It comes after natural soap company Dr Bronner’s announced in February that it was quitting B Corp after a decade of certification, accusing the scheme of “weak standards that enable greenwashing and purpose-washing by multinationals”. Dr Bronner’s said this followed the certification of Nespresso and Unilever Australia in 2022 and Nestlé Health Science in 2023. B Lab had not responded to Vogue Business on this by the time of publication. However, a statement on its website released in April 2025 argues that “large companies need to be part of this movement; they have significant impact and as they improve their impact performance, they help deliver on our Theory of Change [which guides B Lab’s mission to transform the economic system into a more inclusive, equitable and regenerative global economy]”.
While B Lab has stood by these decisions, it is also in the midst of revamping its certification standards and process. The B Lab spokesperson says a review began in 2020 in recognition of a “rapidly shifting global landscape”, resulting in new standards that comply with applicable EU legislation, such as Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (ECGT), and “raises the bar of what it means to be a B Corp”. The new standards — the seventh version since B Corp was founded in 2006 — were unveiled in April 2025 and will come into effect in September 2026, to give companies that are already on the scheme time to adapt.
For the more than 9,500 certified B Corps globally, the implications of the changes are as yet unclear. Many are still digesting the new standards, which are set out in a 1,149-page document. Asked if it expected some B Corps to drop off the scheme under the new, more stringent criteria, B Lab said only that it was “giving the companies the time and guidance needed to adapt”.
The B Lab spokesperson added: “We do not want to sacrifice progress in pursuit of perfection, and have allowed companies to continue certifying on version six [of the standards] until the end of the year, recognising that these standards still represent strong social and environmental performance.” (Princess Polly’s certification journey started in 2023, according to B Lab.)
An overdue rethink
Under B Corp’s current process, to be certified, companies must score at least 80, up to a possible full score of 200; B Lab says the median score for “ordinary” businesses is 50.9. “B Corp had been criticised for a points-based evaluation system that allowed companies to perform poorly in some areas if they could offset it with good performance in other areas,” says Nancy Landrum, professor of sustainable business transformation at Munich Business School. “This scoring structure made greenwashing easy.”
Princess Polly was awarded a score of 86.8 (higher than some other fashion B Corps). In an emailed statement, Princess Polly said it operates on a “demand-driven fashion model, which emphasises testing and repeating successful styles rather than producing large volumes upfront” — the same argument ultra-fast fashion giant Shein uses to defend its business model. Working in Princess Polly’s favour for B Corp certification was the claim that 37 per cent of all of its products are made from materials with a “lower environmental impact”, including organic cotton, recycled polyester and tencel, which the brand says it achieved by introducing a “materials matrix” and “lower impact fabric hub” to steer production. It also said that it has reduced its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 17 per cent compared to its 2020 baseline, and its long-term reduction targets have been verified by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
Princess Polly noted via email that it had not necessarily implemented new practices to certify as B Corp, but simply “formalised, documented and verified” existing practices. “We remain committed to continuously improving and holding ourselves to high standards in everything we do,” the company added.
The Chinese ultra-fast fashion platform’s possible links to human rights abuses in Xinjiang has come under renewed scrutiny, but critics point out that it also has questions to answer over its volumes and growth.
However, critics point out that the 2020 emissions baseline was not disclosed. “We don’t know either the 2020 numbers or the current numbers to properly evaluate their claims,” says Landrum (Princess Polly had not commented on this by the time of publication.)
The new B Corp criteria will see the points system replaced by a set of minimum standards across seven core impact topics: purpose and stakeholder governance; fair work; justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion; human rights; climate action; environmental stewardship and circularity; and government affairs and collective action. Requirements will vary by company size and sector, and all certifications will be assured by an as-yet undisclosed third party. A spokesperson for B Corp said more details will be revealed by the time the new standards are adopted in 2026.
Even proponents of B Corp say the changes are necessary and overdue. “B Corp was becoming easier to obtain, with many of the questions becoming common practice, which meant the certification risked losing credibility,” says Geoff van Sonsbeeck, co-founder and CEO of womenswear brand Baukjen, whose score of 153.6 is among the highest in the fashion sector.
Meeting a higher bar
Fashion is one of the B Corp sectors under the closest scrutiny, with consumer awareness of what constitutes environmental and social best practices higher than in other industries, says sustainability consultant and co-founder of 2BPolicy, Baptiste Carriere-Pradal. “When we buy a car, do we think about the people who made it?” he says. “The new standards are significant because they comply with legislation. But as more legislation comes into force, like the potential Green Claims Directive, then more work will be needed for further compliance.”
Current fashion B Corps highlight several new requirements under the new standards that will be hard to meet. Among them is a mandate for companies to measure their Scope 3 emissions and disclose the results publicly.
As a fashion and jewellery marketplace, Wolf Badger doesn’t produce the goods sold on its website, but is responsible for the emissions associated with drop-shipping — and freight accounts for over 90 per cent of its total emissions. Co-founder and CEO George Graham says it will be challenging to obtain specific data from its carriers to meet B Corp’s new Scope 3 requirements (its current B Corp score is 108.8).
“We are focusing our efforts on improving the quality of our data, so that we can more accurately calculate and measure our emissions,” he says. “The provision of free returns, for example, encourages consumers to take a chance on an unknown designer. We therefore need to devise a strategy which reduces the carbon footprint of our shipping without compromising on convenience for our customers.”
British lifestyle retailer FatFace, which has over 180 stores in the UK and 20 in the US, currently has a B Corp score of 89.1 and will have to recertify in 2027 (recertification takes place every three years). The company says it has already measured its Scope 3 emissions, after identifying that 98 per cent of emissions fell into Scope 3, with 84 per cent coming from the upstream supply chain, notably raw materials sourcing. It used a consultant for additional support on data analysis.
Rather than Scope 3, trading and sustainability director Nick Stevenson says the biggest challenge for FatFace will be meeting the new requirements around paying a voluntary living wage, something fashion has notoriously struggled to define, let alone implement. The new rules aren’t black or white; options include paying employees a living wage as defined in their local market or a collectively bargained wage.
WageIndicator Foundation is making its living wage benchmarks open access for workers, trade unions and small employers. It’s an industry first that hopes to make wage negotiations fairer across 155 countries.
“Not many UK retailers pay the living wage,” says Stevenson. “It’s difficult to plan and budget for because there are factors we can’t control. For example, we may have a new government in 2030 [when the living wage target comes into effect] or the gap between the minimum wage and living wage may close further.”
In recognition of the complexity and the fact that wages are not always in a company’s direct control, B Corp has stated that companies that can’t pay a living wage must complete other actions related to their lowest-paid workers, such as providing universal childcare or joining collective action on wages.
Elsewhere, the new government affairs and collective action category makes a formal requirement on businesses to take action outside their own organisation, including lobbying, working collaboratively to advance collective social or environmental impacts and taking a responsible and transparent approach to taxes. And the new category of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion mandates that B Corps create specific plans to combat systems of inequality, not just in their workplaces but across their value chains.
The latter could be particularly tough for fashion because of its “deep and fragmented supply chains”, says Baukjen’s Van Sonsbeeck. “It’s a challenge for any brand to truly understand and take responsibility for what’s happening across all tiers. But that’s exactly why this shift towards shared accountability is so important.”
Worth the effort
Van Sonsbeeck broadly welcomes the more stringent criteria and says the consultation phase was extensive, with lots of opportunities for feedback. However, he raises concerns about the burden on smaller companies. “Navigating it without legal or policy guidance will be quite a challenge,” he says. “The level of complexity and resources involved could act as a deterrent for those pursuing certification for marketing reasons, but for [well-intentioned] newer or smaller companies, it might be a very different story.”
Wolf Badger has established an internal ESG committee to respond to B Corp’s new requirements. “We believe that cross-functional collaboration will be the key to unlocking success under the new standards and would suggest this approach to all brands, regardless of size,” says Graham, who supports the new rules.
B Lab has stressed that it does not expect certified B Corps to be able to meet the new standards overnight. Those with recertification dates in 2026 will transition to the new standards and receive a 12-month extension to their recertification due date. Since the new standards were announced, B Lab has introduced the B Impact platform — a digital tool designed to streamline the process and help businesses measure, manage and improve their impact.
“B Lab’s standards are designed to define social, environmental and governance best practices for businesses,” the spokesperson for B Lab said. “Best practices evolve over time, and it is often B Corps that lead the way — sometimes going above and beyond our standards. Just as we encourage B Corps to adopt a mindset of continuous improvement, it is also a cornerstone of the standards development process at B Lab. Evolving the B Corp standards is baked into our DNA. They have been updated six times since the movement was founded more than 18 years ago to reflect the changing expectations of business.”
The latest standards are a step in the right direction, but observers point out that B Lab may yet have to make some difficult decisions. One of the challenges for any certification organisation is the need to balance growth in membership with maintaining a high set of standards that may exclude large numbers of businesses. If it wants B Corp to be the gold standard for social and environmental excellence, then B Lab may have to sacrifice the former to turn the tide of public and industry opinion.
In the meantime, existing fashion B Corps say they are ready to step up their game. “I’m a big believer in B Corp, and there is nothing in the new standards that is unreasonable,” says Stevenson, echoing the sentiment from Baukjen and Wolf Badger. “It’s a long road and we will try our best. It’s worth the effort.”
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