The B Impact Assessment simply builds upon the important work that other organizations and industry groups are doing to define and measure impact. The assessment is easy to work with and intuitive, think of it as a pyramid, you start at the top with governance which is supported by workers who work in the community which exist in the environment. As a summary appoint, the assessment circles back to the section on governance by asking of your business follows and the impact business model. Before you begin the assessment it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with all the questions on the first run by simply reading them and then come back later to fill in the answers, after you click submit, you will not be able to go back and modify your answers so make sure you give it your best. You will be able to print a PDF of your assessment after you complete it, so let's begin. The assessment consists of five major areas, governance, workers, community, environment, and the impact business model. The first section on governance is the section that covers best practices of the insurer that the company is built to last. Specifically focuses on the company's core mission, stakeholder engagement, governance structures and overall transparency of the company's practices. There are two helpful sections, Explain This and in Practice, which will give you a definition and a few examples of what the question is about for example level of impact is designed to determine if your business is more of a traditional business model or sustainable one. Next section on workers covers how the company benefits it's workers through compensation, benefits, training and ownership best practices, it also focuses on the overall work environment within the company through management and worker communication, job flexibility and cooperate culture and worker health and safety practices. In many small and medium sized businesses a lot of data are undocumented, sometimes you have to be creative with sources and preliminary research to prepare yourself for answering questions on that assessment. For example here before you can answer high to low pay question, you should have all salaries for all position in your company handy. The community section evaluates a company's supplier relations, diversity and involvement in a local community. The section also measures the company's practices and policies around community service and charitable giving, in addition, the section includes if a company's product or service is designed to solve a social issue including access to basic services, health, education, economic opportunity, arts, and increasing the flow of capital to purpose-driven enterprises. Some questions on the assessment might not be applicable to your business, for example, let's take a look at the local supplier question, if you are a coffee company or a coffee roasters in Colorado 97% of your supplier will be foreign, because your material coffee does not grow in US. The environment section of the assessment evaluates the companies environmental performance through it's facilities, materials, resource and energy use in the missions. We are applicable it also considers a company's transportation,distribution channels and environmental impacts over supply chain. The section also measures whether a company's products or services are designed to solve an environmental issue including products that aid in provision of noble energy, conserve resources, reduce waste, promote land wildlife conservation, prevent toxic hazardous substance or pollution, or educate measure, or consult to solve environmental problems. Some initiatives can be cost prohibitive for a small business, for example, you might be operating in an older building that you lease in green building standards would be out of you reach due to cost and the pure fact that you do not have much control over the building maintenance. At the same time, things that seem to be out of reach now could become the focus of your future impact improvement efforts. Maybe you will be expanding your operations next year, you could look for a location that is in compliance with some of the items on the list or maybe you could negotiate your lease based on the green building improvements. Knowledge is key here, the more familiar you are with what the assessment focuses on, the better you will be prepared in transitioning to sustainable business model. The last section of the assessment impact business model, examines to what degree your business hits into the different issue of the social enterprise. And now, let's do a simple exercise, think about the company where you work or recently worked or where a friend or family member works, which of the areas addressed by the assessment tool would you expect this company to score high on? Which would you expect them to score lowest on.
