Earlier this month, B Lab – which administers B Corp certifications – released updated standards for companies to achieve B Corp status. Companies that are certified B Corporations consistently demonstrate their ability to meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.
Sunrise Banks became a B Corp in 2009, making our company the first in Minnesota to receive the certification. Today, we remain the only B Corp-certified bank in Minnesota and the only B Corp of any kind in South Dakota.
After several years of development and revision, the new standards are a huge overhaul of the old ones.
We asked Evan Wacker, our Senior ESG Analyst (pictured left), to walk us through the new B Corp standards and how this will impact Sunrise Banks.
Q: What are the primary changes with the new B Corp standards?
A: The primary change is within the scoring mechanism. Before, you only needed a certain number of points to certify. Now, there are minimum requirements to qualify, and you must obtain a passing score in each impact category. The goal is to ensure all B Corps are performing strongly in each category vs. picking and choosing areas of strength.
Q: What is our current B Corp status?
A: Sunrise Banks recertified in 2024, receiving an overall score of 148.6. That is well above the minimum score of 80, which is needed to qualify for B Corp Status. In the past we’ve nearly doubled the minimum passing score due to our outstanding performance across many areas.
Our current score is good for three years, so we’ll have until April of 2027 to re-certify.
Q: Will Sunrise Banks continue to pursue B Corp certification with these changes?
A: Sunrise Banks continues to plan on pursuing ongoing recertification for the foreseeable future. Our team will conduct a gap analysis later this year to determine where we can still make improvements.
Q: Will we need to make any changes to meet these new standards and maintain our B Corp certification?
A: While we may need to make some adjustments to recertify in 2027, our team, as well as our Sustainability and RISE committees, have made significant strides in strengthening our ESG program and governance in the past year.
Learn more about our commitment to upholding B Corp standards at Sunrise Banks: https://sunrisebanks.com/impact/b-corp/
Member FDIC.