The Whole Business: A, B Corp Explainer

It sounds like a tax status. It isn't.

Certified B Corporation is a full audit of a company — not just what it sells, but how it pays

people, what it does to the environment, and how the whole business is run. In this episode,

host Shannon Sims sits down with three people who've lived that audit from three very different

angles: Lisa Geason-Bauer, Wisconsin's first Trained B Consultant and founder of B Local WI;

Steven Dyme, whose Chicago/Milwaukee flower company was one of the first B Corps in the

world; and Jon Bishop, whose Madison-based microfinance fund got certified twice, eight years

apart, and watched the process change in real time.

Together, they walk through what the certification actually checks, how Wisconsin's B Corp

community grew from four companies to more than two dozen, and whether — underneath the

badge — it means what it claims to.

This is the introduction to The B Side, a season-long thread on Rising Forward. Over the next