Back in March I shared a link to a Raleigh News & Observer article that featured two Winning Workplaces-affiliated organizations: The Redwoods Group, our 2008 Top Small Workplace winner and a certified B Corporation, and B Lab, the group of our Top Small Workplaces judge Bart Houlahan (who judged for our workplace award program starting in 2009, and will be speaking at our October 27-29 event with Inc. Magazine in Denver) that certified The Redwoods Group and 317 other firms to date.

In addition to successfully certifying 42 more organizations as B Corps over the past six months and change since I wrote that post, as The New York Times reported this past weekend, B Lab has just launched

a parallel initiative aimed at investors.  Just as Standard & Poor’s provides ratings on bonds, this effort, the Global Impact Investing Rating System, would provide social ratings for companies and funds.

This is really heady, forward-thinking stuff.  We already see evidence that social business missions help attract and retain employees and enhance brand reputation.  Now B Labs is approaching the viability of socially responsible firms from the investor side, looking to recruit and appease funders seeking a quantifiable way to marry dollars to type and level of impact.

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