Last year, Danone, the French food multinational, acquired US dairy company WhiteWave for $10 billion and combined the company with its own US dairy business under the name DanoneWave. At that point DanoneWave, now Danone North America, had become one of the largest Public Benefit Corporations, the legal structure that allows companies to declare their intentions to pursue social objectives, not only shareholder value.
- Largest B Corp… By completing the impact assessment from B Lab, the nonprofit that certifies B Corps, and scoring higher than the minimum threshold, Danone North America has now become the largest B Corp.
- Impact outperformance… A peek at Danone North America’s “B Impact Report” suggests the firm outperformed its peers in all categories (environment, workers, community, governance).
- Eight Danone subsidiaries… have been B Corp Certified so far in the US, Argentina, France, Indonesia, Spain and the UK.
- Danone, the parent company… aims to achieve the certification, according to a statement, and has been working with B Lab since 2015 to define a B Corp model that works for public companies.
- Dig deeper… Read B the Change’s new Danone profile…”The World’s Largest B Corp on the Future of Business.”
