Publication date: October 19, 2021
The benefit corporation as a model for agrifood: an opportunity to pursue social and environmental goals alongside economic ones.
The benefit corporation is a designation introduced by the 2016 Stability Law (art. 1, paragraphs 376-384, law no. 208 of December 28, 2015). With this model, companies can pursue traditional profit goals together with social and environmental objectives.
This is not an "external" commitment to the company's core business or a mere management of environmental and social externalities through corporate social responsibility (CSR) approaches. It is a rigorous and formal approach, through which an organization institutionalizes in its bylaws the social and environmental goals it intends to achieve and that are central to its business model.
A benefit corporation, therefore, is called to be responsible, meaning to carefully manage its impacts, its externalities, on the environment and society, but also to generate social value through clear and forward-looking planning of its "common benefit activities."
An example of how a benefit corporation defines its goals and the way to achieve them is Boniviri’s Impact Map.
Benefit corporations are also required to report on their performance regarding the results achieved and their impacts.
