Certified B Corporations are for profit companies that voluntarily meet standards of transparency, accountability, and performance.  B Corps share a commitment to create higher quality jobs and improve the quality of life in their communities.  Currently certification standards for B Corps consider: the company’s governance structure, how it treats its workers, how it treats its community and the environment, whether it follows an impact business model, like a worker cooperative, whether it participates in harmful industries, like firearms and tobacco.

During the course, we will work to help develop creativity criteria to be included in the next round of standards for B Corporations. Integrating creativity into B Corps standards will demonstrate the importance of creativity to sustainable companies, build an understanding of the value artists and other creatives can bring to all kinds of commercial ventures, and lay the groundwork for future social investing in creative industries.

Class discussion and the final project will contribute to a new effort connecting artists, impact investors and social entrepreneurs.  Upstart Co-Lab is exploring how the Five Competencies of Creative Intelligence (as defined by Bruce Nussbaum, mentor-in-residence at New, Inc.) can be integrated into standards for B Corps.

This course is offered during the third module block.

Laura Callanan is the founding partner of Upstart Co-Lab, a new collaboration connecting artists with impact investors and social entrepreneurs to create opportunities for artists to deliver social impact at scale.  Most recently, Laura was senior deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, leading all grantmaking programs, operations, and research.  As Scholar in Residence at UC-Berkeley/Haas School of Business Laura authored three business school case studies featuring artist social entrepreneurs.  Laura was previously a consultant with McKinsey & Company, a senior adviser at the United Nations Development Programme, executive director of The Prospect Hill Foundation, and associate director at The Rockefeller Foundation.