B-Corporation in New York State

SUBHEAD: More states are allowing corporations to organize on higher principles than just "more profit for shareholders". [Editor's Note: Hawaii is an active Benifit Corporation State: Status: Signed July 8th 2012. Sponsors House: C. Lee, Browner, Carroll, Evans, Hanohano, M. Lee, Morita, Nakashima, Aquino, Awana, Chang, Chong, Choy, Cullen, Hashem, Mizuno, Nishimoto, B. Oshiro, Pine, Tsuji, Yamashita. Sponsors Senate: Ihara, Chun Oakland, Green, Solomon, Espero, Fukunaga, Gabbard, Galuteria, Ige, Nishihara, Ryan, Slom, Taniguchi, Tokuda, Wakai. Legislation: SB 298 Key Supporters: Gary Hooser.] By Mat McDermott on 11 February 2012 for TreeHugger - (http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/benefit-corporation-registration-new-york-state-opens.html) Image above: Map of United States with Benefit Corporation states in gold and states considering legislation in charcoal. From (http://www.benefitcorp.net/).

We made a big deal of Patagonia registering on the first day available when California ushered in its Benefit Corporation legislation. Well, now New York companies can get in on the B-Corp act.

On February 10th, thirteen companies took advantage of the new possibility of enshrining into law their desire for their business to do more than just work for profit about all else.

B-Lab, a non-profit working to bring the B-Corp to more than the seven states where the corporate type currently exists, sums up why a Benefit Corporation is truly a very different way of doing business:

Benefit corporations are a new kind of corporation legally required to: 1) have a corporate purpose to create a material positive impact on society and the environment; 2) expand fiduciary duty to require consideration of the interests of workers, community and the environment; and 3) publicly report annually on its overall social and environmental performance using a comprehensive, credible, independent, and transparent third party standard. Traditional corporate law requires corporations to prioritize the financial interests of shareholders over the interests of workers, communities, and the environment.

For more info, check out: BenefitCorp.net

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