Giving Compass' Take:

• In this B the Change post, Fifty by Fifty reports on how 35 employee-owned companies tallied significantly higher B scores than their counterparts, indicating that they have sustainable business models.

• What might this mean for companies that don't have such an infrastructure? Are there still ways for them to engage with their employers on a deeper level?

• Here's more on why the new challenge for B Corps is to be inclusive and welcoming.

“Instead of picturing companies as objects owned by shareholders, designed to produce earnings like ball bearings off an assembly line, we need to see companies as living systems, part of the larger living system of the earth, designed to benefit life,” write Marjorie Kelly and Sarah Stranahan in a new report from Fifty by Fifty.

The Company as a Living System: Enterprise Design for a Sustainable, Equitable Economy hypothesizes that mission-controlled, employee-owned companies have the design elements necessary to build a sustainable, equitable 21st century economy. These are employee-owned Certified B Corporations or benefit corporations incorporated under state law. The founders of these companies have avoided selling to financial interests and instead have chosen to pass ownership to employees as stewards, embedding a commitment to social and environmental benefit in governing documents.

Through research funded by Partners for a New Economy, Fifty by Fifty identified 35 B Corps that were employee owned and, in a pilot study, compared these companies to B Corps without employee ownership. The total B scores of the 35 employee-owned companies were significantly higher than their counterparts; their environmental scores were similar, suggesting that employee-owned B Corps are good for workers and good for the environment.

Read the full article about the employee-owned B Corp by Fifty by Fifty at B the Change.