About B Local Asheville & WNC
B Local Asheville + WNC is a place-based community of people using business as a force for good. Led by a volunteer board, we connect Certified B Corps and like-minded businesses across Western North Carolina and share the B Corp movement here at home.
How we support our local B Corps
Western North Carolina runs on businesses that depend on the place they are in. The people who build businesses in these mountains tend to arrive already caring about wild places and about the people who keep them going. Certification gives that something to be measured against. This is where those companies find each other.
- BLD Southeast. We help organize the B Corp Leadership Development conference for the Southeast, now in its sixth year. It brings B Corps from across the region together for two days, and ticket proceeds go back to six B Locals, ours among them.
- Passing the banner. Our most-loved tradition. When a Western North Carolina company earns certification, the most recently certified B Corp hands the banner over in person. Certification is hard work, and this is how we celebrate it.
- Getting together. We host networking events through the year where certified companies and curious ones end up at the same table. Certification questions get answered faster over a beer than over email. Check out our events →
- Grants. We offer a certification grant that reimburses up to $500 of certification costs for Western North Carolina companies with fewer than 10 employees that certified or recertified in the last 90 days.
Our board
B Local Asheville & WNC is run by a volunteer board of people who work at or lead B Corps here in WNC.
What is a B Local?
A B Local is a regional community within the B Corp movement. We are one of more than thirty location-based groups recognized by B Lab, the nonprofit that certifies B Corps.
B Lab sets the standard and runs certification. We do the part that only works locally: introducing people, answering questions from companies thinking about it, and putting a bit of money behind the ones who commit.
Read our impact reports
The numbers above come from our published impact reports. Both are here in full.
Get involved
Membership is open to certified B Corps, to companies working toward certification, and to values-aligned organizations that want to be part of a community using business as a force for good.