A conversation with Harper Wells, Chief Compliance Officer at Learning Pool
March is B Corp Month, a time when certified B Corporations around the world celebrate what it means to use business as a force for good. Learning Pool has held B Corp certification since 2023.
We sat down with Harper Wells, Learning Pool’s Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer, to talk about what B Corp certification actually is, why it matters, and why it’s relevant to anyone who buys from, works for, or partners with a company.
Let’s start with the basics. What is a B Corp?
HW: B Corp stands for Benefit Corporation. It’s a certification awarded by B Lab, an independent nonprofit that has been running this program since 2006. To earn it, a company has to go through a rigorous assessment of how it operates across several impact areas: purpose and governance, fair work, justice and equity, human rights, climate action, environmental stewardship, and whether you're contributing constructively to the broader economy.
The process isn’t self-reported and left at that. It’s independently audited and verified by a third party, based on ISO 17021-1 requirements. So when you see the B Corp logo on a company, it means someone outside that company has looked at the evidence and confirmed it.
The median score for ordinary businesses that go through the assessment is around 50 points. B Corp certification requires a minimum of 80. That gap matters.
Why did Learning Pool pursue this certification?
HW: Honestly, because it reflects how we’ve always tried to operate. Our values have always been about doing right by our people, our customers, and the communities where we work. B Corp gave us a framework to measure that and be held accountable to it.
There’s also something meaningful about being a learning company that works in the compliance and ethics space pursuing this kind of certification. We talk to our customers every day about culture, accountability, and doing the right thing. It would feel inconsistent to deliver that message without living it ourselves.
Our CEO Benoit de La Tour puts it simply: ESG isn't a separate initiative at Learning Pool—it's how we work. B Corp is one way that commitment gets tested and verified externally.
What does B Corp certification actually require? What does Learning Pool have to demonstrate?
HW: The assessment covers several impact areas: how you treat your workers, whether your governance actually reflects your stated purpose, your commitment to equity and human rights, your environmental footprint, and whether you're playing a constructive role in the broader economy. And they're evaluated together, not in isolation. The standards were also significantly updated in 2025, so the bar is even higher than when we first certified.
What I find meaningful about it is that none of those areas are optional. You can't ace the fair work section and ignore your climate impact. It's a holistic picture of how a company operates.
The assessment isn’t a self-assessment you fill out once and submit. For each impact area, you're answering specific questions and providing evidence like policies and documentation. Someone outside your organization is reviewing that and making a determination. For fair work, that means demonstrating things like living wage accreditation and pay equity practices. For environmental stewardship, it means showing what you're actually doing—we've moved to renewable energy at our HQ and sustainable web hosting and being honest about where you're still working toward something, like our carbon baseline and Net Zero roadmap. You can't paper over the gaps. That's what makes it meaningful to me as a compliance professional. It's the difference between attesting that you do something and having to prove it.
The certification isn't a snapshot. It's a commitment to continuous improvement, and it gets re-evaluated.
You mentioned that Learning Pool works in the ethics and compliance space. How does B Corp connect to that work specifically?
HW: It’s actually one of the things I find most meaningful about this certification. We help organizations build compliance programs that go beyond training—programs designed to actually change behavior, build ethical culture, and give leaders real insight into how their people are making decisions.
B Corp asks us to apply that same standard to ourselves. It’s not enough to help customers measure ethical culture if we haven’t done the work internally. The certification forces that consistency.
Is Learning Pool the only compliance training and L&D technology company that’s B Corp certified?
HW: Based on what we've been able to find, among the major players in both enterprise compliance training and L&D more broadly, Learning Pool appears to be the only B Corp. We looked at the B Lab directory and the public-facing information for the main competitors in our space and we haven't found another enterprise compliance or L&D platform with this certification.
A few other learning companies do hold B Corp status, but they operate in different markets: open-source education infrastructure and consumer learning, respectively. They're not the vendors that compliance and L&D teams are evaluating alongside Learning Pool.
That's not something we say to score points. We'd actually love to see more technology companies pursue this. The more companies in any industry are held to verified standards around their impact on people and the planet, the better.
What should someone know about B Corp when they’re evaluating vendors—whether for compliance or enterprise training or anything else?
HW: A few things. First, B Corp certification applies to a for-profit company’s entire operations, not just one product line or one division. So it tells you something about how the whole organization runs, not just what they’re selling you.
Second, it’s not a one-time designation. Companies have to recertify, and the standards are getting more stringent over time. B Lab launched significant updates to the certification standards in 2025. So it’s a commitment to ongoing improvement, not a badge you earn and hang on the wall.
Third—and this is the thing I’d want procurement teams and compliance leaders to hear—B Corp is one of the clearest third-party signals that a company has been held accountable to standards beyond its own marketing. It won’t tell you everything you need to know about a vendor. But it’s a meaningful data point, and it’s worth asking whether the companies you partner with have pursued it.
Ask your vendors, are you B Corp certified? If not, why not?
What’s the single most important thing you’d want people to take away from B Corp Month?
HW: A few things. First, B Corp certification applies to a for-profit company's entire operations, not just one product line or one division. So it tells you something about how the whole organization runs, not just what they're selling you.
Second, it's not a one-time designation. Companies have to recertify, and the standards are getting more stringent over time. B Lab launched significant updates to the certification standards in 2025. So it's a commitment to ongoing improvement, not a badge you earn and hang on the wall.
Third—and this is the thing I'd want procurement teams and compliance leaders to hear—B Corp is one of the clearest third-party signals that a company has been held accountable to standards beyond its own marketing. It won't tell you everything you need to know about a vendor. But it's a meaningful data point, and it's worth asking whether the companies you partner with have pursued it.
My challenge to anyone reading this: ask your vendors whether they're B Corp certified. If not, why not?
Harper Wells is a governance, risk, and compliance leader with over 20 years of experience developing enterprise-wide ethics and compliance programs. As Chief Compliance Officer at Learning Pool, she leverages data-driven insights and innovative training strategies to foster ethical, high-performing workplace cultures.
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