{"id":494,"date":"2015-06-18T12:04:23","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T16:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michaelsmithlaw.com\/blog\/?p=494"},"modified":"2025-03-09T22:13:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T02:13:47","slug":"benefit-corporations-and-small-businesses-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/business-blog\/benefit-corporations-and-small-businesses-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Benefit Corporations and Small Businesses: Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

On January 1, 2016, Indiana will join nearly 30 other states with statutes authorizing a relatively new form of for-profit corporations known as a benefit corporation.\u00a0 The Indiana statute was created by House Enrolled Act 1015, which was authored by Rep. Casey Cox (R-Fort Wayne),\u00a0and will be codified at Ind. Code 23\u20111\u20111.3.<\/p>\n

Indiana\u2019s benefit corporation statute, like most (maybe all) others, is based on a model statute developed by B Lab, a nonprofit organization that certifies businesses that meet certain standards for social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.\u00a0 There are currently 1287 businesses certified by B Lab, including some companies that were well known for their social responsibility long before they were certified, such as Ben & Jerry\u2019s<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sorting out the\u00a0terminology<\/u><\/p>\n

Continue reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part I of a discussion of the new Indiana benefit corporation statute and whether it is appropriate for small businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corporations","category-indiana-general-assembly","category-small-businesses"],"yoast_head":"\nBenefit Corporations and Small Businesses: Part I — Indiana Business Law Blog — June 18, 2015<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Part I of a discussion of the new Indiana benefit corporation statute and whether it is appropriate for small businesses. — June 18, 2015\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/business-blog\/benefit-corporations-and-small-businesses-part-i\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael R. Smith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Benefit Corporations and Small Businesses: Part I — Indiana Business Law Blog — June 18, 2015","description":"Part I of a discussion of the new Indiana benefit corporation statute and whether it is appropriate for small businesses. — June 18, 2015","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/business-blog\/benefit-corporations-and-small-businesses-part-i\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michael R. 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