When Nespresso announced, at the end of April, that it had received B Corp certification, it was a milestone. The Nestlé-owned coffee company was joining the ranks of legendarily progressive brands like Ben & Jerry’s and Patagonia, along with 5,000 other companies around the globe whose social and environmental practices have met the standards set by the nonprofit B Lab, which issues the certification in its mission to make businesses “a force for good.” Nespresso soon began adding the increasingly familiar B Corp logo—an encircled B—to its website, products, and even the windows of its global headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland.
But a backlash was brewing. In June, 30 certified B Corps signed an open letter to B Lab protesting the coffee maker’s certification, pointing to a history of child labor and wage theft on farms
