On Thursday, June 11, the third 2026 meeting of the Benefit Corporation Community of Practice took place under the title “Telling Impact Stories. The Benefit Report that Creates Value.”

Hosted at Vol.To, the event brought together companies and professionals for an afternoon of discussion and co-design focused on the annual Benefit Impact Report—not merely a regulatory requirement, but a strategic tool for monitoring, communicating, and guiding an organisation’s value creation journey.

The initiative is part of the Benefit Corporations Community of Practice, developed in collaboration with Unione Industriali Torino and co-designed with the Benefit Corporations Amapola, BDFL Torino, Futura Law Firm, and Mercato Circolare, with the support of the Turin Chamber of Commerce and Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation.

Following opening remarks from Torino Social Impact delivered by Simona De Giorgio, Alice Umbrella of BDFL Torino provided an overview of the Benefit Corporation model and the annual Impact Report, outlining the regulatory framework introduced by Italian Law 208/2015.

As highlighted during the session, the Benefit Report serves simultaneously as a communication, transparency, and strategic planning tool. While legislation defines the information that must be reported—objectives and actions undertaken, assessment of the impact generated, and future goals—it leaves companies significant flexibility in how they structure their narrative and present their results. In this sense, the report also becomes a tool for organisational learning, offering a space to communicate transparently not only achievements, but also unmet objectives and the corrective actions taken in response.

The presentation also shared findings from the latest National Benefit Corporation Survey, highlighting how these companies outperform traditional businesses across several dimensions, including revenue growth, innovation capacity, internationalisation, job quality, and inclusive governance.

The second presentation, delivered by Sara Ferraiolo of WAMI, explored the main innovations introduced by the new B Corp Standards V2, illustrating the evolution of the certification framework and its increasing alignment with the European regulatory landscape on sustainability and anti-greenwashing measures.

Among the most significant changes discussed was the shift away from a model based solely on achieving an overall score toward a system of mandatory minimum requirements that must be met across all applicable assessment areas. This change requires organisations to strengthen their ability to collect evidence, ensure document traceability, and effectively manage internal processes.

The new standards are structured around seven core pillars:

• Purpose and stakeholder governance;
• Climate action;
• Justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion;
• Fair work;
• Human rights;
• Environmental stewardship and circularity;
• Government affairs and collective action.

This framework reflects a growing emphasis on rigorous impact measurement and on the credibility of corporate claims.

The second part of the meeting focused on the analysis of WAMI’s Impact Report, presented as a case study to share tools, methodologies, and best practices for drafting the document. For many of the organisations attending—particularly those preparing a Benefit Report for the first time—the opportunity to examine a real-world example proved invaluable in understanding how regulatory requirements can be translated into a clear, coherent narrative capable of generating strategic value.

The day concluded with a workshop session that directly engaged participants in addressing three common challenges in impact reporting: highlighting achievements, transparently communicating unmet objectives, and designing new public-benefit actions supported by appropriate monitoring indicators.

The final debrief showcased the diversity of approaches within the Community of Practice. Some groups favoured a strongly data-driven perspective focused on KPIs and measurable outcomes, while others emphasised qualitative dimensions, relationships, and listening to stakeholders. The discussion ultimately reinforced the value of the Community as a space for peer learning, bringing together different skills, languages, and perspectives to make impact increasingly measurable, credible, and transformative.