Worldwide, there are only a few outsourced contact centers operating under the B Corp label. The Dutch company ContactCare is one of them. For outsourced contact centers in particular, acquiring and maintaining B Corp certification is a significant challenge.

 

In early May 2026, founder and CEO wrote Marc Bombenon of the American SureCall Contact Centers a letter to B Lab (pdf), the organization behind the B Corp certification. In his letter, Bombenon distanced himself from the B Corp certification in a slightly emotional tone. After all, SureCall also answers the phone for oil and gas companies: “We process their customer inquiries. We do not drill wells. We do not determine climate policy,” stated the CEO of SureCall. “We provide professional services to legally operating companies (…). But under FR 1.2, we fall short.”

With FR 1.2, SureCall refers to one of the new Foundation Requirements, or new requirements that B Corp certified companies have had to meet since last year. One of those requirements is that companies deriving more than 1% of their revenue from fossil fuels, gambling, tobacco, or weapons will henceforth be excluded from the label. Existing certified companies are given three years to comply with the new requirements. For SureCall, this was a reason to discontinue the certification.

 

New rules for the B Corp label – B Corp is the impact certification of the originally American B Lab, intended for for-profit companies. Since the start of the certification in 2006, approximately 11.057 companies have been certified worldwide, 591 of which are in the Netherlands. An awarded certificate is valid for three or five years. In April 2025, B Lab updated the standards; existing B Corps must comply with the new standards between now and 2028.

Whereas organizations previously obtained the certificate if they achieved an average score of 80 points, they must now meet basic requirements across seven impact themes. Consequently, a high score on one component no longer compensates for any potential shortcomings on another. The standards that must be met have also been tightened. One example of the new Foundation Requirements concerns the source of revenue: organizations may derive up to a maximum of 1% of their revenue from companies active in the fields of fossil fuels, arms production, or tobacco products. Other new obligations concern, for example, having a climate action plan. Other examples of Dutch B Corps include Auping, Fairphone, Dopper, and Ace & Tate.

Looking for B Corps in facilities customer contact

SureCall's decision raises questions. That outsourced contact center could take the time to adjust the composition of its client base. But at the same time, margins in the outsourced sector are narrow, and the certification requires (among other things) the provision of a 'living wage'. How significant is the challenge for outsourced contact centers to maintain the B Corp certification?

Ziptone investigated. We found 9 outsourced contact centers with B Corp certification and spoke with three of them: ContactCare, Otonomee, and Infinit-O. At the end of this article, you will find short profiles of all nine companies.

Why B Corp?

A conversation about the B Corp label naturally starts with the 'why'. What Jorick Serto, chief strategy officer of the Dutch ContactCare (certified since 2023In this regard, the choice for B Corp is primarily an idealistic one. At the time, it was also the most far-reaching sustainability certification, he says. “We already met the standard on many points; we were already well on our way in the right direction. We wanted to distance ourselves from the established order, in which employership in our industry was not always viewed positively.”

Serto understands Sure Call's considerations for closing: outsourced contact centers operate in a cost-driven, business-to-business market.

Measure impact

Florentin Lenoir, VP Solution Innovation at Infinit-O, says that the company chose B Corp certification to affirm the company's core principles: long-term partnerships, meaningful work, and responsible realization of business value. “The certification gave us an independent framework to measure our impact on governance, employees, customers, community, and the environment, and to ensure that growth aligns with stakeholder value rather than just financial performance.” Lenoir emphasizes: “We didn’t wait for certification to be sustainable; we received B Corp certification because we are sustainable.”

For Alan Gleeson, Chief Commercial Officer of Otonomee, the certificate was a 'valuable framework' for scaling up the business. The company obtained a B Corp certificate for the first time in September 2023, for both the branches in Ireland and Portugal. Gleeson initially thought the label was primarily suitable for smaller organizations and less suitable for companies that work entirely remotely.

Implementation

For the implementation within Otonomee, a full-time employee was allocated and a project team was assembled. After nine months, the certification was completed. In addition, a 'B Corp Squad' was established within the organization to ensure internal support. Otonomee must take into account differences between Ireland, Portugal, the Azores, Madeira, and Bulgaria. However, according to Gleeson, this is no longer an obstacle; in his view, the certification is therefore perfectly attainable for large BPOs.

At Infinit-O, the preparation process for the first B Corp certification took about two years, Lenoir explains. This ran from the initial B Impact Assessment, through evidence gathering, internal policy review, documentation, and verification, to formal certification. “The biggest changes that had to be implemented internally related to strengthening governance and accountability regarding sustainability.”

Expanding your management information

Infinit-O also had to get to work on making sustainability performance measurable and expanding provisions around labor, such as well-being, company culture, fair wages, human rights, learning, and engagement. This allowed these topics to be managed as strategic priorities rather than as isolated HR initiatives. “Contact center operations are driven by people and enabled by technology, so the greatest impact is often linked to labor practices, your office's energy consumption, commuting, equipment, suppliers, and customer-related service delivery. Capturing reliable Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions data“Assessing suppliers and customers, and documenting consistent practices across locations required new levels of coordination and discipline from us,” said Lenoir.

ContactCare applies for recertification

ContactCare’s very first attempt to secure the B Corp label failed. “Back then, we focused primarily on sustainable energy, an aspect over which we had too little direct influence – think of how your office landlord procures energy or makes the building more sustainable,” Serto recalls. “In the second round, we focused on the social aspect.”

ContactCare is currently working on its first recertification, something that Christopher Gits, Country Manager of ContactCare Suriname, is closely involved. “I know that B Corp is a tough process, more difficult than ISO certification,” he explains. “With B Corp, in addition to the certification process, you also have to continuously collect evidence. Right down to the level of minutes from management meetings. In the new B Lab standard, a shift has been made from policy to evidence, and you work with requirements that build up over several years. It also includes a provision for auditing, and that goes down to the level of ‘just show me your payslips’.” We have committed ourselves to the fact that the certification – and therefore also the recertification with the stricter requirements – is complicated, says Serto. Consequently, there has been no question of quitting.

What does B Corp offer, besides a good feeling?

“We pay our employees a ‘living wage’. B Corp status demonstrates that we take employees, customers, and the planet seriously – it is an external confirmation of that,” says Gleeson of Otonomee. “But for attracting and retaining good talent, culture, interesting work, and career opportunities are also essential. Trust among customers, as well as being able to compete more easily in tenders from large companies that have sustainability on the agenda, are other benefits he sees, as is being part of an international community. “That also provides reinforcement,” according to Gleeson.

However, Gleeson also assumes that B Corp status in itself “is not the deciding factor for new customers to choose your company, regardless of the sector. What it does offer is validation and a certain degree of integrity in how customers view you. They then know that your customer relationships, personnel policies, and environmental measures have been externally verified throughout the entire B Corp process. From a procurement perspective, that gives customers a very good picture of how you do business.”

Sustainability: insufficiently decisive in RFPs

For ContactCare, the label primarily yields internal benefits. “Of course, we try to find clients who fit well within the label. But most prospects find our story very appealing and ultimately choose the lowest price anyway,” says Gits.

Serto points out that sustainability is almost always part of tenders and RFPs, but that little to no scores are assigned to it in the final assessment. “That means that a tick is sufficient and that differences in sustainability policies between parties are not taken into account,” according to Serto.

“For ContactCare, the real benefits lie primarily on the internal side. In addition, we want to make an impact in Suriname. For example, with above-average benefits for employees, such as health insurance for employees' children or vouchers for textbooks,” Gits explains. “As a result, employees stay on board longer. If you want to go along with that as a client, we naturally think that’s fantastic.”

Serto: “This sector remains focused on costs. However, employees want to work for a company that makes an impact – and that works to our advantage.”

Gits adds: “In our employee survey, which is a B Corp requirement regarding work culture, we assess how colleagues feel we are fulfilling our mission to help people move forward. We score almost an eight on that.”

Stronger focus on good employership

B Corp certification at Infinit-O has led to an increased focus on employee experience. The organization feels more responsible for labor-related results. “Our most recent available indicators are 82% employee engagement, an eNPS of 77, and 12% annual voluntary turnover. While we would not attribute these results solely to B Corp certification, the B Corp framework has clearly reinforced how we measure, discuss, and improve employee well-being, culture, and retention.”

According to Lenoir, B Corp status is also becoming increasingly relevant in client conversations, particularly with organizations that have strong ESG, responsible sourcing, supplier diversity, or sustainability commitments. “It gives clients an independent signal that Infinit-O operates with verified standards of social and environmental responsibility. However, most clients select us based on a combination of domain expertise, service quality, operational performance, technology enablement, cultural alignment, and trust.”

Is B Corp also suitable for larger BPO companies?

Lenoir believes that the B Corp model is certainly scalable. Admittedly, it becomes more complex as the company grows – consider maintaining consistent standards across countries, client portfolios, labor models, suppliers, and operational locations. But the model is particularly relevant for large BPOs. “The sector has a significant impact on employment, inclusion, responsible sourcing, and client operations. For large BPOs, B Corp would require strong governance, transparent data systems, and strong leadership regarding sustainability to address difficult issues such as wages, working conditions, emissions, and supply chain impact.”

Margin-sensitive and labor-intensive

When asked what might explain the low number of outsourced contact centers with B Corp certification, Lenoir says: “The BPO and contact center sector is operationally complex, margin-sensitive, and labor-intensive. Certification requires strong evidence regarding matters such as wages, working conditions, governance, environmental footprint, customer practices, supply chain, and community impact. For many providers, especially those operating at scale across multiple geographic areas, the challenge is not only to meet the standard but to demonstrate consistent implementation across all those variables.” Lenoir also acknowledges that achieving that transparency and accountability is a challenge “in a sector traditionally driven by costs, speed, and service-level performance.”

“ContactCare started out as a contact center first and only embraced B Corp afterwards,” Serto explains. “With other B Corp organizations, you more often see that their raison d'être and business model have been built entirely around the label from the start. B Corp is not the driving force behind ContactCare’s commercial model; for other companies, I think that is a bit easier.”

New requirements

Otonomee has no problem with the further tightening of requirements for B Corp certification. “The shift from a broader point-based assessment to clearer minimum expectations regarding Foundation Requirements and Impact topics is positive. For us, this direction aligns with why we became a B Corp in the first place: to use an external framework that challenges, validates, and helps us improve how we balance people, partners, community, customers, and the planet.” When asked, the company has no 'fossil fuel customers'.

Lenoir also foresees no problems with recertification according to the new standards. “They raise the bar and move B Corp certification towards clearer minimum requirements, stronger evidence, and more consistent expectations regarding companies. For Infinit-O, this aligns with our own direction.” This company also has no clients in the 'fossil fuel companies' category.

In response to the discussion about fossil fuel companies, Serto of ContactCare argues that it would be good if other B Corps – there are nearly 600 in the Netherlands – would reflect on how they handle customer contact – and to whom they outsource it. Perhaps the certificate will also yield a commercial advantage along that axis.

Overview of outsourced contact centers with B Corp certification

Baltic Assist has been based in Lithuania since 2015 and has been B Corp certified since 2023 (score 85.7). The company's headquarters are located in Vilnius. Baltic Assist provides back-office and front-office services in more than ten languages. The company focuses primarily on clients from Europe and North America and has approximately 250 employees.

BoldrFounded in 2017 and with two offices in the US, Boldr has operational hubs in the Philippines, Mexico, South Africa (Cape Town), and Canada. Boldr reportedly employs around 1500 staff providing diverse BPO services (including customer and technical support) in more than ten languages ​​to clients such as tech companies, SaaS providers, e-commerce companies, and digital agencies. Its client base reportedly includes Claude (according to website): Afresh, BabyBjörn, Brooklinen, Interfolio, Kindred, Meetup, NBC Universal, ShiftMed, and Urban Stems. In addition to the B Corp certification (with a score of 97,5 according to the B Lab directory), the company claims to be the world's largest B Corp-certified BPO organization.

The Dutch ContactCare was founded in 2009 by Jasper Meerding. The company has multiple branches in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname and employs approximately 300 people. The company offers omnichannel customer contact services and software to Dutch and Belgian clients in sectors such as mobility, healthcare, tech, e-commerce, and non-profit, including Hans Anders, Intratuin, Videoland, Bolletje, Arla, Jumbo Group, DigiHulplijn, SGR, RMC, Vattenfall, Verisure, and Dille & Kamille. The company has a turnover of approximately 10.5 million euros (2025). ContactCare was the first and, to date, only contact center organization in the Netherlands and Suriname with a B Corp certificate (score 85,3 in 2023 according to the B Lab directory).

Emapta Global is a broad BPO service provider that is also active in customer support and telemarketing services. Its headquarters are located in Singapore, and the company states that it has operations in more than 30 countries (including the Philippines, Australia, the US, the UK, and Canada). The European hub is located in Macedonia. The company is active in offshore/nearshore contact center operations (inbound/outbound), customer support, technical support, IT support, finance & accounting, HR, legal, marketing, and healthcare support. It claims to employ approximately 10.000 people. The company has been B Corp certified since late 2024 with a B Impact Score of 82.2.

HigherRing HigherRing is an American facilities contact center, founded in 2017 by Michelle Hirons and Susan Hopkinson as an independently funded 'Public Benefit Corporation'. HigherRing operates entirely on a remote model and has employees in more than 20 US states. HigherRing offers services such as Customer and Application Support, Bookkeeping and Financial Operations, Business Ops and Marketing Support, eCommerce, and Wholesale Operations. The total number of seats cannot be determined. The company states that it focuses exclusively on impact-driven, socially responsible organizations in the US: other B Corps, social enterprises, NGOs, sustainable consumer brands, and nonprofits. Revenue is said to be around 10 million dollars, which provides an indication of its size. The company also holds other certifications, including WBENC certification (female-owned company). According to the B Lab directory, the company has been B Corp certified since 2018 with a score of 99,4, placing it in the top 1% of all B Corps worldwide.

The Chilean Happy Health Founded in 2012 and B Corp certified since 2014, HoraSalud provides 24/7 call center services specifically in the field of appointment management within the local Chilean healthcare system. The company possesses an AI-driven appointment system capable of prioritizing and provides patients with reminder notifications. The company works primarily for public health centers in Chile. At B Lab, the company is classified as a software provider rather than a contact center, making it a borderline case.

Infinit-O is a Philippine BPO, founded in 2005, with headquarters in Manila and a strong focus on SMEs in financial services and healthcare, particularly in North America. The company has a very broad range of BPO services. B Corp certification was obtained in 2023 and features prominently in its communications. Revenue is estimated to be between 15 and 25 million dollars.

Otonomist is a facilities contact center founded in 2020 in Ireland. The company, with approximately 650 employees, operates entirely on the basis of work-from-home agents in multiple countries. Otonomee is active in various verticals, including scale-ups in SaaS, e-commerce, fintech, healthtech, and wearables, and offers services in the areas of multilingual omnichannel customer and technical support, social media monitoring, and process automation. Revenue exceeds 20 million dollars. There are plans to expand to the US.

VIP desk was originally founded in 1997 in the US and is currently a Women-Owned Business (WBENC-certified) with offices in the US and operating on a remote model in a large number of US states. VIPdesk serves clients in luxury retail, automotive, travel, and hospitality with services in customer contact, CX automation, insights and analytics services, and consulting. The company has been B Corp certified since [date], with a score of 80,2 according to the B Lab directory. VIPdesk places a strong focus on the economic empowerment of women. The company does not disclose revenue figures.

SureCall Contact CentersFounded in 2013, SureCall has decided (as described above) to discontinue its B Corp certification. The company, with offices in Calgary, Denver, Colorado, and London, has a total of approximately 200 to 300 seats and serves SMBs, enterprises, and government agencies with customer contact services. SureCall is PCI DSS certified and B Corp certified with a score of 83,2, according to the B Lab directory.

 

Accountability – For this article, Ziptone conducted extensive desk research, spoke with various parties, and gathered information. Regarding the 9 outsourced contact centers with a B Corp certificate, it holds true that they are officially registered as B Corp as of the reference date of July 1, 2026, which has been confirmed by B Lab. The B Lab register is not optimally searchable; for instance, not all outsourced contact centers are listed in the 'call centers' category. B Lab itself also acknowledges to Ziptone that it is difficult to provide a definitive list of B Corp-certified companies in this sector. “Companies are responsible for publishing their profile in our online database themselves. As a result, there can sometimes be a discrepancy between our internal figures and what is visible in the database. For example, when a company is already certified but is not yet ready to communicate this publicly. We include such companies in our count, even though their profile is not yet searchable.”
We presented an extensive set of questions to a number of the B Corp BPOs; we received a timely response from three organizations.

(Ziptone/Erik Bouwer)

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