B Corp readiness · 03 of 09
5 min read
Legal form and the purpose clause: why PT, CV and UD are not the same here
People find out about this requirement last and it decides fastest. It is not about what you do or how well you do it. It is about what kind of legal creature your business is.
What is being asked
Amend the governing documents so they say two things. That the company's purpose includes a positive impact on society and the environment. And that whoever runs the company has a duty to weigh stakeholders, not only shareholders, when making decisions. The point of putting it in the constitution rather than on a website is that it survives a change of owner. A policy page does not.
If you are a PT
A PT changes its Anggaran Dasar through a notaris, with a shareholder meeting and approval from the ministry. It is a known, priced, bounded piece of work with a schedule you can plan around. The practical advice is to fold it into a change you are already making rather than paying a notaris twice in the same year for two separate amendments.
If you are a PT Perorangan, a CV, a UD, or an individual business
These forms do not carry the structure the clause attaches to. A CV has active and silent partners, not directors with duties. A UD is not a separate legal person at all. There is no wording to insert because there is no organ to bind. B Lab's own legal tool answers by country and by form, and for a number of Indonesian forms the answer runs through changing form first.
So what do you actually do
Two honest options. Convert, which is a real business decision with tax and liability consequences reaching well beyond this certification, and which should be taken for its own reasons rather than for a mark. Or take another rung. There is no third option in which someone writes you a clause that satisfies a structure you do not have, and an advisor offering one is selling you a document rather than a position.
The order to do this in
Check your form before you spend anything else on preparation. It is a five-minute question with a permanent answer, and it decides whether the rest of the work is worth starting this year. Everything else on the list can wait behind it.
The essentials
- The clause needs a directors' duty structure. A CV and a UD do not have one.
- For a PT it is notaris work with a known price. Fold it into a change you already need.
- Check your legal form first. It is five minutes and it decides the rest.
Primary sources
- B Lab Standards V2.1, Release 2, 25 August 2025, legal requirement. Checked 17 August 2026
- B Lab legal requirement tool, by jurisdiction and legal form. Checked 17 August 2026
Written against B Lab Standards V2.1, Release 2 of 25 August 2025. B Lab released V2.2 on 20 February 2026, and the affected topics are being re-read against it before any of this is sold. Every figure about B Lab on these pages carries the date we checked it. Last checked 17 August 2026.
Where we stand
Mula is not affiliated with, endorsed by, accredited by, or certified by B Lab. B Corp™ and B Lab™ are trademarks of B Lab. Mula helps a brand get its own evidence in order. Mula does not assess, does not certify, and cannot predict an audit outcome. We never show the B Corp™ logo, because it belongs to companies that hold the certification. Where other frameworks are named on these pages, Mula is not affiliated with their standard setters or certification bodies either.
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