How Fire Lily Became a Certified B Corporation
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Fire Lily Coffee became a Certified B Corporation on December 12, 2021 — back when we were still called Exilior. The name changed. The commitment didn't. Here's what B Corp certification actually means, and why we pursued it in the first place.
What is a B Corporation?
A B Corporation certification recognizes companies that meet high, verifiable standards for transparency, accountability, and social and environmental impact. It's not a label you slap on — it's a commitment you prove.
The certification is granted by B Lab, a global nonprofit founded in 2006 with a straightforward premise: the economy should work for people and the planet, not just shareholders. B Lab believes that current legal systems and business cultures have contributed to structural inequality, environmental degradation, and a growing disconnect between companies and the communities they operate in. Their solution is to channel the power of business toward something better — by holding companies accountable to all stakeholders, not just the ones holding equity.
How does a company become certified?
It's not easy, and it's not meant to be. B Lab's certification process varies by revenue, company size, industry, and ownership structure, but every company goes through a B Impact Assessment. That means embedding stakeholder considerations into your corporate governance, completing risk reviews, submitting documentation, and sitting through interviews — all designed to measure whether your commitment to social and environmental impact is real.
The benchmark is 80 points. The average company scores 50.9.
Fire Lily scored 96.
Our path to certification
Co-founder Francis Kungu started the B Impact Assessment in 2019. Doing it solo as a small business owner was exactly as hard as it sounds. In 2021, he connected with Built Oregon and Mike Mercer of MMercer Consulting, and that support changed everything.
Eight months of meetings, consultations, interviews, and paperwork later, we became a Certified B Corporation — with a score nearly double the average.
But certification didn't change who we are. It confirmed it. Whether we were Exilior or Fire Lily, the mission has been the same from day one: a small, family-owned company with deep Kenyan heritage, building a business that empowers Kenyan coffee-growing families. The name evolved. The 96 didn't need to.