On April 13, 2010 Governor Martin O’Malley signed Bill 690 into law making Maryland the first state in the Union to recognize Benefit Corporations, allowing for the creation of a corporate form that would legally recognize business entities that had social and environmental missions, not just a profit mission.
Senator Raskin, who sponsored the legislation, called this “a great moment in the evolution of commercial life in Maryland and America” and called on Maryland to “become the Delaware of B Corporations.”
Against the background of the BP and Massey Energy disasters and the Goldman Sachs testimony on Capitol Hill exposing their ruthless pursuit of profits, it is time for a different approach. As Buckminster Fuller once said: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
The Benefit Corporation is our new model and over time we fully expect the old corporate models to become a relic of a shortsighted way of doing business. Now is the time to begin the shift and make the Benefit Corporation a reality and part of our future.
Senate Bill 595: Corporations – Limited Liability Companies – Election to Be a Benefit Corporation
Senate Bill 595 and its companion bill, House Bill 1151, was signed into law by Governor Martin O'Malley on May 19, 2011, allowing triple-bottom-line Maryland LLCs to become Benefit LLCs.
On September 13, 2010, over 70 people joined CSBA, the Regional Manufacturing Institute (RMI), U.S. Green Building Council Maryland to celebrate the end of summer and Maryland’s passage of the nation’s first Benefit Corporation legislation.
Speakers:
Jay Coen Gilbert, co-founder of B-Lab,
Bill Clark of Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP,
Kasey Wright, Senator Raskin's Office,
Peter Sheehan, Whiteford Taylor Preston LLP
David O’Leary, Investors’ Circle
Michael Shuman, Director for Research and Economic Development, BALLE
