According to the Model Legislation, a third party standard must be comprehensive, independent, credible, and transparent as defined below: 

1) The standard is comprehensive in that it assesses the effect of the business and its operations upon

    a. The employees and workforce of the benefit corporation, its subsidiaries, and supppliers;

    b. The interests of customers to the extent they are beneficiaries of the general or specific benefit purposes of the benefit corporation; 

   c. The local community and society, including the interest of each community in which offices or faciliites of the benefit coporation, its subsidiaries, or suppliers are located; 

   d. The local and global environment.

2) The standard is developed by an entity that is independent of the benefit corporation and satisfies the following:

   a. Not more than 1/3 of the members of the governing body of the entity are representatives of any of the following:

1. An association of businesses operating in a specific industry the performance of whose members is assessed against the standard; 
2. Businesses from a specific industry or an association of businesses in that industry:
3. Business whose performance is assessed against the standard.

   b. The organization is not materially financed by an association or business defined [above]

3) The standard is credible in that it has been developed by a person that both:

1. Has access to necessary expertise to assess overall corporate social and environmental performance;
2. Uses a balanced multistakeholder approach including a public comment period of at least 30 days to develop the standard.

4) The standard is transparent in that the following information is made publicly available:

    a.  About the standard:

       i.  The criteria considered when measuring the overall social and environmental performance of a business;

      ii.   The relative weightings of those criteria.

     b.  About the development and revision of the standard:

       i.  The identity of the directors, officers, material owners and the governing body of the organization that developed and controls revisions to the standard;

      ii.  The process by which revisions to the standard and changes to the membership of the governing body are made;

      iii.  An accounting of the sources of financial support for the organization, with sufficient detail to disclose any relationships that could reasonably be considered to present a potential conflict of interest.