Triple bottom line is a term which describes a business that focuses on three main things: people, profits, and the planet. The first use of it was credited to John Elkington, who founded a consulting firm called SustainAbility. Before the term became known, the bottom line in a business was focused mostly on the financial side […]
The Definition Of A Triple Bottom Line Business Read More 👉
DBL Partners, an investment fund based in the San Francisco and Palo Alto area, recently announced the closure of an impact investing fund worth $400 million. This fund is the largest so far in the impact investing space and will focus on companies in the sustainable energy, products and services, digital media and imaging, healthcare and IT
Who Are The Impact Investing Venture Capitalists Betting On? Read More 👉
Patagonia, known for its jackets made entirely from pop bottles and their “Don’t Buy This Jacket” Cyber Monday advertising campaign, has been a leader in corporate social responsibility initiatives. We had previously profiled Patagonia’s supply chain transparency, but let’s take a look now to see how these CSR initiatives are working out. Patagonia’s Mission For those
Patagonia’s CSR: How Is It Working Out? Read More 👉
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a significant factor in customer relations, representing an excellent opportunity for small business to significantly engage public support. Redefining success in business, corporations creating value for society often benefit in ways that go well beyond the scope of tangible assets and annual profit. According to the 2013 Social Impact
How CSR Brings Big Benefit to Small Business Read More 👉
When the Western financial world imploded in 2007-8, many nations’ economies suffered as a result. Riding out the storm with little to no negative impact in the midst of severe economic downturn, the Islamic financial market has paradoxically been experiencing exponential growth. For this reason, Islamic finance has become a topic of worldwide interest. However,
Islamic Finance: A Fast-Expanding Market Read More 👉
Being born with a talent is like receiving a great gift, but as they say, giving is better than receiving. Now there’s a way to have your gift and give it, too. Just put it in the bank — the TimeBank. Promoting equality through inclusive exchanges of time and talents, TimeBanks provide investors with a
TimeBanks: Investing Your Talent is a Great Gift! Read More 👉
Are you ready to change the world by changing the way it tackles poverty? Can you see yourself as one of the next generation of social impact leaders? Can you commit to a year’s worth of hard work in the field? Do you believe in the radical idea of creating hope in a cynical world,
Acumen Program Trains Next-Gen Social Impact Leaders Read More 👉
Social entrepreneurs, businesses with products that have a positive social and environmental impact, and other capitalist do-gooders, get ready for a new way to reach a hungry audience. The latest social venture from Alex Bogusky (along with Ana Bogusky, Rob Schuham and John Bielenberg) is a community for accelerating social innovation, through collaborative branding and
Get Ready for the World’s First Collaborative Marketplace Read More 👉
If you’re developing a solution to one of the world’s most pressing social or environmental problems, but are in need of a leg up, you might be able to gain an unreasonable advantage by connecting with mentors, peers, and investors at the Unreasonable Institute. Unreasonable advantage, you say? Isn’t that a bit, well, unreasonable? Not
Gain an Unreasonable Advantage in Social Entrepreneurship Read More 👉
The organic fertilizer company EcoScraps has received a $500,000 loan from RSF Social Finance, a financial services organization that provides funding for nonprofits and social enterprises. The loan will help EcoScraps, a three-year-old company that makes organic, chemical- and manure-free lawn and garden products, expand its network of waste management partnerships and increase its exposure
Organic Fertilizer Company Receives $500,000 Loan from RSF Social Finance Read More 👉
Have you ever had your life stopped in its tracks by a sudden crisis? Whether it is from illness, accident, a death in the family or one of life’s other challenges, most of us will run into a crisis at some point in our lives that throws us off the tracks. Torn from your normal
A Gift of Service Read More 👉
As consumer demand increases for green products and companies continue to embrace sustainability as a business strategy, it’s glaringly apparent that there is going to be a need for solid, data-driven information that can help companies make smart decisions. The Fortune 500 has started adding the Chief Sustainability Officer as an official C-suite position, but
The Glaring Need for a Sustainability Info-rum Read More 👉
The local first movement has a new frontier: locavesting. Friday’s stronger than expected jobs report showed several indications of economic growth. Every sector grew, including construction, manufacturing, and agriculture. Image what would happen if we could actually drive investment capital to Main Street! One way to make that happen is embodied in a term I heard
Say what you will about the Irish. Being half-Irish, half-Italian, I think I’m fair game for most appropriate and inappropriate cultural jokes. But the Irish (whose economy is finally recovering after having been lied to by their media) have something that is hard to explain, that binds their culture in a way that few other countries
Irish Pubs create culture and community–why doesn’t America have something similar? Read More 👉
Green entrepreneurs account for critical green jobs creation. This is not to be understated, as not all jobs are created equal. Think about the recent announcement that Airbus is building a large manufacturing facility in Alabama. Yes, this creates a lot of jobs in both the construction of the plant and the ongoing operations at
Green Jobs are “Additive”, not simply replacing other jobs Read More 👉
I have long argued that corporate social responsibility (CSR) needs to be a fully integrated strategy throughout a company in order to have a significant effect on how the company does business. I have also written often about social enterprise/entrepreneurship where one builds a for-profit company that focuses on solving social problems as well as
Recognizing CSR as a Core Business Practice Read More 👉
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uigpyiEhWxY&w=560&h=315] In one of the most stunning keynote sessions I have attended over the past five Net Impact Conferences, Keen Healthcare CEO Vail Horton, who was born without legs or proper bone growth in his arms, closed yesterday morning’s “speed keynote” session to a thunderous standing ovation at the Portland Convention Center. Horton told
Net Impact 2011: Keen Healthcare CEO Vail Horton Inspires the Inspired Read More 👉
The world of international development has so many buzzwords floating around, it’s hard to know what is legitimate and what isn’t. Over the past 10 years or so, the phrase “sustainable development” has entered the lexicon and appears here to stay. While there are a number of definitions for the term, ultimately it has to
VisionSpring: A Model TOMS Shoes Would be Wise to Adopt Read More 👉
According to the venerable source, Wikipedia (there’s actually a citation from the 2002 book The World of Social Entrepreneurship by J.L. Thompson), social entrepreneurship is defined as, “A social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change (a social venture). While a business
So You Want to Become a Social Entrepreneur? Read More 👉
“The more business has begun to embrace corporate responsibility, the more it has been blamed for society’s failure. The legitimacy of business has fallen to levels not seen in recent history. This diminished trust in business leads political leaders to set policies that undermine competitiveness and sap economic growth. Business is caught in a vicious
Can We Fix Capitalism? Read More 👉
In the guest post below, Alice Korngold, Founder of Korngold Consulting LLC, asks corporate leaders, “what is driving you–mission or profits?” by Alice Korngold The new “it” thing in social enterprise is hybrid corporations. There are B corporations–benefit corporations–whose mandates are to serve the public good and also increase shareholder value. There are also L3Cs,
Hybrid Corporations: What Business Are You In? Read More 👉
Recently, the New York Times Magazine has been a hotbed for articles covering business in or affecting developing countries. Last week I wrote about a potentially more unconventional way of looking at the counterfeit goods trade from the perspective of major apparel companies. More recently, an incredibly impressive article was written by Andrew Rice, on
Plumpy’nut and the Role of the Private Sector in International Development Read More 👉
Hot off the presses comes Net Impact’s rather comprehensive report on business schools focusing on “sustainability” programs. “Net Impact is an international nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire, educate, and equip individuals to use the power of business to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world.” The organization is active on campuses and
Net Impact Publishes Business As UnUsual 2010 Report Read More 👉
On the surface Honest Tea and Coca-Cola may seem like strange bedfellows, but ultimately, each company adds value for one another. The question is, does it come at a price? This issue was explored recently in a New York Times Case Study in the Small Business report.
Honest Tea and Coca-Cola: A Match Made in…? Read More 👉
