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Beyond the products and services they sell, founders of socially responsible businesses and social enterprises are building for the future by creating systems that create change. They operate with moral imperatives that let them navigate business decisions while keeping the community, economy, and environment in mind.
Engaging in sociallyresponsible business practiceshas many benefits: a better brand image, happier employees, and improved revenue. Whether it’s climate change, low energy consumption, or social justice, many socially responsible companies are stepping up to create a better world.
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Need some inspiration for planning your social responsibility efforts? Learn from 13 companies, both big and small, working for a healthier planet.
While traditional companies see corporate social responsibility as an additional project outside their main goal of profit, socially responsible businesses maintain lifelong relationships with nonprofit partners and social enterprises creating ventures that are cause-driven and powered by social objectives.
People want their time and money to go to companies that are trying to make a positive impact on the world. Having a socially conscious company will help your business in three ways.
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The CSR programs you decide to invest in will help your consumers and investors trust you. By building a brand image that shows you care about more than just your bottom line, you will attract customers who want to use their buying power to create positive change in the world.
Fifty-five percent of US consumers believeit’s important for companies to take a stand on key social, environmental, and political issues. Seventy-three percent of investors say a company’s ESG is a contributing factor that’s taken into account when choosing to invest.
In fact, consumers are willing to pay a little more for products if they know a brand shares their view on social issues. For example, environmental sustainability is a big issue amongst Gen X and millennial consumers. First Insight did a study that showed90% of Gen Xerssaid they were willing to pay more for sustainableeco-friendly products.
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According to a study done by communications consultancy Porter Novelli, 90% of employeeswho work at companies with a strong sense of purpose say they’re more inspired, motivated, and loyal. Another study found that57% of employeesleft a company within two years if they were unsatisfied with the societal impact that company was making.
Your CSR efforts should also include the well-being of your employees, and treating them as more than just cogs in a wheel. In the Porter Novelli study, 95% of employees believe businesses should benefit all stakeholders—not just shareholders. This includes employees, customers, suppliers, partnerships, and the communities the company operates within.
Taking your corporate citizenship seriously and providing things like sustainable materials and health care to your employees is going to attract a like-minded workforce. Not only will you have passionate employees, they will be more likely to stay with your company, be more productive, and be more motivated.
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You may think devoting your time and energy to CSR means you’ll need to sacrifice profits and derail time and resources. But75% of consumersprefer to purchase from companies committed to making the world a better place. By fundraising and advocating for issues you care about, you will actually attract more customers who will be more loyal.
Rather than having your bottom line suffer because of your company’s activism, it will actually improve, because people will seek out your brand and will be willing to pay more if it means supporting a company that aligns with their societal, environmental, or political ideals.
As an example, take a look at Nike’s 30th anniversary ad campaign with Colin Kaepernick in 2018. The campaign was fraught with controversy over Kaepernick’s peaceful protest for Black Lives Matter. Despite some people posting videos of them burning or throwing away their Nike gear, Nike’s online sales jumped 31%the weekend after that ad ran.
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Beelove is a line of all-natural honey and honey-infused body care products made by Sweet Beginnings, a social enterprise based in Chicago. Sweet Beginnings extracts its honey from the urban apiaries in the heart of the North Lawndale community and employs individuals returning from incarceration, offering a fresh chance at civilian life.
Founded by Brenda Palms Barber, the organization originally wanted to address North Lawndale’s 40% unemployment rate by providing training for landscaping or small motor repairs, but found its sweet spot with beekeeping.
“There’s an interesting parallel between bees and people returning to society from being incarcerated, ” says Daphne Williams, the company’s Chief Growth Officer. “People have a fear of bees and getting stung. People also have this perception about people who have been incarcerated. So having a business that married bees and formerly incarcerated people was a way to take the stigma out of both.”
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Working closely with the North Lawndale Employment Network, an organization that provides cognitive behavior therapy and training for re-entering the job market, Sweet Beginnings acts as a possible employer to program participants. As Daphne highlights, hiring previously incarcerated individuals “is all about giving people confidence that they can actually go out and start looking for a job on their own” once their work term with Sweet Beginnings ends.
Taking the sting out of the fear of bees and previously incarcerated individuals, Sweet Beginnings is marrying the two as a way to reduce unemployment.
Sweet Beginnings initially started selling Beelove products in the same community it was caring for. Local farmers markets and events proved to be great places to showcase Beelove’s products and have employees reconnect with the public.
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Demand from the community also led to co-ops and retailers carrying Beelove products. “It’s really about the alignment and the recognition of the work that we’re doing in the community that has afforded us the opportunity to be in these retail spaces, ” says Daphne. As bigger business opportunities arrive and production scales, Daphne and her team are focused on finding the right balance between cause and commerce while putting their community first.
The richness and depth of ChocoSol’s chocolate and coffee reflect the social impact that this education-oriented social enterprise is making. But becoming a bean-to-bar chocolate maker and coffee roastery was almost an accident for founder Michael Sacco.
“I was working on solar technology for roasting coffee and cacao with Indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, ” says Michael. “But everyone was more excited about the chocolate and coffee than the renewable energy technology.” The pivot from technology to food allowed Michael to use chocolate and coffee as a vehicle for ecological regeneration, education, and economic impact.
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The ChocoSol team works directly with farmers on Indigenous forest gardens in Oaxaca and Chiapas to improve diversity of their natural ecosystems by focusing on “polyculture” farming, where diverse crops are grown together, unlike traditional commercial farms, which only farm one lucrative crop.
I was working on solar technology for roasting coffee and cacao with Indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, but everyone was more excited about the chocolate and coffee.
“They’re built into a communal land rotation which gives way to three sisters (winter squash, maize, and beans), forest gardens, and semi-wild forests. This cycle takes place over 100 years, ” says Michael. This long-term mentality—keeping future generations in mind—is how Michael carries out all areas of business. From operating as a learning community for knowledge sharing and passing on the art of chocolate making, to ensuring packaging materials are biodegradable and sourced sustainably.
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Working directly with independent farmers is also Michael’s way of bringing economic opportunities to the Indigenous communities of Oaxaca and Chiapas. “Both fair trade and organic certification are a barrier to entry when you’re dealing not with one big plantation but with 150 independent producers in a region, ” says Michael. These smaller farmers lack the language and financial resources to get certified, even though their products are already grown organically. ChocoSol has always paid above the Fair Trade requirements to ensure its farmers and families are paid fairly.
Moving forward, Michael and team are taking up local projects to regenerate farm lands in Canada. Food waste from cacao roasting, which includes the burlap sacks the cacao is shipped in, are used to create a biochar that can be used as an all-natural fertilizer. “We’ll be working with a local farmer near Hamilton, Ontario, to do a series of ecological regenerative planting of polycultures, ” says Michael. “We’ll have a tree planted on the north part of the mountain, annual crop planted on the top of the mountain, and a perennial crop of possibly strawberries, mint, fiddleheads, or sweet grass planted on the south side of the mountain.”
TAMGA Designsis asustainable clothing brandcreating garments from trees.Life and business partners Eric and Yana Dales are not just creating fashion pieces but a sustainable lifestyle movement and are sharing the lessons they learn to inspire change within the industry.
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Eric and Yana worked as humanitarian aid workers in Bangladesh, immersed in communities heavily impacted by the effects of fast fashion. “We were seeing many social and environmental problems. We had to start TAMGA to prove that it could be done better, ” says Eric.
The Dales’ initial undertaking was to
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