A Better Business Model: B Corporations

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Our current economic and financial systems sanction obscene excesses at the expense of society. It’s easy and therapeutic to rant. It’s more helpful, but more challenging, to propose viable alternatives. In my last three blogs, I reviewed Hazel Henderson’s, Michael Moore’s, and David Korten’s thoughtful proposals on how to repair our economic and financial systems. We also need more responsible business models, like Benefit Corporations (B Corps).B Corps are a new kind of company which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.

In a little over 3 years, there are already over 370 Certified B Corporations from over 54 industries, representing $1.8 billion in collective revenues. Read more

David Korten’s 10-Point Recovery Plan

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We are encouraged to spend our way out of the economic recession—to consume our way back to normal. This recovery recipe has been used for decades. During the recession in the 1950’s, a reporter asked President Eisenhower, “What should citizens do to help the recession recede?”

The President replied, “Buy.”
The reporter asked, “Buy what?” Eisenhower replied, “Buy anything.”
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Michael Moore’s 10-Point Recovery Plan

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I recently saw the new movie, “Inside Job.”  It is a shocking documentary about the $20 trillion global financial meltdown in 2008. As movie reviewers Mary and Richard Corliss said in TIME magazine, “If you are not outraged by the end of this movie, you weren’t paying attention.”

I was. It was not an accident that millions of people lost jobs and their life savings. It was a premeditated plan by financial system insiders to defraud trusting outsiders.
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Hazel Henderson’s 7 Reforms of the Global Financial System

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Sometimes people ask me which industry sectors contain the “high-impact” companies. That is, which industry sectors include companies whose operations pose the biggest threats to sustainability? In the past, my answer was the oil and gas, mining, power-generation, forestry, and chemical sectors. They continue to be challenged to mitigate their environmental and social impacts. Lately, their ranks have been joined by new sectors.

Communications, information technology, services, and financial sectors are usually described as being “clean.” They don’t pollute, at least not directly, so they were under the radar screen of most sustainability champions. Things change. The economic leg of the three-legged sustainability stool has taken a severe hit and it hasn’t been from the traditional “high-impact” sectors. It’s been an inside job. The behavior of some actors in the financial sector is now looming as a very significant threat to the stability of the whole sustainability stool. Once-revered financial institutions have morphed from being innocently “clean” to being dangerously “high-impact.” The sub-prime mortgage crisis blew their cover. Read more

2 Videos on Handling a PR Crisis

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Stuff happens—accidents occur, spills take place, disaster hits, or product recalls are required. When a company faces these public relations (PR) challenges, they need to recover their reputations and their carefully nurtured trust with important stakeholders. Admitting mistakes and accepting accountability is not easy for senior business leaders or senior public officials. Taking credit for success is much more fun than taking blame for failure.
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3 More Videos About the Power of a Few

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Too often, we wait for the people in charge to fix world problems. Why not? Isn’t that their role? Our hopes are raised when we see people with our point of view gain power, and then we are disappointed when they fail to live up to our expectations. The status quo inertia in the current political and economic systems is amazingly strong. When people with important titles fail to shake it up, we may wonder if mere mortals like us can possibly make a difference.

These videos help us overcome our self-doubts. To view these videos in full screen, click on the arrows in the bottom right corner of the video. If you are receiving this blog post via email, click on the title of the video to view it. Read more

3 Videos About the Power of a Few

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Sustainability issues can be overwhelming, depressing, and almost traumatizing. At times we may feel powerless to make a difference. In The Cult of Impotence: Selling the Myth of Powerlessness in the Global Economy, author Linda McQuaig provocatively suggests that helplessness is exactly what some large institutions want us to feel, so that they can get away with
solutions that are more in their interests than ours. She encourages us to take more personal responsibility for global sustainability challenges. The following three videos strongly support our capitalizing on our ripple effect. Read more

3 Videos about Innovating Our Way to a Sustainable Future

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Our current business models, energy solutions, and transportation approaches are unsustainable. If we are to become a sustainable society, they must be changed. Change requires doing things differently—creatively inventing innovative ways to do things differently from how we are doing them today. Innovation gives us hope.

Here are three videos that give me hope about possible solutions to the energy and transportation dilemmas. To view these videos in full screen, click on the arrows in the bottom right corner of the video.    Please note that video 2 is only available for viewing by clicking on the title (The Renata Rail Public Transit System) of the video.  If you are receiving this blog post via email, click on the title of the video to view it
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3 Videos about the Climate Change Crises

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When I reflect on the current corporate interest in sustainability, I am increasingly convinced that a root cause is global concern about climate change. Despite the best efforts of well-funded climate change deniers, people around the world believe the scientific evidence—we are in a climate change crisis.

Awareness of the climate emergency by customers, employees, and other important stakeholders is raising their expectations that companies will proactively reduce their carbon footprints and provide products and services that help mitigate the impacts of climate change. Here are three videos that support the urgency of the situation and suggest a way forward.
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4 Videos about Sustainable Business Models

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Can a company that uses today’s business model actually become a sustainable enterprise? Or, do we need entrepreneurs to launch new companies—with new business models, purposes, and measures for success which align with sustainability principles? This can be an emotionally charged debate. Sometimes, viewing a video allows people to reflect on points of view put forward by spokespeople in the film and to refine their own perspectives accordingly.

Here are four videos that are helpful catalysts to the dialogue about corporate business models. They are intended to support the possibility of companies making the transformation to being sustainable enterprises.
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