Infographic: What’s a B Corporation?
With the number of companies in the world today, it can be hard to discern which truly embody social and environmental values worth supporting. A certified B Corporation is a company that voluntarily meets certain standards of transparency, accountability, and performance.
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#benefit corporation #Business #b corps #social enterprise #large
Is the Social Enterprise Bubble About to Burst?
Social enterprises are transforming development work, and social entrepreneurs are being hailed as rock stars. But are these do-good companies just another business trend? Social entrepreneurs talk about profit vs. impact, being treated as ‘godly human beings,’ and whether or not their bubble is about to burst.
Need Blind: Vision Spring and Warby Parker Shake Up Eyewear With Impact
Two social enterprises partner to battle unfair eyewear markup, bringing affordable glasses to Brooklyn hipsters and Indian farmers alike. VisionSpring, a nonprofit social enterprise, focuses on selling low-cost glasses to people earning between $1 and $4 per day. Warby Parker, a for-profit B-Corp, sells affordable eyewear in the domestic market while donating a pair of frames to VisionSpring for each pair it sells.
“It didn’t make sense to us that a pair of glasses costs as much as an iPhone,” says Warby Parker co-founder Neil Blumenthal.
Updating a nonprofit's website…
Ever wonder how to make nonprofit work more interesting? Don’t overthink it. Check out how GOOD Community member Leah Neaderthal created a blog, workingatanonprofit.tumblr.com to “fulfill a community need.”
Rethinking Cityscapes, One Rain Barrel at a Time
- Sarah Stankorb and GOOD Partnerships wrote in Small Business Collaborative and Business
Mike, a graphic designer, and his wife Lynn, a commercial photographer, soon found their weekends dominated by handcrafting rain barrels. “It really was just kind of a labor of love at that time,” says Ruck. By 2000, the couple sold over 300 barrels in one weekend and were eventually able to quit their day jobs and begin producing their own rain barrels, made in America, from 100 percent recycled plastic. Rain Water Solutions was born.
“When we first got into this, we used to just see the conservation types,” as Mike Ruck calls them, “water geeks” like themselves. But erratic weather like the recent years’ droughts have made people more keen on keeping rain barrels at home, and water quality standards are pressing towns and cities to better manage their runoff when storms do hit. Rain Water Solutions sells to homeowners and commercial land owners who can have barrels shipped directly to their door, but primarily to municipalities—and there the company fulfills a vital (and profitable) role.
Infographic: What Do Small Businesses Mean to You?
Quick, can you name five small businesses in your neighborhood? If you’re like most Americans, you can probably think of even more than five. After all, small businesses represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms in America – that’s nearly 6 million companies. Small businesses (defined by the Small Business Association as companies with less than 500 employees) employ about half of all private sector workers. But aside from employing millions of Americans, studies show that many of us also think highly of these types of businesses and even have an emotional connection with them. Here’s what Americans have to say when it comes to small businesses.
Design by Deeplocal
This post is brought to you by GOOD, with support from UPS. We’ve teamed up to bring you the Small Business Collaborative, a series sharing stories about innovative small businesses that are changing business as usual for their communities and beyond. Learn how UPS is helping small businesses work better and more sustainably here.
Turns Out Bike Lanes Are Really Good for Local Business
- Meghan Neal wrote in Business, Transportation and Cities
Good news for bike activists: Making a safe place on streets for cyclists (and pedestrians) boosts sales for the small businesses in the area.
This according to a recent report from the New York Department of Transportation. The study found that on commercial blocks where new bike lanes were built, the businesses saw a nearly 50 percent increase in sales.
Join us for our Fix Your Street Challenge on the last Saturday of May. Click here to say you’ll Do It and be sure to share stories of transportation innovation all month.
Five Ways that Games are More than Just Fun
- Chloe Varelidi wrote in Business, Living and Play
As a game designer, I know how creative and inspiring it can be to play. But we can all benefit from being more playful—and the act of playing a game can be more about just having fun. Ready, set, play!
- They make us more social.
- They empower us to be creative.
- They help us develop empathy.
Illustration by Jessica De Jesus
How to Be More Productive and Creative at Work? Play More
- Jessica Walsh wrote in Business, Creativity and Play
I’m a player: I love to play, in all aspect of my life, and especially within my work as a creative. I see much of my work as play, rather than seeing it as a job. And when I look back at my body of work, I’ve realized that the more fun and the more play that went into the ideas or process of creation, the better people seem to respond to the end result.
The GOODEST: Make a Pro Bono Commitment
-Alessandra Rizzotti and Jessica De Jesus contributed in Business, Culture and News
The GOODEST can be so many things, but why not just narrow it down to one thing each week? We’ll change it up and keep it fresh. After all, we consume so much daily, so for the weekend, why not just take away one great learn and do from the week?
Help Your Company Add a Pro Bono Service Program
Public Architecture wrote this downloadable letter so that you can urge your CEO tomake meaningful work a part of actual work.
Will you fill out the letter and send it off? Tell us here.
Illustration by Jessica de Jesus. Original image from Auctiva.
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