Mission Markets in Sustainable Industries

Mission Markets Blog

Mission Markets was featured in a short article in Sustainable Industries online, read it here. The article is titled “Mission Markets Propels Ecosystem Markets: Two trading platforms from Mission Markets could spur environmental and social investment.”

Sustainable Industries is a media company with an award-winning magazine, online articles, podcasts, webinars, and more. Sustainable Industries, like Mission Markets, is a B Corp, that “connects the dots between the environmental and social components of the region’s economy.”

Like Sustainable Industries, MissionMarkets.com works to unite the social and environmental fields, bringing socially and environmentally focused companies together with mission-driven investors.

MissionMarketsEarth.com, our comprehensive environmental credits platform, is described in the article:

“Ecosystem markets, or payments for ecosystem services, place a value on services provided by nature, such as water filtration or carbon sequestration and offer a means to provide economic incentive for conservation. Mission Markets’ tradable credits include renewable energy certificates, carbon credits, water quality credits, wetland mitigation and habitat credits, and fisheries catch shares, all of which would first be certified by Markit Environmental Registry”.

A longer, more in-depth article about Mission Markets will be featured in Sustainable Industries this October.

Visit www.missionmarkets.com and www.mmearth.com for more information, and sign up as a company or an investor here.

Keep Reading,
– The Mission Markets Team

 

Mission Markets Inc.

Mission Markets operates a private investment exchange facilitating transactions within the social and environmental capital markets. The Mission Markets platform provides companies and organizations with access to funding and impact investors an efficient way to evaluate, invest in and monitor sustainable investment opportunities.

Innovation: An Inside Job?

Employees are often argued to be the greatest resource of a company.  But are all employees valued equally when it comes to innovation?   Is there a means to communicate that innovation up through the organization?

One culprit in the innovation process stems from limited organizational structures.  Another is from dismissing the unusual suspects of innovation.  Sometimes, the search for innovation benefits from listening to people who are not the usual idea generators, who might look and seem different.

 While an open innovation approach to business sustainability offers stakeholders the opportunity to become engaged in the future of a business, it also recognizes that all  key stakeholders have a vested interest the success of the company, creates openness to new ideas that promote business success.  The trick is engaging employees at all levels of the organization – including the unusual suspects.

 Why is this important?  Consider this on a personal level. No one knows your job like you do.  You have day to day knowledge of potential gains related to suppliers, customers, and productivity.    Once oriented to the corporate CSR vision, sustainability plan, and the sustainable business strategies pursued, (whether that be water, energy, carbon, sustainable supply chain), you as an employee have a lens in which to view current position.  That contrast is the spark for innovation for your specific job and how it fits in the larger context of business operations.  This applies from a janitorial position to the CEO position. 

 The ability to drive new levels of sustainable business performance requires more than executive leadership; it involves engagement at all levels.  As communicated within our business sustainability programs, enabled by the right structure, stakeholder generated innovation can be the company’s greatest asset for change. Limiting organizational structures need to be transformed to support innovative ideas rising to the top.   

 Within our sustainability consulting, it is clear to us, that innovation is essential for small businesses to thrive and survive over the next decade.  Companies becoming more environmentally, socially and economically responsible are driving innovations in sourcing, products, and services.  Who are your unusual suspects and are you listening? 

Coca-Cola releases its 2009 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report Online

Coca-Cola Enterprises has launched an online version of its 2009 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (CRS) Report, now accessible here. The online version of “Clear on our Commitments: Our Journey to 2012” includes new interactive features, such as scrolling photo “filmstrips,” embedded CRS videos, and an interactive quiz to test your CRS knowledge.

This environmentally-friendly online version of the company’s fifth CRS Report allows readers to browse its CRS achievements and added materials, review the 2009 calendar year, check out CCE’s forward-looking initiatives for 2010, and track the company’s progress against Commitment 2020.

Comments and feedback about the online report are welcome at crs@cokecce.com.

What do your clothes say about climate change? More than you think…

Climate Counts Blog

Most of us start our days the same way. We smack our alarm clock, wish it were Saturday, and get dressed. The scary thing is, the clothes we wear today reflect the votes we make for or against our climate’s future.

Every purchasing decision we make is a vote. Think about the number of socks, underwear, t-shirts, and jeans you’ve purchased over the years. If you are a parent, think about how many times your kids have tapped into your wallet for those same items. The numbers are staggering. MSN Money estimates that the average-income, dual-parent household, will spend over $170,000 on toys, education, food and clothes on a child from the time she is born until 17 years of age. In 2010, it is estimated that the average two-child family will spend over $1,200 on back-to-school shopping alone. Multiply this by the number of US families, and we’re looking at billions of dollars of revenue for clothing companies.

Amidst this segment of annual consumption cycle, two things are happening: first, kids are being told by huge corporations what is cool and green before going back-to-school shopping, and second, our planet is getting warmer – significantly in fact. Last year, NASA determined that the previous decade was the warmest on record, with 2005 the hottest year in recorded history, and it’s a record well on its way to being broken. According to the National Climate Data Center, we just experienced the warmest April, May and June on record. All of our driving, eating, flying, and shopping is having an impact on our climate. Feeling guilty? Hang in there — it gets worse before it gets better.

The bad news. Even if we scale back as much as possible and try to remove ourselves from the cycle of consumption, we’re still living on a warming planet. We can’t stop the greenhouse gases emitted in previous decades from trapping more heat.

The good news. We cast votes every day for our future. Every pair of shoes, every shirt, every dress, every hat is a choice, choices that can be turned into votes for climate action and yes, maybe even revived interest from Congress in moving on climate legislation that will ease the management of greenhouse gas emissions for businesses and communities.

Companies track our consumer choices and then live or die by the money we spend. If we as conscious consumers really care about climate change and sustainability, we’ll pay attention to the climate actions (or inactions) of companies and make more informed choices.

Climate-conscious consumers will take heed of companies like Timberland and REI which have shown self-motivated commitment to engaging consumers on the ways they are trying to tackle climate change (both are charter members of Climate Counts’ Industry Innovators program). They’ll notice Timberland’s climate nutrition label which outlines the environmental impacts of a products packaging, chemicals, and the amount of renewable energy used to manufacture their products. They’ll notice REI’s investment of over 860 kilowatts of on-site energy generation. And, they’ll flex their consumer muscles by telling VF Corporation (parent company of The North Face, Nautica, Wrangler and more) they appreciate it’s finally gotten the message that corporate climate action matters.

Before you start spending on back-to-school clothes this year, think about where your dollars are going and tell those companies you’re paying attention to their climate change actions…if you say something, they’ll listen.

Mark Harrison is the Campaign Coordinator at ClimateCounts.org, he is currently running Back-2-Cool, a campaign focused on alerting consumers about the climate actions (or inactions) of the companies behind back-to-school shopping ads. Back-2-Cool is supported by these great organizations:

Teens Turning Green

Green Music Group

350.org

Kids vs Global Warming

DoSomething – Alliance for Climate Education

Business Sustainability: Who is Stepping Forward in Your Organization?

Today’s companies and entrepreneurs are presented with the unique opportunity to increase profitability through greater eco awareness and the pursuit of a more sustainable business. However, to reap the value of business sustainability will require true leadership.  The question you may be asking: who is going to step forward as a sustainability leader?

While management is ultimately responsible for creating corporate direction, business sustainability minded executives now realize that their stakeholders have an equally important leadership role to play.  Recognizing this shift, many companies are seeking to refine their business sustainability strategies, improve internal and external communication, and bring cohesiveness to their organization by promoting greater employee engagement.

As we move forward, traditional top-down leadership may fall to the side.  Our sustainability consulting foresees a new age of sustainable business, one in which organizations recognize the value in leveraging their human capital and business stakeholder feedback.   Traditionally led by executive management, we see leveraged leadership cultures will be enabling every role in the organization to:

 •    Initiate grass-roots business sustainability programs within the organization.

•    Create incentives and opportunities to lower costs, initiate process improvements, and stimulate innovation.

•    Establish internal and external expectations for redefining products and service attributes.

•    Align business sustainability expectations within the organization and across the entire value chain.

Today’s businesses are surrounded by an evolving set of market conditions and sustainable consumer expectations.  For some, the traditional top-down leadership models of the past just may not be the right fit.  We feel the business sustainability leaders of tomorrow will rise up from all areas of business and continue to push edge in all industries sectors. 

The ability to drive and maintain the momentum of sustainable business performance requires more than executive leadership.  Our sustainability consulting provides information and resources to companies seeking to redefine traditional business sustainability strategies by enabling sustainability leadership across all areas of their organization.