Accelerating the Conscious Capitalism and Working for Good movement at the 2009 Net Impact Conference

‘The time is now and we are the ones called upon to make a difference while making a living,” claims Jeff Klein, President of the Conscious Capitalism Alliance and author of Working for Good: Making a Difference While Making a Living, the week of the 2009 NetImpact Conference at Ithaca College. “NetImpact members and conscious MBA students are important members of the emerging movement to create healthier, more sustainable businesses, that serve all of their stakeholders and the greater good.”

In that spirit, the MBA Oath begins with these words: “As a manager, my purpose is to serve the greater good by bringing people and resources together to create value that no single individual can create alone. Therefore I will seek a course that enhances the value my enterprise can create for society over the long term.” (See www.mbaoath.org)

According to Klein, “The increasing acceptance of the MBA oath is a powerful indication of the shift in perspective on the role of business in society and our responsibility for creating conscious businesses. The Oath addresses the themes of integrity, authenticity, service, sustainability, accountability, and more. It is deeply aligned with the principles of conscious business that we are articulating and promoting through the Conscious Capitalism Alliance, which are Deeper Purpose, Value Creation for all Stakeholders, and Servant or Conscious Leadership, all of which I address in Working for Good.”

Klein wrote his new book, Working for Good: Making a Difference While Making a Living, to support conscious entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, leaders, and change agents at work to develop the skills of awareness, embodiment, connection, collaboration, and integration, which are essential to conceiving and creating conscious businesses and to working together in conscious teams.

“Young people today are seeking for meaning and purpose in the work and their lives. They demand that the companies that they buy from, work for, and otherwise engage with are responsible citizens and serve society beyond the value of their products and services, My colleagues on the Working for Good team and I want to inspire and support young entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs to pursue their passion for making a difference in the world while making a good living, and we provide them with models and tools for doing so.”

About Jeff Klein: As CEO of Cause Alliance Marketing, Klein designs and facilitates collaborative cause-related marketing programs. He currently serves as President of the Conscious Capitalism Alliance—an organization dedicated to “liberating the entrepreneurial spirit for good” co-founded by John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market. In this role, he recently produced and hosted the 2009 Catalyzing Conscious Capitalism Summit at The Crossings in Austin, Texas.

Jeff was one of the visionaries and driving forces behind Private Music, the career of Yanni, Spinning, Seeds of Change, and ChiRunning, and has consulted for the Esalen Institute, the National Geographic Society, GlobalGiving, the Institute of Noetic Sciences, among others.

He is currently creating a Cause Alliance Marketing program for O.N.E. Natural Experience to increase awareness of the health benefits of coconut water and to drive the use of coconut water in the place of other, less healthy beverages.

PRESS CONTACT: Julie van Amerongen  EMAIL: julievanam@gmail.com 541.228.4099

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LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/workingforgood
Twitter: http://twitter.com/babajeff

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Equator Estate Coffees: America’s 2010 Roaster of the Year

Today Equator Estate Coffees and Teas (www.EquatorCoffees.com) was named America’s 2010 Roaster of the Year in Roast Magazine’s highly competitive challenge, triumphing over 40 of the country’s best coffee roasters for Equator’s special blend of quality, sustainability, and business innovation.

Equator proudly joins the ranks of the very top US-based roasters, including previous winners Intelligentsia, Stumptown and Counter Culture. Competing against industry heavy-weights, Equator was picked as the best roaster in America as much for its long-term commitment to quality, as for its cutting-edge sustainability practices and business innovations including the purchase of a small coffee farm in Panama.

The final round of the Roaster of the Year competition pitted Equator against two other finalists in a blind cupping of their coffees by industry professionals. Equator submitted three coffees: Panama Esmeralda Geisha, Ethiopia Amaro Gayo Organic and Moka Java, winning this round and clinching the Roaster of the Year award.

Like America’s Top Chef and the James Beard Award, Roaster of the Year is considered a top award in the $13.65 billion U.S. specialty coffee market.

Among the achievements for which Equator was honored in this year’s Roaster of the Year competition were:

• Equator has a proven track-record of coffee quality, regularly winning awards and attracting some of the industry’s most celebrated chefs.
• Equator was a pioneer in adopting the ultra-efficient Loring Smart Roaster, which reduces carbon emissions by 80%.
• Equator’s biofuel and hybrid vehicles make all deliveries; and the company composts 100 percent of its coffee chaff and burlap bags.
• Equator has provided micro-loans to coffee partners around the world for quality related investments.
• Equator has spearheaded social and environmental sustainability projects that benefit food challenged communities in coffee growing regions around the world.
• Equator recently purchased its own farm in Panama, where they are in the process of growing ultra-boutique, sustainable coffee alongside a team of Panamanians with generations of experience in coffee cultivation.

“Equator Estate Coffees & Teas encompasses the core of a true artisan coffee-roaster,” says Connie Blumhardt, Publisher of Roast Magazine. “Roast chose Equator Estate Coffees as our 2010 Macro Roaster of the Year because of their commitment to sustainability, desire to educate their employees and customers as well their continual drive to push the boundaries of what it means to be a coffee roaster. Equator Coffees has a true passion for creating and selling amazing coffee.”

Equator was an early champion of fair trade practices that address economic, environmental, and social issues in coffee growing communities. Equator has instituted micro-loan programs in coffee growing countries, and recently partnered with ZERI Foundation and a young Zimbabwean woman named Chido Govero in an innovative “pulp to protein” program that increases food security for people in coffee growing regions.

“The Roaster of the Year award is a tremendous honor. This peer-level recognition validates our efforts to promote sustainability both at home and in the global coffee growing communities with whom we collaborate so closely,” said Helen Russell, CEO and co-founder of Equator Coffees. “Equator relentlessly seeks to improve our quality, sustainability and innovation; we are grateful to our employees, customers and farmer-partners whose sincere commitment to our work has made this possible.”

About Equator Coffees

A women-owned green business co-founded by Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell in 1995, San Rafael, CA-based Equator Coffees & Teas is a specialty coffee roaster, tea purveyor and coffee farm owner. Equator sources and grows boutique-grade Estate, Organic, Fair Trade, and Rainforest Alliance Certified coffees around the globe. Over the years Equator has built a vast network of suppliers rooted in quality and sustainability. Its experimental geisha varietal coffee farm in Volcan, Panama is under development and is expected to produce its first harvest in 2012. Equator’s tea line includes rare Chinese and Japanese offerings, as well as boxed tea under the label Rare Cargo. Bay Area customers include the French Laundry, Bouchon Restaurants and Bakeries, Citizen Cake, La Boulange and Whole Foods Markets. Equator has won numerous awards including the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Business (2008 & 2009), National Association of Women Business Owners – Trail Blazer Award (2009), San Francisco’s Business Times Top 100 Fastest Growing Woman Owned Businesses (7 years in a row), the Specialty Coffee Association’s annual Roasters Choice Award (2009) and the Women’s Initiative: “Woman Owned Business of the Year” (2009). For more information: www.EquatorCoffees.com, www.facebook.com/EquatorCoffees and Twitter: @EquatorCoffees.

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Economic Crisis Demonstrates Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is here to Stay

Economic Crisis Demonstrates Corporate Citizenship and CSR are here to Stay

For years there has been an ongoing discussion about how corporate social responsibility would – or not – stand up to a deep recession. The debate is no longer academic and the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship has data that shows CSR – or corporate citizenship as we call it – is clearly here to stay. If anything as our biennial State of Corporate Citizenship survey, of 800 senior executives shows the recession has deepened the integration corporate citizenship into the core of business strategy and operation. (54%) of executives surveyed said corporate citizenship was more important during a recession

The State of Corporate Citizenship in the United States 2009 made possible with a grant from the Hitachi Foundation is the 4th biannual survey of Senior Executives conducted by the Center for Corporate Citizenship executives leaders and is the only research of its kind to provide a comprehensive overview of executives of small, medium, and large-sized U.S. businesses perceptions and actions on corporate citizenship.

Highlights of the survey, include:

* Despite upheaval in the economy, a majority of U.S. companies are not making major changes in their corporate citizenship practices. Of those who made changes 38% reduced philanthropy/giving, 27% increased layoffs, and 19% reduced R&D for sustainable products.

* Reputation was cited by 70% as a driver for corporate citizenship, tied for the top spot with “it fits our company traditions and values.”

* Most U.S. senior executives believe business should be more involved than it is today in addressing major public issues including health care, product safety, education, and climate change. Surveyed in June, just as the national debate on health care began to intensify, some 65 percent said business should increase its involvement in this issue.

* Large companies significantly increased their investments and involvement in citizenship activities, but were more likely to impose layoffs. Small firms stayed committed to their emphasis on treating employees well by minimizing layoffs. But they significantly decreased attention to other aspects of citizenship.

While corporate citizenship is clearly gaining traction as a business imperative the 2009 survey points to new challenges particularly as business seeks to rebuild public trust through self regulation and engage in public policy making. The current crisis has expanded the “lens” by which the public judge companies corporate citizenship performance. With critical failures in corporate governance and management accountability in the financial sector the spotlight is once again focused on central pillar of Corporate Citizenship, governance, and the responsibility of corporate directors and senior management to ensure accountability of the firm to both its shareholders and society. It brings back into focus that corporate citizenship is, in the end, about the total impact of the company on society and not simply a set of corporate citizenship programs be they community involvement programs or green products and services. Going forward companies will need to ensure they have embedded corporate citizenship principles and policies across all domains of the firm from governance, to operations to products and services if they are to be viewed as credible when they talk about self regulation and participation in public policy making on critical social and environmental issues.

We would like to know how are findings relate to the experience of your company in this economic downturn. Take a look at our survey (PDF) found here and let’s see how the opinions of these 756 executives compare to what you are experiencing. Would you agree that corporate citizenship is more important during a recession?

To add your thoughts to the discussion…click here. via 3blmedia.com

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability: A Business Opportunity?

The Social Responsibility of business is to increase its profits.” Do Milton Friedman’s words still ring true today? Did they ever?

Perhaps Milton forgot one key word: good. The Social responsibility of business is to increase its good profits. By now, many of you have probably read Fred Reichheld’s “The Ultimate Question,” in which he discusses the difference between good and bad profits, and the measurement of a company’s “net promoter score” through the question: How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?

Reichheld describes bad profits as “profits earned at the expense of customer relationships” (think deceptive promotions, unfair charges, etc.), and good profits as those that “are earned with customers’ enthusiastic cooperation.” In essence, good profits are best for the company in the long run as they create ongoing profits, true brand advocates and sustainable growth. It’s not too much of a stretch to include sustainability initiatives into the “good profit” category. So when it comes to sustainability, why do some companies seemingly go after “bad profits” with deceptive adverts and misleading green claims when they know it will come back to haunt them?

To put it another way, given that most companies will never be “green,” or at least not green enough, why do they continue to shoot themselves in the foot by talking about themselves? You’re an oil company, you will never be green! Perhaps the business opportunity they are after rests in shifting the conversation from “look how green we are” to “look how green we can make you be.” Consumers have always looked after their own interests, as they should, and it’s no different when it comes to sustainability. It’s all about me, me, me. How can I reduce my impact? How can I contribute to the betterment of society? How can I be more efficient with what I have? Your average customers aren’t trying to get you to save the world, they are much more selfish than that. They want to do it themselves, and hopefully save some money along the way.

So where exactly do companies go wrong? Many of them target the wrong message (complex, environmental jargon) to the average customer (who simply doesn’t care), only to have the message torn apart very publicly by the small group of stakeholders (NGOs, activists, etc.) who do care, resulting in negative press and a damaged reputation across all stakeholders. Companies aren’t responsible for saving the world, and customers know that, so stop trying to reach for an unattainable goal.

Don’t get me wrong, it is extremely important for companies to minimize the negative impact on the environment and communities in which they operate, but if you’re trying to gain a true business advantage from sustainability, that’s not where it’s going to come from. It will please the small (albeit growing) group of stakeholders that care, but what does it do for the majority of customers that don’t? Nothing. Should you still strive to run a more efficient operation? Yes. Should you do it because a small group of stakeholders are complaining about its impact on the environment? No, you’ll never please them. You should do it because it makes good business sense in the long run.

Focus your efforts today on helping customers lead more responsible lives and you’ll make some good progress in earning the trust, and more importantly those “good” profits you are after. Customers are interested, they just need your help in getting there.

To add your thoughts to the discussion…click here.