#5 Bonus | What is Business for Good?

The Business Pickle

Last week we hosted a panel event on the real world challenges of doing business for good.

On the panel:
📍 Melina Morrison, CEO of the Business Council for Cooperatives and Mutuals or BCCM
📍 Daniel Flynn, Co-founder and Managing Director of social enterprise Thankyou
📍 Monica Becker, Director, Beauty, Personal Care and Household Products at the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

[00:00:00] Gillian Pereira: You're listening to The Business Pickle.

[00:00:04] Gillian Pereira: Last week we hosted a panel event on the real world challenges of doing business for good.

[00:00:10] Daniel Flynn: I think business for good ultimately is using the, the tool and the model of business, to make a positive impact on people on the planet.

[00:00:18] Gillian Pereira: On the panel: Melina Morrison, CEO of the Business Council for Cooperatives and Mutuals or BCCM;

[00:00:25] Melina Morrison: I think capital, capital and regulation are the two things that are really going to drive systemic change

[00:00:32] Gillian Pereira: Daniel Flynn, Co-founder and Managing Director of social enterprise Thankyou;

[00:00:36] Daniel Flynn: my feelings on this is it's urgent. then there's a sense of great hope.

[00:00:41] Gillian Pereira: and Monica Becker, Director, Beauty, Personal Care and Household Products at the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute.

[00:00:50] Monica Becker: If you don't have the budget to do, let's say a detailed carbon accounting effort, you know, pick one, two or three things to get started.

[00:01:00] Gillian Pereira: You can access the full discussion on our website, thebusinesspickle.com.

[00:01:04] Gillian Pereira: It would be great to begin with what we mean by business for good. All the way from, providing jobs, essential products and services, for others, it might mean becoming carbon neutral, donating revenue or profits to a good cause it might be reviewing supply chain and thinking about ethics, environmental, sustainable practices.

[00:01:27] Gillian Pereira: And just yesterday, we heard the news from Patagonia that as of now earth is their only shareholder, as they said, as the Chouinard family gives the entire $3 billion company to a trust and non-profit.

[00:01:40] Gillian Pereira: Melina on what does business for good mean for you in your context?

[00:01:46] Melina Morrison: If you think about the whole context for which we are trying to deliver impact through businesses now, we do live in market economies and most economies are capitalist. And that is the economic system that's brought the world to this perilous state of being on the edge of a systems collapse.

[00:02:08] Melina Morrison: I just wanna call that out because, you know, that's why a business leader like the CEO of Patagonia is responding. Because what is the point of all of this, if we're generating capital to what end and I think it's just important to take a moment to think about that.

[00:02:25] Melina Morrison: For us in the cooperative and mutual sector, unless you can actually resolve the tension between the purpose of the business and the impact it has then you can't really have business that is good for anything except, negatively impacting overall on society, the economy and the environment.

[00:02:47] Melina Morrison: So I, I rather than sort of picking off chosen causes, all of which are critical for me, this doing business for good is really about business. Being able to resolve any tension between its purpose and the impact that it creates more broadly its stakeholders and more broad broadly, the ultimate stakeholder, which is, the planet that we live on.

[00:03:14] Gillian Pereira: Wow. That's a powerful response. And I love that idea of the tension between purpose and the impact that we're creating. And Daniel, would love to hear your thoughts on what business for good means.

[00:03:26] Daniel Flynn: I think business for good ultimately is using the, the tool and the model of business to make a positive impact on people on the planet at a real simple level. And, uh, interesting kind of where we're hitting hard on capitalism, straight out of the gate.

[00:03:42] Daniel Flynn: And at Thankyou our business is owned a hundred percent by our charitable trust, similar to Patagonia's latest move and, for us, we've sort of been anti the way the world's become, but actually interesting to see the role that capitalism or capital markets has, have helped lift some areas out of poverty.

[00:04:00] Daniel Flynn: And so there's an argument and those that are fundamental on capitalism would say no, no, no, no. But can you see in the data, it has been a force for good. And like all good data you can draw many things from it. There's no doubt that business and progress helps lift society. However, it's got out of balance, it's got absolutely outta whack. Now there's the destruction of people, planet, all for the pursuit of profit for that ultimate shareholder gain.

[00:04:30] Daniel Flynn: And so I would say businesses that exist for good have figured out how to lead with purpose and have the business model support that purpose, you know, while also taking care of its stakeholders from investors to employees and leaders. It's a huge tension. Everyone's talking about it. Very few people are walking the talk. And I think it's a something for us to all wrestle with.

[00:04:54] Gillian Pereira: And to you, Monica.

[00:04:56] Monica Becker: Yeah. So, you know, I'm glad Melina and Daniel that you've kicked us off, at that level of thinking about the business enterprise and what business for good is all about.

[00:05:07] Monica Becker: What I wanna do is to dig in a little bit more from my role in the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, where our work is really supporting what I think is a pretty bold and beautiful sustainability vision with the focus that we have, which is on products and the systems that create them.

[00:05:27] Monica Becker: So, let me share our vision with you, which I think nicely addresses this question, Jill. So our vision at the Institute is a world where safe materials and products are designed and manufactured in a prosperous circular economy to maximize health and wellbeing for people in planet. And we use a shorthand statement as well, which I really like, which is safe, circular, and responsibly made.

[00:05:54] Monica Becker: To us business for good in the context of businesses that are producing products and materials and chemicals, and for companies that are selling products like retailers is business that is keenly focused and is really marshaling resources to bring forth products that are safe, circular and responsibly made.

[00:06:14] Gillian Pereira: We'd love to know: how would you answer that question? What does business for good mean to you?

[00:06:22] Gillian Pereira: This is just a taster from our panel event on the real world challenges of doing business for good, but there's plenty more to the conversation. So to access the full recording, head to our website, thebusinesspickle.com.

[00:06:37] Gillian Pereira: Thanks for listening to The Business Pickle.

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