In the last four days that I’ve been back in the states I’ve had to pay for bags three times (at CVS, Ikea and Trader Joe’s). It’s a surprising and welcome development, particularly as I’m not in California or Boulder, but in Washington, D.C. My reaction to the pay-for-bag-system has also evolved in step with [...]
I came to the whole idea of social impact and business after several frustrating experiences–working for a business lobbying organization that (not shockingly) ran against my values, becoming privy to the status quo inefficiencies of traditional international economic development and suffering alongside my nonprofit clients as they focused more on fundraising and philanthropic realpolitik than constituent [...]
There’s a market at the bottom of the economic pyramid valued at $5 trillion dollars. But the real allure of this market, at least for me, is the opportunity to help its 4 billion people access healthcare, educational and basic living services. How can businesses access this market and how can they do it without [...]
I’m stymied by another article from The Wall Street Journal challenging the plausibility and benefit of corporate social responsibility. In “The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility“ Aneel Karnani takes the Friedmanite view that companies are primarily responsible for maximizing shareholder profits. To make his point that profit trumps social good, he focuses on the relationship between company [...]
Can Microsoft count social good among its top products? It’s a hard question to answer (for starters, defining and measuring social good is tough) but a fair question to ask in the context of Microsoft’s employee culture of social involvement. Last year, employee giving and company matched funds totaled nearly $90 million. Volunteer time is [...]
How do you engage employees in your company’s sustainability efforts, particularly when you’re just starting out? It can be trickier thank you’d think. In Strategy for Sustainability Adam Werbach reminds us that, Just as sustainability does not work for businesses unless it serves business needs first, sustainability does not engage individuals unless it first and foremost [...]
Does a history of progressive social and environmental responsibility compensate for recent environmental abuse? Green Mountain Coffee is staring into the face of this question now with criticism of its environmentally noxious single-use coffee pods that work with its Keurig brewing system. Last year, more than 80% of Green Mountain’s $803 million in sales came [...]
Microsoft has something up its sleeve. A roiling, innovative and effective CSR strategy, which, even among CSR wonks, has gone largely unnoticed. Over the past weeks I’ve had the opportunity to speak with several executives in Redmond, Washington, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, helping to shape Microsoft’s corporate citizenship strategy. Admittedly, I went into these conversations [...]
This past week I’ve run into a lot of misconceptions about social responsibility and business. Taken from conversations with professionals “outside the sector” to those influencing it, from articles, blog posts and comments, here are this week’s top-eight fallacies about corporate social responsibility (CSR). .. It’s a new movement, so there’s time before my company [...]
I'm Olivia Khalili. I created Cause Capitalism to show you how to grow your business by incorporating a social mission. 
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