.

“What would you say to companies that see improving even one piece of their supply chains as too expensive?” I asked.

Joe Sibilia had just shared one method to help companies become more sustainable: take one ingredient in the supply chain and use it to create a social benefit. This is what he had done with Ben & Jerry’s through the aptly named 1 Ingredient program.

Partnering with Greyston Bakery, Ben & Jerry’s uses one ingredient in its products, brownies, to create jobs for the chronically unemployed–former convicts and addicts. Greyston Bakery provides its Brownie Artisans with living wages and skills training and invests all profits into the Greyston Foundation to support job development, healthcare, childcare and housing.

By re-imagining the production and sourcing of just one item, Ben & Jerry’s has supported the rehabilitation and growth of thousands of society’s most marginalized people over the past 23 years.

But not all companies are Ben & Jerry’s. Anticipating that most companies think differently (or not at all) about their impact on society, I asked Joe how he would coach companies to see the financial value in creating something that benefited society. He gave an exasperated grunt.

“I’d Say to the company, ‘If  you’re valuing your supply chain on the narrow scope of cost-effectiveness and you really wanted a cost-effective approach, you’d use slaves, child labor and put up with unsanitary working conditions.’”

Joe’s right, of course. We all care about more than just cost and profit. But we use money as a false restriction, assuming there’s a trade-off between money and doing the right thing. Ben & Jerry’s didn’t take 5% of Chocolate Fudge Brownie sales and donate it to workforce development. Instead the company used market systems and creativity to deepen its impact at no additional cost.

A long-time social entrepreneur, Joe Sibilia’s ventures include CSRWire, the social investment bank Meadowbrook Lane Capital and the Gasoline Alley Foundation, which incubates socially responsible businesses in inner city neighborhoods.

I spoke to Joe in preparation for a session I’m leading on integrating social responsibility into your brand at Sustainable Brands.  If you’re interested in attending the conference (June 7-10 in Monterey, CA) email me for a 20% discount. This will be my second year attending; it’s an absolute playground for people interested in using business as a force for change.



That’s what AngelPoints, Andy Mercy’s company, does well, which is why I invited him to do a Cause Capitalism interview.

Andy founded AngelPoints after stumbling into a volunteer experience at work and being underwhelmed by the standard of Internet applications that attempted to manage community and employee programs. He saw a market need to help companies track their social responsibility initiatives and felt he had enough personal experience to fill it.

Andy has managed to build a platform that speaks to a company’s needs, as well as to an individual’s passion for engagement, contribution and development. AngelPoints has grown into an all-inclusive employee CSR and sustainability platform that helps employees and companies–like Toyota and JetBlue–track their impact in real-time, communicate (and compete!) across departments, donate, volunteer and collect rewards.

In our conversation, we talk about the impetus for AngelPoints, behavioral triggers and the role of storytelling. Click the player to listen or right-click and download the MP3.

Download audio file (Cause-Capitalism_Andy-Mercy.mp3)

Want to support Andy’s work? You can thank him on Twitter like this.

1. 15 Social Venture Capital Firms That You Should Know About

2. 10 More Social Venture Capital Firms That You Told Me About

3. Will B Corp’s New Campaign Be The Death Knell For Cause-Washing?

4. The Fundamentals of Building an Employee Volunteer Program [interview with Chris Jarvis]

5. Trouble Brewing For Green Mountain Coffee?

6. Microsoft’s Organic Approach To Its $90M Employee Philanthropy Program [interview with Akhtar Badshah]

7. What Is Cause Marketing and Is It Right For You? [interview with Joe Waters]

8. 13 Benefits You Can Count on if You’re a Company with a Social Mission

9. The Woman Who Hires Do-Gooders [interview with Ellen Weinbreb]

10. The Best Kept Secret to Social Venture Funding?

11. Why Your Company Should Have a Social Mission

12. The Empty Suit: 5 Cause Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

13. 12 Ways To Convince Your Boss To Add Social Responsibility

14. Can You Crowdsource Your Sustainability?

15. This Is What Customers Want To Know About Your Cause Marketing Partnerships

Observations

• I do a mix of expert interviews, tactical/resource articles and thought pieces, which is fairly well represented in this list. Takeaway: Interviews take a heck of a lot of time so I’m glad to see they’re valuable.
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• This list represents three prime areas: funding, cause marketing and social mission. Takeaway: I’m pleased with the topical base, but am setting a goal to publish more on measurement and evaluation, hybrid models, consumer engagement and emerging markets.
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• I also pulled the 15 most tweeted posts (many of which aren’t reflected here). Takeaway: My content is seen by two distinct audiences–a social media audience and an information-hungry audience. The first is inclined to tweet interesting titles or favorite bloggers casually and rapidly. The second audience is hunting for specific information on how to engage employees or establish strong nonprofit partnerships, for example. This audience of entrepreneurs and employees connects with Cause Capitalism through search, reads the content and leaves (to implement the tactics and measure their impact, fingers crossed).

Less than one percent of people (surveyed recently by BBMG in partnership with B Lab) trust company advertisements or statements made on packaging when trying to determine if a product or company is doing what it says. Given the thought, perception and dollars that companies put into product packaging, it’s an alarming statistic.

So what’s the answer? More product certifications or stricter product standards? B Corporation points to the company–not the product–as the standard of truth.

Let’s take for example Method’s Squeaky Green laundry detergent and Clorox’s Green Works’ Naturally Derived detergent. The difference between the two detergents (both are plant-based, biodegradable and safe to use around kids and food) is the company behind each product. Only one has built a business (and all its products) around sustainability–positive employee relations, harmless cleaners and concern for the environment.

Through an upcoming ad campaign, B Lab (the organization which certifies B Corporations) hopes to help consumers differentiate between products that appear to be comparable, but which aren’t when you “widen the aperture on the lens to look at all the elements that make up a company’s sustainability [not just the merits of one product],” says Jay Coen Gilbert, a co-founder of B Lab.

To earn certification as a B Corporation (B meaning Beneficial), companies must meet comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards. At first glance, the significance of this can be easily lost on consumers bombarded with product certifications like Fair Trade, Organic or LEED-Certified.

The critical distinction (and potential eliminator of cause-washing) is that B Corp certification isn’t a product-based claim, it’s a company-based stamp of responsibility, which guarantees not just that producers are paid fair wages, but that the company operates ethically, transparently and responsibly.

If B Lab and its B Corps–beginning with the upcoming ad campaign–can make it easy for consumers to identify and evaluate truly responsible companies (which no doubt requires some training and education) then future KFC-Susan G. Komen and BP cause-appearing campaigns don’t have a chance of succeeding.

The ad campaign is set to reach 17M individuals starting in November.  ”Our long-term objective has always been to make it easy for consumers to identify and support good companies,” says Coen Gilbert.  With the B Corp certification reaching a critical mass (there are more than 320 B Corps across 60 industries), the timing is right to begin engaging consumers.

“I feel like we’re swimming downstream. Consumers are tired of green-washing.  More than 90% of consumers who viewed the ads say they’ll look out for the B Corps featured in the campaign next time they go shopping,” says Coen Gilbert.

This question led me to Unmesh Brahme who focuses on how companies can become involved in base of the pyramid (BoP) business as a way to alleviate poverty. But what really sold me on Unmesh as an interviewee for Cause Capitalism is his combined experience in international corporate social responsibility and cause marketing (he set up Ogilvy & Mather’s and HSBC’s sustainability programs in India) and emerging economies through work with Oxfam and the World Bank.

Unmesh gave a fantastic interview, sharing a cause marketing campaign he led that took place on farms rather than supermarket shelves, offering up entry points to the BoP market for businesses and speaking about his shifting perspective on sustainability, CSR and management education. It’s absolutely worth a listen.  Right-click and download for the MP3 or click the player below.

Download audio file (Cause-Capitalism_Unmesh-Brahme.mp3)

I’ve highlighted specific points below, which I hope will draw you into the larger conversation.

• Unmesh led an interesting campaign with Castrol in India. By asking Castrol, What’s your brand problem? he realized that they lacked brand saliency with farmers during draught times (Castrol sold motor oil for farm machinery). Instead of investing in TV, print or radio advertising, Castrol used its marketing budget to help farmers conserve rainwater.  The outcome was increased brand awareness and preference among rural communities and increased water supplies.
• Until recently, Unmesh thought that the true mark of a sustainability company would be its elimination of a CSR department.  Conversely, he now he sees the need for an executive level CSR/sustainability function (on par with a CFO) to advocate and influence social responsibility, particularly when it may conflict with short-term profit.  In one word, this role might be described as a ‘challenger.’
• CSR should be removed from corporate communication or community affairs to be more operational, to influence internal decisions rather than external perception.
• Companies looking to engage BoP markets need to understand the purchasing power of these markets and align their services with local income levels.
• Critically, if companies see BoP populations as only a market to sell to, they’ll likely exploit it.  They should first look closely at local social and environmental needs and then develop relevant products (affordable housing vs. televisions, for example).
• Unmesh suggests answering these questions as you consider creating a BoP business or product:
  • Can consumers pay for your product/service over a sustainable period of time?
  • Is a community-based ownership model a viable solution?
  • How has the community approached the relevant issue (electricity and water supply, housing, healthcare, etc.) over time?
  • What’s the community’s level of social/environmental acumen?
  • How can local NGOs and the government support and contribute?

If you like this interview you can thank Unmesh on Twitter like this.

About Unmesh Brahme
Unmesh is the founder of U:Reciprocal Sustainability Group and the co-founder of Climate Civics Institute, an initiative he developed as a Yale World Fellow.  He set up HSBC’s microfinance and climate portfolio in India as senior vice president of corporate sustainability.  Before that, Unmesh ran Ogilvy & Mather’s CSR program, where he worked with USAID, Unilever and Castrol.  You can follow Unmesh on Twitter at @UnmeshB and read his blog.

BoP figures taken from World Resource Institute.