Three words–easy to understand, easy to share.

This list partially represents the 155 blogs I’ve written this year, but it’s nowhere near complete. Add your triplets in the comments and I’ll be sure to tweet them out.

Stand for something [Tweet]

Make sustainability personal  [Tweet]

Own your mission [Tweet]

Don’t please everyone [Tweet]

Reject your ego [Tweet]

Do not pretend [Tweet]

Inauthenticity will bankrupt [Tweet]

Practice sustainability now [Tweet]

Leverage your strengths [Tweet]

Set big goals… [Tweet]

…But start small [Tweet]

Network before need  [Tweet]

Tap your peers [Tweet]

Fire-up your employees [Tweet]

Recruit internal stakeholders [Tweet]

Launch before perfection [Tweet]

Be obsessively transparent [Tweet]

Form creative partnerships [Tweet]

Build long-term partnerships [Tweet]

Observe what motivates [Tweet]

Make consumers altruistic  [Tweet]

Give consumers details [Tweet]

Recognize all stakeholders  [Tweet]

Beware brand misalignment [Tweet]

Try, fail, try [Tweet]

Become a B-Corp [Tweet]

Internalize your sustainability [Tweet]

Voice your passion [Tweet]

Measure it all [Tweet]

Focus on outcomes [Tweet]

Keep deliverables doable [Tweet]

Evaluate mid-program [Tweet]

Adjust to improve [Tweet]

Report impact constantly  [Tweet]

Support cause long-term [Tweet]

Let mission guide [Tweet]

Don’t mark-up prices [Tweet]

Funding isn’t necessary [Tweet]

Understand funding types [Tweet]

Waste less waste [Tweet]

Safeguard your mission [Tweet]

Prepare for succession [Tweet]

Hat tip to Dharmesh Shah for the addictive exercise of condensing advice into three words. Don’t forget to add your own in the comments–what practice or mindset have you put to use that might help others?

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.

Download audio file (Cause-Capitalism_David-Murphy.mp3)

Distributing books Tanzania, 2006. (L to R) Michael Retzer, then-U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania; Pat Plonski, Executive Director of Books for Africa; David Murphy, President and CEO, Better World Books (Courtesy of Better World Books)

Better World Books has several rare characteristics. It’s a for-profit social venture with a true triple-bottom line. It gives stock options to its nonprofit literacy partners. And it’s received $4 million in equity investment in a round led by Good Capital.

Better World Books collects and sells used books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide through its five nonprofit partners, Books for Africa, Room to Read, Worldfund, the National Center for Family Literacy, and Invisible Children. Books are shipped carbon neutral with offsets from Carbonfund.org, and those that don’t sell are kept out of landfills through a certified recycling program. Today, Better World Books collects tens of thousands of books per day, given to the company by college students, libraries and other individuals.

The company promises 8-10% of its revenues, not profits, to its literacy partners. President and CEO David Murphy explains that Better World Books makes a fiduciary commitment to its partners so that when a book sells “it’s a liability on our balance sheet, regardless of whether we make money or we don’t.”  Beyond this, which is the basis of Better World Books’ mission and its origin, the company wanted its partners to be able to share in its success.  So with Good Capital’s encouragement and guidance, Better World Books created a mechanism to give stock options and a board seat to its literacy partners, turning them into shareholders and giving them a voice in the company.  David and co-founders Xavier Helgesen and Christoper Fuchs diluted their own options to creat the pool.

Each year the five organizations are evaluated on how well they met their objectives and supported Better World Books; they receive additional grants for high performance, which they can use without restriction.

By turning its nonprofit partners (which many companies would think of as just charitable beneficiaries) into shareholders, Better World Books ensured that its social mission brought an economic value to the business, which would preserve the mission in the case of a buyout. Kevin Jones of Good Capital who helped structure the deal calls it “mission insurance.”

At the time of this post, Better World Books has diverted 33, 951,415 books from landfills and raised $8,446,480.37 for literacy and education by selling used books.  And it’s profitable, earning more than $48 million in revenue and growing at 30%.

If you like this interview you should thank David on Twitter like this. You can follow Better World Books at @BWBooks.

With these two questions in mind, I invited attorney Brian Howe of Vox Legal to give us an overview of potential structures for socially driven businesses and to share his favorite resources.*

Brian provides “innovative legal counsel for social business,” focusing on social entrepreneurs, double/triple bottom line companies, and nonprofits with for-profit initiatives. Click the player to listen to our conversation. Prefer MP3?

Download audio file (Cause-Capitalism_Brian-Howe.mp3)

Resources:

• ProFounder is a new crowdfunding site co-founded by Jessica Jackley of Kiva.  ProFounder helps entrepreneurs create terms based on their needs. On the site, input the amount you want to raise, how long you’ll need to repay it and what percentage of revenues you want to give to funders. ProFounder then combines this information (pitch and term sheet) and creates a password-protected fundraising website for your company.
• Criterion Ventures’ Structure Labs helps entrepreneurs understand how new legal forms are structured and how these forms can support the goals of your company.
• LawforChange.org is a legal forum for social entrepreneurs. It’s a broad menu of legal information prepared by law firms and attorneys tailored to social sector organizations that includes legal resources, discussions and blogs.

About Brian and Vox Legal:
Brian is licensed to practice in the state of Washington but works with a contract team of lawyers around the country. He’s applied sustainability principles to his own practice, donating an hour of legal work for every 10 hours billed to the client’s choice of cause, giving clients real-time access to the time clock and billing and providing discounts to B Corporations and other impact companies. Vox Legal is in the process of seeking B Corporation certification. Like this interview? You can thank Brian on Twitter like this and follow him at @socialbizlawyer.

Interview note: In our conversation, Brian referred to Benefit Corporations as B Corporations. B Corp is the brand or seal and benefit corporation is the new legal structure.

*Neither our conversation nor this post constitutes legal advice. Hey, had to say it.

For companies looking for mission-based capital, it also carries four distinct benefits and potential for higher valuations.

1. Flags your entrenched commitment to sustainability.
   Social investors want to invest in companies that achieve high social or environmental impact and that can maintain their impact despite future financing, sale or IPO. The legal and performance standards for a B Corp serve to safeguard a company’s social mission during growth, transformation or sale.
2. Enforces accountability and transparency.
   Investors will ask about your experience, commitment and aptitude before they hand over funds. B Corp certification indicates you’ve already been vetted by a third-party and have made specific legal and ethical commitments for your business.
3. Puts you in the center of a closed investing community.
   Being part of the B Corp community is like the secret knock that gets in front of attentive investors. Nearly 30 financial service companies are registered B Corps (TBL Capital, Mindful Investors, Good Capital, Agora Partnerships, IGNIA Partners, Partnership Capital Growth, City Light Capital and Mission Markets are some. Do I have your attention?).  As of last year, six B Corps have been funded by a fellow B Corp investor and more have been awarded financing from commercial lenders like New Resource and e3 Banks.
4. Gets you a step ahead.
   Investors’ Circle, the angel investor network for triple bottom line businesses, requires companies to submit to the B Impact Rating System. Benchmark Asset Managers, e3 Bank, Good Capital, RSF Social Finance, TBL Capital and Mission Markets also use the impact rating system as part of their due diligence to vet potential investments. Last April the Obama Administration announced its support of B Lab’s Global Impact Investing Rating System (“GIIRS”), built from the B Lab’s company rating system, to facilitate capital to social enterprises.  A B Corp certification not only signals your commitment to social impact and opens the door to potential investors, it can also expedite a lengthy vetting and funding process.

The B Impact Rating System is free and available to any company, whether or not it wants to become a B Corp. The rating system is also an effective way to benchmark, track and improve your company’s social and environmental performance and gauge its impact on stakeholders. The tool is updated every two years; version three is on the way. Funding is only one benefit of becoming a B Corp (branding, transparency, product and service discounts and tax benefits are a few others).

It’s been interesting to watch B Labs develop in mission, scope and impact. I first wrote about the organization in March 2008 and had the the chance to interview cofounder Jay Coen Gilbert a year ago. During our interview I confessed my initial skepticism that B Corporation was just another certification with lukewarm meaning that cost companies money and confused consumers. Having seen the impact of the organization’s diligence and talked with many entrepreneurs about how they benefit as a B Corp, I’m now an informed advocate with a blog and sometimes an audience.  But what’s your take?