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Success stories: Blended value
Blended value, the idea that businesses should measure social, environmental, and cultural returns on investment in addition to financial gain, is alive and well in familiar businesses that have a proven track record, as well as emerging companies that are expanding the definition of contributing value to society. Patagonia Patagonia clearly defines its company's purpose: "to use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis." A straightforward example of a business focused on more than creating financial value, Patagonia has built a successful company while working to create lasting environmental value. Patagonia's founder, Yvon Chouinard, recognizes the connection between doing well and doing good. "Every time I've done the right thing for the environment, I've made a profit," he has said. To encourage other businesses to follow Patagonia's example, Chouinard helped found a nonprofit, 1% for the Planet, in which member businesses pledge to donate 1 percent of their profits to groups that support the natural environment. Newman's Own
Since 1982, Paul Newman has contributed more than $175 million to more than 1,000 charities and educational organizations. All of this money has come from the profits and royalties, after taxes, he has earned from the line of food products that bear his name and image. Newman's Own, the maker of products from award-winning salad dressings to salsas and popcorn, operates completely as a for-profit company. The difference is that all of those profits are put to use to have an impact in the communities where the goods are sold. Newman said he views charitable contributions as investments in society, and he doesn't think of a corporation as "just being a cash register." Read more in this Dec. 17, 2005 article from Toronto's National Post. Ethos Water When working in South Africa, Peter Thum witnessed firsthand the critical need for people to have safe drinking water. Trained in business, he soon discovered that he could create a for-profit company that would be a natural fit to combat unsafe drinking water in the developing world. He enlisted the expertise of his friend Jonathan Greenblatt, and together they created Ethos Water, a bottled water sold in the U.S. They designated a portion of the profits to fund clean-water efforts around the world, directly linking their product to a related humanitarian cause. In this USA Today article, Thum said, "Ethos is more like a mission with a product vs. the other way around. The company began selling bottles at a cafe in California in August 2003, and it soon took off from there. In April 2005, Starbucks bought Ethos, and has pledged to donate at least $10 million over five years for clean-water efforts. As Starbucks president Jim Donald points out, the "combination of having a corporate social conscience and being fiscally responsible goes hand in hand." SalesForce.com When Marc Benioff wanted to take his company, SalesForce.com, public, he knew that he didn't want to create only financial value. Believing that business has a responsibility to serve all stakeholders and not just stockholders, Benioff set aside a portion of the company's stock to establish the SalesForce.com Foundation. He believes in the concept of the "integrated corporation," in which a company becomes a force for social improvement in its community, and refers to what he calls the "1 percent solution," in which a company gives 1 percent of its profits, 1 percent of its equity, and 1 percent of its employees' time back to the community. Marc expands on his notion of the integrated company in his article, "The End of Philanthropy." More Examples
For more information about businesses and nonprofits that have been recognized as leaders in corporate responsibility and entrepreneurship, see the following award winners:
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