How to Use Business as a Force for Good
I believe our words shape our future, that design thinking can help save our home planet and that with a clear purpose, anything is possible. To be a good ancestor, I operate Dawn Creative with a triple bottom line philosophy: one that values people, planet and profit. Because there’s no planet B.
I’m proud to share that last month, Dawn applied to become a B Corporation, an independent certification and assessment of our impact. It was a big investment of time and resources as a one-woman studio, one that required policy development, targets and reporting on the benefits created by my work. I committed to the assessment for three reasons:
To learn how to increase my impact
To meet and attract purpose-driven companies and collaborators
Because the long-term success of my business depends on it
Actionable Tips to Increase Your Company’s Impact
Every business has the potential to be a force for good. I created this resource to inspire you with simple, actionable tips to increase your brand’s social and environmental impact. Resources are BC or Vancouver-based as Dawn’s impact business model is to support local economic development. I’ve organized the suggestions using the assessment’s five stakeholder-focused impact areas.
With over 90 different versions of the B Impact Assessment defined by your company’s industry, size and geography, there are limitless ways to create lasting change. I hope you find a few ideas here that inspire you.
GOVERNANCE
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GOVERNANCE 💛
Develop policies and practices related to your mission, ethics, accountability and transparency.
Write a mission statement with a formal commitment to impact.
Develop a code of ethics to ensure ethical decision-making. Use this template code of ethics to get started.
Develop and measure annual key performance targets. Find inspiration from VanCity’s 2021 Annual Report.
WORKERS
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WORKERS 🧑💻
Contribute to your employees’ financial, physical, professional, and social well-being.
I am the only employee of Dawn Creative, so the Workers section wasn’t part of Dawn’s assessment.
That said, a great place to start is by paying your staff a living wage, which you can look up for BC at this link.
COMMUNITY
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COMMUNITY 🙏
Enhance the economic and social well-being of the communities where you operate.
Aim to spend 50% of expenses on local suppliers (within an 80 km radius).
Write a policy that gives preferences to suppliers with ownership from under-served populations—women and minorities including people of colour, immigrants, LGTBQ2, low income and vetrans.
Develop a corporate citizenship program for volunteer, pro bono and charitable giving policies, ideally at 5% if you’re designed to give.
ENVIRONMENT
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ENVIRONMENT 🌎
Improve your organization’s environmental stewardship.
Reduce food waste and cater events with plant-based meals only.
Reduce waste by recycling as much as you can. London Drugs takes most e-waste and you can search for what and where to recycle in BC via RCBC.
Encourage biking or transit by offering incentives. Throw a Go by Bike week event or open a corporate account for commuting through your local bike share, Vancouver’s is Mobi Bikes.
CUSTOMERS
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CUSTOMERS 🤝
Grow the value that you create for your direct customers and the people who use your products or services.
Write a policy ensuring the security and privacy of your client data and personal information. I found inspiration from Vancouver-based digital studio Denim & Steel’s website privacy policy when writing Dawn’s.
Work to increase the flow of capital to purpose-driven enterprises, which B Corp defines as non-profits, charities, for-profit social enterprises, local & independent organizations, women and minority-owned businesses and government agencies. Dawn strives to serve purpose-driven clients exclusively.
Write a formal program to incorporate customer testing and feedback into product design. If you need help designing and collecting customer feedback, reach out— that’s one of my specialities.
Walk the Talk, Get B Corp Certified
If you want to use your business as aB Corp certification, I can’t recommend hiring Decade Impact enough. I enrolled in their 6-week Getting to 80 workshop last fall with funding from a B.C. Employer Training Grant. I grew my creative toolkit, learned facilitation skills and actually enjoyed 6 day-long Zoom workshops (shocking but true). I couldn’t have submitted my assessment without them!
Have questions about your own impact journey? Reach out. It’s too long a road to walk alone.
