With Move to Acquire Avon, B Corp Natura Broadens Beauty Network and Strengthens Long-Term Strategy — “Ding dong, AVON calling!” was a catchphrase in the ’60s that represented more than door-to-door direct selling of cosmetics; it represented financial independence for women and a culture shift. More than 50 years later, the iconic brand is signaling a new business trend about putting purpose first by agreeing to…

How B Corps Like Allbirds And Patagonia Are Leading on the Climate Crisis, But It’s Still Not Enough — Following the lead of young people fomenting an Extinction Rebellion, the U.K. parliament just declared a climate emergency on May 1, and the governor of the Bank of England stated plainly that climate risk is an existential threat we can no longer ignore. And that was before the recent UN…

When the Hardest Thing to Change Is What Most Needs to Change — Donella Meadows, the scientist, systems thinker, and pioneering environmentalist best known for her prophetic 1972 book Limits to Growth, once shared this powerful truth: “The hardest things to change are the mindsets that create the systems that need to be changed.” Our current economic system is broken because it is…

Through Innovation and Inclusion, Small-to-Midsize B Corps Are Transforming the Business Ecosystem — “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can…

It’s Time to Reimagine the Purpose of Business and Redefine Success — Larry Fink challenges. Tucker Carlson rants. David Brooks moralizes. Others wonder Can American Capitalism Survive? They all correctly diagnose the problem — a broken economic system that is not meeting the needs of the vast majority of people and that has embedded incentives that make it designed to fail in…

B Corp With Reported Billion-Dollar Valuation Uses Innovative Business Model to Build Strong Connections With Customers — Allbirds was recently valued at a reported $1.4 billion. Incorporating sustainability into its shoe and company design from the beginning, Allbirds has attracted the attention of mainstream investors by breaking the mold — and doing it with style. My first experience with Allbirds was awhile ago thanks to my college-age…

By Investing in ‘Meaningful Impact,’ Small Giants Finds Greatness and Growth — Small Giants is the brainchild of Danny Almagor and Berry Liberman — partners in business as well as in life. Named after the Bo Burlingham book Small Giants, the company’s founding inspiration was the book’s central premise: that some companies choose to be great rather than big. Small Giants is…

Moving Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility: Companies Can Lead By Acting on Their Values and Creating Safe, Equitable Workplaces — On the day after the midterms, as we headed into the biggest shopping time of the year, the community of Certified B Corporations launched a new public engagement campaign called Vote Every Day. This campaign reminds all of us that we have voice and power beyond the ballot box.

Attempted Takeover of Whole Foods Provides Lessons for Leaders of Companies That Value All Stakeholders — By Jay Coen Gilbert and Alexander McCobin One of the most visible examples of the rising power of short-term shareholder activism was that of Jana Partners against Whole Foods Market last year. …