Participation is the next frontier for purpose-driven enterprises — By Oliver Holtaway, Senior Strategist at New Citizenship Project. Purpose-led companies, including our fellow B Corps, have made tremendous strides over the past decade in challenging “business as usual”, inventing new social impact business models and delivering tangible change. But fiendishly complex economic, social and environmental problems continue to mount…

Tony’s Chocolonely is “crazy about chocolate, serious about people”… and about to hit the UK. — Has doing the right thing ever tasted so good? Chocolate has a problem. Despite the best efforts of Fairtrade and other initiatives, unequal supply chains are pushing cocoa farmers into poverty, leading to modern slavery and child labour in the West African farms which supply 60% of the world’s cocoa. …

By transforming our relationship to food, smart businesses and savvy citizens can build a food and farming system that works for all — A new trend is emerging in people’s attitudes to food and farming: a movement that the Food Ethics Council calls “food citizenship”. According to this way of thinking, our connection with the food and farming system goes beyond the simple act of consuming food. This movement is based on the…

A case study in customer collaboration, creative thinking and partnership among B Corps — and how to look beyond the obvious solutions. — Red-Inc is a multiple-award-winning office products company that puts innovation and sustainability at the heart of everything it does. A certified B Corp, Red-Inc is committed to reducing environmental impact and product costs while delivering a highly customer-centric service.

We’re working with Matt Crisp, a leading expert in smart cities and human-centred technology, to help mission-led businesses connect technology and strategy to purpose and commercial advantage. — There is a huge opportunity for purpose-led businesses across a variety of sectors to drive profitability and mission by engaging with the smart city agenda. That means using innovative digital technology such as data sensors, “big data” analytical modelling techniques and AI to enhance wellbeing, make services better and increase…

Scrapping single use coffee cups is just the latest step that the Bristol-born chain has taken to drive social and commercial impact. — In June 2018, café chain Boston Tea Party grabbed national headlines through a bold initiative. Under the banner of “No Excuse For Single Use”, the family-owned café chain banned single use coffee cups from its cafes forever. …

How housing associations can benefit from fresh thinking about smart sensor tech and changing healthcare needs — “Housing is healthcare.” It’s a common refrain among leaders working on public health issues, ranging from substance abuse, ageism, community fracture, education inequality, loneliness and safeguarding to obesity and food insecurity. In fact, we believe that it’s impossible to separate the future of social housing from the wider challenges around…

How RHP has built an innovative culture that leads the social housing sector — Providing safe and sustainable housing for all is one of the world’s biggest challenges. To achieve this goal, housing providers of all kinds need to tap into innovation and fresh thinking. This is especially true in the social housing sector, made up of companies with social missions who are under…

The House is partnering with a new collaborative network of smart tech, innovation and housing experts to create Future Housing Lab — Housing associations are under more pressure than ever to innovate services and find ways to do more with less. At the same time, demographic shifts are changing what people need from their homes, neighbourhoods and communities, while technological advances are changing what a home can be and do.