This is Best for NYC. Ready?
The City of New York is the first municipality in the world to host a ‘Best for’ campaign. Those of you who missed NYCEDC’s introductory post must be wondering what that means. Well, we’ll tell you!
Best for NYC is a campaign to engage and celebrate businesses competing to be not only the best in NYC but the best for NYC. Participating businesses get access to a set of tools and services for measuring and improving their practices to strengthen their bottom line all the while improving quality of life for all New Yorkers. At the core of the campaign is the Best for NYC Challenge, powered by B Lab. The Challenge is a quick assessment to help businesses gauge their impact on NYC’s workers, communities, and environment.
Who’s participating and what are they getting out of it? That they’ll tell you themselves:
Roberto Gill
Owner, Casa Kids Furniture
The Challenge opened my eyes to some things we are already doing well and what the big opportunities are. For example, we are now talking about how to be transparent with my employees about our company’s vision, our financial progress, decisions about manufacturing locally versus abroad, and creating internships for local students.
Liz Gutman & Jen King
Founders, Liddabit Sweet Bakery
We run our company in line with our values — paying living wages, offering benefits, supporting local charities. Taking the Challenge was very helpful; we started making a list of action items that update existing policies, and put in operating guidelines in place where there weren’t any before.
Michael Elsas
President, Cooperative Home Care Associates
This tool has provided a new way for CHCA to talk internally about progress from year to year. We can now also communicate the impact of our business to others so that we can leverage it as a competitive advantage.
Check back next week for more stories from the people demonstrating that good business works — for a business’ bottom line, for people, and for our city. In the meantime, have your daily dose of inspiration:
