Issue #5: Better together.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about competition and motivation; especially when it comes to doing the "right thing". I think about it in the context of business, and in the context of being a dad.

I try to be a good dad, in part, by setting the rights ground rules for my three young kids to follow to encourage them to grow up right. Guess what happens when I come up with new rules? They follow them about 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time, I have to tell them the rules again. And again. But even when they do follow them, they follow them enough to meet my expectations. Which is fine. They're good kids.

But do you know when they exceed expectations, every time? When they compete as teams on a playing field that I didn't set, with rules that I didn't write. Whether it's sports, dance, musical theater, or gaming, they always manage to impress me with their performance, probably because when I make the rules, they think the best thing that they can do is follow them. When they're in a team environment, the rules are there as guidelines, and their performance is part of the difference between who or what wins -- or loses.

That's why I think it's so important for companies to get competitive on social and environmental impact as well. The level of urgency around so many issues is so damn high, that unless we aim to overachieve, we won't achieve. There's a right place for governmental regulation, and it's usually in setting minimum standards that protect citizens. But when it comes to empowering communities, innovating beyond standards, inventing better ways to do things, regulation isn't going to cut it -- good, old-fashioned competition is what it takes to push companies -- and people -- to exceed artificial limits.

If we thought about "the competition" as a situation that we alone can't fix, maybe we can achieve more, together. As business leaders, it's incumbent upon us to forge more alliances that can act as a force multiplier upon the results that any one company can have on an issue. We'll all be better for it. Let's face it -- the tides are literally rising without us. We need to rise together to meet their challenge.

As consumers, we should look to reward companies that are doing more of the right things with our loyalty. We should encourage more collaboration between social & environmental impact all-stars. As business, nonprofit, or cultural leaders, we should find kindred (pun intended) spirits that we can work together with to take on some of our biggest societal and environmental issues. Let's not take alliances, communities, or public-private partnerships for granted. We're usually better together, even if it takes a lot of work.

If our kids can learn how teamwork can lead to winning, so can corporate America (and maybe even our government).

What's Good.

B the change. The Guardian did a nice deep dive into the current state of the B Corporation (proud to say Kindred’s B Corp status is pending), which now has over 3,100 members in over 70 countries (you can meet the B Labs team at Kindred 2020).

There’s funding out there. If you’re building a social impact startup, there are several sources of funding that may be available to you. This list may be a good start.

From recreation to restoration to...reparation? A Chicago suburb (Evanston) is considering using tax revenue from recently legalized recreational marijuana to not just help with restorative justice programs, but potentially as reparations for all black residents.

Ipso facto, manifesto. Not content to let the Business Roundtable be the only ones to declare the purpose of a corporation, the World Economic Forum has released its “Davos Manifesto”, on the universal purpose of a company in the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”. It’s quite ambitious...maybe too ambitious? Read it, and let me know if you think this is more than just an aspirational statement, that no company will actually live up to -- for example, it says “[a company] ensures the safe, ethical and efficient use of data.” How many companies today can say the do this?

Pinterest and The Knot say “we don’t”; promote wedding photos that romanticize Southern plantations, that is. The Knot is even going so far as to ask venues to change their copy guidelines on their own websites. Pinterest will restrict plantation wedding content on its website, and is working on de-indexing Google searches for plantation weddings on Pinterest. Platforms can have ethics too.

Dreamforce multipliers. At last week’s Dreamforce event, Salesforce went out of its way (to over 170,000 attendees!) to highlight the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (six, in particular), and their commitment to them. Salesforce will be providing $17 million dollars in grants, and a pledge of one million employee volunteer hours to be devoted to the topic over the next year. Salesforce’s SDG targets are [4] Quality Education; [5] Gender Equality; [7] Affordable and Clean Energy; [8] Decent Work and Economic Growth; [11] Sustainable Cities and Communities; and [13] Climate Action. Has your company identified its SDGs?

The impossible sneaker. Reebok has announced a plant-based sneaker made from natural alternatives including castor bean oil, eucalyptus tree, algae, and natural rubber. The most fascinating thing about this movement to me is that these companies are not only figuring out how to make performance products from more sustainable materials, but that they can manufacture them, affordably, at scale.

The ESG wake-up call. Axios digested a bunch of news from the past year that illustrates just how much attention corporate executives will have to pay to ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues as time goes on. According to the latest Edelman Trust Barometer report, ESG priorities are "no longer optional" for companies as they seek to attract investors and employees — and to deflect protests. Further, there is now significant evidence that ESG investments can equal the returns — or even outperform — investments that don’t fit “socially conscious” criteria.

You down with ESG? And speaking of ESGs, the index and research firm MSCI, made their environmental, social and governance ratings of more than 2,800 companies public in a push to improve transparency in the rapidly growing ESG industry. It’s getting competitive out there.

And that's a wrap. A new edition of Kindred's Good for Business drops every Monday. If you enjoy this, please share it with your colleagues and friends.

Don't miss your chance to attend or sponsor Kindred 2020 (San Diego, May 11-14, 2020) — THE event for sustainable, purpose-led business transformation. Now, every ticket purchase gives you an option to give a portion of the price to the charity of your choice.