Racism sucks.  Misogyny sucks.  Homophobia sucks.  Stereotyping sucks.  Scapegoating sucks.  Gaslighting sucks.  Power at the expense of others sucks.  HATE SUCKS.

Eloquent words elude me as I witness what is happening now, and all that has preceded these horrific current events.  I’m dumbfounded that this is STILL the world we live in.  Progress has been too damn slow!  And that’s not ok when people are dying and having their lives and livelihoods threatened ALL THE TIME.

I’m in my late fifties and was a little too young to understand the civil rights movement as a child.  But as an immigrant from The Netherlands, I did have parents who lived in some of the most heavily bombed areas of the country during World War 2, and a grandfather who was a part of the Dutch underground smuggling Jews to safety.  We had family friends with numbers branded on their arms.

Persecution of a race was not a foreign concept.

Although I’ve always understood that racism runs rampant in this country too, I didn’t fully grasp the magnitude.  Maybe pondering such atrocities made me uncomfortable.  Maybe I thought MY not being racist was enough.  I’m going to be transparent and confess to a little bit of fear, and a whole lot of overwhelm.  A “what can I possibly do to help” feeling.

I love inspiring quotes and have had these written down for my personal motivation for quite some time.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”   ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Do the best you can until you know better.  Then when you know better, do better.”   ~ Maya Angelou

My feeling of overwhelm started in 2016 and resulted in our own #domoregood movement.  It is based on the following quote:

“Start where you are.  Use what you have.  Do what you can.”  ~  Arthur Ashe

This is the key for every person who believes they can’t make a difference.

Start where you are.

Don’t worry about what you didn’t do before – that can’t be changed.  Think about today and tomorrow, and the next day.

Use what you have.

Have a big social media following?  Speak up!

Have some poster board and sharpie markers?  Make a sign and join a peaceful protest.

Looking for a worthy cause to donate to?  Well this one is pretty darned important because – you know… “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice EVERYWHERE”!!

Do what you can.

Not sure how you can help?  The internet is your friend.  In fact, I’ve read several good blog posts with resources that may help.  Here are a few:

From Cascadia Behavioral Health Care:  How to Support Our Black Community and Promote Anti-Racist Efforts
Learn about Anti-Racism Groups, Pushing for Political and Policy Change, Learn About Your Own Biases, Educate Yourselves, and Support Black Owned Businesses.

From Benefit Corporations for Good:  Champions for Social Justice
Not only will you learn about how others are aiding the cause, but you can also learn about a business model committed to the triple bottom line of People, Planet, and Profit.

#BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer.  Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.

Tigard-Tualatin School District Anti-Racist Resources
Includes both Family and Student resources.

I’d also like to give credit for the amazing Portland Burnside Bridge Protest Photo.  This is about ten blocks from where I live.  I saw it first on facebook and was deeply moved by it.  The photographer, Andrew Wallner is donating sales from his work to BLM causes.

As an individual I will continue to educate myself, speak up when I should, and support People of Color within my community.  As a business, we are a Certified Benefit Corporation, so respect for all people is a directive and built into our manifesto.  We’ll be evaluating additional ways to support this important cause.

Kindness.  Empathy.  Compassion.  Hope.  Love.  Let’s replace all the ugly words with these.

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We are very excited to share with you that we are now a Certified Benefit Corporation!!  I thought it would be a good idea to explain exactly what this means.

A Benefit Corporation has made a formal commitment to the triple bottom line of People, Planet, and Profit.  This commitment is consistent with our core values and having the official certification will not only keep us on track, it will propel us forward.  Annual re-certifications, and annual reporting requirements will help us stay focused and on course as our business continues to grow.

We initially met with Tom Hering and Mary Ann Harmer of Benefit Corporations for Good.  They clarified the process and the expectations for this certification.  Next we completed an evaluation comprised of 48 questions that required a ranking and an essay explanation for each response.

Per the Benefit Corporations for Good website:

“Questions are scored and graded based on criteria established by senior level business and management professionals, acknowledged experts in the Benefit Corporation model.”  

“The criteria for certification from Benefit Corporations for Good are:

1. Environmental sustainability and workplace “green practices”.
2. Leadership and management competencies that support employees, vendors/suppliers, and customers with a focus on values including:  Transparency, Authenticity, Diversity/Inclusion, Stewardship and Purpose.
3. Engagement with  community and nonprofit initiatives that support the development of ‘equitable and healthy communities’ as well as vulnerable individuals and populations.
4. Sound and strategic business practices that foster profit and growth as well as metrics to monitor progress on criteria.”

We passed our test and were also given feedback on how to take this to the next level.  Invaluable information!!  I’ll be sharing more about that in a future post.

For now, we are registered with the Secretary of State as a Benefit Corporation.  We also have an obligation to publish an annual report summarizing our efforts.  Our first one will be for 2019 and will be available for your review in the third quarter of 2020 –  on our website.

Thanks Tom & Mary Ann.  We’re thrilled to be part of the revolution!

Isn’t the answer profit??  That’s what my generation (boomer) got taught.  The bottom line, happy stockholders, money, money, money! 

I wasn’t buying it then, and I’m certainly not buying it now.  Thank goodness there seems to be a BIG shift happening.  Corporate Social Responsibility is a real thing!  I’ve witnessed it in the companies that 1525 has chosen to partner with, and am so encouraged by this movement.

I’m not saying that profit isn’t important.  It just shouldn’t come at the expense of our planet, our employees, or our customers.  We need to be mindful of our decisions and how they impact these areas. 

One of our larger partners sent me their Social Responsibility report for 2017 and I was FASCINATED with what I read.  They currently employ about 4000 people and have operations world-wide.  In their 40 plus years, they have never had a lay-off.  You read that right!!  With all the economic downturns of the last 40 years, no one lost their job.  I’m sure it impacted the bottom line short term, but I have to think that long term it was a great decision.  One of their core values is to BE NICE.  Treat people well.

This same company went to 100% emailing of invoices and estimate that they will save 1,000,000 sheets of paper per year by making this change.  They have programs that monitor and work to improve their impact on the planet, and make them assets to the communities where they operate.  They are my heroes.  Family owned – I might add.

1525 is a two person company and it would be easy to believe that our efforts wouldn’t make a difference.  That would be a cop-out.  If every small company worked to be good citizens, the cumulative impact would be significant.  My word for 2018 is MINDFULNESS.  So… Bill and I have been giving this concept of Corporate Social Responsibility much thought.

We already are avid recyclers.  And in January of this year, we implemented a new CRM and order management system.  Although we are not paper-less, we are certainly less paper – and that’s a start.  Plus, Bill is the king of reduce, reuse, recycle!

Treating people well should be a no-brainer.  We love what we do so that definitely makes it easier.  We’ve adopted our major industry association’s code of conduct, and belong to organizations that have diversity and inclusion as core values.

Yes we want to be profitable, but we also want to be good citizens of this planet, and good neighbors in our community.  And I think it’s possible to be all three.