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.
