[As originally in Virginia Business by Nicole Anderson Ellis]

In 2002, Matt Bauer’s telecommunications career was at a crossroads.  In the wake of Enron’s collapse and more than a trillion dollars in global write-offs, the industry was slogging through what Bauer calls its “darkest period.”  He’d had enough and faced a choice:  leave the field or change it.

That’s how Reston-based BetterWorld Telecom LLC was born.  “If this industry was focused on solving global problems, they could” create a better world, says Bauer, the company’s co-founder and president.  “We’re trying to take our entire industry in a new direction.”

But Bauer doesn’t see himself as an activist. “I’m a social entrepreneur,” says Bauer.  “We’re mainstream.  Business first.”

Just not business as usual. Today, a new generation of social entrepreneurs is spreading a “doing well by doing good” business model into varied Virginia industries, from IT and telecommunications to retail.

Moving beyond traditional corporate giving, social entrepreneurs incorporate community benefits into their definition of success.  This model balances profit motives with social and environmental benefits, often referred to as the “triple bottom line.”  Yet this is no sacrifice.  For these entrepreneurs, doing the right thing has proven a major selling point.

“There is a need and a desire to work with companies that are focused on people, planet and profits,” explains BetterWorld’s chairman and telecom veteran James Kenefick.

BetterWorld’s revenue grew 13 percent during the past three years, topping $2.4 million while   and attracting clients like clothing manufacturer Patagonia. The company is committed to being “carbon neutral” (it offsets pollution through certified reforestation projects). BetterWorld also gives 3 percent of its profit to social programs and allows every employee to volunteer one paid-week per year at a local charity. Kenefick and Bauer don’t think the company achieved its growth despite these commitments.  They see them as keys to their success.

“I don’t really think we would have made it if we were only about money,” says Bauer.  “Our customers are drawn to us because we have a credible mission.”

Kathryn Wiley echoes that sentiment.  “I credit all my new business — my brand recognition — to the one-for-one model,” says the owner of Richmond-based Rockin’ Baby.

Before buying the manufacturer of high-end baby slings in 2010, Wiley had been a customer, carrying her own babies in slings to keep them safe and close while leaving her hands free.  And for years she’d been stopped by women asking for the brand name.  “They were gorgeous,” says Wiley.  “Beautiful textiles.”  So Wiley saw no need to change the product; just the purpose.

Inspired by Tom’s Shoes’ successful one-for-one donation model, Wiley rebranded the company:  For every sling Rockin’ Baby sells, it donates one to a mother in Haiti.

“In the poorer parts of the country, the infant mortality rate is 50 percent,” Wiley explains.  “Mothers wake up every day to walk up to two miles to get water.  You can’t carry your baby in your arms for two miles.”  So they’re left with family, where instead of breast milk they get formula, often made with cholera-infected water.  “It’s a tragic cycle,” says Wiley, with a simple fix.  “That’s the Rockin’ Baby story.”

It’s a story that has won the company A-list clients (actress Angelina Jolie and singer Gwen Stefani, etc.), national press (Us Weekly magazine recently named Rockin’ Baby slings a “Top Celebrity Pick”) and new accounts (retail giant Nordstrom just signed up).  Since rebranding with the one-for-one model, Rockin’ Baby has given away thousands of free slings and boosted sales 200 percent.

University of Virginia alumnus and successful IT consultant Michael Pirron thinks we’ve seen only the tip of this pay-it-forward trend.  In 2006, he launched Impact Makers, a Richmond-based, for-profit consulting firm, run by a volunteer board. Impact Makers provides local nonprofits with a set revenue each year, regardless of the company’s profit.

“Our clients hire us because of our capabilities and price,” stresses Pirron.  But the company’s giving-back model helps get meetings with curious CEOs, and all things being equal, serves as a tie breaker.  The added value of its mission helped Impact Makers grow a stunning 1,030 percent over the past three years, earning the company a spot on Inc. magazine list of the nation’s fastest growing companies.

Given the growing examples of success, Pirron thinks more businesses will choose this path.  In 2011 he helped push through legislation in Virginia to create “benefit corporations.” The law lets a company state in its articles of incorporation that its purpose includes creating a general public benefit. Although a benefit corporation still would be expected to earn a financial return for shareholders, profit would not be the overriding concern.

“Social enterprising is moving forward,” Pirron says.

The potential of this trend is limitless, agrees Bauer.  “I believe in business, as a lever for creating change,” he says.

It’s high time to re-imagine how and where we work

By Matthew Bauer

As originally in the May/June Sustainable Industries Issue, Bridging a Digital Divide

If you have been following the news as of late, it is likely that you have seen one or more articles on the virtues or the downside of telework, all taking cues from Yahoo!’s (Nasdaq:  YHOO) recent decision to recall its teleworkers back to the “factory.” The debate has covered the pros and cons extensively, so I will spare you the emotion here and focus on the past, present and future of work as we know it, and where it’s going, whether you like it or not. Just the facts ma’am!

First, I would like to thank Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer for sparking the debate, which was probably not her intention.  How we work has been a long overdue national discussion. As with most things (i.e. religion, politics, sports), there is no clear right or wrong answer in this debate; maybe all the articles and commentary should have lead off with a disclaimer as such. In Yahoo!’s case, it was not telework, but rather a decline in company culture and inability to measure how or what work was actually getting done, that sparked the announcement. Yahoo! is circling the wagons and starting over, which is what Mayer was brought there to do. Good on you.

Let’s kick off our installment in this worthwhile debate with a look back, way back: For most of recorded history, the nature of work has been a real slog for the masses. Transitions from hunting and gathering all day to feed ourselves (95% of our species’ history) to agriculture, servitude, feudal existence, the manual labor of it all – advances were at a snail’s pace. In a relatively small sliver of time, really just a few hundred years, the acceleration has been almost dizzying: the Industrial Age, globalization, computers, the Internet, and instantaneous global media coverage. Transitions that used to be measured in decades and centuries now take months and a few years

At the same time, the Industrial Age has been fading into the new realities of a service-based economy – an economy based on knowledge workers, and an economy where location is becoming less and less a factor. A funny thing happened on the way to the water cooler during the transition, though: most workers have kept on reporting to the “factory” for work. The nature of the work really has little or nothing to do with the place we actually perform that work. With all this technology in the ground and in the air, we have lawyers, accountants, consultants, nonprofit staff, government workers, lobbyists, tech support, software engineers, customer support, administrative workers, who predomnantly still drive, train and fly to the “factory” most days. Twenty years ago, this made sense. We didn’t have the public Internet, processes, automation and the playing field for knowledge workers to really thrive. Now?

Fast forward to 2013. What an amazing opportunity! For the first time in history, one can make a good living from most any home or office in America, most likely with a great deal of flexibility and greater lifestyle than ever before enjoyed in history. As foretold decades ago by Peter Drucker, the age of the knowledge worker is upon us. However, collectively we are doing very little to connect the dots and bring the untold benefits of remote work into the fold. Whether remote means five miles or 5,000 miles to a worker, the experiment is over. Examples such as IBM (NY SE: IBM), the U.S. Trade and Patent Office, U.S. Army, and our own little beauty, BetterWorld Telecom, all rely on telework and remote work as a backbone of their operations – seeking and utilizing the best talent available, regardless of location. The opportunity of this generation lies in the social and environmental benefits, cost savings and leadership our country can provide the world by creating a national movement around a #workshift.

Location-based work is a dinosaur awaiting extinction. The two largest contributors to America’s carbon emissions are buildings and transportation.  Commuting to office buildings makes up most of that number. In sum, the leading contributor to carbon and environmental emissions in the United States is squarely rooted in how we work. Roughly 5% of the U.S. workforce telecommutes most days. If that number was 50% of those able to telecommute, we could cut our carbon emissions by 50%, while saving 453 million barrels of oil and slashing the 2.1 billion hours we waste in traffic jams every year (Source: “From Workplace to Anyplace,” World Wildlife Fund). It would be the equivalent of taking 15 million cars off the road. Add in health costs, traffic deaths and injuries and lost productivity and it doesn’t take a genius to realize our current version of work is in need of a reboot. As Kirkpatrick Sale wrote in “Human Scale” more than 33 years ago,“…the madness of American transportation leads to only one conclusion: no solution of the transportation puzzle is possible until work and home are put back together.”

On the social side of the equation the benefits pile up even higher. Companies that have effectively embraced telework tend to be more open and democratic by nature, which is a starting point for greater productivity and the evolution towards a more responsible, sustainable business framework. It’s also a reflection of company values in being results-oriented, regardless of when and how employees work, versus being hyper-controlling with a clock-watching mentality. It’s about employee trust and empowerment, expanding opportunities for those with geographic and physical challenges.  We are headed in a new direction whether managers of traditional work models like it or not. Telework is starting to scale up significantly. It’s seen 15% growth since 1990 and is expected to impact 50% of the workforce by 2020 (Source: “Remote Work,” Cornell University, 2011). In addition, 36% of employers planned to hire contract workers in 2012, up from 28% in 2009 (Source: CareerBuilder.com). More than 4 million jobs are available today while 12 million people are unemployed (Source: “With Positions to Fill, Employers Wait for Perfection,” New York Times, March 6, 2013). And don’t forget those Millennials, who, on the whole, are seeking alternative work environments and will break the mold that has been dominant for decades.

Work is consistently dividing into smaller pieces, placing increased reliance on knowledge workers to fill in the gaps as contractors rather than full-time employees. “In the future, it will make more sense to work on a project-by-project basis, similar to how crews work on movies…and then, upon completion of the project, go their separate ways,” write Mayard Webb in “Rebooting Work.” Contract work tends to be done remotely. Contract work also doesn’t count in unemployment numbers published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor. With unemployment stagnant and contract work rising, we should be rethinking how we measure what constitutes a job.

However, there remains a “digital divide” – a giant chasm where so much opportunity is missed by those lacking access to state-of-the-art telework technologies. The greatest opportunity we have today to lower unemployment and build permanent social change is to bridge this gap and create a knowledge-based work force. Many countries around the world have pursued this strategy, lifting millions of people out of poverty and providing longterm sustainable careers. With ongoing “broadband-to-work” training programs, they are focused on readying their citizens for the New Economy. It’s a model we must adapt to ensure the sustainability and growth of the U.S. economy.

At the core of the new knowledge-worker paradigm is the removal of location from the equation. From the supply side, this opens the door to all of those rapped in “job deserts” – from the single mother in downtown Detroit and the struggling family in rural Oklahoma to the nearly 20 million U.S. citizens with physical disabilities that make it difficult to get to and from the factory.

The big idea here is related to how Western society and much of the world has organized its work, schooling, government and other institutions in paternal, top-down fashion, packed with hierarchy and an implicit value on location. Cracks have begun to appear around how these relationships are transacted, and with new and emerging technologies, anchoring to a specific location makes less and less sense. A teacher standing in front of a classroom, a CEO pacing in a boardroom, the congresswoman speaking to the House chamber – with 6.2 billion cell phones now in service and hundreds of millions with Internet access, opportunity is blossoming for a truly connected “biosphere consciousness” as Jeremy Rifkin describes it. All this happened in the last 20 years. Looking at the next 20 more years, it’s going to get real interesting. Maybe this connectedness also offers a return to a more direct and organic way of growing, connecting and existing on this planet.

The current mode of work we find ourselves rooted in is just not tenable for the long term. It’s too expensive and unproductive. It’s our greatest source of pollution. It excludes so many potentially productive people who are relegated to local or regional options beneath their capabilities. We have proven, effective models and the technology to break the mold for good. Let’s enable this inevitable transition take hold sooner than later, and let’s reinvent America by re-imagining how and where we work. With heavy economic challenges facing the majority of Americans, there’s no reason to wait.

BetterWorld was happy to speak last week at ASBC’s outreach event about the important role that businesses can play to support a just and sustainable economy. Sponsored by BetterWorld, CAMEO, AquaBella, and the Green Chamber of Commerce at New Resource Bank, the gathering attracted many Bay Area sustainable leaders, including many BetterWorld customers and partners.

American Sustainable Business Council runs public information campaigns that educate and inform the public and policy makers about specific opportunities to create a more vibrant, just and sustainable economy. Another branch is the American Sustainable Business Council Action Fund, organized under IRS code 501(c)(4), which focusses on legislative and regulatory advocacy. The Council spans a growing network of over 60 business associations across the United States, representing over 165,000 businesses and 300,000 business executives, owners, investors, and others.

Recent campaigns include the Marketplace Fairness Act , supporting the Go Farm Act, opposing the Keystone XL pipeline. For more information about joining or supporting ASBC, check out asbccouncil.org.

Computer skills in today’s world are not optional, in fact, even those seeking help and training are often hampered by resources designed for them that exist online.

Lack of training and lack of access to technology mean seniors, non-english speaking communities, and those earning less than $25K a year often are not able to access vital resources online.

Community Technology Network is an umbrella organization based in San Francisco that connects volunteers and organizations to increase digital literacy through hands-on training for disadvantaged communities. CTN is part of a larger “digital inclusion” effort to bridge the digital divide in the Bay Area.

CTN Staff & Volunteers

Tackling the digital divide is part of our focus here at BetterWorld Telecom. From enabling broadband access and job training programs in the Virgin Islands to providing discounted services for organizations supporting disadvantaged communities, we’re passionate about moving society beyond the digital divide. So it was a natural progression for BetterWorld’s President Matt Bauer to step up in supporting this local organization, as a recent board member of Community Technology Network.

CTN Co-founder Kami Griffiths was previously at TechSoup Global, a nonprofit technology distributor, and knows the landscape of nonprofits tackling digital literacy in detail. With thousands of volunteer digital literacy training hours administered over the last few years, CTN is making a tangible impact to make technology accessible for everyone.

Check out Community Technology Network to learn more or donate.

It’s that time of year again, time to reflect back at the last twelve months and take a big picture view of what lies ahead, in 2013. There were lots of great numbers in 2012:

• First up - donations! BetterWorld passed $90K in donated goods and services for nonprofits through our VoIP service and donation program with TechSoup Global. We are thrilled to have passed this important milestone, making telecom easy and accessible for nonprofits of all kinds, who are working to make the world a better place.
• Next, further evidence of the ever exploding mobile trend and impending transformation of the workplace: According to IDC, an global provider of IT market research, mobile workers will make up more than a third of the work force by the end of 2012.
• And lastly, proof that VoIP is transforming into a well-known and used tool: According to a survey by Rebtel, 35% of adults have a VoIP app on their smartphones or tablets.

But there is one customer of ours in particular that deserves highlighting for their accomplishments in the past year.

Goodwill has been making radical, positive change in the areas of job training, reuse and waste diversion, and economic renewal for the last century.

In the Bay Area specifically, Goodwill has bucked the trend of the economic downturn and continues to have double digit growth. 2012 was a year for fine-tuning Goodwill’s appeal for fashion oriented shoppers and was highlighted by the opening of an upscale and trendy new store in Pacifica.

Founded in 1902, Goodwill has steadily grown to a $4 billion non-profit organization with over 2,600 stores across the U.S.

Goodwill is unique in that is an organization driven by purpose, solving a multitude of unique societal challenges with a single business operation. They are not only creating jobs, providing routes to employment for those with barriers, and advancing sustainability, but also infusing our larger culture with a norm of donating unneeded items and an expectation of shopping for reused items as a positive and adventurous experience.

They are also not legacy nonprofit sitting back on their reputation either, but actively evolving and moving along with the rest of the retail industry, expanding their operations to include a comprehensive online presence and optimizing their stores to reach a more discerning audience.

We’ve been a proud supporter of Goodwill for some time now, as a preferred purchasing partner for Goodwill Industries International and are happy to support their mission with a donation of 3% back for all revenues from our Goodwill customers back to Goodwill Industries.

What about you? With tax season fast approaching, why not consider donating some of your unneeded items to Goodwill in 2013 - or even dropping by your local Goodwill for a day of shopping?

Either way, please join us in giving a salute to Goodwill for making their numbers count  in 2012!

The Bay Area is famous for a high number of both technology companies and nonprofits working on causes all over the world. But there is one new customer we’re thrilled to welcome aboard that does both, Benetech harnesses technology in the service of humanity.

Benetech supports programs addressing a range of social and environmental needs including Bookshare, Route 66 Literacy, Human Rights, and Environmental Conservation.
Bookshare - provides the world’s largest digital library of scanned materials for people with vision and reading disabilities.
Route 66 Literacy - provides a web-based program for anyone to tutor teenagers and adults in reading.
Human Rights - is a program supporting human rights advocates with technology and science.
Environmental Conservation - is a project management tool for practitioners to more effectively meet their conservation goals.

Benetech is run like a technology start-up, and based in Silicon Valley. The senior management team assesses opportunities where technology could have a significant impact and the organization proceeds to build those practical solutions.

Celebrating 20 years, Benetech is a non-profit unlike any other, bringing technological expertise to some of humanity’s most pressing issues. Originally inspired by the work of Arkenstone, a world leader in reading machines for the blind, Founder Jim Fruchterman saw the value in providing affordable tools to empower the reading disabled. Fruchterman went on to found Benetech, a business that measures return based on the number of lives impacted. They call this return on humanity.

We’re proud to support an organization making such a tangible difference on key issues like human rights, literacy, access for the disabled, and conservation.

BetterWorld was honored to speak recently, as part of a panel at Net Impact’s annual conference, Net Impact 2012, in Baltimore, Maryland.

Net Impact is a global nonprofit that works to inspire the next generation to work beyond business for a more sustainable future through chapters, events and professional development. Nearly 2,800 attendees converged to help celebrate Net Impact’s 20th anniversary conference. As an organization that apparently started in a hot tub as a conversation between  visionary business leaders, Net Impact has grown up considerably, with over 30,000 members and widespread recognition.

Our panel, Small Business, Big Engagement: Using Social Media to Tell Your CSR Story was led by Julie Dixon, of Georgetown University and featured  Josh Helland, CEO of Sleep with a Purpose, and Bonnie Shaw, Engagement Specialist and faculty at Georgetown University. Sleep with a Purpose operates with a similar model to TOMS Shoes, buy a bed, give a bed to someone in need.

The overarching theme of the conference was aligning good business with good works and speakers ranged from Teach For America Founder Wendy Kopp, whose organization has grown to have lasting impact in inner city schools, to Auret Van Heerden, CEO of the Fair Labor Association, who shared a searing tale of his experiences as a labor organizer and surviving torture in South Africa.

One of the most intriguing panels highlighted business partnerships between sustainable brands and mainstream partners, with two case studies of Honest Tea and Coca Cola, and Waste Management and Recycle Bank. In the realm of sustainable brands, purchase by large household brands is a common story. In this panel, both companies set about convincing the audience that the benefits of distribution and resources of a large corporate partner outweigh the potential for watering down purpose and/or altering quality. Honest Tea is a BetterWorld customer and a fellow Benefit Corporation, and we love what they do. However, the contradiction in purpose was highlighted in an audience question regarding the recent California proposition 37 (regarding labeling of genetic foods), which Coca Cola campaigned against, and Seth Goldman, TeaEO of Honest Tea, admitted that if they were an independent company, Honest Tea would likely have supported.

Net Impact has a broad reach and the companies interested in recruiting sustainably minded MBA’s in the event expo included brands not necessarily known for their sustainability credentials, such as Monsanto, Disney, Pepsi, Target, Verizon, and Dupont. The question remains whether passionate business students will tip the scales within those companies or assimilate into the business status quo.

Perhaps the most encouraging theme at this conference was that when it comes to risk management and longterm planning, it turns out corporate citizenship is not just the right thing to do, it is sound business practice. One striking example of this was Coca Cola, who has hired researchers around the world to thoroughly evaluate watersheds that impact their supply chain, threats to those water sources, and features of those ecosystems. In some regions of the world, that research is the first and only resource for government planners and local communities.

Sustainability conferences can fall into an echo chamber of self congratulation and lauded case studies, but this one contained substance.  We applaud Net Impact for furthering the conversation, inspiring the next round of business leaders, and helping push sustainability into the mainstream corporate sphere.

We were inspired and touched recently at the annual Ella’s awards ceremony put together by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (a BetterWorld customer).

Founded in 1996 by Van Jones and Diana Frappier, the Ella Baker Center unlocks the power of low-income people, people of color, and their allies using grassroots organizing, direct action, media advocacy and legal service. Two examples of their successes include the Books Not Bars campaign and the launch of the Oakland Green Jobs Corps.

The 2012 Ellas were awarded to the following heroes:

Father Greg Boyle, Founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention organization in the nation. Serving at-risk and gang involved youth with a continuum of services and programs, Homeboy Industries also runs four businesses that serve as job-training sites.  Father Greg has been an advocate for at-risk and gang-involved youth in Los Angeles, and around the world, for over 25 years.

Rinku Sen, President and Executive Director of Applied Research Center, a racial justice think tank and home for media and activism.  ARC is built on rigorous research and creative use of new technology, with a goal of popularizing the need for racial justice and preparing people to fight for it. Rinku is a leading figure in the racial justice movement, combining journalism and activism to make social change.

Mujeres Unidas y Activas.  MUA is a grassroots organization of Latina immigrant women with a double mission of promoting personal transformation and building community power for social and economic justice. Since 1989, they have have helped hundreds of women get out of domestic violence, become strong leaders and take an active role in the movement for immigrant’s rights and social and economic justice.

BetterWorld recently co-hosted the first Market Street Forum, a new quarterly gathering of Bay Area leaders, with a focus towards the intersection of the broadband economy + future of work + the resulting benefits for our society and environment.

In collaboration with Varsity Technologies and the American Sustainable Business Council, BetterWorld launched Market Street Forum with featured guest speaker, President of the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, David Chiu.

Chiu was an excellent speaker to address current and future changes to the San Francisco business environment, specifically in the heart of the city. As companies and organizations from the Bay Area continue to lead the way towards the new Access Economy, there is a growing trend of tech businesses moving into San Francisco. This trend can be attributed in part to the work of Chiu. The widely publicized move of Twitter into the Tenderloin/Mid-Market area of San Francisco is a direct result of city policy championed by Chiu, through providing business tax incentives and the elimination stock options taxation for startup companies.

Chiu also sponsored recent legislation providing contracting preferences for Benefit Corporations.
Ushering the legislation through many rounds of fine-tuning, Chiu was ultimately successful in sending a strong signal to the private sector that San Francisco wants to do business with companies committed doing good.

The discussion was lively, with topics ranging from the resounding success of SFMade, B Corps, to the politics of city hall, eliminating red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy, the need for a collective voice from the B Corp community and the lack of processes to survey the business community to determine the most urgent pain points.

SFMade is an organization that has grown steadily in the last two years, promoting and supporting the value-add manufacturing sector in San Francisco and leading to both more friendly city policies and the creation of more manufacturing businesses.  When asked for an example of red tape, Chiu highlighted the hurdles for new restaurants, who must deal with 11+ separate permit offices before being able to open, which usually causes a delay of 2+ months.

Chiu has passed several pieces of legislation that are first in the country including:

• Requiring strict energy audits requirement for commercial buildings
• Expansion of urban agriculture opportunities in San Francisco
• Decreasing the distribution of unwanted Yellow Pages phone books
• Greening nail salons by phasing out the “toxic trio” of chemicals in nail polish

San Francisco is a city that has historically been at the forefront of public policy nation-wide and the inspiring discussion at the Market Street Forum made it clear that Chiu is dedicated to upholding that precedent. Chiu is running for re-election in November, 2012 for President of the Board of Supervisors.
More about Chiu at http://www.votedavidchiu.org/

The Hub is a worldwide network of over 25 collaborative work spaces that provide a creative environment as well as a professional infrastructure to work, meet, learn and connect. As their credo declares, “The Hub is designed to facilitate the creation of sustainable impact through collaboration.”

Hub Bay Area has two work spaces, one in Berkeley at the David Brower Center, and the Hub SoMa, which is in the San Francisco Chronicle building and part of the 5M Project and steps away from the TechShop and Intersection for the Arts, and Square. The Hub is a vibrant community of individuals working to make a difference, and many members are social entrepreneurs, creating new business models to create positive social change through the lever of business.

We’re proud to serve some of these inspiring organizations housed at the Hub, as well as the Hub Bay Area itself. We’re also happy to be members as well of this change-making community.

Here’s what the Hub community had to say to the question - What Change Does the World Need Most?