Building a Green Business from the Bottom Up   

Image via Pexels

This article is written and contributed by a guest author, Tina Martin of Ideaspired.com.

If you’re reading this article, chances are you’ve heard about the green movement that has been growing in homes and businesses around the world. More people are becoming cognizant of adopting a sustainable lifestyle and making changes to foster the environment.

Entrepreneurs and corporations alike are now taking the environment more seriously, and more consumers are looking to give their business to green companies. If you’re an entrepreneur, now might be the time to go green!

Not really sure how to kickstart your career as an ecopreneur? These tips and resources will help!

Learn What Makes a Business Green

First of all, let’s touch on the primary qualities of a green business:

  • Sustainability must be a priority in all of your business decisions.
  • Your service or products must be environmentally friendly.
  • No matter the operation, you must implement eco-conscious principles.
  • And you should never settle; always seek to improve your business so that it’s greener!
  • Finally, before you take things any further, be sure to establish your business with the state. Many new entrepreneurs choose an LLC thanks to the accompanying tax perks and asset protection.

Research Green Business Options

Green businesses are becoming more commonplace, and there’s really no shortage of eco-conscious career paths you can take:

  • Start a housecleaning business where you use only green cleaning products and techniques.
  • Open an energy consulting firm that conducts energy audits or advises other companies on how they can make their operations more sustainable.
  • Start a greenhouse business that sells plants, flowers, vegetables, and other natural products.
  • Sell eco-friendly products through an online store.

Think Sustainability at Every Turn

Finally, sustainability should be considered in every detail of your organization.

  • Recycle all of your paper materials in the workplace, and partner with a licensed recycler to dispose of e-waste.
  • For the times when you’re doing business away from your computer, keep a sustainable charger at the ready to power your smartphone or other device, and don’t forget to unplug the charger when not in use, as it consumes power even when not in use.
  • Use post-consumer waste (PCW) paper as much as possible.
  • If you’ll be building a structure for your business, whether now or down the road, work with a green construction company.

If you want to make a difference in your community and the world as a whole, consider becoming an ecopreneur. There are more green business options to choose from than ever before. Just keep researching and choose a career path that you can thrive in!

This article is brought to you by PATHFINDER, which strategically collaborates with partners to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals. Partners may be academic institutions, social entrepreneurs and multinational organizations, policymakers, and other experts in global development. These partnerships have contributed to the global narrative of social entrepreneurship for the common good, through the work and the development of policy papers. For more information, contact us today!

Why I paid it forward

PATHFINDER’s Shivani Singh recently spoke about her experience at Social Venture Institute at Hollyhock, and the importance of paying it forward.

Here’s what Hollyhock shared:

We’ve spoken often about how generous and collaborative the social enterprise community is. And indeed, we are a community. We help each other. – Shivani Singh, PATHFINDER

An incredible thing about Hollyhock is the community of people that are brought together by this place. It’s this community which has been the driving force in bringing even more social change leaders to our shore through financial support.

Shivani Singh is one of those people. A social entrepreneur and co-founder of PATHFINDER, she received financial assistance to attend our Social Venture Institute last year. Since then, she has been an active advocate, working to raise money for our Dana Bass Solomon Scholarship Fund in support of other extraordinary change makers, like herself.Shivani BW.jpg

“When PATHFINDER was just beginning, the pro-bono services and resources of others who had been there before us, helped us get off the ground. We learned so much, we built fast, and we grew tremendously.  And we did it all on minimum expense because of the generosity of perfect strangers, people who were connected to us only by a shared passion to help build a better world.

The opportunity to attend SVI at Hollyhock came about when we had no money.

Our earliest champion and new friend, Joel Solomon, really wanted us to attend, so he paid our way. While at SVI, we tried to pay him back, but of course, Joel was not interested in the money. He wanted us to meet him and other incredible people in that powerful setting. In this discussion, where we refused to just take this sizeable gift and Joel refused to have it back, we came up with an idea: Why not pass it on – the entire gift – so that others may have access to the amazing opportunities we did? Those before us were kind and generous, and we were enabled by their spirit. Why not participate in this most wonderful and powerful cycle of generosity, so that future social entrepreneurs may have a better shot at success too?

And so, here we are. Our first order of business, as soon as we had made some money, was to contribute our entire SVI Hollyhock gift amount to the Dana Bass Solomon Scholarship Fund. We made ourselves proud, sure; but more than that, we hope to have started something amazing.

We hope to have started a chain of good people doing more good for others like them. We hope to have inspired the SVI community to join us. We hope many more social entrepreneurs can now attend the fantastic Social Venture Institute.”

 

To scale or not to scale? A quick guide in scaling your social enterprise

By Jessica van Thiel

cook ethos team photo.JPG
http://www.cookethos.com

“Nearly every problem has been solved by someone, somewhere. The challenge of the 21st century is to find out what works and scale it up.” -Former US President, Bill Clinton

In the past few decades, social entrepreneurship has gotten a lot of attention. From academia to business, people are recognizing the importance of social entrepreneurs and the invaluable work they do. Social enterprises are like any other business; they must have a strategy for growth and to scale once they are out of the startup stage.

Many business owners fall into the trap of wanting to scale before they are ready. They want their business to grow so they scale up their processes to inspire that growth. Unfortunately, this can actually result in stalling the development of a business. Scale too quickly or recklessly, and you’ll create a lot of organizational problems that will be hard to undo. Scaling before you’re ready may even cause your business to fail. Scale too slowly, however, and you may miss out on key opportunities that come with greater resources and revenue[1]. So how do you go about doing any of this? First, it’s crucial to know what you’re scaling to begin with.

Measuring impact?

While every business has to consider its customers, social enterprises have a particularly important task; they need to consider social impact and how to measure it. Measuring social impact is often one of the most difficult things to do as it’s not tangible. From education to gender equality and environmental impact, these issues often take years before one can see results and even then, how can an entrepreneur really know if they are using the right indicator or measurement? You’re not selling t-shirts after all, so how do you know you’ve done well?

The key might lie in the research. You need to really understand what your service is, and what your goals are. Once you’ve identified it all, and it may take months or even years to define, you can then start to look at what works and what doesn’t. By eliminating what doesn’t work you can adjust and refine the way you approach solving the issue.

Additionally, assigning appropriate measurements is critical. Although social in nature, you should find a way to measure your impact in numbers. If the goal is to provide access to education for children in India for example, then the first unit of measurement can be the number of children your social enterprise has put through the school system. The number enrolled, attended and completed. Why is it so important to be able to measure impact, almost from the start? Because, if you don’t know how you’re doing, you won’t know when it’s time for the next stage – i.e. time to scale.

Scaling can be a daunting task for any small business, let alone a social enterprise. With the objective of understanding the process further, PATHFINDER spoke with cook ethos, a startup social enterprise with the mission of connecting people through food, to learn about what strategies, if any, they had in scaling their enterprise. Cook ethos is “a fun and fresh approach to learn how to cook new dishes and gives you the chance to learn about cuisines and meet people from all corners of the globe – in the region of London” (think Airbnb meets cooking lesson). The startup was launched this year by three young female entrepreneurs.

While they are very much in the startup phase, they’re already considering how to scale their company. And for them, it needs to happen quickly if they want to make an impact in their community, be successful and eventually turn a profit. Although they have many ideas and potential business avenues they could explore, at the core, their service is to connect hosts and guests for a unique cooking experience. So the way they’ll measure impact is simple: it’s in the numbers. Guests provide testimonial for their experience, and with an overwhelming percentage of testimonials being positive, it is safe to say in their case, that the more people who book their service, the more impact they’ll have on the community. This, they explained, was a relatively easy question to answer. The next question, how to scale is more complicated.

Do they scale regionally or internationally? Do they expand their product to offer different services or do they focus on the bookings?

Charlotte Morrison, COO and Co-Founder of cook ethos explained,

“In order to get things right, we’re now trying to focus on just one area to scale but in doing so, we don’t want to neglect the hosts in other areas because they are still very valuable to us. We don’t want to lose sight of them. So the question is how do we find a balance. That would probably be our biggest challenge regarding scaling at the moment.”

These are the kinds of questions that every entrepreneur faces. How to keep the integrity and goals of the business intact while scaling? In the beginning you might not have the luxury of being selective. When you’re desperate for cash, it’s easy to cut corners, compromise your values and deliver a subpar product or service. But the businesses that manage to weather their growing pains and stick to their guns are the ones that last longest and shine brightest[2].

So what’s the solution if you want to scale successfully? In short, maintain your focus. As entrepreneurs, we tend to want to seize every opportunity that comes our way. And although it’s good to pursue some, it’s alright to keep your focus narrow in the beginning and expand once you’ve gotten it (whatever it may be) right.

“Once you’ve achieved product-market fit and started scaling up based on that main offering, don’t go crazy trying to add features or related products. Make sure you can do one thing better than anyone before you start building new stuff” Chelsea Segal of Cox BLUE points out.

Cook ethos is doing just that, keeping focused. And it’s working.

To scale or not to scale

Knowing when to scale is important. Knowing how to scale is essential. Because making money doesn’t always equate success, especially if you are a mission driven enterprise. Charlotte Morrison explains,

“When it comes to scaling, one thing we anticipate that will be difficult, is keeping our integrity and respecting our mission. If we expand internationally, for example, different countries will almost certainly have their own way of doing and managing things. We operate like a family business and we don’t ever want to lose that, no matter how big we get”.

This is a tricky one. On the one hand as a startup, it’s difficult to turn down work, especially when clients aren’t exactly knocking on your door. On the other hand, without consistency of the product or service, an enterprise can quickly lose its brand integrity.

The trick is in the balance. When a company scales too quickly and doesn’t have the structure to support the growth, failure rates will increase[3]. You need to expand to operate and this should be a natural, cyclical process. Chelsea Segal of Cox BLUE highlights the biggest mistakes a business can make when scaling is over hiring, over spending, and over building. She explains, “You need to stay lean during the scaling process. Don’t hire too many people (especially middle managers or specialists). These take away from your core competencies and leave you prone to trying to scale other areas too quickly” and “there’s a tendency for startups to get loose with their money once they’ve raised a lot during the fundraising stage. Keep all of your spending focused on growing the business”.

Balancing act

Balance is crucial here. Check back in with your values and mission regularly. Think quality not quantity. Eventually, if you do a good job, more work will come your way. And when it does, get it done. You don’t want to compromise the quality of the work; however, you don’t want to say no to new clients (especially if they’re the kind of clients you’ve been seeking). So even if you don’t have the infrastructure in place to complete the work or project, you make it happen anyway. It’s a tricky thing to get right, but in the beginning like all successful startups, you’ve got to work your butt off.

Cook ethos has considered this very scenario,

“We’ve considered a situation where we might have more work than we can handle. Ultimately we would never say no to clients and we would just work it out. Although we don’t foresee this happening in the next year, if it were to happen before we had the infrastructure in place, we would adapt. We’d probably get all of friends and family on board. We’d do whatever it takes to make it happen!”

This is a good problem to have for any business. And the difference between a successful business and a non-successful one is all in the approach and attitude. In short: adapt to the research, know your product or service better than anyone, and check back in to find your balance.

[1] https://www.coxblue.com/5-important-tips-for-scaling-your-startup/

[2] https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/299214

[3] – Jeanna McGinnis, ReResumeMe®

 

Love What You Do: PATHFINDER’s Leadership Journey

By Jessica van Thiel

This article was first published in Leader Stories

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My colleague Shivani and I founded PATHFINDER, in 2015, as an international social enterprise based in Canada and France. PATHFINDER consults with business, academia and policy for innovative solutions in the world of sustainable development. Our mission is to perpetuate solutions that protect and enable the world’s most vulnerable.

Everything about our organization is unique, from our business model to our daily operations. Living on different continents with different time zones has been an opportunity for us, instead of a challenge, and one that has driven much of our success. We love what we do.

Here’s a little more about our (and my) story.

Q: Why did you decide to go into the nonprofit/social purpose sector?

A: Well, first, it’s good old-fashioned passion. We’ve both dreamed of doing this work our whole lives.  We started PATHFINDER after casually discussing, over dinner, the major gaps and opportunities in the NGO/nonprofit sector. We wanted to create a social enterprise that addressed these industry challenges, instead of perpetuating them, and we wanted to implement a business model that strives to do good while doing well.

Q: What keeps you here?

A: The opportunity, flexibility and excitement this industry brings. It has been such an exciting journey so far, and we’re just getting started! We imagine a future with even more opportunity to do what we love. In the meantime, we’re just happy to be working in such a fast-paced and evolving field.

Above all, to us, this is a calling. There is no other plan but this one. It’s a feeling we each share, deep in our bones. It’s a certainty we know.

Q: What is your favorite thing about your work day?

A: The variety. Every day is different. A day can include meetings with partners, clients, media and researchers. It can include everything from writing research reports and articles for mainstream media outlets, to attending and presenting at conferences, and facilitating workshops. Our days are often unpredictable too.

Another very cool thing is that we are constantly inspired. We regularly connect with some really amazing people doing some really great things. We learn all the time. We collaborate with like-minded individuals. We create solutions to real problems. How many people get to feel these things in each work day? It’s a phenomenal experience.

Q: What impact or success are you most proud of?

A: In December 2016, we organized a humanitarian mission (our first) to some refugee camps along Syria’s border with Lebanon. Through generous donations, we were able to provide much-needed resources to over 500 children and their families.

Q: We all have our “failing forward” moments. Can you share a failure that in retrospect led to growth or learning?

A: Being a social entrepreneur and starting a business has been a huge learning process, both professionally and personally. We’ve had to re-evaluate our business model often, which is a difficult thing to do.

Also, one of the first big lessons we learned from failing at pitches was that not everyone will believe in our work or even in us. There is a lot of feedback out there, both positive and negative. We conscientiously decided to solicit and accept all feedback, to then review, choose and learn what we could while moving past any ignorance or negativity. We learned from everything while we learned not to be beaten down by anything. It took a lot of practice and now this process comes naturally to us.

Q: In a few words, what most gets in the way of your ability to be the leader you want to be?

A: Ourselves. There are no real obstacles, only excuses. For us, it has been juggling responsibilities like jobs, studies, families, etc., that perhaps if we didn’t have, we could focus all of our time on PATHFINDER. However life doesn’t work that way, nor should it. It’s healthy to have a balanced life, and the trick is being able to use the time you have in the smartest way possible.

We’re making progress and we’re getting closer to where we want to be. At the end of the day, the only limitations are our own.

Q: Tell me about a learning experience that supported your leadership development.

A: I participated in the American Express Leadership Academy in New York City in October 2017.

Among other things, it reinforced for me that a good leader is compassionate, empathetic and seeks opportunities to learn. A good leader always works to grow. These possibilities were made available to us at the Academy. We met people who introduced us to lives we were fortunate enough to never know, and we listened. We met experts and we learned. We grew a little, professionally and personally. These are all lessons that make us better people, and stronger leaders.

I also left with a fantastic network that I have committed to remain active in.

Q: What has been your biggest area of growth as a leader in the past year or two?

A: We’ve become stronger people. The more we’ve learned, the less we’ve accepted we know. We’ve also learned to never lose sight of what our goals are as entrepreneurs, while staying true to our values.

Q: Why is it important that today’s nonprofit and social purpose leaders get professional development supports?

A: Because, at the end of the day, you are an entrepreneur running a business. You need to have the skills and tools to be able to do that successfully. It’s great to have the passion and theory, but without the practical skills and professional development, you can only go so far.

Q: What is something that people don’t know about you from reading your resume? 

A: We are passionate about travel and learning about new cultures and people. We each come from international backgrounds and have travelled and lived all over the world. We actually met on the idyllic island of Mauritius where Jess was working with the United Nations Development Programme and reporting to Shivani’s friend, mentor, and then UN Resident Coordinator for Mauritius and Seychelles.

We’re also big fans of good wine. Cheese isn’t bad either.

Q: Please share your greatest piece of leadership advice for your social sector peers across the world.

A: Believe in yourself. Believe in your purpose and others will want to follow. If you are unsure, it will be difficult to convince others. Passion is contagious and every good leader should have the ability to express it. Also, never stop learning. Ever.

Q: Three words: If you had to name three specific abilities, skills or mindsets that you think every 21st century nonprofit leader needs, what would they be?

A: Passion, Tenacity, Flexibility.

This is not the sort of thing you do without a deep belief in its value. You need to commit to success, no matter what it takes. And we can assure you, it takes a lot.

 

 

Slow, But Steady: The Growth of Impact Investing and Social Enterprise

By Shivani Singh

In January this year, we connected with Purpose Capital’s co-founder, Mr. Assaf Weisz, to check in on the (financial) health of the Impact Investing space. Sure, we hear more and more about how interested financiers and indeed, young people are, in the idea of socially driven business or financial models. But what does this interest look like out there, in reality, and on the field?

Mr. Weisz began Purpose Capital with two other founders “back in the year when The Rockefeller Foundation coined the phrase ‘impact investing’”. Since then, he’s developed a decade of expertise in his field. He’s the perfect person to discuss industry developments with.

What are the overall trends in the space of financing for social purpose businesses?

Mr. Weisz reckons that while functioning, the space is still small.  There has been a steady increase in the number and even caliber of entrepreneurs. There’s been an increase in the number and variety of investors. There’s been an increase in infrastructure for the space. The entire development universe has grown.

“But, it all still remains relatively small compared to where it should be.”

It all began with a bunch of social entrepreneurs who had a hard time accessing capital because there was so little of it, Mr. Weisz explains. Then, slowly, investors started joining. First it was the few interested Angels and Foundations.  There were a small number of deals. And they were willing to accept lower returns for a higher social outcome. Purpose Capital has worked to increase the visibility of social entrepreneurs (“SocEnts”) and educate investors since this beginning.

But then things began to change. People wanted profit and social impact, compromising on neither. Indeed, they began to focus on building sound businesses that could also create impact, not just settling for one idea over the other. It’s been a few decades. Still, realistically and honestly speaking, social enterprises continue to struggle with capital.

There has however, been a more recent change from the last few years that is important.  Mr. Weisz elaborates that back in the day, most deals were done on the private market. These were conducted behind closed doors, with a lucky few finding each other. But increasingly, there is retail funding available. Retail funding includes a myriad of fresh financial models including the more popular one, crowdfunding. Also there are more public names getting involved. There are networks and exchanges now. No longer are social entrepreneurs and their financiers isolated to a lucky few private transactions. Social finance deals have begun to enter the mainstream world.

Often, financiers would like to fund innovation but insist on proven success. Innovation, proven at scale, in a young industry, is hard to come by. How do we get past this trap?

“That’s a tough one,” acknowledges Mr. Weisz. He gives it a few moments of thought and speaks again. It depends on the type of innovation too, he says. For instance, governments have historically been the most accessible and reliable for scientific innovation. Finding funding for business model innovation is definitely harder. Angels are always an option, though one must find the right connection. Investment also varies by place. Canada, for example, has been more risk averse than America. So there are options but in reality, for most, it is difficult to sell an idea in the space of global development.

So realistically, when will things change?

Like in the case of other great changes, a bunch of things need to happen to make a sizeable shift. For one thing, there has been a lot of focus and growth in the innovation economy over the past few decades, which is quite promising. Secondly, the growth of the industry will play a big role in its own shift. He explains, consider Silicon Valley. The investors in their industry come from within it. They started out as technology entrepreneurs who became successful and found their way to the top, to becoming power players and influencers. By contrast, prior generations of Toronto based tech investors came from backgrounds in banking or business in general, often finding themselves in uncharted territory.  Similarly, we need more social entrepreneurs to become influential power players, to bring attention and resources to our lot.

As a veteran of the industry who’s seen it grow from nothing, what are you most looking forward to in the impact investing world?

Mr. Weisz is excited for all the budding opportunities to come to fruition, of course. But what he most looks forward to is,“for the concept of social entrepreneurship to increasingly become invisible.” He elaborates that he looks ahead to a time when social impact and profit are so interwoven that there is no such thing as business without impact. A time when all entrepreneurs are impactful and all enterprises deliver both, financial and social success. A time when business, as a concept, has changed entirely because of what we do today.

This is no small dream to dream, Mr. Weisz, and indeed, it is a brave one. But then again, he knew about the industry before it was an industry. And so, we end the conversation on a note of hope.

This article was first published in YourMarkOnTheWorld.com

Keep it simple, make an impact

Meeting in Toronto

The new year is well underway and we started things off right! Although we work on different continents, in different time zones, one of our best strengths has always been making the distance work to our advantage. With Jess in France and Shivani in Canada, we’ve been lucky to each cover a vast area which has created many opportunities for us.

However, every now and again, we do get together. Last month, we met in Toronto for some face-to-face meetings about PATHFINDER’s goals and vision for 2018. It was pretty great to re-charge and re-focus for the year ahead. And we had a lot of fun, as we do, when we’re together!

Just like everyone else, there’s a lot we want to accomplish this year. But if there’s one message we’d like to convey, it’s this:

Keep it simple, choose one cause and make an impact! It’s easy to get swept up in the seemingly endless negative news we hear about the state of the world. If we each choose one cause that has meaning to us, and we help in every way we can (whether it be financially, through advocacy, volunteering, etc), we will collectively make a difference.

It’s making that first step and getting involved that will create impact, even for the most insurmountable of causes.

So go, get started! Do your best! And don’t forget to have a good time.

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PATHFINDER is excited to announce we’ll be attending the Social Venture Institute in B.C.!

PATHFINDER has a very busy fall ahead, with engagements spanning across Canada and the US (stay tuned for more)!

One of the opportunities we’ll be involved with is the Social Venture Institute at Hollyhock, B.C. this September. SVI is a practical, problem-solving alternative “business school” within a confidential and supportive setting. This program is for CEOs, Executive Directors, Founders, key staff, social entrepreneurs, and emerging leaders of all kinds.

We look forward to joining other mission-based entrepreneurs from across sectors and generations for a five-day, dynamic gathering to share goals, challenges and successes.

Hollyhock exists to inspire, nourish and support people who are making the world better.

We can’t wait!

An interview with entrepreneurs EcoEnclose: being the change they want to see

By Jessica van Thiel

Since we got started in 2015, we’ve come across all kinds of social enterprises, covering causes from humanitarian to environmental, and everything in between. Being firm believers in collaborative efforts, we’re always interested to learn about others and how we could potentially work together towards our common goal of making the planet a better place. That’s why, when we came across EcoEnclose, the leading supplier of eco-friendly shipping supplies in the United States, we couldn’t wait to interview them about their successful, innovative, and impactful initiative.

EcoEnclose, a Green America Certified Business, provides both small and large businesses with environmentally-friendly shipping solutions across the US. EcoEnclose aims to bring innovation, eco-solutions and beautiful designs to an otherwise archaic industry. Their earth friendly packaging has allowed them to work with pretty incredible group of companies. In 2016, EcoEnclose served over five thousand small-to-medium-sized businesses across the US in addition to 23 countries internationally, most of whom have stated a commitment to the environment. Many of them are true eco-innovators, finding new, more earth-conscious ways to make and sell their products.

PATHFINDER interviewed Saloni Doshi and Kyle Wente, co-owners of EcoEnclose to find out more about the growing industry

Searching to Make a Positive Economic Impact

Kyle and Saloni purchased EcoEnclose in September 2015, after three years of searching for an entrepreneurial opportunity that aligned with their moral compass, their commitment to the environment, and their desire to create a positive economic impact. Their decision as a couple, to acquire the business, meant leaving stable professions and lifestyles (as is the case for many entrepreneurs) at time when they were just starting a family. Still, that didn’t stop them from pursuing this exciting opportunity, on the contrary, they recall the past two years with fondness, “The past two years have been incredible. We’ve learned more than we ever thought possible about packaging, shipping, pros and cons of different materials as it relates to functionality and sustainability, and operating a small business. Every day we are inspired by yet another company we work with who pushes us and teaches us how we can be better. We’ve doubled the size of our team and our warehouse. We’ve added new products to our line, and have custom designed so many fun and eye-catching packages for our customers. And, the best part, we both feel like we have created real value for the environment and for many fantastic businesses.”

How did you get your idea or concept for the business? What motivated you to do so?

We actually acquired EcoEnclose in September of 2015 after searching for a business opportunity for over three years. Our goal was to find a business that a) fit our values, and b) we could apply our skills to improve and grow. When we found EcoEnclose, it was love at first sight. It was almost a perfect a match given our strong commitment the environment and to supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses.

The interesting part – that we did not foresee – is that with each day we become more passionate about both, the environment and entrepreneurship. So just as our business grows, our motivation to do more grows as well.

What are your most valuable lessons learned since launching EcoEnclose?

Know and support your customers: Understand who they are, what they want, what makes them tick. What are they seeking when they come to you and how can you help solve their problems as easily as possible? Make the time to meet their needs, regardless of how big of a customer they are. We serve quite a few small businesses – individuals and artisans running an online shop out of their home. They are trying to run their businesses ethically and sustainably, but small business owners have no time to put in-depth research into shipping. So when they come to us, they need easy to digest advice (on packaging and sustainability), and the ability to order that packaging as quickly and seamlessly as possible. We actually often find ourselves spending more time with these folks, who ultimately may place much smaller orders than the resource-rich big companies we work with.

For us, this approach and ethos is a no-brainer. It strengthens our business, our mission and has helped build a pretty incredible community of eco minded companies we work with.

Delegate: Our operations aren’t necessarily simple. Early on, it was easy to get in the weeds and jump into the fray when shipments arrived, a machine was down or a warehouse team member was struggling with his or her role. Additionally, tasks like bookkeeping and payroll management could easily take up several hours per week. At the end of the week, we found ourselves wondering why we couldn’t execute so many of our strategic, growth and mission oriented priorities.

Almost two years later, it is still easy to get caught up, but a lot of progress has been made! Our warehouse manager does a stellar job managing the floor and our operations, and this gives us time to focus on strategy, sales and growth. Other similarly important positions have been created and filled, bookkeeping has been outsourced, and help has been secured for digital marketing.

Not only are we better focused on EcoEnclose’s vision, strategy, growth and sales now, but we also have discovered just how much better our business operates when the right people are in charge of the right things.

What was your mission at the outset, what are your major goals and where do you want EcoEnclose to be in 5 years-time?

Our mission is to enable e-commerce businesses to ship their goods with minimal impact on the environment. We work hard to make this an easy and fun choice for companies of all sizes.

Our major goals are to (1) be an innovator within shipping and packaging, and (2) help thoughtful, values-based businesses (our customers) grow and showcase their eco ways to the world.

1) To us, being an innovator means pushing the industry to go further, exploring new materials, and eventually overhauling the linear life-cycle of packaging and bringing the “cradle-to-cradle” concept to the industry. We work in partnership with our manufacturing partners, visiting their facilities, and verifying the claims being made with respect to recycled content.

2) Helping customers showcase their values is critical. Market research has shown that 77% of customers believe packaging should reflect a company’s eco practices and 48% would leave a company because of unsustainable packaging. Many of the companies we work with are so committed to the environment, but aren’t getting credit for their work. We are introducing new printed product lines, brochures and campaigns to help our customers gain the loyalty and admiration they deserve for thinking beyond dollars alone and considering the planet in all of their actions.

In five years, we hope EcoEnclose is the leading voice in eco-friendly packaging and an extremely valuable resource to e-commerce businesses looking to build an eco-minded and ethical company.

We hope we have brought innovations to the shipping world and have helped the entire industry adopt more earth-minded practices as a norm, not the exception.

And we hope we have helped spur a movement among consumers to demand green packaging, and to not take the “conventional” option.

Where, in your opinion, is the future of eco-friendly shipping headed? Is it a growing industry?

The shipping products industry is growing rapidly with the long term trend towards online purchasing. This demands a huge amount of packaging. Because boxes and bags sitting on your doorstep is such a visual reminder of packaging, more and more consumers are aware of and annoyed at wasteful packaging. With eco topping the major concerns for shipping within the rapidly growing e-commerce industry, we think the future of eco-friendly shipping is strong.

To us, the key is that this focus on eco within e-commerce packaging be grounded in what is truly better for the planet, and that we help encourage authentic and productive behavior.

We want to move beyond the green washing that is quite common, and help companies make the best decisions for the planet.

To what do you attribute your success?

• An honest and deep commitment to the core mission of sustainability and helping protect the planet.
• An honest and deep commitment to supporting businesses and entrepreneurs that want to make an positive impact on the environment.
• Recognition that the only way to achieve our mission is to also operate strategically, with sound business practices.
• An awesome team of diverse, passionate and quirky people.
• Amazing companies we work with who are so committed to the environment that they are eager to tell others about us.

What is unique about your Startup story?

The classic, inspiring entrepreneur is focused on creating and building their own idea in their own niche market or product. We were much more focused on finding an opportunity where our experience and skills in business could help move a great company forward.

Does your company give back to the community where it is located or in other communities, if so, then how?

Yes, recently we have volunteered in our community on several occasions: we volunteered with The Nature Conservancy / Greenway Fund on Earth Day (river cleanup), we volunteered with EcoCycle for our team holiday party, we have done an Earth Month campaign donating to The Arbor Day Foundation, and have done a Veterans Day donation campaign to Homes for Wounded Warriors. We also recently became an EcoCycle Green Star Business. Through this program, EcoEnclose supports EcoCycle and gains valuable advice on how to run a more sustainable business.

If you had one piece of advice to an entrepreneur just starting out, what would it be?

Live in the present and take in the moments – especially the messy, fraught, and challenging ones. It is easy to get caught up in envisioning the future, developing your strategy, and potentially selling an exit to an investor.

Becoming an entrepreneur is mainly a choice about how you are going to live your life (not just a focus on the end game). Be ready to live in the clutter and uncertainty!

The Rise of Social Enterprises in Europe: Just a Trend or Here to Stay?

By Jessica van Thiel

“There are lots of injustices in the current economic model, but I think social enterprise and social investment offers a way forward. I don’t see whole-scale revolution as likely any time soon, so we need to change the system we have.” – Paula Woodman, Global Adviser on Social Enterprise, British Council

The European SocEnt Scene

We’re a social enterprise based in Canada and in France, with a predominant client and partner in the United Kingdom, so it’s imperative that we be closely connected to the social enterprise (or #SocEnt) scene in Europe. We understand the importance of knowing the European market and the impact it has in the larger picture. After all, social entrepreneurship is much about collaboration, as a great number of social enterprises maximize their impact through partnership and co-operation.

According to the Social Enterprise Council of Canada social enterprises are, “businesses owned by non-profit organizations that are directly involved in the production and/or selling of goods and services for the blended purpose of generating income and achieving social, cultural, and/or environmental aims[1]”. In short, a SocEnt is a business that has a greater purpose and in general aims to ‘do good’ while making a profit.

One common practice among social entrepreneurs is to share ideas with peers. For us, building relationships and networks across Europe and North America have been essential in maximizing our reach. Rather than compete with other social entrepreneurs, as common practice in other industries, we’ve adopted the strategy of sharing information and connecting with our peers in efforts to gain insight, explore best practices, and establish key contacts. This has been incredibly rewarding for us, and through trial and error, we’ve learned that it is one of the most effective ways of accomplishing our objectives.

As the SocEnt community thrives on other SocEnts and there is an increase in the general awareness of the industry, it is very encouraging to see signs that social enterprises are on the rise across the globe. The industry has been growing in North America for decades, having gained momentum since industry giant, Ashoka, was founded in 1978. Social Enterprises have also steadily risen in developing countries, with investors and governments increasingly recognizing the potential of the sector. Europe may well be the next hot spot for social entrepreneurs.

So why is Europe getting on board now? We believe it’s a result of varying factors. For one, an uncertain socio-economic time in Europe and perhaps a renewed pressure to find new solutions has created plenty of opportunities for SocEnts across Europe. The (2009) global economic crisis in particular, resulted in widespread public discontentment with the way the global economic system functions, and it fueled interest (from many sectors) in more inclusive economic systems. And perhaps most importantly, this lead to an increased recognition of the role social enterprises can play in tackling societal and environmental challenges and fostering inclusive growth[2].

While the importance of the opportunity and necessity SocEnts hold is becoming increasingly clear – and there are a few note worthy studies which have aimed to fill this gap in knowledge such as The European Commission’s Mapping Study (April 2016), The British Council’s study on what Social Enterprises will look like in Europe by 2020 – little research has been done regarding the scale and impact of the sector in Europe as a greater, dynamic whole. There’s certainly the opportunity and a growing market, with the possibility to change the current economic model, one where social enterprise and social investment offer a way forward.

However, much work is yet to be done to discover all of the benefits of running socially responsible and economically sustainable organizations. The bottom line is this: while there is plenty of interest in exploration, we are still far from where SocEnts are a new normal.

A SocEnt’s Map of Europe: Who and What to Watch For

Who are Europe’s most promising SocEnts and what is their focus? As Europe deals with possibly the largest refugee crisis of all time, it’s no surprise that a large number of young SocEnts have made the refugee cause a priority, and they are running organizations focused on migration, successful integration and economic independence.

For example, Josephine Goube, is the Director of Partnerships of Migreat, an enterprise that simplifies the complex process of migration in Europe; Paula Schwarz founded Startupboat which finds scalable solution for mass migration emergencies; and Nathanael Molle of Singa,  helps refugees entering France set up small businesses or re-enter the workforce with French language training. Others are addressing different issues such as SimPrints, creating medical record-keeping technologies in developing countries, InternsGoPro are finding students meaningful internships across Europe, Social Wolves is encouraging widespread social activism in Europe and around the world, and Make Sense is an international community that rallies ‘SenseMakers’ across the world to help social entrepreneurs solve their challenges.[3].

Across Europe we are seeing a surge in youth entrepreneurship and interest in social innovation, sustainable technologies and helping the world’s most vulnerable. We too, have had the opportunity to participate first-hand, through our work with universities in the UK and with networks such as the European Sustainable Development Network and the Unreasonable Institute in France. It’s pretty incredible the rate and pace at which these networks and communities are emerging, it only gives more momentum and enthusiasm to the industry.

“With social entrepreneurship on the rise, social entrepreneurs will surely have a vital and central role to play in changing the world for the better, one business at a time[4]”.

How We See It

There are many amazing efforts underway, and by some incredible people, none-the-less. While this is all very promising, we are reminded constantly through our work, that there are still major gaps in the SocEnt industry in Europe and around the globe. But where there are gaps, there are opportunities, and we are optimistic that the future of SocEnts is vast and exciting; in Europe and elsewhere. And as more people get involved in such businesses, it is only a matter of time before there is greater impact where governments and ‘business as usual’ increasingly fail us. Simply put, the more people are inspired and informed of the potential of social entrepreneurship, the more likely they will recognize opportunities to change the current economic model to one where social enterprises offer a way forward.

[1] The Social Enterprise Council of Canada, 2017

[2] European Commission, 2017

[3] Forbes, 2016

[4] Lyon Business School, Global Entrepreneurship Program, 2016

Enabling Local Social Entrepreneurs

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Jess was recently interviewed by Ogunte, Community Interest Company and a certified B Corp, where she spoke about working with local social entrepreneurs, PATHFINDER’s theory of change and her vision for 2030.

“My world in 2030 would be one of equality for all, more opportunities for women in positions of power, and access to education for all girls, resulting in a brighter future for women and girls everywhere.”

Check out the full interview, Enabling local Social Entrepreneurs!