7 Ways to Use Your Business as a Force for Good
Written by Cristina Villalón
ABOUT THE AUTHOR | Cristina Villalón is the Co-Founder and Managing Principal at Álvarez-Díaz & Villalón. She directs both the Interior Design and Visual Merchandising divisions while overseeing all decisions made on a day-to-day basis at the firm.
ALL BUSINESSES CAN BE A FORCE FOR GOOD IN THE WORLD.
By improving our workplaces and using our businesses as a platform for social change, we can leverage our impact and create a ripple effect on people and communities.
Here are seven ways you can use your business as a force for good:
1. START FROM THE INSIDE OUT
The first step to using your business as a force for good is looking inward to understand your bigger why. What exactly is it you are trying to accomplish? What moves you? What or who are you trying to impact? Next, revisit and edit your company’s vision, mission, and core values, if necessary, and make sure your business practices, policies, processes, and overall work align with your core purpose.
By reflecting on your company's purpose, and aligning it with ethical business practices and the right team members, you can start to use your business as a vehicle for good.
2. CREATE THE BEST WORKPLACE FOR YOUR TEAM
All transformations begin from the inside out. As you transform your business into a force for good, start with your team.
Providing your team with professional development and wellness incentives, team-building activities, as well as accommodating and flexible work areas are a few great ways to help them keep growing and thriving!
Creating a healthy and nurturing work environment for your employees is essential to using your business as a force for good because what works well for people internally translates externally.
3. SET CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY GOALS
Corporate sustainability goals are a great way to create value and address the triple bottom line; people, planet, and profits. These goals serve as a great guideline for pursuing responsible environmental, social, and economic (or governance) strategies.
The Sustainable Development Goals (also called Global Goals) are a collection of seventeen interlinked objectives designed to serve as the world’s shared plan to end extreme poverty, reduce inequality, and protect the planet by 2030. Using the SDGs as a framework, aligning your business practices to the SDGs, and working towards achieving them unlocks business value, builds business resilience, and enables long-term growth.
It’s important to remember that when setting and implementing these goals, you should assign a Champion that will lead your corporate sustainability initiatives and objectives and identify an accountability partner to keep you moving towards your sustainability goals.
In our case, we established a Sustainability Team who works year-round on measuring and tracking our efforts. We also joined the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) in 2019, which is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative and serves as our accountability partner.
The UNGC can provide you with the resources needed to integrate corporate sustainability into your strategies and operations addressing universal human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption. By taking action you can help advance the Sustainable Development Goals.
Joining the UNGC is committing to assess, define, implement, measure, and communicate your sustainability strategy. Setting corporate sustainability goals is critical to using your business as a force for good ensuring a sustainable planet for future generations.
4. JOIN PROGRAMS THAT CAN HELP WITH YOUR GOALS
As a benefit of joining the UNGC and working towards achieving the SDGs, you get access to webinars, supplemental materials, and the UNGC Academy, an e-learning platform that offers companies insights and best practices to assist them on their sustainability journey.
The UNGC also provides accelerator programs to help companies set ambitious corporate goals and accelerate the integration of the SDGs into their businesses. An example of this is the SDG Ambition Accelerator. This six-month accelerator program equips participating companies of the UN Global Compact to develop and implement innovative business strategies that significantly increase their positive impact on the SDGs.
Through guides, modules, templates, content, tools, and other resources provided by the accelerator, participating companies can assess current performance, identify risk areas, discover new opportunities across business units, and take ambitious business action toward achieving the SDGs.
We participated in the UNGC’s SDG Ambition Accelerator in 2020 to help us set more ambitious corporate sustainability goals. This invaluable experience gave us the tools and guidance necessary to elevate our sustainability initiatives and make significant strides toward a more sustainable future. Our company representative for the program, Carla Joan, was even honored with an SDG pioneer finalist recognition along with the likes of Pepsi Co. and Microsoft for her work in advancing the SDGs at AD&V.
This program proved to us that any business, big or small, can have a huge impact and use their business as a force for good.
5. WALK THE WALK
Using your business as a force for good requires more than just setting goals and making promises. It means actively practicing what you preach and positively impacting your community and beyond.
The best way to lead is by example. Whether through sustainable practices, charitable giving, or ethical business practices, every decision made in the company should reflect your commitment to being a force for good.
6. MEASURE PROGRESS & IMPACT
As legendary management consultant Peter Drucker said, “What gets measured gets improved.” Once your organization implements the processes and practices that drive your business to be a force for good, it is important to measure the progress and impact of your efforts and identify areas for improvement.
For example, you can measure how many employees are taking advantage of the company’s personal and professional benefits, the number of pounds of recycled materials, the time invested in community service initiatives, and all other efforts your company is actively working on.
By tracking and analyzing data related to your sustainability, diversity, and social responsibility efforts, you can better understand your business's impact on the world and make informed decisions about allocating resources to maximize your positive impact.
7. INSPIRE OTHERS TO BE A FORCE FOR GOOD
Measuring impact showcases the value of your initiatives to stakeholders, including employees, customers, investors, and community members. To illustrate this value, many businesses and organizations publish their own Impact Reports.
The Impact Report is an annual report that communicates the actions and efforts that a company is taking to create a positive impact on people and the planet.
By showing how your business prioritizes the well-being of people and the planet and makes a difference, it can inspire others to do the same.
IT’S ON US
Business as a force for good means using your business to make a difference in communities worldwide by providing the resources and opportunities for people to thrive and maximize their potential. More importantly, it means engaging in activities that support a more equitable and sustainable society.
The next time you reflect on your business, take a step back and consider what you could do to make an even greater impact. From rethinking your company's operations to focusing on your community, businesses are the most powerful and sustainable tool we have to improve the world. If you are in a leadership position in a business, consider how you can use it as a vehicle to make a positive difference in our communities and our planet.