Startups to Embed Purpose in Their Companies

Startups to Embed Purpose in Their Companies

Dear Friend of The B Team Does it make sense for startups to embed purpose in their companies, when often their hands are already full just maintaining viability? What policy or tax changes could governments make to support small and medium-sized businesses to take action on important social and environmental issues? How can businesses use their influence for positive impact in the communities where they operate? Earlier this month B Team Leaders Sir Richard Branson and Marc Benioff came together in San Francisco, along with 100 + tech entrepreneurs, to explore the answers to these questions and more for business leaders building purpose-driven companies. You can read the full conversation and all the insights here. The launch of Born B During their conversation, Richard and Marc announced the launch of Born B, a new movement for entrepreneurs and startups interested in embedding purpose in their core DNA. The leaders of these new companies were encouraged to seize the opportunity to manage their businesses in progressive and innovative ways from the start, rather than backwards engineering them when they become large and complex. We call this being “Born B”. The Born B community will be lead by B Innovators, industry disruptors committed to working on The B Team Challenges. We will continue to work to grow and support this community through events, online resources and our partnership with B Corp during 2016.  If you are interested in finding out how your company can get involved in the Born B movement you can get started by: JOINING the Born B mailing list to learn about B Team initiatives and commitments you can take to drive change. TAKING the Born B Impact Assessment to start measuring your company’s impacts on people and planet and benchmark yourself against others. PLEDGING 1% as part of a growing movement of companies and create significant community impact as your company scales. ALIGNING your governance model with your mission, whether by becoming a benefit corporation or building your mission into your LLC’s operating agreement. And, learning more about Born B movement here. Momentum grows for Paris Agreement - National action needed In the first quarter since the Paris Agreement we’ve seen accelerated investment in renewables, organisations like Tata Motors and Bloomberg joining the RE100 and committing to use renewable electricity, and  $14.4 billion issued in green bonds, with an estimated $100 billion to be issued globally by the end of the year. While several countries are working to increase their renewable capacity the temporary stay on the U.S Clean Power Plan and lower investment in some regions show that greater government commitment is needed to support and accelerate business ambition. During 2015 we called for companies and governments to strive for a target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and ten B Team companies set this aspiration for their own operations. This month we advocated to the UK government to embed a long-term goal of net-zero GHG emissions into law. This is an ambitious target, but we believe bold action at the national policy level is needed to ensure that the Paris Agreement is fully implemented on a global scale. Two weeks ago the UK government enshrined their commitment to reach net-zero by 2050 in law. As all governments meet in New York this month to sign the Paris agreement we will continue to advocate for national leadership that enables us to attain the long-term goals needed to limit global temperature rise to 1.5℃. Warmly, Keith Tuffley                                   Rajiv Joshi Managing Partner & CEO              Managing Director