Stories from the Community
How To Create a Sustainable Workplace and Community in 2018
Like many companies, we are always trying to be more sustainable. This is a basic tenet of the benefit corporation. But what does it mean to be sustainable and to actualize the 2nd P in the Triple Bottom Line?
5 Important Reasons To Get Certified as a Benefit Corporation
You are an entrepreneur or a small business doing all the right things.
You believe in giving back but you also want to make a profit.
And you care about the environment. For your kids and grandkids, for your community, for the world.
In sum, you believe in the triple bottom line of people, planet profit.
How a Portland Video Company Told a Powerful Story without a Camera
When done right, video creates memorable, powerful and lasting impact. The same can be said for the story founder Erik Croswell of Bridge City Media told us as he articulated the reasons why he and his company became a certified Benefit Corporation for Good…
How Benefit Corporations Understand the Secret of Innovation
Dreamers, visionaries, and out-of-the-box thinkers. These descriptive words aren’t just for bigger-than-life leaders and inventors. These words can describe each one of us. We all have the potential to dream and create.
Why a Strategic Consulting Firm Used Certification To Leave the World a Better Place
If you listen to the founder of Mighty Epiphyte, you hear a common thread in all her communication. That commonality? Leaving the world and her community a better place. As a firm believer in the Triple Bottom Line of People, Planet and Profit, Kim Allchurch Flick is a connector and collaborator who catalyzes good business.
Why a Portland Management Consulting Firm Followed Its Heart in Becoming a Certified Oregon Benefit Company
It’s difficult to listen in on a business conversation these days without hearing the word metrics. Measuring what you do is a critical component to a business’s success and longevity. And that accountability is a key reason why co-founders Trever Cartwright and Michelle Janke pursued certification as an Oregon Benefit Company.
How to Differentiate Your Brand by Taking a Stand
If your business isn’t taking a stand, the results are clear: you’re not going to be relevant to target markets. This is the reality of today’s consumer as revealed in a fresh new study from Edelman.
What’s particularly enlightening is that…
Benefit Corporations: Diversity is more than Affirmative Action
Throughout the 20th century, most businesses appeared homogenized. But over the years, huge demographic changes occurred in our workforce. The people inside today's businesses resemble nothing like those employees just a few decades ago.
The most obvious difference: You will find greater gender and ethnic diversity across most industries.And it is clearly apparent in the Benefit Corporations we have met. These businesses…
How Kayaking in the Sea of Cortez Turned a Vegan Shake Creator into an Oregon Benefit Company
Let’s say you create hand-crafted, certified vegan shake blends. They’re dairy-free, soy-free and gluten-free. Oh, yes, they also taste delicious according to the fans of said vegan shake blends. But then you also decide you want to mix in social and environmental impact.
Well that’s what has happened with David Cascadden, founder of Left Coast Raw in Bend, Oregon.
How a Benefit Corporation Captures a Millennial’s Heart
You would have had to be under a rock for the past five years to not have heard about the value of authenticity. I'm talking about authenticity as a brand and authenticity as a leader.
It’s something we hear everyday when we work with leaders of Benefit Corporations who exemplify this in their thinking and behaviors.
And why is authenticity so important?
What Our First 15 Oregon Certified Benefit Companies Have in Common
They are more alike than different. Even in such contrasting industries as legal services, wine-making, and women’s apparel, these twelve companies all share the same soul. That is, they are firm believers and practitioners of the…
Why a Portland Law Firm Became a Certified Oregon Benefit Company
“I graduated law school in 2009. After graduating in the recession and facing a variety of hardships (and bar exams), I became a lawyer in 2017. Here I was finally a lawyer after years of doing other things: marketing and branding, real estate, nonprofit work, conflict resolution/mediation, restaurant work, law firm work, etc. (all legal activity I promise).
Since I was young, I’ve always been…
Why a Well-Known Brewpub Changed from Being a Nonprofit to Oregon Benefit Company
When you add delicious craft beer and social impact together, you get one purpose-driven brewpub.
I’m talking about Ex Novo which was founded by Joel Gregory. He happens to be a busy beer professional right now as he…
How To Make Benefit Corporation Certification Better
As firm believers in the “there is no finish line” concept, we are constantly seeking improvement with our certification process. Day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month, we look for ways to make our Triple Bottom Line of People, Planet and Profit certification not only stronger but more meaningful to all stakeholders.
In an online Oregon Business magazine article posted last Friday
New Business Model Offers Compelling Proof of Innovation
"Oregon Business" Interview: How To Make the Oregon Benefit Company Stronger
How the World Gets Better with Businesses Led by Diverse Leaders
Many say small businesses are the backbone of our country.
It rings true. As small business entrepreneurs based in Portland, Oregon, and advocates for the Benefit Company and Benefit Corporation movement, we are inspired daily by the innovation, perseverance, commitment and passion we see among small businesses. They build…
Lesson in Leadership: Is Honesty the Best Policy?
Nike just announced it will eliminate 745 jobs at its Oregon headquarters.
And it got me thinking about honesty in business. (No, I have no issue with my favorite shoemaker.) More specifically, honesty in leadership.
For years, I spent time in the ad agency world. Layoffs were part and parcel of that business. Lose an account and lose some employees. Lose another account and lose more employees. And so it went with the bad times of every economic cycle.
Now if you were an employee…