svn hall of fame tribute book preview

SOCIAL VENTURE NETWORK HALL OF FAME25 YEARS OF LEADING THE WAY1987 - 2012

II AM DEEPLY GRATEFUL to the extraordinary entrepreneurs who have dedicated their lives to creating a more just, sustainable and humane world. There would be no Social Venture Network without them. The 25 entrepreneurs featured in this book showed that business leaders could and should solve social and environmental problems, and inspired people to think di!erently about the role of business in the world. When they started out, people called them crazy. Now they’re regarded as visionaries. But what inspires me more than their great success is their extraordinary openness. They always show up as they are — full of creativity, questions, insights, generosity, vulnerability and laughter. They talk about their biggest mistakes and what they learned from them. They take the time to share their insights and connections with people who need them most. They show that people can do heroic things without acting like superheroes. Special thanks to Josh Mailman and Wayne Silby for founding Social Venture Network 25 years ago. The world is a better place because of the leaders featured in this book, and every member of SVN. The ripple e!ects of their work, and the community of generosity and inspiration they created, have supported thousands of social entrepreneurs and helped transform the way the world does business. Working on this tribute book has been a labor of love. It would not have been possible without the vision and dedication of Erin Roach, Mal Warwick, Bryan Welch and the talented sta! at Ogden Publications. This book is an expression of our gratitude and respect for the pioneers of the socially responsible business movement. The SVN Hall of Fame would not have been possible without the creativity and commitment of Evan Shapiro, Tina Beck, MaryAnne Howland, Don Sha!er, Trish Karter, and the SVN sta! and board. I feel incredibly fortunate to work and grow with them. This book is dedicated to Tolulope Ilesanmi and the next generation of world-changing entrepreneurs. You give me hope for the future. With gratitude,

Deb NelsonExecutive DirectorSocial Venture Network

SVN Hall of Fame Tribute Book 5

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

8 SVN Hall of Fame Tribute Book title issue 2012 9

25ENVIRONMENTAL EVANGELISTS14 Gary Hirshberg

16 George Siemon

18 Drew and Myra Goodman

20 Je!rey Hollender

WORKPLACE CHAMPIONS22 Eileen Fisher

24 Margot Fraser

26 Chip Conley

28 Bruce Poon Tip

30 Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford

ECONOMIC JUSTICE MAVERICKS32 Van Jones

34 Dolores Huerta

36 Al Fuller

38 Judy Wicks and Laury Hammel

FEARLESS FINANCIERS40 Wayne Silby

42 Josh Mailman

44 Amy Domini

46 Muhammad Yunus

48 Joel Solomon and Carol Newell

VISIONARY SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS50 Ben Cohen and Jerry Green"eld

52 Linda Mason and Roger Brown

54 Bill Drayton

56 Bill and Lynne Twist

58 Cheryl Dorsey

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD HONOREES 60 Dame Anita Roddick

62 Sir Richard Branson

SVN Hall of Fame Celebration at Gotham Hall New York City, November 13, 2012

ably, as the network grew, the belief that business should be about more than simply making money gradually came to be more widely shared, and the socially responsible invest-ing trend picked up momentum. Cohen, Green"eld, Roddick and the growing number of their peers gained wide notice — and praise — for their humane and innovative policies and practices. Instead of a smattering of “business ethics” courses at select graduate schools, courses in sustainability and social entrepreneurship proliferated at business schools around the country, and a growing number of institutions are now focused exclusively on training business leaders who want to start or work for companies that re#ect their personal values. Now a network of 600 business leaders, investors and social entrepreneurs, SVN continues to lead the way in broaden-ing the responsible business movement’s reach, impact and diversity.

INCUBATING A MOVEMENTSVN has thrived because it delivers great personal and

business value to its members, precisely as its founders had promised. In a safe environment insulated from attention by the news media, members gain access to thought leaders on the frontiers of business, the environment, science and public policy. They become one another’s customers, clients or inves-tors, and test the extent to which they practice the values they preach. SVN members have formed friendships that in many cases have endured for decades.

Beginning early in its history, SVN proved its value to the business community at large as an incubator for other key or-ganizations in the movement for socially and environmentally responsible business:

together to form Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), which is now a global organization with eight o$ces on four continents.

helped launch SVN Europe at a conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

(originally Students for Responsible Business), now a network

of more than 30,000 students and professionals in over 300 chapters worldwide.

convened the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), which now encompasses more than 80 community networks representing more than 30,000 independent business members.

the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) began advancing public policy ideas to create a more just and sustainable economy. ASBC now represents more than 150,000 companies.

In addition, Investors’ Circle (1992) — an organization that pioneered what is now widely called impact investing — and

10 SVN Hall of Fame Tribute Book

PPICTURE THIS: It’s 1987. Ronald Reagan is in the White House, and “trickle-down

economics” is in the ascendancy. Soviet troops are on the defensive in Afghanistan, the Unabomber is on the loose, and the Iran-Contra a!air is grabbing headlines. Then comes Black Monday, when the Dow-Jones industrial average drops nearly 23% in a single day, raising doubts about the stability of the U.S. economy. Business as usual was the order of the day. Innovative entrepreneurs such as Ben Cohen and Jerry Green"eld of Ben & Jerry’s and Anita Roddick of The Body Shop were frequently ridiculed in the business press. The term socially re-sponsible business was widely thought to be an oxymoron, because, after all, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman had decreed that the only legitimate purpose of business was to make money for its owners.

This was the state of a!airs in August 1987 when more than 70 entrepreneurs and investors gathered at Gold Lake Ranch in the

Colorado Rockies. They had come at the invitation of two in#uential young business leaders, investor Josh Mailman and Wayne Silby, founder of the Calvert Funds, “to explore the idea of forming some type of network that can serve as a model for bringing social values into a more collective sphere.” This gathering was the founding conference of Social Venture Network (SVN). As Mailman and Silby shared, “This conference is but a "rst step in a long and measured process that should give newfound friends deep personal satisfac-tion, "nancial rewards, and the opportunity to help create a better society. By helping [one another] and [our] projects become suc-cessful, we build a new tale through mutual allegiance.”

USING THE POWER OF BUSINESS TO CREATE A BETTER SOCIETYFrom that "rst meeting in 1987 emerged Social Venture Network,

a community of entrepreneurs and investors that has proven Mail-man and Silby’s prescience over the past quarter-century. Remark-


SOCIAL VENTURE NETWORK PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Anita and Gordon Roddick Ben and Jerry

The members of Social Venture Network — together with the hundreds of thousands of members of our sister organiza-tions — are united in the conviction that our civilization can overcome these hurdles and create a prosperous and healthy planet in the next 25 years.

Audacious? Visionary? Yes! We would expect nothing less of a movement led by such extraordinary people as the 25 entrepreneurs pro"led in this book.

Mal Warwick Founder of Mal Warwick Associates, Partner of One World Futbol Project, past SVN Board Chair and editor of the SVN Book Series


B Lab (2006) — the engine behind the fast-growing bene"t corporation movement — both drew heavily from SVN for their earliest members and much of their leadership talent.

Collectively, the members of SVN have had a profound impact through the businesses they lead: changing the world through socially responsible investing, leveraging their companies for social change in the workplace and in the community, seeding the organic revolution; creat-ing the Green MBA; demonstrating how businesses of any size can tread more lightly on the planet; incorporating spirituality into the ways they operate their companies; promoting employee ownership; fostering family-friendly workplaces; jump-starting clean technology and green building practices; pioneering in social entrepreneurship; and leading the way in fair trade, natural beauty care, social finance, consumer education, social-change media, and much more.

Expanding the frontiers of socially responsible businessAs SVN begins its second 25 years, the organization is

the strongest it has ever been. Thousands of entrepreneurs, executives, and investors attend SVN conferences, Social Venture Institutes and local gatherings, and its growing mem-bership continues to "nd new ways to build the movement for pro"t with a purpose. Without a doubt, the enduring peer-to-peer relationships that form so readily within the network’s collaborative learning community are the glue that holds SVN together, and the community is strengthened and relation-ships gain value as the network expands and diversi"es.

This is the basis on which SVN launched the Bridge Project — a comprehensive e!ort to diversify the socially responsible business movement from the inside out, sup-porting, connecting and promoting the next generation of world-changing entrepreneurs, with a focus on entrepreneurs of color, young business leaders and women entrepreneurs.

Now, to mark its 25th Anniversary, Social Venture Network is hosting its inaugural Hall of Fame Celebration, to honor 25 of the most innovative and in#uential leaders of the socially responsible business movement. Each of the honorees pro-"led in this book has built an enterprise of at least $50 million in annual revenues or an equivalent, measurable positive social or environmental impact. Every award winner was rig-orously vetted by a panel of 20 judges representing corporate peers, industry experts, and responsible business leaders.

A PROSPEROUS AND HEALTHY PLANET BY 2037True leadership is grounded in the understanding that the

future won’t take care of itself – whether that future concerns a single company or community or the whole of Planet Earth. It was a gift for leadership that led Josh Mailman and Wayne Silby to launch Social Venture Network 25 years ago. Shared leadership talents enable the 600 members of SVN to achieve profound impact on the way the world does business today.

As we look ahead to our next 25 years, we all recognize that the challenges facing us are profound. Despite the rapidly growing adoption of Triple Bottom Line standards and Socially Responsible Investing, the great majority of compa-nies worldwide still operate as though the business of busi-ness is pro"t alone. And simply to overcome humanity’s two greatest problems — the persistence of global poverty and the growing threat of climate change — will require disrup-tive changes not just in the private sector but in public policy across the planet and in the way we lead our lives as well.


SOCIAL VENTURE NETWORK: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Van Jones Rha GoddessAlejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora


II GREW UP A NATURE LOVER and outdoors enthusiast in New Hampshire — hiking, swimming, skiing, I love it all. I have such respect for the mountains, lakes and landscapes in this beautiful state and, after witnessing the e!ects of air and water pollution and the disappearance of area farms, preserv-ing our natural environment became a major motivation for me as an environmentalist and an entrepreneur.

So in 1983 when Samuel Kaymen recruited me to help run The Rural Education Center, a New Hampshire farming school that taught sustainable agricultural practices, it was a natural "t. Together with a delicious yogurt recipe and an urgent need to fund the Center, we started Stony"eld Farm Yogurt. We set out to show that it’s possible to create a product that doesn’t harm the earth in the production process. In the 29 years we’ve been in business, I’ve realized that not only can

we do business without doing environmental damage, but that nature itself — in which there is no waste — can provide a perfect model.

From the beginning we’ve put our values "rst and market-ing second. As children of the ‘60s, we were part of a genera-tion that learned to question authority and the prevailing norms. The norms in business have always been to save mon-ey on the cost of goods and spend it on advertising to get people to try your product. That’s not a model that worked in the organic world. Happily, I can report that our model of success is built on enriching farmers, supporting biodiversity, putting carbon into the soil, improving water quality, improv-ing animal and human health, and at the same time making more money in the process.

I’m proud to say that Stony"eld is now the leading organic yogurt company in the world and the fourth largest yogurt brand in the United States with sales of more than $360 million annually. And it is renowned as an innovator in sustainable business practices.

My vision for the future is this: In 20 years, when my kids have had their kids (making me a very happy grandfather), organic will account for 50 percent of all agriculture. While we may think of organic agriculture as a big, bold visionary NEW trend, in reality it’s the oldest form of farming there is. Until sometime between World War I and World War II, all food was essentially organic. In their lifetimes, my parents have seen agriculture switch from being organically based to now being primarily chemical. We’ve been in this experiment with our bodies, our air, our water and our soil for about 70 years. I "nd it especially ironic when people say organic isn’t proven, when actually it’s the chemicals that aren’t proven. The public’s awareness around food is now shifting, as people hunger to know what’s actually in their food and how it was produced. There’s still a long way to go, but with organic sales growing 9 percent annually, I believe it’s a real possibility to reach 50 percent in my lifetime.

I believe that business is the most powerful force on the planet. If business doesn’t make the planet our responsibil-ity, if business doesn’t make peoples’ health our responsibil-ity, if business doesn’t make saving family farms and saving farmers and stopping the ecological destruction of the planet our priority, it will never happen. We’ve worked hard to make Stony"eld as sustainably and environmentally responsible a company as possible. And it’s an ongoing, continuous process of improvement that we’ve been committed to from the start.

ENVIRONMENTAL EVANGELISTS


I believe a food company can’t be truly sustainable without being organic. Organic family farms are vital to human health and the health of the planet. Organic farmers don’t use the toxic, persistent pesticides and chemical fertilizers routinely used by nonorganic farmers and known to contaminate food, drinking water, soil and air. Stony"eld buys more than 300 million pounds of organic fruit, organic milk and other organic ingredients each year, helping to support hundreds of organic family farms. The company helps keep more than 200,000 farm acres free of toxic, persistent pesticides and chemical fertilizers. The growth of organic acreage is one of the things of which I’m proudest in my career.

Organic agriculture is a win-win-win-win-win proposition for farmers, who experience higher yields and consistent prof-itability; for farm workers, who are not being exposed to toxic chemicals on a daily basis; for consumers, who know that or-ganic is food that can be trusted and they can feel good about feeding their families; for the environment; and, of course, for businesses like Stony"eld. Not only does organic farming put more carbon back in the soil and improve water quality, it supports biodiversity and improves animal and human health — all the while putting more money in the pockets of farmers and stakeholders.

I’ve worked hard to make Stony"eld’s mission to protect and restore the Earth part of the company’s DNA. Rather than make sustainability the responsibility of just one person or group, I’ve aimed to build alignment around a sense of com-mon purpose. This idea has come to life through Stony"eld’s Mission Action Program (MAP), a company-wide program developed to engage employees in achieving goals to reduce environmental burdens. It has been transformative for the company as well as employees on a professional and personal level. By weaving sustainable business goals like reducing solid waste by 57 percent and greenhouse gas emissions from trans-portation by 46 percent into the very fabric of our business, we’ve managed to save more than $24 million since 2006.

What began as a set of practical steps to change the way we did business resulted in a better business and a model for other companies to follow.

SVN’S INFLUENCEI joined SVN at its second meeting back in 1988 and

eventually became the Chair and Co-Chair, posts I held for a decade. SVN has provided me with an excellent network of peers with whom I have been able to problem-solve and

share ideas, inspirations and collaborations. I also met quite a few angel investors during the early days of the organization, when I was still in the thick of raising capital.

Mainly, SVN has been a wonderful, nurturing and supportive community of fellow optimists.

‘‘‘‘

I was first introduced to Gary Hirshberg when my son returned from a Stonyfield Entrepreneurship Institute a few years ago, burst into my office, his face lit with excitement, and passionately declared, “The only thing to be in life is an entrepreneur. You have to read this book.”

I did. Earlier this year I attended one of his workshops. Then I met Gary again a few weeks later at SVN Europe.

Gary speaks with honesty and vulnerability about his struggles. He inspires listeners to realize that everyone can be an entrepre-neur. Gary speaks about the way you choose to think, the way you act, conscious choices you make, about authentic connection with your environment and the people around you. Gary also speaks about belief in yourself, your company and your vision, and about being strong enough to trust your instincts and to trust yourself, no matter what.

Gary has done it and is now giving back. Generous with his time and his wisdom, he strives to help young entrepreneurs avoid mak-ing the mistakes that he once made.

He is a visionary of uncompromising strength, a leader with unparalleled instincts, decisive, trusted, respected, tough, the captain of his ship. He is a teacher for me, and I am happy to be one of his students.

Gary, thank you for all the good that you have done. We honor you.

— Dale Rodrigues, President and Co-Founder, Mary’s Gone Crackers See page 64 for more information.

GARY HIRSHBERG


II NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT BEING A DESIGNER; it was just a fun thing to do. My mom sewed all our clothes. I went with her to fabric stores and then started going by myself. I loved touching the fabric and looking though the pattern books. I went to college thinking I was going to be a math major. It was the only subject I was good at. I had a room-mate who was studying interior design. She’d be on the #oor playing with fabrics and color, putting things together. At one point I thought, “I’m never going to get through school if I don’t do something a little easier.” So I ended up in home economics (that’s what people who were interested in cloth-ing or textiles did).

After college, I moved to New York and started working for a graphic designer. We traveled to Japan to meet with clients and it was so inspiring. The materials and the shapes of garments — especially the kimono — fascinated me. At the

same time, I hated shopping for clothes because I couldn’t "nd anything I really wanted. I didn’t like spending an hour getting dressed in the morning, trying to "gure out what to wear.

That was where the seeds for the clothing began. It was a passion to make it simpler for myself and for other women to get dressed. I couldn’t be the only one. I remembered the days of the uniform — I had worn one for 12 years during school — and I could just get up, put it on and life was about whatever else was going on, not just about clothes. I would talk about my idea like an art project to friends in Soho, just as they would talk about their paintings or the vision they had for some installation. I could see the pictures: There would be a lot of simple shapes, they could work together and you could build a wardrobe.

In 1984, with guidance and encouragement from friends, and with my last $350, I showed four pieces at the Boutique show, after a sculptor-friend who made jewelry decided not to use the booth. He pushed me to take the booth and use it to show my four pieces. I went to the show, and I sold small orders to eight stores. I felt I was onto something. At the next show, I had eight garments and I sold $40,000 worth of gar-ments. EILEEN FISHER Inc. was born. A lot of designers have a clear vision but I was much more about creating a back and forth with the buyers, which is how we still run the business.

We don’t typically use the word “problem” to describe our approach to our work. Just about everything at EILEEN FISHER is an “opportunity” or a “challenge.” Our approach to social and environmental issues is no exception. Our commitment to social consciousness and environmental sustainability begins with our mission statement: To support women through social initiatives that address their well-being. To practice business responsibly with absolute regard for human rights. To guide our product and practice toward sustaining our environment. These three values are held within the broad scope of social consciousness.

Our social consciousness team facilitates, inspires, edu-cates and guides the company’s commitment to these values. They work with individuals, teams and departments to ensure that this commitment is carried through our product, facili-ties, workplace practices and communication channels. They also work with our suppliers and other business partners to help move everyone in the same direction, toward less environmental impact and greater social impact in everything we do. Some examples of this work include collaborating with our manufacturing team to make the dyeing process of our China-produced silks more sustainable, with 30 to 50 percent savings of energy, water and chemicals use; working with our

WORKPLACE CHAMPIONS


facilities team and landlord to place a massive solar array on the roof of our New Jersey distribution center; and working with our accounting and store teams to measure and reduce carbon usage through energy consumption.

We recently increased our commitment to human rights by adding a new position in that area, and we are currently engaged in conversations about ways to continue to grow this commitment. Additionally, we are taking a thoughtful and comprehensive look at our commitment to the environment. One of our company priorities is to articulate our commitment and design our strategic approach to environmental sustain-ability.

I’ve begun using the phrase “Business as a Movement” to describe the role of EILEEN FISHER in the world. It is through the way we conduct business, the way we connect with our employees and business partners, and the way we use our resources that we will have the greatest impact. Rather than keeping our social consciousness values o! to the side, they are thoughtfully integrated into our everyday work. That is Business as a Movement.

As a company, we’re working with various organizations to advance our commitment to the environment. These partner-ships include working with Native Energy and other socially conscious brands to help build two wind turbines in Iowa. This spring and fall, we will send "ve of our employees on a Climate Ride, having participated in three previous rides.

SVN’S INFLUENCEThe SVN community has had a profound impact on our

work. We have found values-aligned business and community partners: Indigenous Designs, Kaleel Jamison, Seventh Genera-tion, Greyston Foundation/Greyston Bakery and Clif Bar. We’ve found thinking partners to help us work through a challenge: Calvert Group and BBMG. And we’ve found incredible people to nurture our spirits and raise our consciousness. Through the conferences, peer circles and individual connections, SVN continues to be one of our primary sources of inspiration and motivation on a personal as well as a business level.

One of our more recent partnerships has been with Clif Bar and the multi-company volunteer program they founded, called “In Good Company.” It started in 2008, when Clif Bar invited EILEEN FISHER and "ve other companies to join them in rebuilding a community within New Orleans. Since then, we have sent several employees each year to a Hopi reserva-tion in Arizona, a neighborhood in West Oakland and back to New Orleans. These volunteers work with local networks and residents to build healthy, sustainable communities — often

using tools and skills they never knew they had. Perhaps more important, they build their own community by sharing meals, problem-solving and laughter. This has been a spiritually up-lifting experience for the EILEEN FISHER volunteers involved, and one that seems to change their lives forever.

‘‘‘‘

When I consider the wonder that is Eileen Fisher — the woman, the successful international brand, those sumptuous, gorgeous clothes, and the connected community of thinking women that are drawn in — I find myself asking this question:

What other line of apparel can offer women the tactile experi-ence of living in and celebrating their authentic beauty and adorn-ment, of feeling both at home in attire while looking their best?

Shall we agree that EILEEN FISHER sets the bar?In my organization, shopping trips to EILEEN FISHER create

bonds among women across reporting lines and across generations. We set out on a pilgrimage, brimming with anticipation, bringing back our spoils to cooing colleagues and friends. So popular are these purposed excursions that they are known simply as “fishing” trips. Makes sense — we garner the same level admiration that are offered to those who can hook a salmon or catch a trout.

Having met more of the EILEEN FISHER team since becoming an SVN member, I am simply more impressed with each new face. Their intrinsic, explicit ethos, practice and values are lived. Their commitments to the environment and women’s considerations, unparalleled working facilities and affirming aesthetics, are the model to which all business should really aspire.

Moreover, the EILEEN FISHER teams demonstrate genuine care, intelligence and purpose. They are resonant with a sparkle that represents their brand. It’s a sparkle shared with the women who choose to buy and wear their garments. It’s the sparkle of knowing, the sparkle of appreciation.

Thank you, Eileen Fisher, from us all.— Mirran Raphaely, CEO, Dr.Hauschka Skin Care

See page 65 for more information.

EILEEN FISHER

for Green Jobs Training Programs across the United States. In 2007, I launched a national organization called Green

For All, which now operates in 50 U.S. cities, and has helped municipalities and businesses create thousands of green jobs across America. I also published my "rst book, The Green Collar Economy. It was a New York Times Best Seller, and is considered the de"nitive book on green jobs.

Members of President-Elect Barack Obama’s transition team, impressed by the book, recommended me for inclusion in the Obama Administration as a Special Advisor for Green Jobs. In the White House, I helped to oversee $80 billion in green recov-ery spending.

After coming under "re from the President’s opponents, I resigned in September of 2009, and became a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. In 2010, I joined the faculty at Princeton University as a visiting fellow to teach a course on Environmental Policy and Politics.

During that period, I developed a number of insights about how the movement for hope and change that elected Obama had gone awry. I published my second book in 2012, also a New York Times Best Seller, called Rebuild the Dream. I also launched a new organization in 2011, called Rebuild the Dream, which to-day is "ghting to bring economic opportunity back to America.

SVN’S INFLUENCELooking back, I can’t imagine what my life and work would

have been like if I hadn’t become a part of the SVN community. I remember long walks with Jodie Evans, who, like some kind

of fairy god-sister, essentially adopted me into her family, and who has been one of my closest friends and advisors ever since.

I also remember gathering on the eve of the onset of the Iraq War, singing, holding hands and praying with members like Nina Utne, who helped to launch Code Pink with Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin.

As a board member, I recall the set of meetings that led to the creation of BALLE, one of the great successes at SVN. I remem-ber the bold vision of Laury Hammel and Judy Wicks, colliding with some of the harder-headed pragmatists of the Board. The resulting synthesis, BALLE, has re#ected the best of SVN — its idealism and its pragmatism — and been of great practical use to thousands of grassroots entrepreneurs.

The community remains a vital source of support. Nina Utne serves on the Board of Rebuild the Dream, and Josh Mailman re-mains a mentor and invaluable ally. When I left the White House in 2009, Deb Nelson reached out to me and was a steadfast

friend during a tough emotional ordeal for me.I will never forget the great SVN-ers, who, over the past 15

years, have been there for me in my various pursuits, nor the cumulative impact of the SVN community on me, my work, and the communities that I try to serve. When I look at all of my best work over the past 15 years, I can trace a direct line back to the ideas and assistance of the SVN community.

‘‘‘‘

I met Van Jones for the first time when he spoke at the SVN 2010 Fall Conference. By this time, he was legendary for his bril-liant articulation of the impact of economic justice in building a sustainable future for all. He did not disappoint. What I did not expect was his personal charm and good looks!

When Van speaks to you, he truly engages — a rare and disarm-ing quality that compels you to listen, think and challenge your-self. It is easy to understand why he is such an effective civil rights activist, innovator and thought leader.

A founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change and Green For All, and author of the New York Times Best Seller, The Green Collar Economy, it is no wonder that Time maga-zine named him one of its “Heroes of the Environment” and Fast Company called him one of the “12 Most Creative Minds of 2008.” Kudos to President Barack Obama who recognized the star among us and in 2009 appointed him Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, at the White House Council on Environ-mental Quality.

I can honestly say that Van is one of the reasons I am so proud of Social Venture Network. If this group of individuals in any way helped to evolve a man such as this, I am honored to call myself a member. Thank you, SVN and Van, for helping to alter the tra-jectory of our collective consciousness. And a personal heartfelt thank you to Van for going grassroots to include and give voice to invisible and underserved communities. I come from one of those communities, and I know how much this commitment matters.

Van, congratulations on being among the first to be inducted into the SVN Hall of Fame. You deserve it!

— MaryAnne Howland, President & CEO, IBIS Communications, Inc. See page 66 for more information.


II GREW UP in a civil rights household. When I graduated from the Yale Law School, I decided to go "ght for social justice. At Yale, I realized that a lot of Ivy League undergraduates were doing copious amounts of drugs — and going to rehab if they got caught. A few blocks away, poor kids in the housing proj-ects were doing lesser amounts of the same drugs — and going to prison.

I knew that dichotomy was wrong, and I decided to do some-thing about it. I worked for two years in a civil rights law "rm in San Francisco. Then I started a police misconduct project to coordinate litigation against problem police o$cers, practices and precincts. The project was called Bay Area Police Watch. I later grew it into the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.

In 1995, I launched a grassroots campaign to "re a notorious San Francisco police o$cer after he beat, stomped and pepper sprayed to death an unarmed African American man named

Aaron Williams. The o$cer, Marc Andaya, had previously killed another unarmed African American man and was the subject of "ve lawsuits and 37 formal complaints alleging racism and bru-tality. Our campaign resulted in Andaya’s termination in 1997, as well as a recon"guring of the San Francisco Police Commission and major reform of the SFPD in subsequent years.

Two years later, our “Books Not Bars” program took on the hard work of closing youth prisons in California in favor of rehabilitation, education and employment. In alliance with numerous other groups, we succeeded in closing four youth prisons in California, and permanently blocked the construc-tion of a “Super Jail for Kids” near Oakland. So far, our coalition has reduced California’s youth prison population by 30 percent — with no related increase in youth violence.

I’d been "rst introduced to Social Venture Network in 1998, when I was one of four winners of the Reebok International Human Rights Award. SVN co-founder Josh Mailman was on the selection committee. After the ceremony, Josh invested in The Ella Baker Center — giving us our biggest grant up to that point — and invited me to join SVN.

From my "rst SVN conference, I was blown away by the passion, creativity and e!ectiveness of the community. Before joining, I was deeply suspicious of all businesspeople, whom I presumed to be greedy and exploitative. I had never met entre-preneurs who took the value of social justice and environmental stewardship as seriously as I did — and in some cases more so.

It was through SVN that I "rst began to develop the concept of “green jobs, not jails.” I had been unaware of the power of market-based solutions to address the seemingly intractable problems of poverty and pollution, and to do so on a large scale. I became a serious convert to entrepreneurship and socially responsible investing as key pillars of any serious strategy for change.

I later became such an evangelist to this approach that I was teased by my peers in the struggle as “the green Jack Kemp.”

Re#ecting on the genius and brilliance of the SVN commu-nity, I began to push Oaklanders to embrace the idea of green jobs and entrepreneurship as an innovative set of pathways to prosperity. As a result, the Oakland City Council in 2007 created the Green Jobs Corps, which trained local youth for work in green industries such as weatherization, solar panel installation and organic gardening.

That same year, Speaker Nancy Pelosi helped me navigate the halls of Congress to pass the Green Jobs Act of 2007, signed into law by President George W. Bush. It authorized $125 million

ECONOMIC JUSTICE MAVERICKS


VAN JONES

SVN Hall of Fame Tribute Book 49 48 SVN Hall of Fame Tribute Book

Paul Stamets. With SVN, Renewal hosted annual Social Venture Institutes, renowned entrepreneurial conferences. Hollyhock expanded its Leadership Institute into six annual conferences, serving more than 500 social entre-preneurs annually.

Pamela Chaloult, formerly co-executive director of SVN, joined the Re-newal team in 2006. She managed the overall operations and orchestrated a powerful communications strategy and made the multilayered organic story accessible and available to a broader public. She took SVI Hollyhock into its current rock-star status as a hot spot for the holistic “business school in a week.”

Renewal invested in dozens of organizations, businesses, leaders and events, driving creation of hundreds of jobs with mission values at the core. As CEO, I counseled, mentored and made introductions for countless individuals over the course of 20 years.

By 2008 Renewal Partners was fully invested, with a more than 12 per-cent internal rate of return for companies it invested more than $50,000 in. Paul Richardson’s leadership was crucial to guiding these companies toward pro"tability — from Stony"eld Farm to Village Real Estate. SPUD to Lunapads. Sungevity to IceStone, Salt Spring Co!ee to Good Capital, AlterEco to Mamma Chia, Guayaki to TerraCycle, Better World to Grameen, Greyston Bakery and Teeccino. Renewal’s early seed capital has played "nan-cial and moral support roles in many investments in the SVN business com-munity. Renewal has recruited dozens of new SVN members over the years.

Renewal’s second investment was in Happy Planet Foods, co-founded by SVN alum Gregor Robertson. After building a beloved Canadian brand of organic smoothies, Gregor turned to politics. In 2011 he won a resound-ing re-election to a second term as Mayor of Vancouver. He leads Vision Vancouver, a new political party that has built a broad progressive man-date. His aggressive campaigns to make Vancouver the greenest city in the world, end street homelessness and foster a creative entrepreneurial economy, echoes the spirit of SVN.

Renewal2 is the $35 million social venture fund we launched in 2010. It opens up the Renewal “Investing for Change” strategy and experience to outside partners who want more alignment with their money and values. SVN is a crucial source of partners, referrals and portfolio companies.

With a risk capital tolerance, foundation asset activation and spend-down strategy, a serious commitment to capacity building and leadership development, plus cross-sector collaboration, psychological, emotional and spiritual skills focus, new-wave pragmatic progressive politics and a long-term ecosystemic theory of change, Renewal is pioneering the cata-lyzing of wealth for the common good. An SVN specialty, throwing great parties, is the Secret Success Sauce.

SVN provides ongoing access for us to the leading entrepreneurial pioneers and innovators of our times. Business. Education. Trust. Love. And Fun. That’s a good formula.

We adore SVN.

JJOEL Carol Newell and I met through the Threshold Foundation in 1992.

We shared an entrepreneurial spirit, a deep intention of aligning money with value, and a love of British Columbia and its vast wilderness, wealth of natural resources and diverse society. We wanted to catalyze fundamental change.

In 1981, Josh Mailman gathered a group of visionary philanthropists and founded Threshold. He saw money as a tool for positive change. Josh and Wayne Silby brought together members of Threshold with other allies in 1987, drawn by a determination to use enterprise for a better world. I attended the founding meeting of Social Venture Network at Gold Lake Ranch in Colorado.

CAROLIn 1985, I lived in Vermont and happened upon a Haymarket

Conference that featured Amy Domini and Joan Bavaria. I discovered SRI and found myself living in the heart of “Ben and JerryLand.” This began a journey of a lifetime.

I eventually moved to British Columbia, distraught with the uncon-scious and pervasive culture of waste in the United States. I founded Sage to encourage habit change by individuals and institutions, through business, philanthropic and organizational strategies.

A larger inheritance motivated me to do more to activate and share wealth. I created The Endswell Foundation, with a $19 million endow-ment to strengthen the environmental sector in B.C. I also invested $7 million in Renewal Partners to support green businesses. I joined Threshold, and that exposure to cutting-edge visionary philanthropy accelerated my wealth-deployment strategy.

Joel’s business, charity and political background, along with his relentless appetite for entrepreneurial innovation, was a perfect match for my "nancial capacity, vision and commitment to harness wealth to leverage change.

I invited Joel and his business partner, Martha Burton, to launch Renewal Partners in Vancouver, B.C. An activist family o$ce was built around Renewal, Endswell and my personal business management. This integrated "nancial-tools strategy emerged as the “whole portfolio activation to mission” model. Regional sustainable economy, rooted in food systems, with an interdependent theory of change, unleashed a long-term societal impact in our bioregion.

We chose Vancouver as our city focus and Cortes Island as our rural focus. Experimentation with mission-related charitable foundation investment in land conservation, along with shared spaces in urban neighborhood properties, represented what we called “social purpose real estate.”

Leadership and capacity-building featured women-led initiatives, lifelong learning and inner skills, alongside professional skills and civic engagement. Immersion at SVN educated us in acting locally with global networks.

Endswell’s largest annual grant grew Tides Canada Foundation, a "nancial services social enterprise for the charitable sector, which now gives more than $20 million annually to charities across Canada. Inspired by hearing Van Jones, Kavita Ramdas and others speak at SVN, I launched the country’s "rst social-justice fund with Tides Canada.

Emerging from a decade of anonymity, I launched Play BIG with Marian Moore in 2004 to encourage those with major wealth to be bold with their discretionary capital. Play BIG has motivated the movement of tens of millions of dollars toward more strategic philanthropy and impact investment. Now in its 15th intensive, Play BIG is currently deliv-ered in collaboration with SVN organizations RSF Social Finance, Tides and Tides Canada Foundations and is activating the activators!

JOELAs British Columbia’s leading environmental grant-maker for a de-

cade, Endswell was integral to the biggest conservation development deal on the planet at the time. The Great Bear Rainforest Initiative pro-tects vast acreage of coastal temperate rainforest and "nances sustain-able businesses owned by Aboriginal First Nations of the region.

A substantial investment was made in Hollyhock, an extraordinary, even magical, leadership and learning center on Cortes Island, led by Dana Bass Solomon. Hollyhock was early to host many of North America’s new thinkers from Andy Weil to Ram Dass, Joanna Macy to

‘‘‘‘

In the spring of 1980 when Joel Solomon moved to what was to become Hollyhock on Cortes Island in British Columbia to become an organic farmer, even he of great imagination could not have imagined that 25 years later, he would play an integral role in the cre-ation and nurturing of the best-known center for growth education, commu-nity gatherings, and social activism in Canada. Nor would he have imagined he would marry the fabulous Dana, who has run Hollyhock the last 12 years, and would emerge through his extraordinary soul-partner relationship with Carol

Newell as the most highly regarded and perhaps the only bioregional impact investor-activist in the world. He’s be-come this one-of-a-kind combination through 25 years of grants and private equity investments in British Columbia, having helped elect a mayor of Vancouver and built a political party.

Carol, with a generosity of spirit even greater than her willingness and joy to use her wealth to co-create Hollyhock and this ecosystem, would emerge as a wise woman, partnering with Marian Moore in the creation of Play BIG, an

annual conference leading others toward the vision of a triple-bottom-line investment portfolio for advancing a just and sustainable society.

I wish I could say I liked Joel. I don’t. I adore him. Carol is a dear friend and partner along the path of joining wealth, activism and commerce as we deepen and broaden the vision and scope of what people of full heart can help real-ize the world over.

— Josh Mailman, Founder, Serious Change LP


FEARLESS FINANCIERS

JOEL SOLOMON & CAROL NEWELL


VISIONARY SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS


With SVN member and partner support, Jerry and I are leading a collaborative business movement to counter Citizens United vs. Fed-eral Elections Commission, a controversial 2010 United States Supreme Court ruling that reversed years of precedent limiting how corporations spend money to in#uence elections. The reversal allows corporations to spend unlimited money to support or oppose political candidates and paves the way for greater corporate in#uence in politics, at the expense of individual voters.

Through SVN, we began working with the American Sustainable Business Council (led by SVN member David Levine) to launch the “Busi-ness for Democracy” campaign, and convened more than two dozen

other leading organizations, including Social Venture Network, Seventh Generation, Stony"eld Farm, White Dog Café, Trillium Asset Management, TerraCycle and IceStone, to show that businesses oppose the idea that they should have more of a say than voters in how our country is run. These partners in turn are enlisting other businesses to stand up for democracy.

Jerry and I, along with our fellow SVN members, have disproved the theory that business can’t be both values-driven and successful. Together we can change the way the world does business, and that is a wonderful thing.

WWHAT BEGAN IN 1978 as a scoop shop in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont, has surpassed our hopes and dreams, and over the years has become one of the most beloved ice cream brands in the United States. Through a shared vision of using business as a medium for social change, Jerry Green"eld and I were able to lever-age America’s sweet tooth to catalyze and inspire activism, creating one of the largest ice cream empires in the world and proving that consumers are eager to purchase products aligned with their values.

Before founding Ben and Jerry’s Homemade Inc., we were headed toward radically divergent paths: Jerry had initially planned on attending medical school and I was an aspiring potter. We were childhood friends who, around the same time, realized we wanted to try something new. We chose to partner together to start a food business, an area that we knew very little about. Our hope was that if we incorporated our deeply rooted political, social and economic values into our business model, we could have the power to make a profound di!erence in the greater community.

Ben and Jerry’s was founded on a three-pronged mission, which is integrated into our day-to-day business activities. These three, inter-related core values are:

-tral role that business plays in society by initiating innovative ways to improve the quality of life locally, nationally and internationally.

and euphoric concoctions with a continued commitment to incor-porating wholesome, natural ingredients and promoting business practices that respect the earth and the environment.

growth, increasing value for our stakeholders, and expanding oppor-tunities for development and career growth for our employees.

Jerry and I continually strive to push the boundaries and stan-dards of sustainable business practices, and to support philanthrop-ic causes with new policies and innovative endeavors (both within the company and externally). In 1985, we established Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, which donates 7.5 percent of the company’s pre-tax pro"ts to nonpro"t charities nationwide. Additionally, in 1988 we helped establish “1% For Peace,” a nonpro"t initiative that worked to redirect 1 percent of the national defense budget to fund peace-promoting projects and activities. Since its creation, the member-ship and goals of 1% For Peace have broadened, and the group is now known as Business for Social Responsibility, which works to promote an alternative business model based on socially respon-sible business practices.

Through an increasingly progressive and generous employee rewards and bene"t program, creating products which create jobs in economically depressed regions, and a commitment to transition-ing all products to be 100 percent Fair Trade by 2013, the company continues to lead the way in “Caring Capitalism.”

SVN’S INFLUENCEJerry and I have been with Social Venture Network since the very

beginning. Prior to joining SVN, we rarely formed relationships with other businesses in the space, because they didn’t relate to what we were doing. Through the network, we were introduced to like- minded business leaders, and were tremendously comforted and motivated by meeting people who didn’t think Ben & Jerry’s was o! the wall. It continues to be the best place I know to synergize resources for the common good.

‘‘‘‘

You can’t judge the winners of tomor-row by their appearance today.

A half century ago, they would have looked like two normal kids running laps in gym class, far behind the oth-ers. Most people would think they were slow runners — and they were. But they were also hatching a plan.

The goal: to start a business that would change the way business inter-acts with society.

The gleam in their eye as they ran around the track led to one of the most innovative companies of the 20th cen-tury. Because of their insight, brilliance and perseverance, their names became synonymous with fun, caring and commitment to creating a new social relationship between company

and community.

That new thinking did not stop with Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. Over the years, they have inspired many of today’s eminent social en-trepreneurs. The phenomenon that is Ben & Jerry’s has catalyzed the best thinking on one of their most endur-ing passions: the triple bottom line — People, Planet, Profit.

This accomplishment would have been a big enough contribution for nearly any-one. Not for Ben. Beyond his business, he has been a staunch advocate for small-scale farming, immigrant rights, preserv-ing the planet and many other causes. Time and again, he has criticized U.S. government budgets that allocate billions to the military and nuclear weapons and far less to social needs.

Besides always having Ben’s back, Jerry introduced many concepts that made Ben and Jerry’s so progressive — such as the simple idea that people should have fun at work. This objective sounds like common sense, but when Jerry started advocating it, most of the world saw work as a serious thing. Jerry had a different idea: If it ain’t fun, why do it? He knew, long before many others, that if people brought more of themselves to work, they would do bet-ter work.

Ben and Jerry have done much good. Just as important, they are good people. Congratulations to two dear friends and valued colleagues in changing the world.

— Frederick A. Miller, CEO, The Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group, Inc.


BEN COHEN & JERRY GREENFIELD

schools which are running with our social funds. More than 700 girls have got a scholarship and every year we are sup-porting more than 200 girls to motivate them to go to school. We have planted more than 6,000 trees; we have reached more than 1.2 million people with our AIDS awareness work and supported around 6,000 female sex workers with their health, safety and empowerment. We feel very proud to say that Community Trade works.”

Anita felt that business responsibility lies in observing, car-ing for and protecting the community. The idea that compa-nies give something back to the communities where they do business is nearly as old as business itself. Anita believed it was short-sighted for businesses to isolate themselves from the problems around them. Here are three examples of where The Body Shop helped in the United Kingdom:

Soapworks: The Body Shop set up a soap factory in Easterhouse, Glasgow, an area which had one of the worst un-employment rates in Western Europe. The soaps were up to 30 percent more expensive than other soaps, but The Body Shop put 25 percent of the net pro!ts back into the community. They were able to employ more than 170 seasonal sta" and produce more than 12 million tablets of soap, 7 million bottles of aromatherapy and 1.2 million gift packs per year.

The Big Issue: Gordon got the idea for The Big Issue newspaper while in New York, where he’d been sold a copy of the paper Street News. The Body Shop put up the seed money to get the project o" the ground and gave non!nancial support in every way they could. The Big Issue has grown into one of the UK’s most respected newspapers, reaching more than 200,000 people per week, with about 4,000 homeless vendors. The Big Issue has become a success and now operates in Australia, South Africa, Namibia and Japan, among other countries. It is one of the most successful street-sold newspapers in the world.

National Missing Persons Helpline: The Body Shop helped by putting the photos, names and details of missing people on the side of their trucks in the hope that the people would be found — and yes, some have been!

SVN’S INFLUENCEThe SVN community brought to Anita a fabulous opportu-

nity to network with like-minded business people. She found it a way of doing business, within the security of a community of

friends. The meetings were always a hothouse of lateral ideas and many of them relevant to the way she was thinking of working. Anita spoke at many SVN meetings over the years and always came back brimming with new connections and ideas, and re-ignited with her strong desire to make The Body Shop one of the best socially responsible businesses in the world, which she continued to do until the day she passed away.

‘‘‘‘

I recently saw a The Body Shop display in one of those jarring Duty Free mazes that you are forced through as you deplane. It struck me as awesome that the values The Body Shop stands for are sitting right there in front of everyone as they come back to Earth. Juxtaposed with the vodka and cigarettes, the position-ing was a metaphor to me of what a powerful vision, driven by a relentless individual in the form of a brilliant social enterprise, can do to change the world.

Cruelty-free cosmetics. Better body images for women and girls. A commitment to a green and peaceful planet through fair trade and sustainable sourcing. These are all things that The Body Shop, founded by Anita Roddick, has pushed over the last few decades, through an audacious retail strategy and a beautiful brand.

My closest brush with Anita was working on a Greenpeace cam-paign before the 2002 Earth Summit, when solar and wind were still seen as alternative and we needed a champion to push the idea that clean energy was the better choice for consumers and our countries. We struck a global deal with The Body Shop and ran a global advertising campaign called Choose Positive Energy.

Anita Roddick was all about that. Till her dying breath it seems that positivity was the choice she made. I laughed out loud reading her book Business as Unusual because her strongest recommen-dation to social entrepreneurs was to eat tomatoes. She said they made you happy. They do. She does — and moreover, she showed us a world of opportunity as Social Venturers and Networkers to choose positive energy to build a better world.

Thank you for that, Anita. We miss you. Shine on. — Danny Kennedy, President & Co-Founder, Sungevity



AANITA STARTED THE BODY SHOP in 1976 simply to cre-ate a livelihood for herself and her two daughters while her husband, Gordon, was trekking across the Americas. She had no training or experience and her only business acumen was Gordon’s advice to take sales of £300 a week. Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking. Running that !rst shop taught Anita that business is not !nancial science — it’s about trading; buying and selling. It’s about creating a product or service so good people will pay for it.

It wasn’t only economic necessity that inspired the birth of The Body Shop: Anita’s early travels had given her a wealth of experience. Anita had spent time in farming and !shing communities with pre-industrial peoples, and been exposed to body rituals of women from all over the world. Also the frugality that her mother exercised during the war years made

her question retail conventions. Why waste a container when you can re!ll it? And why buy more of something than you can use? The Body Shop behaved as Anita’s mum did in the Second World War; they reused everything, they re!lled everything and they recycled all they could. The foundation of the company’s environmental activism was born of ideas like these.

Anita was aware that success is more than a good idea. It is timing too. The Body Shop arrived just as Europe was going “green.” The Body Shop has always been recognizable by its green color, the only color Anita could !nd to cover the damp, moldy walls of the !rst shop.

Businesses have the power to do good. That’s why The Body Shop’s Mission Statement opens with the overriding commitment, “To dedicate our business to the pursuit of social and environmental change.” The company uses its stores and products to help communicate human rights and environmental issues.

For Anita, campaigning and good business are also about putting forward solutions, not just opposing destructive practices or human rights abuses. One key area where Anita’s business and personal interests naturally combine is through The Body Shop community trade initiatives. It all started in 1989 when she attended the gathering at Altamira of Amazo-nian Indian tribes protesting against a hydroelectric project that would have #ooded thousands of acres of rainforest, submerging native lands. There had to be something practical Anita could do to help these people preserve their environ-ment and culture. Nuts? Speci!cally Brazil nuts, which the Indians gathered sustainably from the forest and which when crushed produce a brilliant oil for moisturizing and condition-ing. This !rst trading relationship with forest people, unused to any real commercial activity, was fraught with pitfalls and dangers. Anita was immensely proud of The Body Shop’s e"orts to make fair or community trade relationships more mainstream. The company now has 25 community fair trade suppliers and they aim to develop more.

Milan Bhattarai, the founder of Get Paper Industries (GPI) in Nepal — a community project which was established in the late ‘80s with the help of The Body Shop, as a handmade paper company — has recently written, “It is a matter of pride to share with you that now we have evidence to say that Community Trade works. When we started we were deter-mined to prove this, and today we can. Through this process we have been able to employ 700 women a year and thus providing them an income, we have been able to open !ve

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD HONOREE


DAME ANITA RODDICK

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