CENTER FOR BUSINESS
AS AN AGENT OF WORLD BENEFIT

Elaine’s American Maid is more than a cleaning referral service. It’s an enterprise that is built on the passion for helping single mothers who are forced into the workforce to support their children. Equipping women with entrepreneurial skills by helping them open their own cleaning services and providing them the flexibility to be with their children is what makes this organization truly unique in creating a positive impact through business.

Novelis Inc. has found the perfect convergence of its business objectives with environmental sustainability in the avatar of ‘recycling’. The organization has given novel hues to this term by creating partnerships to procure used aluminum cans that form a principal raw material for its product. In addition to the huge cost savings for the company this strategy has also contributed to saving the environment by decreasing the carbon dioxide off-gassing and the consumption of electricity involved in manufacturing aluminum.

Realizing the urgency of action and leveraging the strength of business for making a difference, Global Ethics Ltd launched a bottled drinking water called ONE. The idea was simple: the profit generated from every bottle of water sold would be channelized toward installation of water pumps in parts of Africa where clean drinking water is almost a luxury. One billion without access to drinking water resulting in 2 million deaths (source: onewater.uk.org; UNICEF and WHO report, 2006) sounds almost ludicrous in today’s world. The magnitude of the problem escapes most of us who take a basic necessity like clean drinking water completely for granted. Unfortunately it is not so in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern and Southern Asia. For many of the millions affected, the time that should be devoted to school and agriculture is spent walking miles to collect water.

Enhancing the physical health, body image and self-esteem of teenage girls is the spirit behind Shift Inc., a club created solely for teenage girls who strive to achieve a healthier life. The objective of helping the members of Shift take action and actuate a behavioral change is manifested through building strong, surrounding community that provides support and encouragement, valuable information that helps teenage girls make wiser decisions toward their health and tools that bring planning and focus in achievement of these goals.

KaBOOM! is committed to a world where each child is within walking distance of a great place to play. To assure such places are available, KaBOOM! created an innovative business model which includes partnering with corporations and fosters team building and community development in addition to building playgrounds.

Equal Exchange is a successful, growing, for-profit, employee-owned, specialty foods company that has helped to pioneer the “Fair Trade” model that improves the market access, income, and commercial opportunities for small-scale farmers in developing countries. In the traditional coffee supply chain, small-scale farmers sell their crop to a chain of intermediaries who eventually export the coffee. Under this arrangement the individual farmers have almost no control; few economic options; carry out only the very least profitable link in the value chain; and receive just a small amount of the export price – which itself is usually too low to provide more than a poverty-level income. In contrast to conventional importing practices Equal Exchange deals directly with democratically run farmer cooperatives in Africa, Asia and South America, and buys their coffee, and other crops, at a guaranteed above-market price. In addition, Equal Exchange works with socially responsible financial institutions in the U.K. and U.S. to provide affordable loans to cooperatives that might otherwise lack access to credit. These Fair Trade practices increase the incomes of the economically disadvantaged growers; helps them to invest in their operations; and fosters broad-based, stable economic growth in rural communities. Fair Trade also helps to foster equality and democracy in countries where corruption is often a problem.

Alcoa is the world’s leading producer of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum, and alumina, and is active in all major aspects of the industry. The company, which employs 131,000 people in 43 countries, serves the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction, commercial transportation, and industrial markets. Alcoa’s vision is to be the best company in the world, through the eyes of its customers, shareholders, communities and people. To achieve its vision, Alcoa has taken an innovative approach to the environment and societies in which it operates. By developing technologies and solutions twenty years in advance, Alcoa can operate ahead of the curve. Alcoa has created a commitment to sustainability through its vision for 2020.

The international law firm of Sidley Austin LLP (hereafter “Sidley”) has gone beyond the typical pro bono requirement in the legal profession. By partnering with inMotion, a non-profit dedicated to representing underserved women in family matters, Sidley has taken their community service work to the next level. The collaboration between the two organizations benefits women who might not have adequate legal representation as well as giving practical and personally rewarding experiences to relatively young attorneys.

Goodyear airship, also known as “the blimp”, travels more than 100,000 miles across the United States per year, serving as a powerful marketing tool. Going beyond its business purpose, the blimp also acts as a way to bring benefit to the society at large – thus adding value through marketing while simultaneously creating goodwill through its commitment to service. Reaching more than 60 million Americans each year, the blimps brings great business impact while delivering public awareness messages and providing crucial information during disaster relief efforts.

In 1999 Alec McClennan founded the only organic lawn care company located in Northeast Ohio, Good Nature Organic Lawn Care. Good Nature provides an innovative alternative to chemical lawn treatment applications by using organic materials such as sugar beets, clove, garlic, alfalfa, and canola oil. The majority of Good Nature Organic Lawn Care customers start using the organic lawn care treatment because they are concerned about the potential health risk to their children and pets which can be caused by hazardous lawn care chemicals. What they soon learn is that in addition to peace of mind from avoiding potential health hazards, they are also creating healthier soil, grass and environment.

Tetra Pak, a packaging company in a highly polluting and environmentally damaging industry, is working hard to create sustainable activities and become environmentally responsible. In partnerhips with three other companies, Tetra Pak is using plasma technology to create recyclable material. Additionally, the company has committed to following a carbon equalization policy in Canada which helps meet it's commitments to the Kyoto agreement.

Bank ABN AMRO has made sustainability a cornerstone of its business. The bank strives to include a concern for social and environmental issues in the decision-making of every strategic business unit. These activities have gained such prominence that a special unit, the Sustainable Development Group was organized to coordinate sustainability work across the organization. The innovativeness of this sustainability mindset has led to numerous activities that are creating a shift in the impact of ABN AMRO on environment and society.

King’s Medical Group is a US for-profit, faith-based company that is guided by the fundamental philosophy that everyone should have access to state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging services. Health care needs of small communities throughout the country are often overlooked by large hospitals and other imaging corporations due to the high costs and risks associated with the investment. Through financially flexible solutions, KMG has developed a unique business model that makes small community imaging centers a successful business venture. The company’s efforts brought about eight imaging centers to the underserved regions of five states, and executed many consulting projects for health care facilities throughout the US.

OneWorld Health is the first nonprofit pharmaceutical company in the United States. It advances global health by developing effective and affordable new medicines for infectious diseases that disproportionately affect people in the developing world. At the core of the company’s operations is an innovative business model. OneWorld Health receives donations from for-profit pharmaceutical companies in a form of drug leads that have little commercialization potential in the West, develops leads into safe and effective medicines, and then partners with scientists and manufacturers of the developing world to bring the medicine to the consumers at the affordable price. A win-win for all involved and a cure for the neglected diseases that affect millions worldwide.

PartsSource is the leader in managing the inventory of high quality medical equipment and parts consigned by charitable organizations and healthcare providers. It accepts medical equipment on consignment, or purchases it, and then donates the equipment to a charity, allowing for a fair market tax deduction. Once equipment is received by PartsSource it is carefully reviewed and, if applicable, separated to the parts assembly level. These parts are then made available at a substantial savings to end users who are currently utilizing the exact same piece of equipment. A portion of the revenue generated by the equipment transfer is returned to the consigning organization or a charity. This creates a profit from the (originally) discarded equipment. PartsSource delivers tangible benefits to those in need while improving cash-flow for an organization. By donating through PartsSource the medical equipment provider can rest assured that the necessary medical equipment will end up in the hands of a legitimate charity that supports worldwide healthcare. This indirectly allows them the opportunity to provide relief to those in need.

The third largest cement manufacturer in the world, CEMEX, decided it needed to move from selling materials to selling solutions. Using low fixed prices, materials on credit, pre-costed housing designs, and supervised construction services for Mexicans, CEMEX developed its "Patrimonio Hoy" program to make housing affordable and possible for 70,000 of the poor in Mexico.

Global Environment Fund (GEF) is an international investment management firm established in 1990 to invest in, and provide management support to, companies that make positive contributions to environmental quality, human health and the sustainable management of natural resources. The Firm’s investments focus primarily on companies whose business operations deliver measurable environmental improvements through deployment of improved environmental infrastructure and “clean” technologies. GEF’s investment objective is to provide superior returns by harnessing the power of technological innovation to promote energy sources and means of production that are cleaner, cheaper, more efficient, and more sustainable.

Grameen Bank (GB) has reversed conventional banking practice by removing the need for collateral and creating a banking system based on mutual trust, accountability, participation and creativity. GB provides credit to the poorest of the poor in rural Bangladesh, without any collateral. At GB, credit is a cost effective weapon to fight poverty and it serves as a catalyst in the overall development of socio-economic conditions of the poor who have been kept outside the banking orbit on the grounds that they are poor and hence not bankable. Since the bank does not wish to take any borrower to the court of law in case of non-repayment, it does not require the borrowers to sign any legal instrument. Although each borrower must belong to a five-member group, the group is not required to give any guarantee for a loan to its member. Repayment responsibility solely rests on the individual borrower, while the group and the Grameen Bank center oversee that everyone behaves in a responsible way and none gets into a repayment problem. There is no form of joint liability, i.e. group members are not responsible to pay on behalf of a defaulting member.

"Billionaire nerd with a social conscience" might describe Pierre Omidyar. Since founding eBay in 1995 and handing over the reigns of eBay to Meg Whitman, Omidyar and his wife Pam have found various ways to "do good" with their vast wealth. In June of this year, the Omidyars created the Omidyar Network, an organization with the simple core belief: "that every individual has the power to make a difference." The Omidyar Network will fund for-profit organizations as well as non-profits. Omidyar Network is intended to expand the investment scope of the Omidyar Foundation by funding not just non-profit projects, but also for-profit ventures and public initiatives they believe promote individual self-empowerment. The Network has established a $400 million fund to be invested by 2010. In addition to serving as Chairman of eBay and Omidyar Network, Omidyar is director of Meetup, a Web site that helps people self-organize local group gatherings on the same day everywhere.

Among the many rural businesses of post-communist Russia, ALVI Inc. offers a new model of self-reliance and sustainable development. By aligning community interest and business interest, the company has successfully grown into a multi-product organization with high productivity levels and a flourishing community.

Westpac, an Australia-based financial services and banking company, has been working with the Cape York indigenous people who face a life expectancy of less than 50 years, have an average annual income of $8,600 per annum, and fewer than 10% of their working age population are in unsubsidized employment. The 10,000 people living in 17 Cape York communities face an epidemic of substance abuse, a breakdown of law and order, and dysfunctional governance structures. Westpac’s involvement represents an innovative way to contribute to capacity building while expanding the company’s customer base. Westpac’s approach includes Family Income Management (FIM), Business Hubs and an assist in the development and implementation of the Computer Culture educational project. In addition, three twelve-month Westpac Fellowships have been established in strategic positions in the regional organizations to help build their capacity to roll out their strategies. Westpac has been named and ranked among the most socially responsible companies in Australia.

Housing Works, a non-profit which provides vital services to homeless New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS, has transformed from crisis and near extinction to profitability and independence. Housing Works was founded in June 1990 as an outgrowth of the Housing Committee of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), to address the burgeoning crises of homelessness and AIDS, and to restore the fundamental human rights of homeless people with AIDS and HIV through innovative advocacy and direct service programs. A switch from cost-reimbursement Medicaid contracts to fee for service contracts and the development of four highly profitable businesss took Housing Works from being totally dependent upon external funding and financial aid to being almost totally self-sustaining today.

Edun is a socially conscious clothing company created by Ali Hewson and her rock star husband, U2's Bono, with New York clothing designer Rogan Gregory. Launched in spring 2005, the company aims to bring the issue of sustainable employment to the world of high fashion. EDUN was born as an alternative approach to creating beautiful clothes in a respectful, sustainable manner and to shift the focus away from aid to trade in the developing world, particularly Africa.

Electrolux is a company committed to sustainability through its products and its operations. Continually working to reduce energy consumption from its products and factories, the organization has recognized the growing customer base of environmentally friendly products and the urgency of saving the planet and society. They have used this knowledge for excellent product design and seamless implementation.

Swiss Re is internationally recognized for taking a public stand on global warming. This year it has been named to the list of top 20 most sustainable business stocks by SustainableBusiness.com. Swiss Re's latest initiative to raise public awareness about sustainability came in the form of an inspiring TV documentary entitled 'The Great Warming'. Supported by Swiss Re and narrated by Alanis Morissette and Keanu Reeves, the documentary was a three-part series which explored not only the underlying science of climate change but the solutions that will lead to a truly sustainable future. 'The Great Warming' aired on TVB Pearl in March 2005. Swiss Re fosters broad awareness of climate risks. It supports effective measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provides new (re)insurance and financing solutions in this field. The company shares its know-how through its publications and engages in discussions on emerging issues with various stakeholders at the Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue in Rüschlikon.

Billing itself as “the hallmark of Environmentally Sensitive Hotels”, The Orchid is a 245-room “ecotel” or Eco-Hotel located in Mumbai, India. It is Asia's first certified eco-friendly, five-star hotel certified as ISO 14001. Guests are encouraged to participate in the hotel’s environmental crusades and they reportedly do so with much enthusiasm and zeal.

Daimler Chrysler is putting its sustainable development into practice in many ways, placing its highest priority on the battle against HIV/AIDS faced by many of the workers at its South African plant. Since the early 1990's, Daimler Chrysler South Africa's Workplace Initiative on HIV/AIDS has been working to combat acquired immune deficiency syndrome and for the social integration of HIV-positive persons at its headquarters just outside Pretoria.

An oil giant, Yukos, is one of the largest Russian-based multi-national corporations and one of the largest CSR actors from the former USSR. Yukos represents one of the most innovative companies in the region when it comes to questions of merging business interests with world benefit. Among the Yukos' particular innovative strategies is its approach to distributing funds for local community development. When most Russian companies provide financial assistance to various organizations in a sporadic, if at all, manner, Yukos organizes an open competition for projects directed towards sustainable community development.

Project Shakti is an alternative distribution system and a bottom-of-the-pyramid initiative created by Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL), a subsidiary of Unilever. Shakti allows HLL access to the previously untapped market of rural villages in India, which do not fit the traditional distribution infrastructure. Shakti is oriented to both income generation and community development. By targeting low-income populations, particularly women, this project addresses deep social problems - like iodine deficiency or diarrhea disease - by training Shakti women to provide education about products that address these health issues, and also making the products available in remote areas of the country.

An alliance of farmers and restaurant owners in Northeast Ohio is developing a sustainable food network. Novel relationships between the farmers and the local retailers and restaurateurs have stimulated efforts to educate small business owners and consumers about the benefits of sustainability. Members of the alliance are working to combat over-industrialization while improving health and the environment.

The development of the new Toyota Prius from its 1997 predecessor was conducted almost from scratch and resulted in improved environmental and driving performance. The Prius, whose name is derived from the Latin for "prior to", is positioned to play a significant role in determining the current and future direction of the automobile. The Prius answers the question of what form vehicles could take in the 21st century if they take the environment into consideration.

In 2005, Mohawk Paper Mills purchased windpower for its newly acquired Beckett Mill in Hamilton, Ohio, making Mohawk the 2nd largest industrial consumer of windpower in the U.S. The family-owned paper manufacturer plans to use 45 million kilowatt hours of pollution-free wind power annually to run its two mills in New York and the new facility in Ohio. The company is the only paper mill in the U.S. to use wind energy to manufacture paper.

British Petroleum, like many other fuel and energy producting companies, is always on the hunt for fuel that is in abundant supply and is non-polluting. The company believes that such a fuel may be hydrogen, a chemical element that carries energy and can be stored in either liquid or gaseous form. With an increasing world consciousness toward the impact of human activities on the environment and, specifically, the impact of emissions from urban air pollution to global warming, BP is looking for a cleaner energy supply.

Sustainability and social responsibility are at the very core of Seventh Generation's identity as a business. Today the company is the natural products industry leader in the paper products, household cleaning, and baby diaper/wipe market segments. Through its packaging, web site, e-newsletter, booklets and presentations by their CEO, Seventh Generation provides information on its products and answers questions consumer most frequently ask about household products and their impact on the health of both people and the environment.

William McDonough & Partners are architects who design buildings and communities worldwide that tell stories of sun, wind, water that surrounds them and of the people who inhabit them. Using a creative balance of nature and culture, they strive to create a sustainable environment that honors the relationship between the human community and the nature that surrounds them.

Cummins is a global power leader and family of four inter-related, yet diversified businesses that create or enhance value as a result of doing business with each other or having those relationships. It averages more than $6 billion in annual sales and is a technology leader in the diesel engine market, providing cutting-edge solutions to the increasingly difficult challenge of producing cleaner-running engines. Currently, Cummins clean diesel engines are powering transit buses in Southern China.

British Petroleum, (BP) is one of the world's largest energy companies, it's origins dating back to May 1901. Despite BP's reputation as an oil and gas giant, it has taken highly innovative steps to move away from fossil fuels and toward the development of alternative energy sources. BP states that, as a global energy business, its aim is clear: to reduce its environmental footprint by producing cleaner products and encouraging customers to use them safely and efficiently

As the oldest and largest for-profit Fair Trade company in the U.S., Equal Exchange trades directly with 28 democratically run farmer co-ops located in 14 countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Its mission is to build long-term partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually beneficial relations between farmers and consumers and to demonstrate the viability of worker cooperatives and Fair Trade. They strive to build social and economic justice through the marketplace.

Offshore Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East - Exxon Mobil subsidiary Exxon Neftegas Liimited (ENL) - while developing the Chayvo, Odoptu and Arkutun-Dagi oil and gas fields for the Sakhalin-1 consortium, discovered a lack of skilled local labor. To help the local residents obtain employment with Exxon, extensive training programs were set up, including English-language training. Other aspects of the training and community development support the growth of local suppliers and contractors.

One specialty group of medical providers has largely shielded itself from the rising cost of medical-malpractice insurance. Over the past two decades, anesthesiologists have advocated the use of devices that alert doctors to potentially fatal problems in the operating room. Their innovative practices have resulted in lower fatalities and low malpractice premiums.

Russia, long known as a culture whose people - rich and poor - revere the arts in all its many forms, has also developed a reputation as an emergent economy that is solely driven by immediate profit, if not greed. Since the government provides no tax relief or other incentives for philanthropy, the story of Interros is more noteworthy. Interros has stepped beyond simply giving to providing sustainable development in the area of art, culture and education by supporting long-term social programs in education and culture.

Millions of personal computers sit idly on desks and in homes worldwide, but what if they could be linked into a power grid to help address the world's most difficult health and societal problems? IBM asked this question and answered it in 2004 by creating the World Community Grid, a global humanitarian effort to harness unused computing power of individual and business computers and direct that power toward research designed to help unlock genetic codes that underlie diseases like AIDS and Alzheimer's or improve forecasting of natural disasters. Anyone can volunteer to donate the idle and unused time on a computer by dowloading the World Community Grid's free software and registering to participate.

The Co-operative Bank, whose roots go back to 1872, is a full-service retail player in the United Kingdom commercial banking industry. It offers a full range of banking services, including on-line banking, and is an innovator in the field of sustainability reporting. Using sophisticated financial value analysis methods, the bank reports not only shareholder and stakeholder value created but also an analysis of the direct contributions that ethical and ecological positioning has made to the company's profitability.

Whole Foods is the largest organic and natural foods grocer in the United States. Clearing $188 million in profits over the past two years, it has beaten Wal-Mart in overall and comparable store sales growth, while profoundly impacting how Americans eat. The company also prides itself on treating employees in a fair and equitable manner and preventing upper management salaries from skyrocketing out of control. Financial data is released to employees, to help them understand how the company is doing and keep the working environment transparent. Executive pay is limited to 14 times the average frontline worker, while frontline employees qualify for stock options, profit sharing, health insurance for full time employees, and paid time off for volunteer work.

Patagonia defines the quality of its company by the degree to which it can reduce its impact on the environment. To that end it has celebrated the cultural histories of the communities it is located in by recycling and restoring existing structures whenever possible. From 1996-1998 the company restored two buildings - one in Reno and one in California - and became more energy efficient with the goal of demonstrating that alternatives to conventional, waste-intensive construction practices and energy generation exist and yield structures that are more sustainable and in harmony with the environment.

In 1993, Patagonia adopted fleece made from post consumer recycled plastic soda bottles into its clothing product line, becoming the first outdoor clothing manufacturer to do so. Known as PCR® clothing, it created a positive step towards a more sustainable system. Today, the company uses PCR® fleece in about 31 products, and has saved some 86 million soda bottles from the trash heap and reports the addition of PCR® filament yarn to some products in its line. PCR® filament yarn contains 30-50% post-consumer feedstock and the remainder is post-industrial feedstock, allowing Patagonia to make both lining and shell out of recyclable materials.

In 1996, Patagonia converted its entire sportswear line to 100% organically grown cotton. This decision followed the findings from an independent research company commissioned by Patagonia to give an environmental impact assessment of four major fibers. The company learned that oil-based polyester and nylon were big energy consumers and sources of pollution, but nowhere near that of cotton. They made a decision in the fall of 1994 to take the cotton sportswear 100% organic by 1996, giving the company eighteen months to make the switch for 66 products – and only four months to line up the fabric.

Deep Water Ventures’ president, Brad Ives, has turned his interests in wood, sailing and ecology into a thriving business. The company is committed to forest stewardship and the method of selective cutting, which preserves a forest’s biodiversity, provides long-term benefits to the local population, and generates profit without adversely affecting the region’s ecosystem. By association with an independent agency that carefully monitors logging operations, the company can assure its customers that the product they are purchasing comes from sustainable forests.

TerraCycle has developed an innovative process for creating organic non-toxic fertilizers - the world’s first consumer product line that is not only made completely from waste but is also packaged in waste. The company follows ecologically sound, chemically-free methods for delivering a product that assures the superior growth of vegetation. In addition, TerraCycle has created innovative opportunities for local communities such as urban community gardens and school-wide recycling events.

A number of major financial institutions have come together to adopt a framework for determining, assessing and managing environmental and social issues in project financing. These global voluntary regulatory guidelines, the “Equator Principles” (EPs), are revolutionizing the way large projects are financed. Banks that adopt the EPs apply them globally to project financing in all industry sectors including mining, oil and gas, and forestry, and they make loans only to those projects whose sponsors aim to be socially responsible and environmentally sound.

Bamboo Hardwoods, founded in 1990, operates a successful and environmentally sustainable company that is working to slow the degradation of natural resources. By using bamboo (which is a grass) as an alternative source material for flooring, the company has demonstrated that deforestation of traditional hardwoods can be prevented. The company values its relationships with employees and suppliers, and actively promotes their well being.

As president of Reebok’s Apparel and Retail Products Group, Marilyn Tam realized the soccer ball manufacturing operations in Pakistan were harmful to the children being forced to make the products and detrimental to the local community. By taking a long-term approach, she oversaw a process to correct the situation so that adults would take over the jobs and children would return to their schools.