Purpose and Profit with Kathy Varol (Kathy Varol)

Paul DeJoe is a Co-Founder and COO of MUD\WTR, a company that creates a coffee alternative aimed to optimize one’s mind, body and ritual. Their product is made with organic ingredients used by cultures young and old for their health and performance benefits. The flagship product is an elixir consisting of masala chai, cacao, turmeric, cinnamon, sea salt and four mushrooms: chaga, reishi, lion’s mane and cordyceps. It has 1/7th the caffeine of coffee, and is crafted to give energy, focus and immune benefits without the jitters, crash and dependency.

To find out more about MUD\WTR, check out their website.

In this episode we discuss:

• How a mind-opening concert experience lead to the creation of MUD\WTR
• The importance of ritual, and the equal importance of periodically evaluating our habits
• The challenge of competing with one of the most widely used addictive substances
• Creating a company culture that reduces anxiety and leaves space for 10x ideas to grow
• What it is. Why we want it. And how to encourage it.

Key Takeaways:

• It was refreshing to hear how MUD\WTR built their employee benefits from a blank slate. How they intentionally consider what it is that they’re trying to create, and experiment with the best way to create it—with curiosity, checking in on what’s working and what’s not, and adjusting as needed. I can’t help but think what a gift it can be when there isn’t a playbook to follow, when there isn’t someone to copy from. It’s a slippery slope, and a sticky trap, doing things the way you “should” be doing them.
• When we humbly, and vulnerably share with each other the obstacles in life we’ve personally wrestled with, it allows others to see us more clearly, and it helps break the unhealthy curated narratives we’re constantly surrounded by. It’s sharing that allows us to connect deeply and understand we aren’t alone.
• As a leader, it’s part of your job to ensure your employees aren’t burning themselves out. We have created a culture that wears burnout, lack of sleep and “busy” as badges of honor. It’s going to take intention to break that culture and replace it with balance. Your employees, and your company, will be better for it. As a leader it’s up to you to lean in with curiosity, test and find creative ways to instill a culture of balance, and (equally important) to model that behavior yourself.

References:

• Follow MUD\WTR on Instagram
• National Center for Biotechnology Information page for the CYP1A2 gene
• Trends With Benefits
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
• MUD\WTR Co-Founder Shane Heath’s interview in Thrive Global
• Frontiers in Psychology article on neuroplasticity
• The Brain’s Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity by Norman Doidge
• Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
• Eight Sleep
• Oura Ring
• Pachama
• Paul has graciously invited entrepreneurs to reach out for advice. You can email him here.

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Lisa Gevelber is the founder and head of Grow with Google, Google’s tech-skilling workforce development initiative. Grow with Google is the company's $1 Billion initiative to drive economic opportunity for all. Grow with Google offers certification programs that provide job training for in-demand, high-paying careers for people without college degrees; and free digital skills training to middle and high school students and adult job seekers.

Grow with Google also provides free help to small and medium-sized businesses, and has a $175 million Small Business Fund to help minority, female and veteran-owned businesses.

Lisa has worked at Google since 2010. In addition to leading Grow with Google, Lisa is Google’s Chief Marketing Officer for the Americas Region.

In this episode, we discuss:

• What Grow with Google is and how it’s driving equity
• How Grow with Google is connecting their certificate graduates with employers
• How you can use Grow with Google to upskill yourself, upskill your employees, or fill open roles

Key Takeaways:

• This conversation demonstrated the importance of design thinking when building solutions to complex problems. As Lisa discusses in this episode, Google identified a need for upskilling and retaining people for higher-paying jobs that they could help solve. They identified the most in-demand job areas and created training specifically tailored to those jobs. However, Google also realized they were only suited to solve part of the need, so they partnered with others to develop an ecosystem approach. By collaborating with their partners, they created a holistic solution that has a larger impact than Google could have had on its own. Their partners include employers in need of talent to fill these in-demand jobs. These employers are using Grow with Google to create a hiring pipeline, which is beneficial to the employer and to the individuals that have invested in doing a certificate program. Their partners also include universities that are designing specialization courses that complement the training for specific industries. The lesson here is that there is greater power in collaboration. Don’t try to boil the ocean on your own. Instead, focus on your strengths and pull in others to fill in the missing pieces.

Ask yourself, what is your organization working on right now that would be stronger if you brought in strategic partners?

• There are problems that are already here that we know will continue to get worse. These problems include the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, inequity, and inequality. These problems affect everyone. They threaten our planet and breed social unrest. These are the challenges of our lifetime, and in all honesty, probably the challenges that will face generations to come. Each of these complex challenges has underlying systemic issues that continue to perpetuate the problem. It’s on all of us to work together to identify the underlying systemic issues, and offer up what we, as individuals or organizations, can best contribute to solve them in collaboration with others. Not only is there a moral imperative to do so. The planet is all of our home and there is no planet b. And, as a globally connected world, everyone is our neighbor. What hurts one population will eventually have a ripple effect that reaches everyone's door. But there’s also an enormous business opportunity to innovate solutions that fix a critical need, resolve the challenges of our lifetime, and create a better future for the next generation.
• Look at your industry and your organization. What are the job skills that are most in demand, and do you have a talent pipeline to fill that demand? If not, can you tap into already established resources like Grow with Google to fill your business need, or if no resources exist, can you create one that would benefit your company, future employees, and other industries that need the same skills?

References:

• Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn
• More information on Grow with Google’s certificates and courses and support videos.
• Companies can learn about hiring and partnership opportunities here.
• Coursera
• Hiring Our Heroes

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Hannes Schoenegger is the co-founder and CEO of Swiss bag brand QWSTION and its “spin-off” company Bananatex®. QWSTION has been making bags from plants since 2008, combining functionality and timeless design with the smallest ecological footprint and biggest social footprint possible. Their efforts have been honored with several international awards for outstanding material development and sustainability solutions. Bananatex® is a Cradle to Cradle Gold Certified® material. 

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why recycling won’t solve the global plastic pollution problem
• Understanding the full cost of materials
• The importance of questioning the status quo

Key Takeaways:

Beyond Recycling: Addressing global plastic pollution requires more than just recycling. While recycling plays a role, it's not a complete solution. First, not all plastics can be recycled, and those that can degrade with each recycling cycle, limiting future usability. Plastic's diverse chemical composition also complicates the recycling process by making effective sorting challenging when compared to materials like glass and aluminum. Moreover, the recycling process itself can increase toxicity and release harmful microplastics into the environment.

Equitable Waste Management: It’s interesting to think about how to spread the cost of our waste problem across all stakeholders. While regulations target corporations' environmental impact, what about consumer responsibility? Could a shift toward consumer accountability for end-of-use disposal accelerate demand for sustainable alternatives, prompting companies to adopt more eco-friendly practices?

Navigating Sustainability's Complexity: Sustainability is complex because you’re dealing with natrual ecosystems and business systems, and sometimes there aren’t clear ways to value costs and benefits. We don’t always know all the implications of a process or decision. But what we can do is make the best decisions available to us given the information we know now. For example, we know plastic can be a huge problem, and therefore we need to start innovating alternative solutions across the board.

References:

• Connect with Hannes on LinkedIn
• Bananatex®
• A Textile (R)evolution, a short film on Bananatex®
• QWSTION
• The National Law Review primer on New York State’s “Fashion Act”

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Eric Rubenstein is the Managing Partner at New Climate Ventures (NCV). NCV launched in October 2021, holistically tackling climate change by investing in innovative early-stage startups that target carbon removal, reduction, and avoidance ecosystems. NCV has invested in companies across climate tech, recycling, alternative materials, food tech, and energy transition, among other emissions-avoiding technologies

Before founding NCV, Eric held roles at Citigroup and Louis Dreyfus in their respective commodities and energy trading divisions.

In this episode, we discuss:

●     Why New Climate Ventures decided to invest in early-stage start-ups

●     The different areas they look at when deciding what companies to invest in

●     The importance of the founder and leadership of a start-up

Key Takeaways:

●     What's Your Life Thesis? Most Venture Capital (VC) firms have a thesis, which means a guiding framework or set of principles that defines the types of investments the firm will make, and outlines the firm's core beliefs. If you were to create a thesis to identify and evaluate where you spend your time and energy, what would it be? Take a moment to write it out, and then check where you are against your thesis. Are there any shifts you want to make with how you spend your time and energy?

●     Taking a Page Out of the VC Playbook: Three of the filters that New Climate Ventures uses when evaluating potential start-ups to invest in are, 1) alignment with their purpose of carbon reduction, 2) potential for strong financial returns, and 3) New Climate Venture’s ability to add value to the start-up beyond just money. These same filters work wonders when evaluating your next career move. First, does the work align with your purpose? Second, does it offer significant growth and return for you, both financially and personally? Finally, are there ways you are excited to contribute and show up beyond the job description? Remember, where you spend your career energy is a huge investment in the future you're helping to create.

●     What Stories Are You Amplifying? The stories we focus our attention on grow. They take up time and space as they’re passed from one person to another—entering rooms, heads, and hearts. The next time you share a story, consider if it’s a story you want to take up more space. Consider shedding light on the things you want more of. Consider making “good-finding” a habit, where you go out of your way to applaud what someone is doing and tell them to keep up the good work. It’s amazing the impact positive reinforcement has, not just to the person we’re patting on the back, but in our own brains when we use our attention to amplify the things we love.

References:

Connect with Eric on LinkedIn

New Climate Ventures

Listen to the Purpose and Profit episode with AIR COMPANY here

CarbiCrete

Rheom Materials

Dimensional Energy

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Tiffany Yu is the CEO & Founder of Diversability, an award-winning social enterprise working to elevate disability pride. Tiffany is also the Founder of the Awesome Foundation Disability Chapter, a monthly micro-grant that has awarded about $59k to 59 disability projects in 9 countries, and a content creator with almost 160k+ followers across platforms. She serves on the San Francisco Mayor’s Disability Council and was a 2020 Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit. At the age of 9, Tiffany became disabled as a result of a car accident that also took the life of her father.

She is a 3x TEDx speaker and spoke on 5 sessions at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. She has been featured in Marie Claire, the Guardian, and Forbes.

In this episode we discuss:

• The importance of finding your voice and stepping into your story
• One simple thing businesses can do for new employees, that can surprisingly set a tone of inclusion
• Why 96% of disabled people don’t disclose their disability to their employer
• The power of community, and the important connection between community and confidence

Key Takeaways:

• By sharing our stories and aspects of our identity that diverge from a standard narrative, conversation by conversation, we give awareness to a more complete spectrum of the human experience. Seeing diversity represented around us gives us permission to share the diverse intersectionality found within us. Showing up authentically is contagious, and this is where true connection and community thrive.
• The inclusion and belonging found in community is essential to satisfying the fundamental needs in Maslow's hierarchy. Only after our fundamental needs are met are we able to start rising up against the hierarchy to contribute our gifts to the world. Inclusion and belonging create an environment in which each of us can thrive.
• Here are 3 ways that you can support Tiffany’s mission to increase intersectional disability representation and democratize visibility:

1. Hire people with disabilities
2. Incorporate an accessibility lens into your natural way of operating by asking yourself “would a person without sight/sound/full mobility/etc. be able to participate in this?”
3. Donate to the Disability Empowerment Fund

References:

Diversability

Crip Camp

Tiffany’s social media:

LinkedIn

Instagram

TikTok

Twitter

Facebook

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Rob Sobhani is the founder of Sparo, a technology company on a mission to democratize charitable giving. With Sparo’s patented e-commerce plug-in, retailers can offer an easy way for their consumers to donate a part of their purchase to a charity. The retailer covers the donation cost, not the shopper. What’s in it for the retailer? Sparo increases conversion while reducing abandoned online shopping carts.

Rob has had an impressive career. He is a leading international expert on energy, domestic policies, and international relations. Formerly a professor at Georgetown University where he taught foreign policy and energy security, he now serves as Chairman and CEO of the Caspian Group Holdings, which provides strategic advisory services in energy.

One thing I appreciate about this conversation is that Rob’s path is an illustration of how everything we learn, every lesson and experience, is fodder for what we can do now. Those experiences and lessons add to your toolbox.

In this episode we discuss:

• The power of a crucible moment in shaping perspective
• Building loyalty with online consumers
• How to embed meaning into a mundane shopping experience

Key Takeaways:

• We live in the most frazzled, multi-tasking time in human history. While attention spans continue to drop, the intrinsic desire to contribute to something bigger than ourselves remains as strong as ever. The Global Pandemic sparked the intrinsic desire-fire even more. Therefore, offering a frictionless experience (which means making it as easy and convenient as possible) that enables people to donate to causes they care about during their regular online shopping has significant potential to increase giving. Especially when that donation doesn’t come out of the shopper’s pocket.
• Beyond reducing friction, there are three other elements for adoption and acceleration that Rob spoke about as themes for success across his career, whether with Sparo or sustainable energy. These were: democratizing access to participation, reducing costs, and using systems thinking to ensure the approach can be executed across each piece of the puzzle.
• When we ask questions that might feel off the wall, like “what if 80% of lottery winnings went to support social and environmental change programs selected by the winner, and 20% was pocketed by the winner?”. That type of question has the power to jolt us out of the sticky trap of the status quo. That type of question can put a crack in the belief that since this is the way something has always been done, it’s the way it needs to be. Ask yourself, what questions in your industry, or in your life, feel completely absurd? It might be worth sitting with those for a bit to understand why.

References:

• Connect with Rob on LinkedIn
• Sparo
• Leylie
• World Central Kitchen
• Lucky Dog Animal Rescue
• Charity Navigator
• Microsoft for Startups
• Save a Child’s Heart Facebook post on Arwa

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Dr. Stafford (Staff) Sheehan is an American scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur at the forefront of the carbon capture and utilization industry. Staff is the Co-founder and CTO of AIR COMPANY, a business converting captured carbon dioxide, water, and electricity into the fuels and chemicals that we get from fossil fuels today. He is the inventor of AIR COMPANY’s core patents and is responsible for the technology and operations of the business. Prior to founding AIR COMPANY, Dr. Sheehan served as the co-founder and CEO of Catalytic Innovations, where he developed electrochemical technologies to reduce energy consumption in refining processes.

Staff was recognized on MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 in 2023, as one of Chemical & Engineering News Talented 12 in 2017, and a Forbes 30 under 30 in 2016. He received his BS in Chemistry from Boston College and his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Yale University.

In this episode, we discuss:

●     Carbon capture and carbon utilization

●     The process to create sustainable aviation fuel

●     The magic of chemistry

Key Takeaways:

●     Circular Economy in Fuel Production: AIR COMPANY is transforming captured carbon from the atmosphere into fuel, creating a circular economy in the fuel industry. When this fuel is burned, the carbon released can be captured again to make more fuel. This closed-loop system is an incredible leap forward in sustainable energy.

●     Cutting Costs and Emissions Globally: The ability to create fuel anywhere in the world means we can slash energy use and costs across the supply chain. By producing fuel locally, we eliminate the need for transportation, drastically reducing associated energy use, costs, and emissions. This innovation could revolutionize how we think about energy logistics and help eliminate global conflict over fuel.

●     Turning Thin Air into Valuable Resources: Chemistry often feels like magic, and AIR COMPANY's work with carbon capture and utilization truly embodies this. Their work gives the phrase "making something out of thin air" a whole new—literal—meaning as they convert atmospheric carbon into new products like - aviation fuel, perfume, and vodka.

References:

●     Connect with Staff on LinkedIn

●     Air Company

●     To learn more about renewable hydrogen listen to the Purpose and Profit episode with David Reynolds, then Chief Executive of the Department for Trade and Investment for South Australia.

●     Defense Innovation Unit

●     “$400 per gallon gas to drive debate over cost of war in Afghanistan”, by Roxana Tiron, The Hill, October 16th, 2009

●     NASA CO2 Conversion Challenge

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Julia Marsh is the CEO and co-founder of Sway, a clean tech startup scaling seaweed-based, home-compostable packaging. Sway’s patented products match the vital performance attributes of conventional plastics and are designed to plug into existing infrastructure, enabling scale and massive impact. Julia’s work is driven by a deep passion for regenerative design and biological circularity. 

In 2023, Sway won first place in the TOM FORD Plastic Innovation Prize. In 2021, Sway also won the Beyond the Bag Challenge sponsored by Closed Loop Partners and a consortium of major retailers. Sway’s solutions have garnered recognition from Vogue, Condé Nast, Forbes, Business Insider, and Fast Company. As a member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, the Sustainable Ocean Alliance, and 1% for the Planet, Sway is working holistically to scale their product for a thriving, equitable future.

Learn more at swaythefuture.com. 

In this episode, we discuss:

●      Why recycling won’t fix our plastic problem

●      The properties of seaweed that make it a flexible plastic film substitute

●      The “Amazon Rainforest” ecosystem you never considered 

Key Takeaways:

●      Seamless Integration for Easy Adoption: Introducing a new material into established supply chains and factory processes can be challenging. Take a page out of the Sway playbook. If possible, create a plug-and-play solution that works with existing machinery. This lowers the barrier for manufacturers to test and adopt the new product, making it significantly easier to scale and implement across their industry.

●      Understanding Product Lifecycles: To truly grasp the benefits and costs of any product, it’s crucial to examine its entire lifecycle. Take plastic, for example. The visible litter on beaches is just the tip of the iceberg. Microplastics in our oceans and bloodstreams are harming marine life and human health. The environmental impact of extracting petroleum for plastic production, and the long-lasting waste clogging our landfills, are often hidden from view but equally damaging. Out of sight should not mean out of mind—these unseen costs are critical to our understanding of plastic's true impact.

●      The Power of Innovative Thinking: We need more people like Julia innovating new ways to do things. People who question the status quo. People who notice the cost of continuing to do things the same way, and aren’t ok with that cost. People that are curious enough to lean in, tinker, and innovate new solutions that are better for everyone. The next time you notice something off, don’t dismiss it. Instead, explore it—maybe you’re the one who will come up with the next groundbreaking solution. Your curiosity could lead to innovations that make a better future. 

References:

●      Connect with Julia on LinkedIn

●      Sway

○      Keep up with Sway on Instagram

●      Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize

●      Lonely Whale

●      Beyond the Bag Challenge

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Doug Conant is an internationally renowned business leader, and both a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Doug has honed his leadership craft turning around companies at the most senior levels—first as President of the Nabisco Foods Company, then as CEO of Campbell Soup Company, and later as Chairman of Avon Products. In 2011, he founded ConantLeadership: a mission-driven community of leaders and learners who are championing leadership that works in the 21st century.

Throughout his career, Doug’s motto has been, “to win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace”. This focus on people, workplace trust, and clarity of purpose have been critical factors to delivering extraordinary business results for the companies he led.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why you must first win in the workplace if you want to win in the marketplace
• The secret to employee engagement
• The blueprint for becoming a great leader

Key Takeaways:

• Leaders need followers, and followers are earned. To earn followers, you need to invite them in, and they need to know—and feel—they are wildly supported by you. If you are a leader, you invite others to join you by taking the time to listen, by being intentional, and by crafting your leadership plan.
• Being a leader of an organization is hard. There is no “right” way to be a leader. The most effective leaders take the time to understand their values, lead in alignment with their values, and have the courage to lead as themselves. You can’t be an authentic leader if you’re trying to lead like someone else.
• Everyone has the power to take accountability for how they show up to work, and in life. And on top of that, everyone is accountable for how they show up, whether they take accountability or not. Whether you’re the CEO, a manager or an entry-level person, the way you show up influences those around you. It’s worth being intentional about the influence you want to have.

References:

• You can engage with Doug on LinkedIn
• Conant Leadership
• The Blueprint: 6 Practical Steps to Lift Your Leadership to New Heights
• True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership by Bill George and Peter Sims
• Stephen Covey
• Barbarians at the Gate is the movie about KKR’s leveraged buyout of Nabisco (based on the book by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar)
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs comes from Abraham Maslow’s essay “A Theory of Human Motivation”
• Catalyst’s page on the Campbell Soup Company’s “Winning in the Workplace, Winning in the Marketplace, Winning With Women” initiative
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Nick Craig is a leadership expert, Fortune 500 consultant, and the President and Founder of the Core Leadership Institute (CLI). Over the past 10+ years, CLI has helped nearly 20,000 leaders discover their Purpose, the unique gift that they alone can bring to the world.

Nick’s expertise in Purposeful leadership has been sought out by both corporate and academic organizations ranging from Lego® and Ben & Jerry’s, to the United States Military Academy at West Point.

His insights from working with these organizations are captured in his book Leading From Purpose: Clarity and the Confidence to Act When it Matters Most. In the book, Nick shares unique stories from leaders across the globe and offers a method to find your own purpose.

Order your copy today: https://coreleader.com/leading-from-purpose/

In this episode Nick and I discuss:


• The “magic” that rearranged Brene Brown’s life

• The secret that created vaccines in record time

• The leadership test packaged in schweddy balls ice cream

• What Hollywood teaches us about the keys to the brand-marketing kingdom

• The super power hidden in a simple question

Key Takeaways:


1) The importance of questions in framing the way we look at the world. Let’s shift from asking our kids, friends, and ourselves, “What do you want to be when you grow up, or what do you do?” Instead let’s ask “W hat is your purpose, what is your unique gift you want to share with the world?” This reframing unlocks a different way of looking at each other, and creates room for more of ourselves to exist.


2) The Latin root of the word “courage” is “cor” which means “connecting head to heart”. Purpose and courage are two sides of the same coin. They go hand and hand. Courage doesn’t show up without a purpose, and people who follow their purpose need courage to chart an uncharted path.


3) Ask yourself, how you want to spend this one beautiful life. Do you want to be a mapmaker, charting your own path? Or, do you want to spend your days following google maps, listening on autopilot to someone else’s instruction as you do what’s been done before?

References:

Core Leadership Institute

Leading From Purpose: Clarity and the Confidence to Act When it Matters Most by Nick Craig

“From Purpose to Impact”, Harvard Business Review, by Nick Craig

True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership by Bill George

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (free online version, or amazon)

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankel

Soul: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

“Purpose: Shifting from why to how”, McKinsey Quarterly

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

If you want to work with me to embed purpose into your business, go to www.KathyVarol.com.

Kevin is the co-founder and Chief Development Officer of ChangeNOW, the largest impact conference in the world. Since 2017 ChangeNOW has strengthened the interconnections between actors of the impact ecosystem and inspired people by spotlighting concrete and innovative solutions to the biggest challenges facing our world.

This year’s free, all-online summit will feature 1000 solutions and 500 speakers from 120 countries.

Click here to register for this year’s online ChangeNOW 2021 summit (May 27th, 28th, 29th).

In this episode Kevin and I discuss:                                             

• Why restlessness is a gift
• How to unlock meaning and engagement in the workplace
• A psychological trick to tap into innovation
• The secret to accelerating both change and impact                                        

Takeaways from this episode:

1. You don’t have to have to choose between purpose-driven work and a paycheck. It’s possible to have both.
2. When you can change the narrative to be about what is possible, and the upside of it, what we can create, that sparks problem-solving. It sparks innovation. It sparks passion to actually march forward in a direction of positive change.
3. Making a profit is not enough anymore. As a company, you need to have a mission. If you don’t have a mission, you’re not going to be able to sustain your company in the long run.

References:

• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, MD
• INSEAD: The business school for the world
• Boyan Slat and The Ocean Cleanup
• Washing machine microfiber filters by Planet Care

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

If you want to work with me to embed purpose into your business, go to www.KathyVarol.com.

Orlando Ferreira is the Chief Finance and Administration Officer of IDB Invest, a multilateral development finance institution owned by 47 member countries. 26 members are in the Latin American and Caribbean region where IDB Invest finances projects to advance clean energy, modernize agriculture, strengthen transportation systems, and expand access to financing.

In 2021 the multilateral bank issued $1.6 billion in sustainable debt, including a $50 million blue bond for a remediation and preservation project—the first such blue bond in Latin America and the Caribbean. A blue bond is a relatively new form of sustainability bond that is issued to support investments in healthy oceans and marine economies.

Orlando is a national of Paraguay. He served as a member of the Board of Executive Directors of the IDB Group from 1999 to 2005, then joined the organization as a Senior Adviser to the CEO in 2006 and later held several Division Chief positions including Chief Operating Officer of the IIC (now IDB Invest), and Chief Strategy Officer for IDB Invest.

In this episode we discuss:

✅ What a multilateral development finance institution is

✅ New types of bonds that are supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (with an interesting example of a Gender Bond IDB Invest issued)

✅ The evolution of measuring social and environmental impact (metrics, metrics, metrics)

Key Takeaways:

• One thing I find remarkable about Orlando (that shows up consistently throughout this conversation) is how humble and transparent he is as a leader. There is no doubt he knows his stuff and is good at what he does, but he doesn’t pretend to know it all. Instead, he shares openly lessons learned, areas they are still trying to figure out and improve, and new approaches they’re trying to create that might be better. He knows that the path of improvement is never static. There is no finish line we’ll finally reach. But instead, the objective is to acknowledge that progress isn’t perfect and to humbly strive to improve year after year. These are the leadership traits that create psychological safety, and ultimately the environment for real progress.
• There are lessons we could all learn from the way multilateral organizations operate. While adopting a mandate to no longer be able to compete wouldn’t work in capitalism, consider how the world would be different - how your industry and company would be different - if you had a mandate that the only way to compete in the market is by adding more value. You couldn’t launch a new product or business if it didn’t add material value to consumers’ lives, the planet, or society. Instead of using marketing to create perceived differentiation, what if you were only allowed to create actual differentiation through value creation? Which would actually be a sustainable type of differentiation.
• Another thing that struck me was the intentional role of knowledge sharing that IDB Invest does. If they realize they aren’t the right institution to step in, they provide the knowledge they have to the right institutions. This is a beautiful mix of leveraging both a competitive advantage (which means a condition or circumstance that puts a company in a favorable or superior position) and a collaborative advantage. IDB Invest is recognizing who has the competitive advantage to create real change, and then supporting them through a collaborative knowledge share. What if this type of knowledge sharing was more widespread and intentional? Not just with partners in your own supply chain, but taking accountability to share information that might help institutions that don’t make a direct (or even indirect) impact on your business, but could make an impact on society or the world. In business this would mean no longer trapping yourself in purely transactional interactions where you get something in return. Afterall, diverse perspectives spark some of the most innovative ideas. What would it feel like to start sharing outside perspectives regularly and taking pride in helping another organization move in a better direction? An added benefit to adopting this approach is that creativity is a muscle—the more your workforce opens their mind to all creative ideas, the more creative they’ll be for your company as well.

References:

• Connect with Orlando on LinkedIn
• IDB Invest
• 2022 Sustainable Bond Program: Allocation and Impact Report
• Banistmo (es)
• FMO: Entrepreneurial Development Bank
• SinDesperdicio (es)

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Stephanie Benedetto is the Co-Founder and CEO of Queen of Raw. This award-winning company is turning deadstock pollution into profit through two major channels: 1) its proprietary inventory management software Materia MX, and 2) an integrated deadstock marketplace. Queen of Raw enables fashion companies to sell their excess inventory, while at the same time supporting sustainability compliance measurement and reporting.

Stephanie is a member of Pledge 1% and a founding member of the New York Circular City Initiative. An advocate for women in business and sustainability, her companies have been featured in Good Morning America, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

In this episode we discuss:

●      Why deadstock clothing and textiles are often landfilled or incinerated

●      The $280b+ excess inventory sitting in warehouses worldwide

●      Why the fashion industry is the 2nd largest contributor to global water pollution

Key Takeaways:

●      There is an incredible opportunity for new marketplaces to enable value creation by tapping into unused resources and capacity. These marketplaces allow supply to meet demand. This is what Airbnb does. This is what Uber and Lyft do. And, this is what Queen of Raw does. What makes Queen of Raw’s marketplace stand out is the sustainability component at the heart of what it does. With their focus on unused textiles that would otherwise be burned or end up in landfill, the company is enabling a circular economy across the fashion industry by keeping resources in use longer.

●      The early success of Queen of Raw shows the power of a compelling vision that benefits all stakeholders. A key part of this success has been Queen of Raw’s ability to bring in strategic partners—like SAP and UPS—by aligning on values and clearly adding value.

●      Currently, 1.1 billion people worldwide don’t have access to clean water. The World Wildlife Fund has stated that by 2025 two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages. That’s in just 2 years. That statistic is shocking and hard to absorb when 70% of the world’s surface is covered by water. Water seems abundant. The problem is, only 3% of global water is freshwater, and 66% of fresh water is unavailable to use (i.e. frozen in glaciers or otherwise inaccessible). That leaves just 1% of total water as fresh water that we can use. Currently, 70% of that freshwater is used in agriculture, and the amount of freshwater is declining. The fashion industry contributes to water scarcity in two major ways: 1) through agricultural products used to make textiles like cotton, wool, and leather—as well as any pesticide runoff that contaminates waterways; and 2) through pollution from toxins used in the textile production process—like fabric dyes—that contaminate waterways. Not contaminating what little freshwater we do have is incredibly important.

References:

●      Connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn

●      Queen of Raw

●      Queen of Raw’s low-volume marketplace

●      New York Circular City Initiative

●      MIT’s Solve 

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! 

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good! 

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com. 

Chris Chancey is the Founder and CEO of Amplio Recruiting, the only certified B Corp staffing agency. Amplio Recruiting helps companies hire from the refugee community. At a time when many companies find themselves short-staffed, Amplio Recruiting offers an interesting way to diversify the workforce while impacting lives and communities at the same time.

I want to share some statistics and a personal story that will shed light on why I’m so excited about the work Chris does.

Globally we’ve never had more displaced people than we do right now. Displaced people count both refugees - those who have crossed an international border - and internally displaced people (IDP), those that have been displaced within their home country.

At the end of 2020 the number of displaced people was estimated at 82.4 million. That means, 1 in every 95 people on Earth has fled their home as a result of conflict or persecution.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, among the globally displaced are nearly 26.4 million  , around half of whom are children under the age of 18.

The scale of this humanitarian crisis is hard to comprehend, and it hits close to home.

I am the daughter of a refugee.

My father and his family spent 3 years searching for safety during WWII (my Aunt was literally born in a barn along the way), followed by 2 years in a refugee camp before coming to the United States when my father was 7 years old. Once resettled, the journey of learning a new language and adjusting to a new country began. 

My grandparents were, fortunately, able to get work. My grandmother worked cleaning office buildings after hours, and my grandfather got a job in a Nabisco factory.

Work is an important part of dignity, identity, stability, and personal agency.

If you’re interested in learning how to diversify your own workforce through hiring refugees, you can find information on Amplio’s Diversity Consulting Services here. You are also welcome to connect with Chris directly by emailing him.

In this episode we cover:

• The unexpected paths revealed when we choose to lean in with curiosity to things we’re unfamiliar with
• How Amplio Recruiting has been able to achieve a 90% full-time hire rate for placed staff
• The importance of personal networks and the power of storytelling 

Key Takeaways:

• I’m struck by the importance of language. As Chris mentioned, there’s a huge difference when talking to companies about roadblocks versus hurdles. Words matter. Words prime the way our brains look at a problem. One word might make us feel like a problem is insurmountable, while another might be an exciting invitation to problem solve a solution.
• The importance of networks and community surfaced multiple times during this conversation. Amplio Recruiting has stepped in to create the network that refugees need to find work. I really appreciate that as Amplio looks at businesses to partner with, they vet businesses on their culture and how well a refugee hire will be integrated into the work community.
• As the daughter of a refugee, if you’re in a position to diversify the hiring pool for your company, I strongly urge you to consider how you can add refugees to your workforce. How can you help support one of the most vulnerable populations through employment, and become a stronger company because of it.

References:

• Refugee Workforce: The Economic Case for Hiring the Displaced by Chris Chancey and Katie Gibson
• Read more of Amnobe Pilipili’s story here
• Amplio Ventures
• Businesses for Refugees
• Learn how you can welcome and support Afghan refugees at US

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

 Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Eugene Kirpichov runs Work On Climate, a non-profit building the workforce needed to solve climate change equitably and justly, which he started after leaving his big tech career in 2020 to focus on solving climate change. Work on Climate has helped thousands of people land climate jobs and advance their companies, and is now focusing on creating systems change to support the full climate talent transition.

In this episode, we discuss:

●  How a systems thinking approach is needed to create “the climate workforce”

●  The power of purpose to unite people around a common goal

●  Why Eugene left a great career in tech to start Work on Climate

Key Takeaways:

●  Uniting Around Purpose to Drive Change: A common purpose acts as a powerful bridge, connecting people across backgrounds and experiences by giving them a shared reason to invest their time, energy, and passion. Work On Climate is a perfect example of this. Experts volunteer their time, offering office hours to help people navigate their way into climate careers. Donors open their wallets, not just because it's a good cause, but because they believe in the mission. This common goal of tackling climate change unites individuals who might not have crossed paths otherwise. When people come together around a shared purpose, doors open in new ways—opportunities for collaboration, support, and impact flourish. That’s the true power of purpose.

●  Rethinking Our Roles for a Sustainable Future: Solving the climate crisis will require more than just new technology—it demands a complete shift in how we think about our roles, regardless of industry. Eugene emphasized that everyone, no matter what their job is, should be thinking about how they can support a sustainable future. Whether you’re in finance, marketing, engineering, or education, there’s a role to play in driving systems change. The future isn’t just about “climate jobs”—it’s about making every job a climate job. The key is embracing a mindset where sustainability becomes part of every decision and action we take.

●  Building the Skills to Shape a Better Future: As we tackle the climate crisis, we need people equipped with the right skills to lead the charge. Eugene highlighted some essential tools for building a sustainable future: STEM knowledge, design thinking, systems thinking, and collaboration. Whether you’re just starting out or already seasoned in your career, these are some skills worth developing.

References:

●  Connect with Eugene on LinkedIn

●  Work on Climate

●  An Inconvenient Truth, directed by Davis Guggenheim (2006)

●  Eugene’s resignation letter

●  terra.do

●  OnePointFive

●  Climatebase

●  Cisco Foundation

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! 

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes. 

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Alex Budak is a social entrepreneur, author, and faculty member at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. His new book is called Becoming a Changemaker: An Actionable, Inclusive Guide to Leading Positive Change at Any Level, and is based on the transformative course (of the same name) Alex created and teaches.

Previously, Alex co-founded the social impact platform StartSomeGood, ran Sweden’s leading social innovation incubator, Reach for Change, and worked at Change.org.  Alex teaches, speaks, consults, and advises organizations around the world, with the mission of helping people from all walks of life become changemakers.

In this episode we discuss:

• The magic that sparks movements
• What elephants can teach us about daunting goals
• Why giving yourself permission is the first step to change

Key Takeaways:

• Alex tells his Changemaking students that they don’t need to know yet the change they want to make, they just need to believe that change is possible. This is an important message. The truth is, throughout our lives each of us will gravitate toward changes someone else has already started. The biggest challenges our world faces—like climate change and inequality—will take lifetimes to fix. These challenges require countless people to step into the same arena to help out, support each other, provide different perspectives, and solve from different angles. You do not need to be the originator of a change idea to have a significant impact. What you need is the belief that change is possible and the bravery to step into the arena to create a better future.
• Change can be a mixed bag. Sometimes change is good, and sometimes it’s not. What change always does though, regardless of impact, is it disrupts. It pushes us out of our comfort zone. If change were to never happen, we’d all live our lives mindlessly on autopilot. The blessing of change is that it can wake us up, and with eyes wide open we can look under the hood of the status quo and decide if we like what we see. By doing this, change creates the opportunity for something better.
• There’s a lot of power in reframing failure. The fear of failure can mean not trying and, in many situations, not trying is the worst failure of all. While many things in life are out of our control, trying is one of the few things that is in your control. Don’t close the door on your dreams because you’re afraid someone else might close the door on you. Give yourself permission to try. You might just discover what’s possible is way bigger than you ever imagined.

References:

Connect with Alex on LinkedIn

Becoming a Changemaker: An Actionable, Inclusive Guide to Leading Positive Change at Any Level by Alex Budak

Changemaker Index

Changemaker Canvas

Learn more about the Becoming a Changemaker courses at Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley here

Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative

Damon Centola discusses the 25% tipping point in his book Change: How to Make Big Things Happen

“Boardroom Racial Diversity: Evidence from the Black Lives Matter Protests”, by Anete Pajuste, Maksims Dzabarovs, and Romans Madesovs, Stockholm School of Economics, Riga

“Leadership Lessons From Dancing Guy” by Derek Sivers

Former mayor of Palo Alto and Sr. Director of Philanthropy, Microsoft, Sid Espinosa on LinkedIn

The Long View: Some Thoughts About One of Life's Most Important Lessons by Matthew Kelly

Blackbook University

StartSomeGood

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Kathleen Tullie leads Social Purpose at Reebok International, and is also the Founder & Executive Director of BOKS, a nonprofit on a mission to make physical activity and play part of every child’s day. Since its humble beginnings in 2009, BOKS has empowered 500,000 kids to make movement a part of their schooldays, contributing to their physical health and mental well-being.

Kathleen’s major accomplishments with BOKS include partnering with the Partnership for

Healthier America, American Council on Exerciseand Let’s Move Active Schools where she was honored by First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative in 2013 and 2014. 

BOKS has partnered with The Reebok Foundation, adidas, , Toyota, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and CVS Health to fiscally support BOKS’ growth.

I met Kathleen while I was leading global purpose strategy at adidas. I was so impressed by Kathleen’s passion and the movement she’s championing every single day to get kids moving, I knew she had to be a guest on Purpose and Profit.

Connect with Kathleen on LinkedIn.

In this episode we cover:

• The failure of the sports industry
• The most valuable form of “word of mouth” there is
• The surprisingly easy way to boost kids grades
• The power of collaboration across a shared mission (between a nonprofit and a business)
• The overlooked connection between physical and mental health

Key Takeaways:

1. The importance of integrating impact initiatives into the overall business strategy and having shared metrics between impact and business. This ensures that impact programming is a long-term commitment, and that impact can be seamlessly scaled with the business.
2. The power of Word of Mom’s to create and demand change in our communities, schools, businesses and governments.
3. The importance of shifting our culture from sport viewers to sport participants. About one in three elementary school students in the US is overweight or obese. The prevalence of obesity increased almost threefold among children 6 to 11 years old between 1980 and 2010.  And approximately 50% of elementary school kids do not meet the minimum recommendations for physical activity. Getting kids moving can establish a life long relationship with fitness, and equip kids with a tactic to naturally manage stress, anxiety and depression.

References:

• Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by Dr. John J. Ratey
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
• “Impact of BOKS on Children’s Physical Activity and Wellbeing During the COVID-19 Pandemic” Dalhousie University research study
• World Health Organization’s Global action plan on physical activity 2018-2030
• Florida’s “recess moms”, help get recess bill passed
• “An ESG Reckoning Is Coming” by Michael O’Leary and Warren Valdmanis, Harvard Business Review
• United Nations’ Sustainable Development goals
• The Social Dilemma documentary on Netflix

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

If you want to work with me to embed purpose into your business, go to www.KathyVarol.com.

Ynzo van Zanten is Tony Chocolonely’s ‘Choco Evangelist’, and yes, he wants to convert you. He’s here to tell the story of the Tony’s roadmap to 100% slave-free chocolate and to get every choco stakeholder on board.

Tony’s is committed to making the universe of chocolate production fair and equitable for all involved, particularly the farmers and the people working on cocoa farms in West Africa. They do incredible work to make incredible chocolate.

Ynzo combines his talents as an economist, author, entrepreneur and storyteller in his work for Tony’s (and still manages to sleep a few hours a night). Ynzo is also the convenor of the ‘Sustainable Leadership & Entrepreneurship’ program at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, and a guest lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and TU Delft. In his spare time Ynzo sits on the boards of 10.000 Hours and Plastic Whale foundations.

Find out more about Tony’s Chocolonely here.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why a Dutch journalist filed a lawsuit against himself
• Why Fairtrade is good, but where it doesn’t go far enough
• The power of the default setting
• The problem with “work-life balance”

Key takeaways:

1. There is so much change worth fighting for. While posting allegiance to a cause or a conviction online is nice, it’s not enough. To be worthy of claiming a conviction requires a willingness to stand by it, to fight for it, even when it’s not popular. Even when it’s hard. Change happens one step at a time. Our collective choices, and collective voices, are the only thing that will change the world.
2. Words matter. They anchor our actions and frame the way we see things. Ask yourself, what would it feel like if all Human Resources departments changed to People and Culture Departments? What would we stop doing? What would we start doing? Or, how would the world change if the norm—the default setting for an enterprise—was “social enterprises” and the fringe was “antisocial enterprises”?
3. Let’s all start thinking and behaving like the average Dutchman that doesn’t take “no” as an answer, but instead takes it as a question mark. A challenge to create a new approach that transforms a no into a yes.

References:

• Follow Tony’s on Instagram and Twitter
• Learn more about the chocolate industry and how Tony’s is changing it here
• Tony (also known as The Chocolate Case) page on IMDB
• The Tony’s 2020/2021 Annual Fair Report
• “Assessing Progress in Reducing Child Labor in Cocoa Growing Areas of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana” project by NORC at the University of Chicago
• Tony’s Open Chain sourcing project to create a transparent chocolate industry
• Fairtrade International
• Callebaut and Jokolade chocolatiers

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Shola Richards’ life’s mission is an ambitious one: To end generations of professional suffering, simply by changing how we treat each other at work. An advocate for positive change, Shola addresses the often-ignored issue of workplace bullying by highlighting its impact on trust, communication, and company resources. With a focus on unveiling the cost of toxic behaviors, Shola offers practical solutions for creating healthier work environments.

At his core, Shola is an advocate and humanitarian, guiding us back to our shared humanity. Shola shares his insights as a speaker, coach, consultant, and author. His work includes the best-selling books Go Together and Making Work Work, with a third booking coming out in late 2024.  

I met Shola a year ago at an incredible NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) workshop. I immediately gravitated toward his genuine warmth and openness. Shola is a remarkable human-being, making a huge impact.

In this episode, we discuss:

●      The transformative power of sharing mental health stories

●      The importance of practicing civility in modern-day discourse

●      The often-overlooked distinction between being nice and being kind

Key Takeaways:

●      Embracing Ubuntu: "I Am Because We Are". Imagine a world where we live by the profound ethos of ubuntu, an African philosophy that teaches, "I am because we are." This philosophy illuminates our inherent interconnectedness. It suggests that our humanity is inextricably linked to the humanity of others, and that our personal well-being is anchored in the collective well-being of society. Shola's exploration of ubuntu in Go Together suggests that adopting this worldview could revolutionize our approach to life, work, and leadership. Ultimately, transforming the world around us.

●      Cultivating Culture: A Collective Responsibility. We are all collectively responsible for the culture we live in, the culture we work in, and the culture we’re passing down to the next generation. Simply put, culture is just a collection of the norms we accept, or no longer accept. Culture is powerful because it permeates everything. Seeping into how we behave, how we view the world, and how we view ourselves. What we have compassion for and what we judge. What cultural norms don’t feel right to you? When have you felt like you had to “play the game” when your insides were boiling or crumbling? What if, next time you felt that way, you took a deep breath and said “That didn’t sit well with me. Can you please explain what you meant?”. This could invite a courageous dialogue that might just help pave the road to a better culture.

●      Protecting the Heart of the Workplace: Listening to the Empaths. In environments that feel cold and disconnected, those most in touch with their humanity—the empaths—feel the impact most sharply. They are the canary in the coal mine, alerting us to psychological hazards that lurk within toxic cultures. For leaders, the call to action is clear: listen and respond. Ignoring toxic behaviors erodes morale, diminishes trust in leadership, and questions the organizational commitment to employee well-being. Remember, your employees are building your company's future. Their success is your success. As leaders, it's your job to foster a nurturing environment where every team member can thrive, innovate, and excel. 

References:

●      Connect with Shola on LinkedIn

●      Shola’s website

●      Books by Shola:

○      Making Work Work: The Solution for Bringing Positive Change to Any Work Environment

○      Go Together: How the Concept of Ubuntu will Change How We Work, Live and Lead

●      Keep an eye out for Shola’s next book due out September 2024

○      Civil Unity: The Radical Path to Transform Our Discourse, Our Lives, and Our World 

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! 

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes. 

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Chuck Templeton is a Senior Managing Director at S2G Ventures, the direct investment team at Builders Vision—an impact platform providing philanthropy, investment, and advocacy tools to organizations that are building a more humane and healthy planet. S2G Ventures has 4 focus areas for investment: Clean Energy, Food & Agriculture, Oceans & Seafood, and Special Opportunities. 

Once an entrepreneur himself, Chuck founded OpenTable. He is many things: an ultra-runner, a former Army Ranger, a father, a businessperson. Most importantly, he is a citizen of the world who is dedicating his expertise to build, fix, and support a healthy and sustainable ecosystem.

In this episode we discuss:

●      The meaning of systems investing

●      The importance of real market feedback on a minimal viable product (MVP)

●      How to manage risk when investing in new technologies  

Key Takeaways:

●      The oceans and the air we breathe are shared worldwide. We either all have clean oceans and air, or no one does. When the oceans die and the air is toxic, all humans die. But food stability and access to clean water are not shared worldwide. Food and water instability thrives among the world's most vulnerable populations, not the ones setting regulations. That doesn’t mean rich nations are safe from future insecurity. Climate change is already impacting agriculture in once “safe” geographic environments. Once food and water insecurity hits the doorsteps of the most privileged, it will be too late for all of us. But more importantly, we have a responsibility to look after each other. A responsibility to support our fellow humans who are experiencing food and water instability NOW. A responsibility to leave the planet better off for the next generation than we found it. There are actions each of us can take now to support the transition to sustainable systems, and a healthy planet for future generations. Action can look like buying from food companies that use regenerative farming, sustainable fishing practices, and humane animal welfare. Action can look like supporting companies that have switched to renewable energy (and switching your household to renewable energy too).  Action can look like voting for more regulations around emissions. Action can look like switching your financial investments out of harmful industries and into sustainable businesses.

●      Chuck sets a great example for all of us. He assessed his skills, then found a way to use them in a capacity that gives him meaning, and that builds a better future for his kids (and everyone's kids). Consider how you can follow Chuck's example and use your energy, skills, and time to support what’s important to you. How can you push your current company to be a better global citizen? If your company doesn’t light you up with meaning, consider finding a company that’s purpose aligns with what’s important to you. Or look into volunteering your skills to a non-profit whose mission you believe in.

References:

Connect with Chuck on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ctemp/

S2G Ventures: https://www.s2gventures.com/

Once Upon a Farm: https://onceuponafarmorganics.com/

Learn more about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org/

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! 

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Lindsay Dahl is Beautycounter’s SVP of Social Mission where she leads the safety, sustainability, advocacy and giving teams. A nationally recognized leader, Lindsay has been working for over 15 years to remove toxic chemicals from the products we use every day. Working at the intersection of activism, product safety, and sustainability, Lindsay takes a comprehensive approach to integrate social impact into everything at Beautycounter.

Founded in 2013, Beautycounter’s purpose is to get safer products in the hands of everyone. Beautycounter has been a pioneer of the clean beauty movement, has successfully lobbied to help pass 9 laws for stricter regulations to make products on shelves safer, and is continuing to advocate for more regulation.

Call to action

If you want safer standards governing the ingredients used in products you’re bringing into your home and using on your body, ask for them. Contact your representative and ask that there be more regulations put into place.

In this episode we discuss:

• The power of regulations and law reform
• How individual voices can support change
• What corporate activism is
• The relationship between purpose and profit

Key Takeaways:

• Corporate involvement in politics typically brings to mind companies doing shady things, for their own benefit, that harm the public good. It’s refreshing to see a new crop of companies that are investing resources to lobby the government for tighter regulations that will change industry in ways that support the public good.
• I’m so impressed by the impact one company can make on an entire industry. I’ve talked to a number of companies on the Purpose and Profit podcast that saw a broken system, and decided to do something about it. The founder of Beautycounter did just that and is changing the beauty industry for the better.
• Just because a product made it to a store shelf, does not mean it’s been tested to be safe for use. That blows my mind and is really important to remember. I just started watching the mini-series Dopesick, which explores America's struggle with opioid addiction and is an eye-opening example of a product that doctors and patients were told was safe by the FDA and pharma, which turned out to be far from safe. I mention that as an extreme example of the importance of holding government bodies that were created to keep consumers safe accountable for doing a better job, and ensuring they have the power and resources to do a better job.

References:

• Beautycounter
  • Our Story
  • Transparency: The Truth About Mica documentary
  • Blueprint for Clean
  • The Never List

• The state of Minnesota’s page on BPA actions, including their band on the use of BPA ban in sippy cups
• “Beautycounter’s SVP Of Mission Lindsay Dahl Takes On Clean Beauty’s Critics” Beauty Independent
• National Law Review article on the National Cosmetics Act
• For more information on child labor in the mica industry, visit the Responsible Mica Initiative website
• The Purpose and Profit Podcast episode with Ynzo van Zanten of Tony’s Chocolonely
• Environmental Working Group’s EWG Verified mark
• The Chemical Footprint Project
• Diane Feinstein press release on the “Personal Care Products Safety Act”
• The FDA page on Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Glen Delaney is a project director at the nonprofit Earth Economics. Earth Economics quantifies and values the benefits nature provides, driving effective decisions and systemic change through a combination of education, natural capital analysis, and policy recommendations. As businesses begin to explore their impact and dependency on nature, valuation is a useful tool for integrating nature into their existing frameworks.

In his role, Glen works with climate-impacted communities, tribes, and governments to value ecosystem services—the benefits created by nature—translating their work protecting and restoring nature into a dollar figure.

In this episode, we discuss:

●     What “ecosystem goods” and “ecosystem services” are and why they’re valuable

●     How and why businesses are starting to value nature

●     Frameworks that help businesses embed nature into their strategy and decision-making

Key Takeaways:

●     The Economic Wake-Up Call from Nature. The conversation around nature’s value is growing louder, especially as we confront a critical juncture where environmental degradation and climate change start to hit our wallets. Look at California, where leading insurers like State Farm and Allstate stepped back from renewing homeowner policies in 2024 due to increasing risks. This move strips individuals of coverage, leaving them to face financial vulnerabilities on their own. Companies too are grappling with the tangible impacts of climate change, from droughts affecting manufacturing to unpredictable crop yields in supply chains. It’s a stark reminder of an old adage: we often fail to appreciate what we have until it’s under threat. Our collective delay in valuing nature’s gifts is now being countered with the harsh reality of its decline, signaling an urgent call for environmental stewardship.

●     Climate Change: The Economics of Health Impacts. The repercussions of climate change extend well beyond financial losses, touching the very essence of our well-being. Health insurance companies are also considering adjusting premiums to reflect the increased risks associated with environmental shifts. Wildfires deteriorating air quality, extreme heatwaves, and out-of-character flooding are translating into higher medical claims and hospitalizations. Droughts leading to wildfires not only claim lives and devastate communities but also jeopardize access to healthcare, contaminate water sources, and degrade air quality far beyond the immediate areas of the fires.

●     A Global Domino Effect: From Migration to Food Security. While the U.S. may not be grappling with climate-induced migration or food security yet, the global nature of our supply chains and the pandemic have highlighted our interconnectedness. Events unfolding across the globe offer a glimpse into potential future scenarios closer to home. Our global interdependence reminds us that the impacts of climate change are not confined by borders.

References:

Connect with Glen on LinkedIn

Earth Economics

The Natural Capital Protocol framework by Capitals Coalition

Task Force for Nature-related Financial Disclosures

inVEST by the Natural Capital Project, Stanford University

The Nature Conservancy

Kresge Foundation

Soil and Water Outcomes Fund by Quantified Ventures

Avahoula Climate Mitigation Project with Pachama & Delta Land Services

Stitching the West Back Together: Conservation of Working Landscapes, edited by Susan Charnley, Thomas E. Sheridan, and Gary P. Nabhan

Purpose and Profit episode with Fawn Bergen, lead of Intel’s Corporate Sustainability Group

Ecosystem Services Valuation Database (ESVD)

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Walden Lam is the co-founder and CEO of unspun, whose mission is to reduce global human carbon emissions by 1%. To get there, unspun is focused on zero-waste production and circular reuse for clothing. In their aim to remake the fashion industry, unspun had to remake how clothes are made. They started with digital fit jeans, and then created VEGA, a 3D weaving technology that changes how clothes are made to reduce waste, increase efficiency, and make clothes easier to recycle back into raw materials. unspun is also a certified B corp. 

Prior to founding unspun, Walden led growth strategies at Lululemon, worked with innovative companies at IDEO, and invested in early-stage ventures. 

I learned about unspun through Unreasonable Ventures, and in full transparency, I was so impressed with the change they’re trying to create in the retail industry that my husband and I became investors in the company.  

In this episode, we discuss:

●      How a truly ambitious goal can require a foundation of collaboration

●      the waste problem at the heart of the global fashion industry

●      What retail can learn from the local food movement

Key Takeaways:

●      As the unspun website says, “It's a simple enough idea. Start with thousands of individual yarns, and directly weave them into seamless 3D textiles. Think 3D knitting... but 10X faster and 5X cheaper. By skipping entire steps in the conventional cut-and-sew process, Vega™ opens the door to an entirely new world of on-shore and on-demand production for woven apparel.”

●      Oversight of a global supply chain for a single company can be very difficult because so much of the production process for a single product is outsourced to other companies. It's not uncommon for clothing items to pass through the hands of 20 to 50 different suppliers, manufacturers, and intermediaries from the raw material stage (e.g., fabric production) to the finished product (e.g., retail distribution). When modern-day slavery or other issues show up in a company’s global supply chain, they are (and should be) held accountable. But it’s important to realize it can be difficult to monitor. What’s unique about unspun is they take the raw material of yarn and turn it into a finished product, all under one roof. As a partner to other clothing brands, unspun’s model drastically simplifies supply chain oversight.

●      California Governor Gavin Newsom plans to sign two landmark climate-related disclosure bills into law. The bills will require large companies in the US to disclose their full value chain emissions and report on climate-related financial risks. These laws would introduce the first major mandatory climate-related reporting obligations for many US companies and go beyond proposed SEC rules, including both public and private companies.  This increased visibility into scope 3 emissions will change the conversation around global supply chains, giving a huge benefit to companies like unspun that have figured out how to bring manufacturing closer to the end consumer.

 References:

●      Connect with Walden on LinkedIn

●      unspun

●      Ellen Macarthur Foundation’s The Jeans Redesign

●      Read more about the unspun/Eckhaus Latta collaboration here

●      European Commission press release on Extended Producer Responsibility for textiles

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! 

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Neda Nia is the Chief Product Officer at Stibo Systems, a master data management company whose purpose is to deliver better data, better business, and a better world. As part of their data management suite of solutions, Stibo Systems has innovated tools that help clients track and achieve their sustainability and ESG goals. These tools enable clients to evidence their ESG performance, create supply chain transparency, and share reliable sustainability data with stakeholders.

Neda and I met last year at the Stibo Systems annual conference, where I gave a keynote for their clients on how to create an effective ESG strategy.

In this episode we discuss:

●      The ABC’s of master data management (MDM)

●      Why sustainability data is important

●      A sustainability data business case walkthrough

Key Takeaways:

●      Before embarking on a journey, it’s important to start with a vision and an intention. Why do you want to take this journey? What about the journey is important to you? Where do you want to end up? The same principle holds true when developing a company's sustainability strategy. Once you have a vision, you’re able to clarify goals and a path to get there. You’re able to determine the most important metrics to assess your current standing, and to track your progress. If you don’t know where you want to go, it’s unlikely you’ll get anywhere remarkable.

●      Don’t let perfection get in the way of progress. While it’s important to have a vision, know that the journey will be messy. Anytime you’re charting new territory and paving a path to a new destination, there will be twists and turns in the road. Each turn is a lesson learned. Each twist is a pivot toward your goal. Expect that those unpaved roads are filled with bumps, and bravely start the journey anyway. What a privilege it is to be an explorer, charting a new journey of what’s possible. While changing ourselves—and the world—along the way. 

●      Never underestimate the impact of small acts. When done consistently over time, and collectively across multiple individuals, huge shifts happen. Consider the snowflake. A single snowflake is tiny. And yet, over a few hours, when snowflakes are added together, they can blanket a mountain. 

References:

●      Connect with Neda on LinkedIn

●      Stibo Systems 

●      Oatly

●      Watch this video about how Stibo Systems worked with Oatly

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! 

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Today’s episode is extra special. 

On the Purpose and Profit podcast, I interview business leaders that are innovating new approaches to business. These changemakers are marching to the beat of their own drum, paving new paths that others will follow.

To be a changemaker requires having the courage to do things differently. Yesterday, my husband Ozan Varol released a new book called Awaken Your Genius: Escape Conformity, Ignite Creativity, and Become Extraordinary. This is a practical guidebook for impractical people. People that are determined to carve new paths as leaders and creators. In hindsight, we call these people geniuses, as if they’re another breed. But genius isn’t for a special few. It can be cultivated. This book shows you how.  

In this episode, I share the introduction of Awaken Your Genius, to inspire you on your changemaker path. 

Some of the insights Awaken Your Genius shares are:

●      The secret to stop overthinking and start doing

●      A completely counterintuitive practice that the best thinkers use to generate original ideas

●      The one question you can ask to identify hidden time-sucks that clutter your brain and create overwhelm

●      Why you’ll never feel “on top of everything” (and what to do about it)

References:

Awaken Your Genius: Escape Conformity, Ignite Creativity, and Become Extraordinary by Ozan Varol

Visit Ozan’s website here 

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good! 

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Dedicated to sharing the stories of business visionaries who are intentionally establishing a purpose beyond profit. From economy building to the refugee crisis. From climate change to equity. Listen in to hear how business visionaries are having a positive impact on the world by using their brand.

Carbon Market Watch works to ensure that carbon pricing and other climate policies cut pollution and drive a just transition towards zero-carbon societies. The NGO utilizes evidence-based advocacy to improve climate action through market-based solutions working in concert with sound regulatory policy. 

Gilles Dufrasne leads Carbon Market Watch's work on global carbon markets. He has been following carbon market negotiations at the UN climate and aviation agencies, as well as developments on the voluntary carbon market. Gilles is a member of the expert panel of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM),  and the Technical Advisory Group of the Science-based Targets Initiative (SBTI).

In this episode we discuss:

●      The two types of carbon markets (what they are, and how they’re different)

●      The issues with carbon offsets

●      The most important thing any business can do to impact climate change

Key Takeaways:

●      Fighting climate change is a learning journey for all of us. This is new territory. A common global enemy. Unfortunately, time isn’t a luxury we have. We need to test, experiment, learn, and adjust at an accelerated rate to avoid collective disaster. One key element that will help us on this journey is standardized and transparent reporting requirements for companies across the globe. This will enable employees, investors, consumers, and governments to all make informed decisions that collectively move us in the right direction.

●      Regulations that raise the bar of sustainability requirements across industries change the business equation. It makes the capital investment needed to innovate more sustainable practices level across companies, and the competitive advantage of cutting corners is removed from the equation. It also opens a door to collaboration on system solutions across industries, creating a far bigger shift than the impact a single company can make by adopting individual sustainable practices.

●      Remarks from US Senator Robert Kennedy in 1968 are very relevant to the need to diversify how we measure success and prosperity. He says, “Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things….If we judge the United States of America by [GNP] - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads…Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.

References:

Connect with Gilles on LinkedIn

Carbon Market Watch

“Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor 2023”

“Combating Corporate Greenwashing Through Regulation”

“Remarks at the University of Kansas, March 18, 1968”, Robert F. Kennedy

New Climate Institute

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! 

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good! 

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com. 

Katie Tyson Higdon is a co-founder of Hive Brands, the first online marketplace dedicated to helping people shop their values. Hive Brands sells household goods, groceries, and beauty products that are high quality, good for people, and good for the planet.

Katie is an innovative and strategic marketer with a deep passion for mission-driven brands. She spent 11 years working at start-ups (Casper, Shine), small-to-IPO stage businesses (Freshpet), and agencies (VaynerMedia, Saatchi & Saatchi, McCann).

In this episode we discuss:

• Why Hive Brands created the Hive Five, their internal vetting system, instead of using a third-party certification
• One metric we should all pay more attention to
• 3 lessons for companies just starting their ESG journey

Key Takeaways:

• When it comes to building a personal community, people talk a lot about “finding their people”. This means finding people with aligned values and interests, and ideally, people who care enough to help you become the best version of yourself. What I find interesting about Hive Brands, is that they have become a connection point (or a hive). Their existence and growth demonstrate the magic that happens when you connect people and companies through a shared purpose and aligned values.
• The Hive Brands stakeholder approach struck me as a best-in-class example. The way they interact with their stakeholders appears to have an integrated collaborative advantage, in which they are continuously improving their processes and Hive Five criteria in partnership with the brands they sell, and with the consumers they sell to. Each stakeholder is committed to making the system better.
• The importance of transparency as we try to create better ways of doing things. Perfect isn’t possible, but progress is necessary. Transparency not only builds trust, but it can also accelerate change. For example, by transparently sharing hurdles—like packaging issues—you bring visibility to a problem waiting to be solved. This visibility can act as an invitation to another company that might be able to innovate a better solution for the entire system.

References:

• Connect with Katie on LinkedIn
• Hive Brands
• The Hive Five
• Purpose and Profit episode “Daniel Epstein on Building An “Us” World Through Collaborative Advantage”
• TerraCycle
  • Purpose and Profit episode with TerraCycle’s founder “Tom Szaky on Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling for a Better World”
• Alaffia
• Cloverly

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy, an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant and inclusive economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Ryan is also a coauthor of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). Ryan has helped over 50 companies— including Patagonia, Allbirds, and Ben & Jerry’s—become Certified B Corporations, or to recertify, and maximize the value of their B Corp certification.

Along with his LIFT Economy team, Ryan works with businesses to help them integrate the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion into their organization. Ryan has a particular focus on working with other white-identified folks (particularly companies that are white-led and/or majority white) in order to help educate, organize, and mobilize as part of a multi-racial, cross-class movement towards collective liberation.

Find out more about the LIFT Economy here.

In This Episode We Discuss:

• The relationship and distinction between B Corp, B Labs, and Public Benefit Corporations
• The most common hurdles companies face on their path to becoming a certified B Corp
• What a “worker cooperative” is
• Why not all investments are created equal, and the power of a holistic stakeholder perspective

Key Takeaways:

• Remember that each of us has a voice, and within that voice there is power. As shareholders, we have the power to choose the companies we invest in as well as power to ask for those companies to consider all stakeholders (and we can support them with our votes to legally transition to a public benefit corporation). As employees, we have power to ask what our employer’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy is, where your company currently stands, and how they’re trying to improve.
• What would it look like if businesses were driven by humanity instead of efficiency? How would the decisions we make change? How would our working environment change? How would our relationship to work change? How would our communities change?
• The importance of looking at the ripple effects of our actions—the second and third order consequences—both good and bad. Considering the ripple effect gives a holistic perspective of our impact, and can help us make more intentional, informed, and equitable decisions.

References:

• Follow Ryan on Twitter
• Learn more about the Next Economy MBA program
• Sign up for the LIFT Economy newsletter
• Listen to the Next Economy Now podcast
• The B Corp Handbook (Second Edition): How You Can Use Business as a Force for Good by Ryan Honeyman & Dr. Tiffany Jana
• B Lab and general information about the B Corporation movement
• Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart
• Author Paul Hawken
• The United Nations’ Sustainable Development goals
• Seed Commons network of community loan funds
• Boston Ujima Project
• Southern Reparations Loan Fund
• B Impact Assessment tool for your company

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Brad Liski is a social entrepreneur and the CEO of British Columbia-based Tru Earth, a global household cleaning product company focused on biodegradability and the elimination of single-use plastic waste.  In 2022, Tru Earth partnered with Ocean Wise to launch the American Shoreline Clean-up Program.

Brad was recently named a Sustainability Leader by Canada’s Clean50 for 2022. Other awards Brad and Tru Earth have received include B.C.’s CEO of the year, B.C.’s Top Exporter of the Year, and Best Eco-Friendly Household Product Company 2022.

To learn more about the TruEarthMovement, go to tru.earth.

In this episode we discuss:

●      The most sustainable innovation in laundry detergent (ever)

●      Why Tru Earth manufacturers in North America

●      Tru Earth’s secret for attracting top talent

●      The recipe behind Tru Earth’s record 4-year growth

Key Takeaways:

1. When you create a product that aligns with consumer values, makes life easier, and fixes a market need for both consumers and retailers, magic happens. The market rewards smart solutions, and we need more smart solutions like Tru Earth’s eco-strips across industries.
2. What we measure shows what we value. Brad talked about the two main metrics that Tru Earth uses to measure success: 1) how many plastic bottles Tru Earth has eliminated from shelves, homes, and ultimately landfills; and 2) how many loads of laundry they’ve donated. These metrics have incredible power because they are meaningful. These metrics are a reason to get out of bed in the morning, a reason to innovate new solutions, and a reason for employees to engage deeply with work. What are you measuring at work? We sell our potential short when we set our sights too low. Focusing only on extrinsic metrics, like revenue and market share, is setting your sights too low. But when you tap into someone’s intrinsic desire to make a difference, when your metrics show a deep meaning for why your company exists in the world, you unleash a force more powerful than anything found in a traditional business model.
3. Recycling plastic is not going to solve our plastic waste problem. Only 5% of plastic is recycled, which means 95% of plastic—year after year—ends up in landfills,  polluting our waters, or being incinerated (which hurts our air).  This is a call to action for changemakers across industries to innovate solutions that eliminate plastic, especially single-use plastic. This type of innovation is not only important and meaningful, but it can also be incredibly profitable. 

References:

●      Tru Earth

●      You can learn more about polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and its use in dishwashing detergent pods here.

●      The Greenpeace report on plastic recycling can be read here.

●      Ocean Wise

○      Shoreline Cleanup conservation program

●      entrepreneurship@UBC

Connect & Share:

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Ken Cook is the president and co-founder of Environmental Working Group (EWG), whose mission is to empower individuals with breakthrough research to make informed choices and live a healthy life in a healthy environment. EWG lives its mission by empowering American families with easy-to-use, data-driven tools to help reduce their exposure to potentially harmful ingredients in everyday products like foods, personal care products, cosmetics, and cleaning products.  

Ken testifies regularly before House and Senate committees, and for the past 20 years has briefed top White House officials and every U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and EPA Administrator on EWG’s research and policy positions. In the 1990s, EWG’s research was a major factor in the passage of the landmark pesticide reform law, the Food Quality Protection Act. 

In this episode, we discuss:

●      Why products containing harmful ingredients are sold in retail outlets across the USA

●      The changing landscape of environmental policy in the USA

●      The power of the Internet to create transparency and empower consumer choice 

Key Takeaways:

●      Investing in Progress, Not Stagnation - I wonder about the mountains of money poured into lobbying since 1996 to keep industries unregulated, clinging to a harmful status quo. Imagine, for a moment, if those funds were instead channeled into innovating for a better future. Where we direct our resources is a choice between stagnation and evolution. It's high time we bravely choose to evolve, not just for our sake but for the generations to come, shaping a legacy that’s woven together with pride and progress.

●      Toxic Products – A Call for Responsibility - It’s wild to me that a lot of products on store shelves contain known toxic ingredients. Known carcinogens as ingredients. The burden of screening products for safety should not be placed on the consumer, it should be placed on the government setting regulations that make toxic-free products a bare minimum before something can be sold. And the accountability should be placed on business leaders, ensuring consumer safety is standard practice. 

●      California Leading the Charge in US Product Safety - California's recent legislative victories in banning harmful chemicals in cosmetics are a beacon of hope and a call to action. With Governor Newsom's approval of legislation banning 26 toxic chemicals in 2023, following the landmark Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act of 2020, California is trailblazing personal care product safety. When the federal government lags, states like California step up. As the largest economy in the USA, California's laws can create a domino effect. If a company has to innovate safer products for California, those safer products will probably be sold in all states. But let's be clear: we've only scratched the surface. When you compare California’s legislation to the European Union's ban on nearly 2,000 chemicals in personal care products, it's evident that our journey towards safer products is just beginning. 

References:

●      Connect with Ken on LinkedIn

●      Environmental Working Group

○      Skin Deep database

○      Healthy Living App

○      EWG Verified

●      Natural Resources Defense Council

●      Environmental Defense Fund

●      World Wildlife Fund

●      EPA page on the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendment

●      Henry Rose

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes. 

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Nicole Anderson is the President of the AT&T Foundation and the Assistant Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility at AT&T.

AT&T’s purpose is to “create connection—with each other, with what people need to thrive in their everyday lives and with the stories and experiences that matter” and their company ambition is to become the best broadband provider. In this episode, we dive into key focus areas of AT&T’s Environment, Social, and Governance (or ESG) strategy that support the company’s purpose—from their science-based climate targets to the $2 billion commitment through 2024 to help address the digital divide.

AT&T has received a number of third-party awards for its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion culture including: DiversityInc’s “Top 50 companies for diversity” list, Bloomberg’s 2022 “Gender-Equality Index”, the Human Rights Campaign’s “Best Places to work for LGBTQ+ equality” with a 100% corporate equality index rating, and is ranked a top 10 Military Friendly employer with a longstanding commitment to supporting active military personnel, their families and veterans. AT&T surpassed its 2020 goal to hire 20,000 veterans.

In this episode we discuss:

• An innovative tool AT&T developed to mitigate climate risk for their company
• Lessons learned from the global pandemic that have informed AT&T’s ESG efforts
• A thoughtful example of using systems thinking to solve the digital divide
• The role that transparent ESG reporting plays in building trust and facilitating strategic partnerships

Key Takeaways:

• The importance of a focused ESG strategy that supports your corporate purpose and is integrated into your business strategy. Not only does this simplify the work that’s being done and enable greater impact, but this also helps create credibility around your efforts and the long-term commitment of the company. When employees and consumers can clearly see that the change you are trying to create makes sense from a business standpoint and compliments your business strategy, that change no longer comes across as an afterthought that might lose support over time.
• How critical it is to have science-based targets for sustainability efforts. Unfortunately, many companies’ targets are not science-based, which means even if their targets are achieved, they won’t hit the carbon reductions required to curtail our collective climate disaster. As you evaluate your company’s sustainability initiatives or the initiatives of the brands you support, check that their targets are science-based. If they aren’t, ask why, and how that can change.
• The importance of clearly defined ambitions, collaboration, and humility in creating what’s never been done before. Putting a man on the moon is a great example of the power of these 3 elements. When President JFK announced the ambition to land a man on the moon in 1962, he set the ambitious vision stating, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project…will be more exciting, or more impressive to mankind, or more important…and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish”. It was this ambitious goal that captured the nation's imagination. Through humility and collaboration, in 1969, just 7 years after JFK’s speech, Neil Armstrong took his giant leap for mankind on the moon's surface. So ask yourself, what are the moonshots in your industry that will spark collective imagination, passionate engagement, and lasting change?

References:

• Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn
• AT&T’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) page
• AT&T press release on the Connected Climate Initiative
• Read more about AT&T’s climate resilience program and Climate Change Analysis Tool (CCAT) here

• Connected Nation
• Affordable Connectivity Program
• The Achievery
• Argonne National Laboratory
• SBP disaster recovery organization
  • SBP’s Equip App
• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
• Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)
• Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

This is the #1 listened-to episode from the Purpose and Profit podcast. We’re doing a rerun, so if you’re new to the podcast, you don’t miss this great conversation.

Professor Mark Kramer is a senior fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a former senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and visiting lecturer at the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley. He is also a co-founder and advisor with both FSG and the Shared Value Initiative. Mark has worked with leading companies around the world to find sources of competitive advantage by incorporating shared value into their business. Shared Value is defined as “policies and operating practices that enhance the competitiveness of a company while simultaneously advancing the economic and social conditions in the communities in which it operates.”

He is also a member of the Creating Shared Value Advisory Board at Nestle. Alongside Harvard Professor Michael Porter, Mark has helped to introduce new concepts such as catalytic philanthropy, collective impact, impact investing, and shared value. 

His course “Purpose & Profit” teaches creating shared value to both MBA’s and executives alike.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How Paypal is impacting thousands of small business owners
• How an insurance company expanded the average lifespan of their customers by 10 years
• Why government and NGOs won’t be able to solve the world's biggest problems

Key Takeaways: 

• How you do business is a choice. Instead of setting a bar of “do no harm” we can choose to act in a way that will leave the world better off because we existed. We can aim to delight future generations by the choices we make today.
• The examples Mark shared were so powerful at illustrating how, when a purpose is embedded into the heart of the business, it impacts innovation, identifying new revenue streams, and ultimately impact consumers in a positive way.
• When looking for businesses that are purpose-led and focused on shared value, Prof Mark Kramer instructs his students at Harvard Business School to look for companies that don’t have a separate Corporate Social Responsibility or Sustainability department. If these activities are separate, they are rarely business integrated. What a great point, and a great reminder to business leaders. If you want your company to stand for something, and lead in that thing—whether it’s being the most sustainable company in your industry, or like PayPal, democratizing access to financial tools—everyone in the company should be working to make it happen, not just one department.

References:

• FSG resources on shared value
• Shared Value Initiative page, “What Is Shared Value?”
• “Creating Shared Value”, Harvard Business Review, 2011
• PayPal Working Capital
• Unilever’s page for the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty and related pledges

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Professor Mark Kramer is a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, and a co-founder and advisor with both FSG and the Shared Value Initiative. Mark has worked with leading companies around the world to find sources of competitive advantage by incorporating shared value into their business. Shared Value is defined as “policies and operating practices that enhance the competitiveness of a company while simultaneously advancing the economic and social conditions in the communities in which it operates.”

Alongside his colleague Professor Michael Porter, Mark has helped to introduce new concepts such as catalytic philanthropy, collective impact, impact investing, and shared value.

His course “Purpose & Profit” teaches creating shared value to both MBA’s and executives alike.

Mark Kramer would love to hear from you! If you have examples of companies that are successfully driven by the principles of creating shared value, send him an email.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Paypal is impacting thousands of small business owners
• How an insurance company expanded the average lifespan of their customers by 10 years
• Why government and NGOs won’t be able to solve the world's biggest problems

Key Takeaways:

• How you do business is a choice. Instead of setting a bar of “do no harm” we can choose to act in a way that will leave the world better off because we existed. We can aim to delight future generations by the choices we make today.
• The examples Mark shared were so powerful at illustrating how, when a purpose is embedded into the heart of the business, it impacts innovation, identifying new revenue streams, and ultimately impact consumers in a positive way.
• When looking for businesses that are purpose-led and focused on shared value, Prof Mark Kramer instructs his students at Harvard Business School to look for companies that don’t have a separate Corporate Social Responsibility or Sustainability department. If these activities are separate, they are rarely business integrated. What a great point, and a great reminder to business leaders. If you want your company to stand for something, and lead in that thing—whether it’s being the most sustainable company in your industry, or like PayPal, democratizing access to financial tools—everyone in the company should be working to make it happen, not just one department.

References:

• FSG resources on shared value
• Shared Value Initiative page, “What Is Shared Value?”
• “Creating Shared Value”, Harvard Business Review, 2011
• PayPal Working Capital
• Unilever’s page for the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty and related pledges

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Kimberly Shenk is the co-founder & CEO of Novi Connect, a company that was inspired out of transparency pain points Kimberly experienced firsthand launching an indie clean beauty company.

Novi Connect is the first data-driven marketplace for personal care product development. Novi helps brands create clean and sustainable products by working with suppliers, manufacturers, brands, and retailers to validate ingredients along the supply chain. The company acts as a neutral party to ensure full transparency while protecting intellectual property for each group. 

Kimberly was formerly the Head of Product/Data Science for multiple tech startups, including Eventbrite, and served as a Data Scientist and Officer in the United States Air Force. She holds an MS from MIT and a BS from the U.S. Air Force Academy. 

If you’re in the beauty industry and would like to learn more about Novi Connect, head to their website and sign up for a free account: noviconnect.com/purpose

In this episode, we discuss:

●      How to start building a trusted network across stakeholders in order to deliver benefits along the supply chain

●      How intellectual property within industries can create challenges for transparency

●      Why it’s difficult to verify source ingredients the further down the supply chain you go

Key Takeaways: 

●      The Empowerment of Third-Party Verification. The power of third-party verification comes from two crucial factors. First,unlike internal assessments, an unbiased outside entity assesses the product. A third-party verification cannot be bought, and this independence ensures the integrity and credibility of the verification process. Second, these verifiers stake their own reputation on their assessments, underscoring their accountability and commitment to integrity. To maintain credibility and mitigate legal risks, they rigorously conduct due diligence before endorsing any product.

●      Broken Systems Inspire Innovation. I’ve said this many times and I’ll say it again: When you experience a broken system, that experience is an invitation to fix it. To innovate a solution takes courage, creativity, and a leap of faith. Kimberly experienced a broken system when running her own beauty brand, and that experience inspired her to create a new company that fixes the challenges she encountered. By creating Novi Connect, she’s created a solution that helps an entire industry.

●      Data Science's Role in Advancing Transparency. The evolution of data science has revolutionized our capacity to capture and analyze diverse datasets, fostering transparency within businesses and across sectors. This transparency helps us make more informed decisions, driving progress and accountability. Looking ahead, the integration of AI holds promise for further transparency, shaping a future where data-driven insights catalyze positive change.

References:

Connect with Kimberly on LinkedIn

Novi Connect

ChemFORWARD

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! 

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good! 

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes. 

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Fawn Bergen leads Intel Corporation’s Corporate Sustainability Group. In her role, Fawn directs the implementation of Intel’s sustainability goals across their manufacturing operations and office facilities around the world, including Intel’s commitments to reach net zero GHG emissions by 2040, 100% renewable electricity by 2030, net positive water by 2030, and zero waste to landfill by 2030.

Fawn’s 24+ years of experience in the environmental field has spanned multiple industries and specialties including air quality engineering, environmental engineering, global strategy, and environmental management roles. Prior to leading Intel’s sustainability group, she led their climate change, water stewardship, and corporate air programs globally.

In this episode, we discuss:

●      Intel’s ESG Framework called RISE

●      Why water is a key sustainability focus for Intel

●      How Intel has reached 93% renewable energy across its global operations 

Key Takeaways:

●      Gone are the days of vertical integration, which meant a business handled all aspects of production internally, from raw materials to final assembly. The Ford River Rouge complex, completed in 1928 in Dearborn, Michigan, was the largest vertically integrated factory in the world. River Rouge was a mile long and 1.5 miles wide. It contained over 100 miles of internal railroad tracks and housed everything from its own energy plant to an integrated steel mill. The factory took raw materials like iron and turned them into fully assembled Fords. Today companies rely on expansive supply chains to create their products, a horizontal integration across many companies. This change in business structure means there is an interconnectedness across companies and stakeholders when it comes to reaching individual corporate ESG goals. Take greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as an example. There are 3 different scopes for GHG. Scope 3 emissions tend to be the largest emissions category because it covers all the companies up and down your supply chain whose emissions you are indirectly responsible for. A company can’t reduce Scope 3 emissions without collaborating across the supply chain.

●      If your company is just beginning its ESG journey, consider starting where you have the most control. To be a great corporate partner requires cleaning up your own operations first. Today no company is an island, and the improvements you make to your own operations will benefit the footprint of the companies you work with across the supply chain.

●      Communities are asking for transparency and accountability from the corporations that operate near their homes. Fawn shared great examples of the questions Intel gets from the communities they operate in, as well as the work they’re doing within these communities.  If you don’t know the role your company is playing locally, ask. Challenge your leaders on how your organization can leave the community better off by virtue of being there.  

References:

●      Connect with Fawn on LinkedIn

●      Intel’s RISE Strategy and Goals

●      The 2022 CDP A-List

●      The Nature Conservancy

●      National Forest Foundation

●      Trout Unlimited

●      World Resources Institute Aqueduct page

●      WRI’s fact sheet on Renewable Energy Certificates

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes. 

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Alex Lauver has been in the Outdoor Industry his entire career. Alex is currently Sr Director Materials, Innovation, & Sustainability at Outdoor Research (OR) where he specializes in advanced materials, sustainability, and high-performance apparel.

Since 1981, Outdoor Research has created outdoor apparel, accessories, and equipment for outdoor enthusiasts and military users around the globe with an Infinite Guarantee for their products. Most recently, Outdoor Research has partnered with a chemical company called Nikwax for PFAS free waterproofing, with all of their products transitioning to be free of intentionally added PFAS for Fall 2024 production.

In this episode, we discuss:

●     Why PFAS are prevalent in the outdoor industry, and why PFAS are a problem

●     The ups and downs of the continually evolving sustainability journey

●     Green-washing and green-hushing

Key Takeaways:

●     Persistent and Pervasive PFAS: PFAS are notorious for their persistence in the environment and their ability to bioaccumulate in living tissues, including humans, leading to serious health risks. These "forever chemicals" don't break down easily and they’re highly transmissible through air, water, and soil. Because of potential cross-surface contamination, factories aiming to produce PFAS-free materials will most likely need to eliminate PFAS entirely from their processes, a daunting task but one that could trigger a domino effect of widespread adoption of PFAS-free manufacturing.

●     Collaboratively Evolving Sustainability: Sustainability is a continuously evolving journey. We learn, test, improve, and then repeat the process. To accelerate collective progress towards a sustainable future, transparency is key. When organizations share their sustainable innovations openly, others can replicate successful strategies and propose even better solutions. Transparency fosters a collaborative environment where sustainable practices can rapidly evolve and improve across many organizations and industries collectively.

●     Shifting to Net Positive: Alex pointed out a stark truth: the most sustainable action for companies, as they currently operate, would be to cease business. The black and white truth of this statement illustrates how radically we need to transform our current business approaches. The goal is to shift from a standard and accepted operating model that has a net negative impact on the planet to achieving a net positive impact. This paradigm shift demands a complete overhaul of our current operating methods, pushing us towards innovative, planet-friendly business models.

References:

●     Connect with Alex on LinkedIn

●     Outdoor Research

●     Outdoor Industry Association

●     Nikwax

●     California AB 1817 “Product safety: textile articles: perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)”

●     bluesign

●     International Trade Association page on the Berry Amendment

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Simon Mulcahy is the founder and lead of C02, a company created to help businesses of all sizes become net-zero—the point at which the greenhouse gasses we put into the atmosphere are equal to the amount we remove from it—and nature-positive. CO2 offers climate-action portfolios that support high-quality carbon dioxide removal and reduction, as well as the protection of important carbon sinks, all while benefiting nature and communities. CO2 will also include a learning hub to provide guidance on pathways to becoming net zero and nature positive.

CO2 is a new division of TIME, Inc., where Simon is also President of Sustainability. TIME itself will be CO2’s first customer as the company works towards becoming net-zero by 2026 (or earlier). TIME will also continue to focus on climate leadership in its editorial coverage.

Simon and I met earlier this year at Dreamforce where I was on a panel called Sustainable To The Core that he moderated. I’m so excited to have him on the podcast and to share the work he’s doing.

In this episode we discuss:

• The difference between CO2 and a carbon offset marketplace
• Why it’s important to invest in a diverse set of climate solutions
• How CO2 is using a “shark tank” of climate scientists to select their portfolio

Key Takeaways:

• Analogies are a great way to give a frame of reference and put new ideas into context, but it is equally important to highlight where an analogy falls short. An analogy can shed light on where a familiar concept has been repurposed while leaving room to explain what aspects are entirely new. Using an investment portfolio as an analogy for CO2’s Planet Portfolio is a great example. While the analogy captures the reasoning behind the portfolio approach CO2 is offering, the analogy falls short in other ways. For example, the Planet Portfolio’s “return” is a planetary return, not a financial return. Also, every carbon credit from the Planet Portfolio is retired the moment it is sold, so there’s no trading of the carbon credits the way there is trading of shares in an investment portfolio. Simon does a great job highlighting where the concepts are the same, and what the key differences are. An important takeaway about the Planet Portfolio is that it is a unique approach that any sized company can include in its sustainability strategy to complement its internal sustainability efforts.
• When embarking on an unfamiliar journey, it’s important to have trusted experts and advisors who can support you along the way. Regulations on businesses are changing across the globe. As these changes accelerate, TIME Inc. identified a knowledge gap. This gap, if left unchecked, will limit the speed of adoption and will miss the opportunity to maximize the effectiveness of the sustainable business practices that are adopted. TIME created CO2 to fill that gap, and they are walking the walk. TIME is leading by example, becoming the first customer of CO2.
• The pace of economic revolutions seems to be increasing. An economic revolution is defined as the rapid and thorough displacement of a regime or system by a new and very different regime or system. The world’s first economic revolution was the Agricultural Revolution. This marked the switch from hunter-gatherers to farmers. The transition period took about 7500 years. The world stayed in the agricultural revolution for about 6500 years, until the Industrial Revolution kicked off in England in the mid-1700s. With the industrial revolution, industry began to forge ahead. The Industrial Revolution includes three chapters: the steam engine, the age of science and mass production, and the rise of digital technology. The transition period from the agricultural age to the industrial age was significantly shorter than the previous transition. Both of these revolutions drastically changed the way societies functioned, and the laws that were needed to govern them. It seems we’re on the edge of a new economic revolution. A displacement of systems we now know are degenerative is needed to protect the future of the planet and society. I hope this revolution centers on the values of humanity, equality, and conservation. I hope we are on the verge of a Regenerative Revolution.

References:

• Connect with Simon on LinkedIn
• com
• The Edelman Trust Barometer
• Project Drawdown
• “The Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting” (PDF)
• Conservation International

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Nick Stone is a Lead Director and Board Member for Wilderness. Known for its once-in-a-lifetime safari experiences, Wilderness was founded in Botswana in 1983 with the goal of introducing visitors to the country’s natural beauty while protecting the environment and providing local jobs. Today, the company has more than six million acres of land under its stewardship and provides an economic support system for the communities where it operates, creating durable, well-paying jobs for roughly 2,600 people from more than 20 different ethnic groups and supporting local farming and infrastructure.

Nick is also a board member of LedderTech and Kelvin Inc. For his day job, Nick is a Partner at FS Investors, a private investment entity with long-term capital. Nick graduated cum laude from Harvard and was an Arjay Miller Scholar at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

In this episode, we discuss:

●      How combining tourism with conservation is changing the economic model for protecting nature

●      How expansive wilderness can be a catalyst for deepening interpersonal connection

●      The outsized influence of company culture in setting the trajectory of a business

Key Takeaways:

●      There's an elusive quality to the energy a place holds. Anyone who's attempted to capture a sunset in a photograph understands how it pales in comparison to the real thing. It's a mere two-dimensional representation of an experience that's inherently three-dimensional and engages all five senses. Nick mentioned the difficulty of articulating the essence of a journey with Wilderness, and I can't help but think there’s a similar challenge at play here. How do you convey the profound experience of venturing into the unspoiled wilderness, where the world still echoes with the rhythms of millennia, when our daily lives have drifted so far from that primal connection? It's akin to stepping back in time, immersing oneself in a natural equilibrium unlike anything we're accustomed to today.

●      Exposure to different cultures is a transformative journey of self-discovery. As we engage with diverse customs, beliefs, and perspectives, we gain valuable insights into the human experience, fostering a deeper awareness of our own values and biases. Through these experiences, we become not only more culturally sensitive but also more compassionate and empathetic individuals, contributing to a more harmonious and interconnected world.

●       The tragedy of the commons occurs when individuals, acting in their self-interest, deplete shared resources. It's a collective action problem that often arises with public goods - like open wilderness - where individuals have an incentive to exploit the resource to their own advantage. We see this with deforestation across nations, overfishing the oceans, and the shrinking African wilderness. The business model Wilderness has created develops a more attractive alternative to the tragedy of the commons by using the natural resources of the African wilderness to educate on the importance of conservation, to earn funds necessary to support the conservation of the land, and to increase economic opportunity for local communities through well-paying jobs. Where else can we change the economic model away from the tragedy of the commons—which in the short term profits a few—to a model that values community building, increased access and education, and protecting resources for generations to come?

References:

●      Wilderness website

●      UNESCO page about Okavango Delta

●      Children in the Wilderness

●      Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress by Christopher Ryan

●      The Rise Fund

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes. 

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Dr. Anastasia Volkova is the CEO and Co-founder of Regrow Ag, a software company specializing in scalable decarbonization solutions for agriculture, using satellite imagery and proprietary biogeochemical modeling to measure and reduce scope 3 emissions on farms. Operating globally with over 100 customers—including General Mills, Nestle, Kellogg and Unilever—and monitoring 10%+ of the world’s arable land, Regrow aims to be a one-stop shop for the agriculture industry’s climate needs.

Anastasia has a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Sydney. She is also a member of the Forbes Technology Council, a TEDx speaker, and the recipient of multiple awards and honors, including MIT's Innovators Under 35, BBC's 100 Women 2020, UBS Global Visionary, and Bloomberg's New Economy Catalyst.

In this episode, we discuss:

●     How Anastasia went from a PhD in Aerospace Engineering to focusing on agriculture

●     Why some widespread agricultural practices need updating

●     How to create a more resilient food system

Key Takeaways:

●     The Compounding Effects of Our Actions: Actions don’t exist in a vacuum—they compound over time, for better or worse. Agriculture provides a stark example of this.. Conventional practices that release significant greenhouse gases year after year contribute to climate change, creating extreme and unpredictable weather that destabilizes food production. This instability carries immense direct and indirect costs for society. The more we continue down this path, the worse it will become. On the flip side, investing in regenerative practices—while requiring upfront investments—yields compounding positive effects over time. These practices not only help mitigate climate change but also build a resilient food system that can sustain future generations. The key is zooming out to understand how the long-term impacts of today’s choices ripple far into the future.

●     The Beauty of an Unscripted Journey: The most fascinating career paths are rarely linear. Anastasia’s academic and professional journey is a testament to the beauty of following your interests, even when the destination isn’t clear. Sometimes, this meandering path leads to creating something entirely new—something that didn’t exist before. Letting go of the notion that your career should follow someone else’s trajectory is liberating. Each of us is meant to carve out our own way, and as we move forward the uniqueness of our path becomes more evident. So, embrace the unexpected turns and trust that your journey will lead down the road that was meant for you.

●     Transforming Tradition Through Innovation: Rice paddy cultivation has long been a symbol of timeless tradition—a picturesque image etched into collective memory. Yet, even centuries-old practices aren’t immune to the transformative power of innovation. It’s wild to think that after so many generations, there could be a better way to cultivate rice, a way that challenges the norm and improves upon it. That’s the magic of innovation: it takes what seems fixed and familiar and reimagines it, creating something better. Whether it’s rice paddies or any other deeply ingrained system, innovation reminds us that progress is always possible, and the status quo is just a starting point.

References:

●     Connect with Anastasia on LinkedIn

●     Regrow Ag

●     Case study on Regrow’s partnership with General Mills

●     Press release on the General Mills/Walmart regenerative agriculture partnership

●     Case study on Regrow’s partnership with Cargill

●     Case study on Regrow’s partnership with Netafim

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Rob Acton is the Founder & CEO of Cause Strategy Partners. Through his firm’s signature program BoardLead, Cause Strategy Partners has placed nearly 3,000 professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom on nonprofit boards, while training tens-of-thousands more in high-impact nonprofit board service.

Rob is a recognized expert on nonprofit governance and leadership. He has nearly three decades of experience founding, leading, and scaling social good organizations as both a nonprofit chief executive and board leader. Rob currently chairs the Board of Directors of Broadway Inspirational Voices. His causes are second chances for formerly incarcerated individuals, nonprofit capacity building, and the performing arts.

Rob’s forthcoming book, Becoming a Causie: Champion Your Cause Through Nonprofit Board Leadership will be available for preorders on July 5th and is slated for release in early September.

In this episode, we discuss:

●     The personal—and professional—benefits of joining a nonprofit board

●     What makes a great board member (and what makes a terrible board member)

●     Why diverse representation on nonprofit boards matters

Key Takeaways:

●     Shifting The Conversation To Meaningful Action. “What causes do you support, and how do you support them?” This was a question Rob started asking people, instead of the standard “What do you do for a living.” It stopped people in their tracks. I love this question. In an age when so many people confuse liking an Instagram post with action, this question moves beyond what causes matter to you and into the world-changing realm of actions. With that in mind, I’d like to ask you: “What causes do you support, and how do you support them?”

●     The Three T's of Board Commitment. Rob discussed the commitment expected of nonprofit board members, emphasizing the three T's: Time, Talent, and Treasure. Time involves dedicating 4-6 hours a month, manageable alongside a regular job. Talent means leveraging your professional skills to guide the nonprofit. Treasure is about financially supporting the cause, reinforcing your commitment. There's a psychological shift when you invest your own resources, and it feels disingenuous to ask others to donate if you haven't done so yourself.

●     Setting Up for Success. Cause Strategy Partners provides a blueprint for success that all organizations can learn from. They emphasize three key components: high expectations, training, and accountability. High expectations mean clearly defining the job role and responsibilities from the start. Training ensures individuals acquire the necessary skills to excel. Accountability involves regular check-ins to track progress and ensure each person meets the established expectations. This structured approach sets new board members—and employees—up for success.

References:

Connect with Rob on LinkedIn

Cause Strategy Partners

Taproot Foundation

Broadway Inspirational Voices

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Sam Shiroff is the Senior Director of Global Sustainability for EnerSys. A multibillion-dollar business serving over 10,000 customers in 100 countries, EnerSys is an industrial technology leader offering stored energy solutions that meet the growing need for energy efficiency, reliability, and sustainability. The company’s purpose is “Powering the Future, Everywhere for Everyone”.

Sam combines 20+ years of international corporate ESG, sustainability, and community relations experience with a deep knowledge of carbon finance, energy efficiency, and the nonprofit world. Sam has held leadership roles in sustainability at nonprofit organizations and companies including Bosch, Deutsche Bank, and Signet Jewelers. He was a Fulbright Scholar to Germany, has an MBA, a Creating Shared Value (CSV) accreditation from Harvard Business School, is a LEED Green Associate, and is Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) accredited.

In this episode, we discuss:

●      The role of batteries in transitioning to a renewable energy future

●      The enormous electronic vehicle market you never considered

●      An unexpected gold standard case study in the circular economy

Key Takeaways:

●      Climate Tech – A Marriage of Growth and Sustainability. It's so cool to see companies—like EnerSys—whose business success is intrinsically linked to reducing carbon emissions. Their success is a barometer of our collective progress in battling climate change. The more we excel in this fight, the more they thrive. What if all companies had their individual thriving tied to our collective thriving? How would the world look differently? This is a model of growth that raises all boats with the tide.

●      The Ebb and Flow of Energy Consumption. I loved the description on how the power grid works—it's an exercise of balance, matching the energy poured in with what's drawn out. Consumer demand for energy is not consistent throughout the day, which is a challenge, but it’s also cool to note that people are using the most energy during the day,  and when solar energy is available. It’s neat that our own productive cycle mirrors nature’s in this area.

●      The Many Gifts of Environmental Reporting. Sam's insights into environmental reporting sheds light on its multifaceted benefits within organizations. It's not just about compliance or public image; it's a tool that crystallizes sustainability strategies. It aligns teams on key metrics, sets benchmarks, and maps out ambitious goals. More importantly, it ensures a consistent focus on long-term progress and keeps the entire team engaged in the sustainability journey. When done right, environmental reporting acts as a compass guiding organizations towards a greener, more responsible future.

References:

●      Connect with Sam on LinkedIn

●      EnerSys

●      International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)

●      Ridwell

●      Call2Recycle

●      Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)

●      Climate Disclosure Project (CDP)

●      United Nations Global Compact 

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! 

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Melissa C. Potter honed her expertise in the topics of Race, Identity, Culture, and Equity working in both the social justice and entertainment worlds. Today she is the Vice President of Strategy and Impact at Paramount, upholding the company’s commitment to the long-term social impact of cultural shifts in society as driven across a diverse collection of brands including CBS, SHOWTIME, MTV, BET, and Nickelodeon. 

Melissa is also responsible for the MTV Entertainment Group’s Culture Orientation program. Working in collaboration with the country’s leading racial and social justice organizations, this initiative unites shared values, increases understanding, and amplifies learning to empower the entire creative community to tell stories that reflect the diversity of Paramount viewers.

Part of Paramount’s mission is to increase representation on both sides of the camera through their Content for Change initiative. 

In this episode we discuss:

●      The power of media to break down narratives that enable intolerance, hurtful stereotypes, and systemic racism

●      The importance of multidimensional storytelling

●      How MTV is addressing mental health and inspiring civic action

Key Takeaways:

●      Melissa’s career journey is a great example of the magic that can happen when you follow your interests—even when those interests don’t clearly overlap or immediately present an end destination. It might be that the end destination doesn’t exist yet, but you’re developing your unique skills so that you’re ready when it does. Melissa’s background in entertainment, PR, communications, social justice, and sociology isn’t something found on most resumes. But it’s this specific combination that makes her the perfect candidate for leading strategy and impact for Content for Change at Paramount, a role that didn’t exist until 2020.

●      Our impressions can be influenced by the status quo, as well as our internal and systemic biases. This is why measurement is so important. Data enables us to move beyond the lens of bias to understand where we currently stand so that we can figure out how to get to where we want to go. Paramount’s analysis of its content was a critical first step to developing a strategy around Content for Change.

●      Stories are powerful. They have the ability to capture our attention, to draw us in, to make us feel seen, understood, and less alone. Stories also shape our perspectives. They have the power to expand our understanding of others, and consequently increase our capacity for empathy and compassion. But stories aren’t inherently good. Stories can just as easily cause damage, increase misunderstanding, reinforce damaging stereotypes, and promote intolerance. The stories we tell are important. They shape us. We must handle them with care. 

References:

●      Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn

●      Paramount

●      Content for Change

●      Learn more about MTV Entertainment’s Culture Orientation program here

●      Learn more about the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative here

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Peter ter Weeme is the Chief Social Purpose Officer & Vice President of Player Experience for BCLC, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation. Peter is responsible for the corporation’s social purpose commitment, overall reputation management, end-to-end player experience, and marketing strategies. His mandate is to transition BCLC to a purpose-driven organization.

Peter is a 25-year veteran of the values-driven marketing, sustainability, and social purpose movement. His professional experience spans the world of corporate, government, and non-profit clients in North America, Europe, and Asia. He has lived and worked in Canada and the Netherlands, as well as India where he advised companies on a range of values-based issues.

Previously Peter was the EVP, Purpose and Brand Citizenship for Elevator Strategy (now Palmer Stamnes DDB), a Vancouver-based marketing and communications firm that works at the intersection of data, emerging technologies, and social purpose. With an MBA specializing in environmental management, he has founded two successful consultancies and previously led the marketing and communications at Mountain Equipment Co-op, Canada's national retail leader in social and environmental responsibility.

In this episode we discuss:

• Turning a vice into a virtue
• The mess inherent in progress
• The largest non-tax source of revenue for British Columbia
• The psychological impact of being for something, as opposed to against something

Key Takeaways:

1. Early in our conversation, we talked about the importance of transparent dialogue for creating healthy communities while removing stigma and taboo. The Netherlands is a great example of a society that’s done that across many areas. For industries like gambling and alcohol, education and transparent dialogue are incredibly important to remove stigma, raise awareness, and provide support for the population that cannot safely partake in these activities. There shouldn’t be any shame in opting out. Whether you cannot safely partake, or you just don’t want to partake. What does that mean for you? There are small things you can do, for example, next time you’re out with colleagues or friends, don’t assume everyone wants to drink. Remove having an adult beverage as the assumed default setting.
2. When it comes to protecting the planet and society, collectively we have failed. Talking openly about what’s failed and what’s broken is the first step in finding a new path forward. You need to know where you are before you can chart a path to where you want to be. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals show in detail what’s broken, and where we need to get to for a sustainable planet and equitable society. As your company works on its ESG strategy, connect that strategy back to the Sustainable Development Goals, to clearly show how you’re contributing to collective action to help solve our most pressing global challenges.
3. As your company travels your ESG journey, transparency is incredibly important. Transparency is a fundamental ingredient to create a culture of continuous improvement. This is where internal communication and external ESG reporting come into play. Collectively we’re evolving the way capitalism and corporations work, and by doing what’s never been done before, there will be failures along the journey. There is no doubt that we will be collectively stronger if we are humbly willing to share our failures openly, so others can learn from them. This transparency does two things: First, it removes the misconception that failure can be avoided on the road to progress; second, we don’t have time for everyone to make the same failures along the way. With the collective challenges we’re facing, impatience is a virtue.

References:

Connect with Peter on LinkedIn

British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC)

GameSense

Paper: How is Marketing Different in a Social Purpose Company

The Bonfire of the Vanities written by Tom Wolfe

The Bonfire of the Vanities directed by Brian DePalma

Canadian Business for Social Responsibility

End AIDS India

The Hero Trap by Thomas Kolster

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Interface is a modular flooring company with one of the most forward-thinking sustainability visions. In 1994, company founder and CEO Ray Anderson committed to becoming the world's first environmentally sustainable and restorative company after reading Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce. Since then, Interface has achieved impressive milestones including being the first flooring company to have all carbon-neutral products, achieving Mission Zero in 2019, and establishing the company mission to overcome the biggest challenge facing humanity and reverse global warming.

In this episode, I sit down with Erin Meezan, the Chief Sustainability Officer at Interface. Erin is a sustainability spokesperson, a thought leader, and an accomplished keynote speaker on sustainable business and climate worldwide.

In this episode we discuss:

• Moving from a “do-no-harm” approach to sustainability to a vision of reinvigorating the planet
• What biomimicry means and how it can inspire sustainable innovation
• The psychological shortcomings of focusing on a compliance approach to sustainability

Key Takeaways:

• Getting transparency into a company that’s been a champion of sustainability for over two decades is a gift for every company that is just starting on this path. What I really appreciate about Erin is how she’s able to convey simple frameworks to use when approaching the complex topic of sustainability, and then share how Interface has used these frameworks in practice.
• I love the thought experiment of considering what type of business mother nature would create. What would business look like, what would our world look like, if all companies aimed to mirror mother nature in their operations: Using only renewable energy, sending zero waste to landfills, all materials serving as raw ingredients for something else at the end of its lifecycle. There’s a lot we can learn by studying the way the natural world operates.
• While we all need a paycheck to support our families, we also want our careers to be so much more than that. We want to contribute to something that matters. We want to leave a legacy that we’re proud of. I was really inspired to hear the impact that Interface’s purpose has on employees across the company. When you know your job is having a positive impact on the world, you show up in a different way. You have a different relationship with your work, and with yourself.

References:

Interface

• Carbon Negative Innovation Press Release
• From Carbon Neutral to Carbon Negative
• Why Carbon Matters
• Lessons for the Future (The Mission Zero report)
• 2020 UN Global Climate Action Awards pPress rRelease and Interface aAward pLanding Page

The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken

Biomimicry 3.8

Beyond Zero documentary website

Erin’s TED short “What nature can teach us about sustainable business”

Interface in the media

• “Interface Moving from Net Zero to Climate Positive by Rethinking Factories as Forests”, Sustainable Brands, June 13th, 2018
• “This carpet company has always been an unlikely environmental leader. Now it’s going further.” Fast Company, October 20th, 2020
• Beyond Sustainability: The Regenerative Business” Forbes, October 24th, 2020
• “Manufacturing Goes Carbon Negative”, Strategy + Business, May 7th, 2018

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

In this episode, I sit down to chat with Alan Murray about his latest book, Tomorrow’s Capitalist: My Search for the Soul of Business, which reveals, according to the book description, how corporate CEOs—the ultimate pragmatists—realized that they could lose their “operating license” unless they tackle the fundamental issues of our time: climate, diversity and inclusion, and inequality and workforce opportunity. Responding to their employees and customers who are demanding corporate change, they have taken the lead in establishing the bold new principles of stakeholder capitalism, ensuring that for the first time in more than a half a century it is not just shareholders who have a say in how corporations are run.

Alan Murray is CEO of Fortune Media, and writer of the popular daily newsletter, the Fortune CEO Daily. A career journalist, prior to joining Fortune in 2015, Murray was President of Pew Research Center, and had a long career at the Wall Street Journal serving as Deputy Managing Editor, Executive Editor Online, Washington Bureau Chief, and author of the Political Capital and Business columns. Murry also served as Washington bureau chief for CNBC, and as cohost of the nightly show Capital Report.

In this episode we discuss:

• The impact of the Great Resignation on leadership
• The power of shareholder activism
• The surprising acceleration caused by the global pandemic
• The shift to companies publicly standing up for their values

Key Takeaways:

• As Alan mentioned, companies have gone from physical assets making up 80% of the market value for S&P 500 companies in 1975 to intangible assets making up 80% of the market value today (HBR). This makes sense. Taking a step back, the industrial revolution brought with it the assembly line, the industrial worker, and employees as “resources”. Output was linear and easy to measure. Those linear, repeatable tasks are now often done by technology. The value of companies in the knowledge age comes from their intangible assets: Their employees, and their employees showing up as humans performing complicated—nonlinear—tasks like creativity, innovation, and empathy. This is a dramatic shift. From personal experience, I can honestly say that early in my career I was probably only 10% human at work and 90% robot, focused on efficiency since that was what was rewarded and expected of me. Thankfully we’re entering a new age, and company cultures are catching on to what environments foster the best in their people, and an understanding that having employees bring their whole self to work is what will make their company great.
• Change takes time. While the pandemic provided one silver lining, which is the great acceleration of the stakeholder capitalism movement and bringing humanity into the core of business, figuring out how to do this right, getting the right metrics and supporting structures in place, will take time. Progress is always a continually evolving journey of learning what works, what doesn’t, and how to do better.
• The amazing opportunity, and invitation, businesses have been given to identify their purpose, define their values, bring meaning into their business strategy, and then find ways to use their voice, their power, and their business model to create a world that brings their purpose and values to life.

References:

• Connect with Alan on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter
• Tomorrow's Capitalist: My Search for the Soul of Business by Alan Murray
• World Economic Forum 2008 speech by Bill Gates, Davos, Switzerland
• 2018 Shared Value Leadership Summit video of Alan in conversation with Hillary Clinton
• Proposed SEC amendment, “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors” and accompanying press release
• “Exxon loses board seats to activist hedge fund in landmark climate vote”, Jennifer Hiller and Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Reuters, May 26, 2021
• BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s 2022 letter to CEOs, “The Power of Capitalism”
• The FORTUNE CEO Initiative

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Bobbi Silten is the Managing Director of the Shared Value Initiative, a global community of leaders who find business solutions for societal challenges, and who build smarter models to address the changing needs of our communities, the environment, and business.

Bobbi has been a long-time practitioner of leading social change through business. Previously, Bobbi was the Executive Vice President of Global Talent & Sustainability at Gap Inc. Over the course of her 12 years with the company she led the transformation of Gap Foundation.

In 2011, Bobbi was appointed by President Obama to serve on the White House Council for Community Solutions. In 2020-21, she was a co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Systemic Inequalities and Social Cohesion.

In this episode we discuss:

• The importance of embedding social equity into a company's core business strategy
• How traditional materiality assessments have fallen short of examining the inequities underlying ESG (i.e. environmental, social, governance)
• How to co-create solutions with the communities you aim to impact
• Advice for successful partnerships where there is a power imbalance

Key Takeaways:

• How we frame problems impacts the way we problem-solve and ultimately the way we show up. There is a huge motivational and psychological impact of switching an organization's focus away from “risk aversion” to purpose-driven problem-solving. While it’s important for organizations to maintain compliance, a myopic focus on avoiding risk doesn’t spark passion. However, shifting the focus to an inspiring vision of how your company can impact lives will change the way employees show up: sparking innovation, collaboration, and engagement.
• For a long time, companies were only measured on revenue and profitability. Hit those metrics, and you’re considered a successful company. In today's world of ESG, companies are being asked to move from a one-dimensional view of success to a holistic view of success. This is complex. It requires creating new metrics and tracking impact across a number of dimensions. As Bobbi mentioned, one of those dimensions is considering how your company increases, or decreases, equity disparity through its business practices, culture, and products. It’s this holistic view that will allow business leaders to make informed decisions, with an understanding of the impact it will have across all stakeholders.
• As the saying goes, what gets measured gets done, but sometimes the metrics we’re rewarding change behavior in unintentional ways. Therefore it’s important to pay attention to what behaviors spring up based on what you’re rewarding, and to adjust as needed.

References: 

• Connect with Bobbi on LinkedIn
• This Way ONward
• A.C.E.
• The Shared Value Initiative
  • The Purpose Playbook
  • Centering Equity in Corporate Purpose
• FSG

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Carrie Freeman is the Chair of the SecondMuse Group,  which includes SecondMuse, the SecondMuse Foundation, and SecondMuse Capital. Carrie is also the Interim Executive Director for the SecondMuse Foundation, a non-profit focusing on advocating for building relational wealth as an approach to building inclusive and resilient economies.

SecondMuse focuses on the design, development, and implementation of innovative programming that seeks to benefit people and protect the planet. Over the last decade, SecondMuse has designed and implemented programs on 7 continents with 600+ organizations such as NASA, The World Bank, and Goldman Sachs. SecondMuse’s initiatives have delivered the following impact: accelerating 200 + ventures annually; prototyping 50,000+ solutions; enabling $575M investment to supported ventures, with 80% still in business; and generating $10B in social and environmental impact. 

Under Carrie’s leadership, SecondMuse won numerous awards including the Reuters Responsible Business Award, Real Leaders Most Impactful Leaders, and the YPO Global Impact Award.

In this episode, we discuss:

●      The importance of collaboration in solving complex challenges

●      How the timeline of change can determine who the best change partners are

●      The role of intersectionality in systems change

Key Takeaways:

●      Navigating the labyrinth of tax and accounting systems is a Herculean task for trailblazing organizations that are marrying commerce with compassion. It's akin to a team of adventurers channeling all their might into deciphering an ancient map, only to have no energy left after deciphering it. This bureaucratic quagmire siphons away the zest they could pour into sculpting a brighter world. As we build a new vision of what a thriving economy, society, and planet means, we need to consider the new types of organizations required to create and sustain that vision. Then, we need to create the systems that allow these new organizational structures to not only exist, but thrive.

●      Think of how easy it is for a kid who grows up in a wealthy neighborhood to snag a great internship through family connections—it's like having a VIP pass to the front of the line. Now think of a kid from a regular family, who doesn't have that golden ticket—it's like they're stuck in the line that barely moves. This is just one way life isn't fair. But when we become aware of the value of networks, and the inherent inequity in opportunities caused by networks, we’re able to build solutions that bridge the equity gap. Only then can we find ways to share these VIP passes around so everyone gets a shot at the good opportunities.

●      Getting people to come together for a common goal is like lighting a fire that everyone wants to gather around. Carrie talked about the work SecondMuse does to build networks, community, and solutions around a shared objective. The shared objective is the fire. It’s the call to action. This same principle is also powerful inside a company. When you establish a purpose beyond profit for your company, you invite employees and consumers to join a movement that’s bigger than themselves. Your purpose acts as a magnet, attracting employees and consumers with aligned values. This shifts the relationship from transactional to emotional and meaningful. 

References:

●      Connect with Carrie on LinkedIn

●      SecondMuse

●      SecondMuse Capital

●      SecondMuse Foundation

●      NASA International Space Apps Challenge

●      Circulate Initiative

●      Circulate Capital

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Rania Hoteit is a multi-award-winning serial entrepreneur and global impact leader. As Founder and former CEO of ID4A Technologies, Rania built a global company that is committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. ID4A Technologies has been revolutionizing the manufacturing processes while creating significant environmental, economic and social impact.

Under Rania’s leadership, ID4A was recognized by the White House Office of Science and Technology for “Fostering The Development of Advanced Manufacturing in the US and The World”; ranked on Entrepreneur 360's list of the “Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America”; included in the Inc. 5000 List of “America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies”; received the Real Leaders “100 Top Impact Companies” Award; and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's 2021 Citizens Awards for "Best Economic Opportunity and Empowerment Program.”

In this episode we discuss:

• The importance of diversity at the highest level of an organization
• The missing narrative of the positive impact artificial intelligence can have on employment
• Why Modern Day Slavery persists in global supply chains
• The role of dignity and accountability in leadership

Key Takeaways:

• An underlying theme throughout this discussion was the importance of training and upskilling. This means investing in individuals. That individual employee investment is also an investment in the future of your organization. But this investment shouldn’t be limited to equipping individuals to take on new roles as technology shifts what skills are required and in demand. It also needs to be extended in ways that will enable your organization to achieve diversity across seniority levels.  As the saying goes “a rising tide lifts all ships”, but what history has blatantly taught us is that systemic biases are making it so only some ships rise with the tide. To get a different outcome, a different approach is required.
• Your values shape your priorities, and your priorities shape your corporate culture. Take a look at your culture. What are the values and priorities that drive it? If you say “diversity and inclusion” is a core part of your organization, but you don’t see diversity and inclusion reflected in the culture and across senior leadership, then it’s clearly not a value or a priority. If something truly matters to your senior leaders, they’ll prioritize it and figure out a way to make it happen. If it’s not reflected in the culture, then it’s just lip service.
• Have you heard the saying that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with? This saying communicates how we absorb the norms of those around us, so we should be intentional about who we choose to spend our time with. The same could be said for organizations. Think about the partners up and down your supply chain. Assume that their norms will rub off on your workforce, because they will. Do these partners meet the standards that you believe in for your company? Are you stronger together, helping each other become more transparent and ethical businesses? Or, are you enabling practices to continue that you don’t agree with? Complicity means accountability.  Who we choose to partner with is a vote for what we approve of. Each of us is accountable for our choices, so make them wisely.

References:

Connect with Rania on LinkedIn

Learn more about the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, including SDGs 5, 8, 9, 10, and 12 that Rania mentions, here.

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

After 2 years of speaking with some of the most innovative leaders in the ESG space today, this week’s Purpose and Profit is extra special. It’s my very first solocast! 

In this episode I take you behind the scenes, sharing part of my journey in creating the global purpose strategy for adidas, a $22 billion company. My experiences shaping how adidas positively impacts people and planet catapulted me on my mission to re-purpose business into a force for good. I also let you in on why purpose is essential for your people and your company, and I share the most common mistake businesses make on the path to purpose. 

A couple eye-opening facts:

●      The average lifespan of an S&P 500 company has plummeted from 61 years to less than 18 years

●      85% of millennials in the US would switch brands for a good cause

●      The highest-ranked companies on social and environmental performance have a 7% higher return on equity compared to the Russel 1000 Index (i.e. the largest companies in the USA based on market capitalization)

Here’s a little of what I cover in this episode:

●      The big mistake we made at adidas (even though we were a leader in retail sustainability)

●      How to generate the best marketing there is—word of mouth

●      How financial maximization damaged the long-term value of companies

You don’t have to do it alone! If you need help transitioning to become a purpose-led company, or innovating new ways to bring your purpose to life, I’d love to help you.

References:

●      Sustainability at adidas

●      Parley for the Oceans

●      Run for the Oceans

●      Dow Jones Sustainability World Index

●      2019 Business Roundtable statement on moving away from shareholder primacy

●      JUST 100 

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good! 

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes. 

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Alexis Haass is a sustainability expert and the Chief Sustainability Officer at Arcadis. Arcadis is the world's leading company delivering sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Arcadis employs 27,000 people, in over 70 countries. Sustainability is at the heart of the Arcadis business strategy, and its purpose is to improve quality of life.

Before Arcadis, Alexis spent over a decade at adidas, elevating sustainability for the brand. In this conversation, we dive into her work both with Arcadis and adidas.

In this episode we discuss:

• The two most important factors for successfully driving sustainability across a business
• Career advice for future Sustainability officers
• How to drive record employee engagement
• A call to action for holistic systems solutions

Key Takeaways:

• Sustainability is a complex topic that can feel overwhelming fast. For a company starting its sustainability journey, take the time to do a materiality assessment to determine where you can have the biggest impact. Start there with your sustainability efforts, defining clear goals and targets.
• Sustainability can be a huge competitive advantage. It can future-proof a company from becoming obsolete when the world has moved on from (or prohibited) unsustainable practices. Taking the initiative to invest in innovation now can make your company a clear industry leader, enabling you to attract the best talent that’s inspired to solve complex problems and safeguard the future of the planet.
• The next two decades are critical and will determine if we can avoid the climate change catastrophe looming in our current path. Remember, we are writing history every single day through our actions—or our inactions. Consider what you’re contributing to in your company, and what your company is contributing to in the world. If it’s not moving in the right direction, take ownership and make a change.

References:

Arcadis

adidas + Parley for the Oceans

International Olympic Committee, London 2012: Embedding sustainability from the outset

Don’t Look Up trailer

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Maximilian Winter is the Founder and General Partner at Harmonix Fund as well as a fourth-generation entrepreneur. Having successfully deployed two funds, Maximilian has invested in over 40 early-stage companies, resulting in an enterprise valuation of $5 billion. Maximilian invests in scalable technological breakthroughs to advance human health and scientific progress. This includes improving healthcare, accelerating life sciences, and helping create deep tech infrastructures—the building blocks for a healthy civilization. 

Maximilian's commitment to societal betterment extends to The Winter Family Foundation, a philanthropic organization he co-founded with his brother, Alexander Winter.

In this episode, we discuss:

●      Challenges embedded in our current healthcare system

●      Science-fiction-sounding advances in bioresearch

●      How life’s biggest hurdles can shape an individual's path and purpose

Key Takeaways:

●      The metrics we choose to measure, in our lives and in our companies, often turn into the foundation for how we define success. Unfortunately, we’ve defaulted to the easiest-to-measure metric: money. When this metric isn’t attached to anything meaningful, it rings hollow and causes the question, “Isn’t there more to life than this?” to play on repeat as we sit through soulless meeting after soulless meeting. But real success is more complicated and nuanced. Real success asks us to dig deeper with questions like: Are you making a positive impact? Are you giving more than you’re taking? Are you acting with integrity?  Are you creating a future that’s better because you existed?  

How would your relationship with work change if you changed the metric you used to measure success? 

What if you were measuring how many lives you improved, how many endangered species you saved, or how many tons of plastic you diverted? If these questions awaken something in you, then consider where—in your life or business—you can start tracking metrics that align with your values.

●      Venture Capital has the ability to foreshadow our future because financiers are investing in the companies they believe will shape industries, or create new industries. They are placing a bet on what the future will look like. What if collectively we only invested in companies that not only have a potential financial return, but that are also designed to improve people, society, and the planet? What if we agreed on impact metrics to intentionally stack the investment deck, and ensure the future will be better?

●      Maximilian asked about my experience with our healthcare system. While I was in the Peace Corp, I was in a fatal bus accident. I lost a friend and I sustained a lot of injuries. I have a spiderweb of fractures spanning 7 bones in my face. One of the fractures splintered and punctured my brain lining, causing me to leak brain fluid out of my nose. I was in a hospital in Mocorro for two weeks until it was safe to fly me to the USA for medical treatment. I was lucky that my subsequent surgery to patch the hole in my brain lining was covered by workers' compensation. If it hadn’t been, I would have had mountains of medical debt. The fact that in the USA you can not only have the misfortune of a serious illness or injury, but on top of that be saddled with financial ruin, highlights a very broken system. 

References:

Connect with Maximilian on LinkedIn

Harmonix

Population Services International (PSI)

Development Innovation Ventures at USAID

3D Systems (parent of Volumetric)

Peter Attia’s website

Fritz Winter 

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes. 

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Dr. Cassandra Zentner is the Vice President of Technology and Sustainability at actnano, the global leader in PFAS-free nanocoatings used to protect circuit boards across industries. Actano was created after the CEO, while working at a different company, saw factory workers getting sick from handling traditional coatings. Actnano’s technology is currently protecting many of the world’s foremost consumer electronic brands, safeguarding millions of vehicles, and defending numerous industrial applications against harsh electrical and environmental conditions.

Cassandra leads actnano’s implementation of innovative protective materials. While driving customer-focused technical initiatives, she also leads the company’s sustainability efforts and commitment to protecting human health and the environment. She brings her scientific background—a PhD in Chemistry from MIT—to drive actnano’s mission to bring safer chemical alternatives to the electronics industry.

In this episode, we discuss:

●     PFAS—what they are and why they present a huge problem

●     The meaning of “safer chemicals”

●     The importance of prevention versus mitigation 

Key Takeaways:

●     Takeaway 1: Innovating Out of a Broken System. When actnano founder Taymur Ahmad noticed the harmful impact of PFAS in protective coatings, he didn't just stand by. He saw a broken system as a call to action. A puzzle to be solved. By developing PFAS-free nano-coating he stepped up as a true innovator, showing us that discovering a broken system is the first step towards creating a solution. It's a reminder that the world benefits immensely from changemakers like Taymur, who not only dream up safer alternatives but also pave the way for others to adopt these groundbreaking solutions in their operations.

●     Takeaway 2: The Invisible Threats Among Us. We're naturally drawn to the big, obvious problems. The proverbial elephant in a room. Yet, it's often what we can't see that poses the greater danger. PFAS, a prevalent yet invisible threat found in countless everyday items—from electronics to personal care products—carries serious health risks, including certain cancers, fertility issues, and developmental delays in children. This hidden danger reminds us that sometimes the most significant threats to our well-being lurk out of sight, challenging us to look beyond the obvious.

●     Takeaway 3: Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind. Then there are the enormous issues we choose to ignore, like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an immense span of waterborne waste twice the size of Texas, floating in the middle of the Pacific without much attention. This "plastic continent" is a stark example of "out of sight, out of mind," yet its impact on our health and environment is profound. Microplastics, including those containing PFAS, break away from this mass, infiltrating the seafood we eat and carrying with them a host of health risks. It's a clear signal that just because we can't see a problem, or a problem feels far from home, doesn't mean it's any less real or harmful. This unseen danger serves as a critical wake-up call to the interconnectedness of our global ecosystem and the hidden impacts on our health.

 References:

●     Connect with Cassandra on LinkedIn

●     actnano

●     EPA page on PFAS

●     ChemSec

●     North Carolina DEQ page on the Cape Fear River

●     Change Chemistry

●     EU page on REACH Regulation

●     EU page on RoHS

●     Purpose and Profit episode with Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group 

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good! 

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Dalila Wilson-Scott serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer of Comcast Corporation, and President of the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation. Dalila oversees all Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiatives and philanthropic strategy with a focus on advancing digital equity and economic mobility through Project UP, which is supported by a $1 billion commitment.

In 2023, Dalila was honored as WICT Woman of the Year in recognition of her work developing women leaders who transform the media, entertainment and technology industry. She has been named one of the “Most Powerful Women in Cable” by Cablefax Magazine; one of the “Most Powerful Women in Business” by Black Enterprise; and an “Innovative Rising Star: Building Communities” by Forbes magazine among other honors.

In this episode, we discuss:

●     The importance of data and transparency in DEI

●     3 key lessons for running a Foundation

●     Looking at diversity through a holistic business lens to include employees, suppliers, customers, and product creation

Key Takeaways:

●     Diversity: It's Not Just Business, It's Human: I’m done debating the business case for diversity—it's crystal clear, yet it hasn't solved the leadership imbalance. Let's focus on the human case. Look around the C-suites of S&P 100 companies: 70% of executives are white men, while they make up only 30% of the US population. Despite progress in diversifying executive teams over the past decade, these numbers don’t lie. Our system is still broken. It’s past time to fix a system that continues to perpetuate unfairness and bias, not just because diversity is proven to be good for business, but because it’s the right thing to do. Let’s not hide the need for fairness, justice, and ethics behind a business case.

●     Building Solutions Through Continuous Listening: Listening to the people you aim to serve is crucial, and it’s not a one-time act—it’s an ongoing practice. This dialogue informs how programs need to evolve to meet changing needs. When you continuously listen and adapt, you build solutions that resonate and have lasting impact. It’s about creating a dynamic partnership with those you serve.

●     The Importance of Community: The power of community cannot be overstated. We know the phrase “it takes a village”. This principle extends across all areas of life. Small businesses supported by their communities are more likely to succeed. Families with community support are more likely to thrive. Individuals who feel part of a work community are more likely to flourish. Humans are social creatures; we struggle in isolation but thrive when we come together. Building and nurturing community bonds is key to collective success and well-being.

References:

●     Connect with Dalila Wilson-Scott on LinkedIn

●     Comcast

○     Project UP

○     Comcast RISE

○     NBCU Academy

●     Edelman Trust Barometer

●     National Skills Coalition

●     Pinnacle Group

●     Making Space

●     Code Path

●     Per Sholas

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Katherine Neebe serves as senior vice president of national engagement and strategy, and chief sustainability and philanthropy officer for Duke Energy. She leads Duke Energy’s stakeholder engagement efforts to develop solutions to meet customer needs for continued reliable and affordable energy—while simultaneously working to achieve the company’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

In addition, Katherine maintains oversight of the Duke Energy Foundation, which provides philanthropic support to help meet the needs of communities where Duke Energy customers live and work.

In this episode, we discuss:

●     Nuclear power’s resurgence

●     Modernizing the power grid

●     The surprising reason the US power industry has been able to reduce emissions by 40%

Key Takeaways:

●     Tipping Point Industries: Tipping points can be for the better or the worse. When it comes to creating a sustainable future, there are tipping point industries that can have an oversized impact on our collective emissions reductions. The energy sector, for example, is foundational—it powers our lives and businesses. By making it sustainable, we create a massive ripple effect that benefits every organization and individual relying on it. Similarly, transportation is another cornerstone sector. Innovation in tipping point industries can profoundly impact our collective path to sustainability.

●     Energy: The Force of Transformation: Physics teaches us that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it merely changes from one form to another. This principle allows us to power entire cities by harnessing, transporting, and converting energy. It got me thinking—what do you want to power with the energy within you? What do you want to build and sustain with your life force? Reflecting on how you harness your energy can lead to a legacy that outlasts you.

●     Levers for Change: Three levers for driving sustainability are: business, government, and philanthropy. These forces work together, to create combined change that’s more than the sum of its parts. Like sustainability, most areas in life have multiple levers to create change, where a combined effort produces the best results. If there's something in your life, or your business, that you want to change, take some time to consider what the levers of change are for that thing. Chances are, your best results will come from approaching change from multiple directions.

References:

●     Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn

●     Duke Energy

●     The U.S. National Science Foundation page on the CHIPS and Science Act

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Nick O’Flaherty is the director of UNSTUCK, a nonprofit that partners with businesses, harnessing the power of the market and leveraging global supply chains to create sustainable change.

UNSTUCK is the Tent Partnership for Refugees’ first consumer-facing initiative. UNSTUCK generates job opportunities for refugees by working with brands to develop products made with ingredients that are sourced from suppliers hiring refugees. The more products a brand sells, the more ingredients they source, the more jobs for refugees that are created. These are legal jobs that rebuild families and communities while providing dignity and financial security through work. Rather than the traditional "donating a share of profits" approach, UNSTUCK brands can create more inclusive societies by rethinking where they source from. The impact they make is sustainable - because it's a part of their everyday business.

If you would like to learn more about how your company can leverage its supply chain to help refugees and other vulnerable communities, Nick would love to hear from you. Email him here.

In this episode we discuss:

• A shift from philanthropy to scalable, business integrated change
• The estimated economic benefit Venezuelan refugees will bring to Colombia
• How a partnership with UNSTUCK can support your diversity and inclusion efforts
• Target host countries to integrate refugees into your global supply chain

Key Takeaways:

• Having a unifying goal across a supply chain, rooted in a higher-order emotional benefit, can transform the relationship between brands and suppliers. When you’re not only working to create a great product, but you’re also partnering to transform lives and build communities through economic empowerment, the conversation changes. Both engagement and collaboration increase.
• Often conversations around refugees are rooted in a scarcity mindset—a fear that refugees will take jobs and resources, and hurt the livelihood of locals. As a result, oftentimes refugees are isolated in refugee camps and not given the right to work. With the duration of displacement of refugees increasing to an average of 20 years, isolation is a huge loss for the refugees as well as the host countries. Colombia is pioneering a new model for integrating migrants and refugees, granting them protection status for 10 years, the right to access formal employment, and access to essential services. Colombia’s approach to the Venezuelan humanitarian crisis is a human approach that’s also a good economic decision. This approach not only reduces their dependency on international humanitarian assistance, but is also expected to contribute to the country’s post-COVID recovery and future economic growth. Remember, a rising tide lifts all boats.  Scarcity is rooted in fear and closes us off from innovating new and better ways of doing things, but openness creates limitless opportunities through collaboration.

Note: this episode as recorded in February 2022, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

References:

• UNSTUCK
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

• Tent Partnership for Refugees
• UNHCR article on hiring refugee hiring programs by brands such as Sodexo and IKEA
• Ben & Jerry’s Ice Academy

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Marilyn Waite leads the Climate Finance Fund. She has worked across four continents in renewable and nuclear energy, climate modeling, and investment. Author of Sustainability at Work: Careers That Make a Difference, Marilyn’s writing has been featured in the Financial Times, the Boston Globe, and Trellis (formerly GreenBiz), where she served as editor at large.

Marilyn holds a Master’s Degree with distinction in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the University of Cambridge, and a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering, magna cum laude, from Princeton University. She serves on multiple boards and investment committees, including Climate First Bank.

In this episode, we discuss:

●     The role of established companies and start-ups in battling climate change

●     What being intentional about “where your money sleeps” means

●     What a JEDI lens—justice, equity, diversity, inclusion—means when investing in climate solutions

Key Takeaways:

●     Maslow’s Hierarchy and Climate Impact: Imagine mapping global spending against Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Right now, we can afford to focus higher up on the pyramid—on esteem and self-actualization—but climate change could drastically shift that. Depending on how climate scenarios unfold, global spending may be forced back to the basics: food, water, shelter, and safety. This raises an essential question: how do we prepare to protect those foundational needs while enabling humanity to thrive at every level of the hierarchy and ensure we do so equitably?

●     Interconnected Ecosystems for Climate Solutions: Human survival is deeply intertwined with the natural ecosystems around us. We can’t thrive in isolation from the world we depend on. Solving climate change requires more than a single silver-bullet solution; it demands an ecosystem of tools and approaches—just like the ecosystems we’re working to protect. There’s a beautiful symmetry in this: to preserve the balance of nature, we must harness the collective power of diverse, interconnected solutions.

●     The Role of Startups in Transforming Big Business: While large, established companies can spark change, the reality is that creating rapid, sweeping transformations within massive global organizations is incredibly challenging. This is where startups step in, bringing fresh ideas, agile solutions, and new ways of operating. Large companies can play a critical role by supporting these startups—scaling their innovations or integrating new processes. Together, they create a powerful dynamic where nimble startups help established giants move the needle on sustainability and vice versa.

References:

●     Connect with Marilyn on LinkedIn

●     Sustainability at Work: Careers That Make a Difference (Second Edition) by Marilyn Waite

●     Climate Finance Fund

●     Project Drawdown

●     Global Alliance for Banking on Values

●     Village Capital

●     Sphere

●     W Fund

●     Enduring Planet

●     Cap Table Coalition

●     Clean Energy Credit Union

●     Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Welcome to the final episode of Purpose and Profit with Kathy Varol. Over the past four years and 100 episodes, this podcast has been a space to celebrate, uplift, and learn from business leaders who are ushering in a new era of conscious capitalism. These remarkable individuals are redefining what it means to succeed in business by bringing heart, humanity, and an inspiring sense of responsibility into everything they do.

As we wrap up this chapter, I want to reflect on the incredible journey we’ve shared. Let’s revisit a few of the incredible guests who’ve inspired us along the way, and some of the most important lessons they’ve generously shared with us.

If you want to stay connected, I’d love for you to join my weekly newsletter. Each week, I share one idea, perspective, or story that can help you—or your business—contribute to a better world. You can sign up at KathyVarol.com or through the link in the show notes.  

References:

●     Sign up for my newsletter here: https://prodigious-producer-1190.kit.com/a3a8c89415

Select Purpose and Profit episodes:

●     Yancey Strickler on Creating a More Generous World

●     Adrian Gore on how shared value creates healthier people and healthier profits

●     David Bronner on biodiversity, activism, and creating an All-One World

●     Lindsey Hoell on building the infrastructure for circular packaging

●     Stephanie Benedetto on solving fashion’s deadstock waste problem

●     Dalila Wilson-Scott on the holistic approach to diversity & social impact

Tom Szaky is founder and CEO of TerraCycle, a global leader in the collection and repurposing

of complex waste streams. TerraCycle operates in 21 countries, working with some of the world’s largest brands, retailers and manufacturers.

In 2019, TerraCycle launched Loop, billed as the “21st century milkman”. Loop partners with producers on a reusable packaging loop system replacing single-use waste. Loop is available in France, the UK, Canada, Japan, and is rolling out select operations throughout the 48 contiguous United States..

Tom is also the author of four books, Revolution in a Bottle (2009), Outsmart Waste (2014), Make Garbage Great (2015) and The Future of Packaging (2019).

Call to action

Be mindful when you’re shopping. The only silver bullet in sustainability is to stop consuming, but if you need to buy something, look for the highest quality brand that will last the longest. Look for products that come in reusable containers, and if reusable isn’t an option make sure that the packaging is recyclable. Remember, our dollars are votes.

In this episode we discuss:

1. Why “rolling down hill” is the path to creating change within current business models
2. What the creation of a TV show and successful business partnerships have in common
3. The most impactful thing each of us can do to support a sustainable world

Key Takeaways:

• One theme that struck me in this conversation was the innovation power that can be unlocked by going back to the origin of a problem and reframing the way we look at it. For example, to understand the limitations of sustainability work, Tom went back and analyzed how and why our global waste problem started in the 1950’s.
• The power of empathy to create change. Tom’s empathetic approach to business is powerful and refreshing. He understands that the way to create scalable change fast is to work with the largest companies out there—not to work against them. I loved his comment to their sales team, that if a company’s reason for signing on with TerraCycle is that “it’s the right thing to do”, the salesperson hasn’t dug deep enough to show why this decision is actually good for business. Aligning objectives creates sticky and lasting change.
• I appreciate TerraCycle identifying where the needs and gaps are to the waste problem, and creating solutions to fix those—from developing ways to recycle just about everything, to building a cross-company system for reuse packaging. TerraCycle isn’t trying to replace current retailers or manufacturers, but instead, they are building backend waste solutions that support other companies.

References:

TerraCycle

Loop

The TerraCycle TV show Human Resources on Amazon Prime

How implementing reuse systems can impact cities by Tom Szaky

The Future of Packaging: From Linear to Circular by Tom Szaky

Rent the Runway

thredUP

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

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This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Breene Murphy is the president of Carbon Collective, a climate investment advisor. They create low-fee investment portfolios for employer 401k plans and individuals that divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in climate solutions. They have launched two Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs): a climate solutions equity ETF (ticker: CCSO), and a green bond fund (ticker: CCSB).. Carbon Collective is an implementation partner of Project Drawdown, and a member of Rewiring America’s CEOs for Electrification coalition.

If you are responsible for your company’s 401K plans, look to Carbon Collective’s ETFs as a sustainable option to offer employees.

In this episode, we discuss:

●     What an ETF is, and why Carbon Collective needed to create their own

●     How an investment portfolio is made

●     Why it’s important to invest more funds into climate solutions companies

Key Takeaways:

●     Investing: Simplify the Complex. Investing can feel like trying to decipher a foreign language. You're either lost in the weeds or barely skimming the surface. Here's my straightforward advice: First, if you're in the USA, start investing in your 401K as early as possible, and always contribute at least the maximum amount that your company matches. There is no fallback social system to rely on in retirement. Second, remember that your investments are your bets on the future. When you put your money into a company, you're saying, "I want this company to be part of tomorrow's world." So, invest with intention. Make sure your financial choices align with the future you want to live in.

●     Expanding Investment Choices. For markets to genuinely reflect individual choices, people need a full spectrum of options. Carbon Collective stepped in to fill a significant gap by creating new ETFs and 401K portfolios that exclude fossil fuel companies—something that was missing in the market. Considering that 401Ks are the primary retirement-saving vehicle for Americans, having no option to align those investments with personal values means the market can’t truly reflect individual preferences. It’s like having a dessert bar that only offers ice cream and then assuming everyone’s favorite dessert is ice cream. True choice requires diverse options.

●     Helping: The Antidote to Helplessness. Before we started recording, Breene shared his eye-opening experience of joining the workforce and realizing that most adults are just figuring it out as they go, struggling along the way. This shattered the illusion that adults “have it figured out”. He talked about the impact helping those around him had on his career. It reminded me of the phrase "helping is the antidote to helplessness". No matter what, every life journey will have spots that feel helpless. This phrase is a nice reminder. Helpful acts not only lift others up but also pull us out of our own helpless ruts, reminding us that we have the power to make a difference.

References:

●     Connect with Breene on LinkedIn

●     Carbon Collective

●     Project Drawdown

●     International Energy Agency

●     Rewiring America

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Chad Park is the Vice President, Sustainability & Citizenship for Co-operators, a leading Canadian insurance and financial services co-operative with more than $62 billion in assets under administration. Co-operators is a holding company for a number of entities with one common goal: creating financial security for Canadians and their communities. Because they are a co-operative, their business decisions are guided by their values of inclusion, and responsible and sustainable development.

Chad leads the co-operative’s efforts to embed and integrate sustainability principles throughout the organization, including in its investment strategy and underwriting practices. He also oversees Co-operators nation-wide community investment and partnership programs, including the Co-operators Community Funds.

In this episode, we discuss:

●     What a co-operative business structure means

●     The impacts of climate change on the insurance industry

●     Canada’s Reconciliation Journey

Key Takeaways:

1. Reconciliation - Facing the Past to Create a New Future: It’s easy to brush off past generations’ actions as their responsibility alone—and yes, they were responsible. But here's the thing: we’re responsible for what we do now with that legacy. We can’t keep building on a rotten foundation and expect a solid future. The real challenge—and opportunity—is to take accountability, even retroactively, for the wrongs that were done. We have the power to dive headfirst into the messy work of deconstruction and build something better together. While daunting work, there is true liberation in taking radical accountability to break free from the past and create a new path forward that we’re proud to hand down to the next generation.
2. Reimagining How We Protect Our Communities: It seems that for as long as governments have existed, they've handled public goods—our roads, parks, and water systems (to name a few). But just because it’s been done a certain way forever doesn’t mean it’s the best way to keep doing it. I’m excited about how Co-operators is challenging the old way of doing things by developing new models to build climate-resilient communities. They’re taking what’s traditionally been the government’s job and updating it for today’s challenges. It’s great to see organizations innovating new ways to protect our future.
3. Balancing Risk and Resilience: Co-operators has an interesting dual focus: investments and insurance. On the insurance side, climate change is driving up risks and premiums, but there’s only so much people can pay before insurance becomes unsustainable. That’s where the investment side comes in. They’re investing in making communities more resilient to climate change, which in turn helps keep insurance premiums in check. How cool is that? It’s a holistic approach that puts the financial security of individuals and communities at the heart of their strategy, prioritizing their organization's purpose.

References:

●     Connect with Chad on LinkedIn

●     Co-operators

●     ICLEI Canada

●     Green Economy Canada

●     Official page for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Kaitlin Christine is the CEO and Founder of Gabbi, the first digital health solution for predicting breast cancer risk and empowering women to be in control of their own health outcomes. Kaitlin created Gabbi to not only to de-stigmatize women’s health issues, but to decrease incidence of preventable diseases by creating a nexus of trusted expertise, resources, and support for women to take control of their health.

Kaitlin lost her mom, Lise, to cancer in 2013. When Kaitlin had similar symptoms at age 22, she had to battle to get tested for BRCA1, which is known to increase risk (she was positive), then battle again for a mammogram after she discovered lumps in her breasts (they were pre-cancerous.) At just 24, Kaitlin chose to have a double mastectomy and in surgery they found breast cancer.

Kaitlin spent the next five years working in health care. She realized doctors simply don't have enough time to properly evaluate or educate their patients, and that women are overwhelmed by conflicting information. Gabbi is her solution.

Follow Gabbi on Twitter.

In this episode we discuss:

• How this trailblazer is changing the face of women’s healthcare and attracting accomplished executives along the way
• The surprising way aligned incentives can be used to save lives and also bring humanity and meaning into the workplace.
• The suffocating trap of the “should” path
• Sherlock Holmes's inquisitive secret to unlocking opportunity

Key Takeaways:

• When you personally experience a system that’s broken, that experience is an invitation to fix it—an invitation to create something that will benefit others who rely on that system. It takes an incredible amount of courage to accept that invitation. That’s exactly what Kaitlin has done, and as a result she’s blazing a path that will benefit women as well as everyone that has a mom, or a sister, or a daughter or a wife.
• Clearly articulating a vision of a better world that your business is working to create is the best talent magnet out there. While we all want a stable paycheck to support our families, we also want our careers to be more than just a means to an end. We want to contribute to something bigger than ourselves. And the employees that are passionate about what you’re doing are the secret brain power that will innovate the future. As Elon Musk said, “Putting in long hours for a corporation is hard. Putting in long hours for a cause is easy.”

References:

• Gabbi
• Kaitlin Christine
• BRCA Gene Mutations: Cancer Risk and Genetic Testing (National Cancer Institute)
• Information on mastectomies (American Cancer Society)
• Information on bilateral salpingo-oophorectomies (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)
• StartUp Health
• David S. Kidder
• Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andme

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

If you want to work with me to embed purpose into your business, go to www.KathyVarol.com.

Dimitry Gershenson is the CEO and co-founder of Enduring Planet, a fintech platform that offers founder-friendly working capital and financial advisory services to climate startups and SMEs.

Prior to Enduring Planet, Dimitry led M&A and served as COO for Rango Wireless, an Enduring Ventures portfolio company. Before that, Dimitry built Meta’s Energy Access program, a $15M+ investing initiative that enabled energy access for 3M people and unlocked nearly $500M in additional capital in underserved markets like Kenya and India

Beyond his role at Enduring Planet, Dimitry sits on the board of Ecosafi, a Lowercarbon-backed climate startup enabling clean cooking in emerging markets.

In this episode, we discuss:

●     What bridge financing is

●     The different financing tools available for climate tech start-ups

●     Why Enduring Planet started offering bookkeeping and fractional CFO services to climate start-ups

Key Takeaways:

●     Bridging the Climate Finance Gap: Addressing climate change requires substantial financial investment. We are building things that have never been built before, and solving challenges that have never been solved before. US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen suggests that achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 necessitates annual investments of approximately $3 trillion. However, in their own study, Moody's states that current funding levels fall significantly short, with a gap of about $2.7 trillion per year projected by 2030. This shortfall hampers efforts to mitigate climate impacts and underscores the need for increased investment from both public and private sectors to build a sustainable future.

●     The Power of a Complementary Co-Founder: Launching a startup demands a diverse set of skills, often too extensive for one person to manage alone. Finding a co-founder with complementary abilities can be crucial to a startup's success. This partnership allows for shared responsibilities, diverse perspectives, and a balanced workload, setting the foundation for a resilient and dynamic business. Also, with the mindset of true collaboration, it’s more likely that a leader will share equity equitably across all individuals that are building and contributing to the start-up.

●     Embracing Unexpected Opportunities: In the entrepreneurial journey, unexpected opportunities can arise when least anticipated. A potential partner might agree to collaborate despite previous indications otherwise, or a chance encounter could lead to a pivotal breakthrough. Maintaining an open mindset allows you to recognize and seize these moments of serendipity, turning unforeseen possibilities into tangible successes. Stay open to possibility, stay open to things working out for you, stay open to being delightfully surprised

References:

●     Connect with Dimitry on LinkedIn

●     Enduring Planet 

●     World Resources Institute (WRI)

●     Power for All

●     Enduring Ventures

●     Photon Marine

●     Circuit

●     Dollaride

●     Sparkz

●     Blip Energy

●     Project K

●     Kinetix

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Chrissa Pagitsas is a senior advisor on sustainability, green bonds and ESG. She spent most of her career at Fannie Mae, where she created their ESG strategy and launched their Green Financing Business which has gone on to issue over $87 billion in green bonds. Chrissa also led a partnership with the EPA to develop the ENERGY STAR scoring and certification program for existing multifamily buildings.

Chrissa has served on the US Green Building Council’s board as Secretary-Treasurer and has advised international and domestic standard setters, governing bodies and key industry associations including NASDAQ, Structured Finance Association, the International Capital Markets Association, and the Urban Land Institute.

Chrissa is ​​currently writing a book about the Chief Sustainability Officers at Fortune 500 companies and globally recognized brands such as IKEA, Coca-Cola and Netflix. The book will be out in early 2022.

You can connect with Chrissa on LinkedIn.

In this episode we cover:

• What a green bond is, why it’s important, and how it’s evolving
• The rise of the Chief Sustainability Officer
• The benefits of having a business integrated ESG strategy
• How employees, consumers and shareholders can support change in the sustainability, diversity & inclusion, and social impact space

Key Take Aways:

• The importance of third party verifications for transparency, adoption, trust and consistency. When companies have a third party certification, it shows they have met the same standards that all companies with that certification are held to.
• ESG reporting isn’t standardized. There are many different frameworks and multiple rating systems that can be used. Unfortunately these systems don’t align. That means that as companies start creating their ESG strategies and reporting their progress, transparency is incredibly important.
• The elevation of ESG and Sustainability representation to the c-suite will continue to increase. For ESG and Sustainability strategies to be effective, they need to be business integrated, which makes that c-suite representation crucial. It’s through business integration that impact is maximized, and the benefits to the bottom line, employee engagement, and consumer loyalty are unlocked.

References:

• Fannie Mae
• Morningstar explainer on green bonds
• S. Green Building Council page on LEED certification
• International Living Future Institute page on Zero Energy certification
• ESG: From Zero to Strategy, Process and Reporting
• ENERGY STAR
• Frank O’Brien-Bernini, Chief Sustainability Officer, Owens Corning
• Ezgi Barcenas, Chief Sustainability Officer, Anheuser-Busch InBev

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

If you want to work with me to embed purpose into your business, go to www.KathyVarol.com.

Adrian Gore is the founder and CEO of Discovery Limited, which is revolutionizing insurance from a standardized transaction to a personalized consumer experience. Discovery combines behavioral economics and clinical science to encourage and reward members for exercising more, eating healthier, managing stress, and improving their health.

Discovery Limited is South Africa’s largest private health insurer and has expanded internationally through partnerships with local insurers. Using the same shared value approach rooted in data and behavioral science, Discovery has added additional services including life insurance, car insurance, and most recently banking services.

In this episode we discuss:

• The power of understanding what drives human behavior
• The 7 values that guide this multibillion-dollar company
• How a shared value approach helps people live longer while at the same time benefiting the bottom line
• Using gamification as a force for good

Key Takeaways:

• Discovery Limited’s story does a great job of illustrating that, when the benefits to all stakeholders are clear and the model is scalable, business growth is enviable. Finding the aligned purpose across stakeholders is a winning formula for engagement and growth.
• The power of following a hunch. When you see a system that doesn’t benefit people as well as it could, and you see a path forward for a new approach, by trusting your hunch you might just revolutionize an industry, create a multibillion-dollar business, and impact millions of lives.
• That Discovery Limited’s purpose, to make people healthier, is their driving force. They still pay attention to everything needed to run a successful business, but the reason talent seeks them out, the reason they put in their effort and passion, is to support the purpose that’s integrated into the heart of the company. This is what makes them truly remarkable.

References:

• Discovery Limited
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Stephen Greene CBE is co-founder and CEO of the international pro-social media and entertainment company RockCorps.

RockCorps uses music and culture to inspire action—providing the tools and opportunities for people to volunteer and get involved in their community. One person, one show, one city at a time—RockCorps enables people to change the world, while at the same time enabling brands to develop a unique connection with their target audience.

I met Stephen a few years ago while I was at adidas, and we were looking for new, remarkable ways to connect with our consumers. What Stephen does at RockCorps is remarkable.

RockCorps has welcomed Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Pharrell, Snoop, Diddy, Busta and hundreds more to their stages.

In 2012 the then British Prime Minister, David Cameron, appointed Greene as Executive Chairman of the independent management body of the National Citizen Service. And in 2019, at the Queen’s Birthday honours, Stephen was awarded the CBE for services to young people. Standing for Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the CBE is the highest ranking Order of the British Empire award after a knighthood.

Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn.

In this episode we discuss:

• How one pasta dinner between friends ultimately impacted thousands of people around the world
• What the “Tsunami of Kindness” is, and the opportunity it presents
• The secret brand sponsorship that will drive brand love and brand loyalty
• The framing that can unlock exponential returns for multiple stakeholders
• A new approach to connecting with and hiring diverse youth
• The power of citizens to change the world, one small act at a time

Key Takeaways:

• We don’t need to go back to “life as normal”. As we come out of COVID, we can take this opportunity to intentionally decide what we want to keep from the old way of doing things, and what we want to reinvent and improve. Where we want to connect more, where we want to give more, and where we want to demand more.
• There is an opportunity to use marketing in a different way: To use marketing dollars to create meaningful experiences for your consumer and also create a ripple effect of good. With RockCorps your brand can be the conduit that enables your consumers to tap into their intrinsic motivation. The narrative of our lives is ultimately constructed by the power of individual moments—your brand can be part of a transformative moment, and as a result, consumers' relationship with your brand will change forever.
• Business isn’t inherently bad or inherently good. Business has both negative and positive externalities. There is a lot of opportunity to look at business holistically, and intentionally maximize positive externalities in the way we operate, and minimize or eliminate negative externalities.

References:

• RockCorps
• Apprentice Nation
• Director and RockCorps co-founder Chris Robinson
• Boost Mobile
• Former Boost Mobile CMO Darryl Cobbin’s LinkedIn
• 95% of affluent millennials in the USA say that they would switch brands for a good cause (85% of all millennials in the USA say they would switch brands for a good cause.

Sarah Bratton Hughes is the Head of ESG & Sustainable Investing for American Century Investments. American Century is not your standard investment firm. They have embedded purpose into their core, with a focus on supporting breakthrough medical research.

In the 1990s, the founder of American Century and his wife, Jim and Virginia Stowers, established and endowed the Stowers Institute for Medical Research from their personal fortune. This world-class biomedical research organization owns a controlling interest in American Century, and more than 40% of American Century’s profits go to the Institute to ensure ongoing funding for medical research. In 2015 American Century and the Institute received the Financial Services Cares Award for their roles in the fight against cancer. 

Sarah Bratton Hughes has been a senior leader in the finance industry for the past 15 years. Before joining American Century, she worked at JP Morgan and Schroders. 

In this episode we discuss:

●      What ESG and Sustainable Investing means

●      The 3 factors that are accelerating ESG and Sustainable Investing

●      American Century’s unique business and ownership model (that funds medical research) 

Key Takeaways:

●      The impact American Century - and its employees - are able to have has two key components. Like any company, the first is based on their industry. As an investment firm, they create impact based on the businesses they choose to invest in. This can be positive or negative. On a basic level, investments act as a vote for the type of companies that will be around in the future. With the American Century focus on ESG and Sustainable Investing, they are including not just financial returns, but social and environmental returns in their investment approach.  By doing this, the company is voting with its investments to shift what business looks like in the future.

●      The second component is something most companies don’t think about or innovate around. It’s their unique business structure. The way Jim and Virginia Stowers restructured the ownership model of American Century to establish a sustainable funding mechanism for medical research that supports their values and benefits society. How a business is owned and structured has an enormous impact on the role it plays in society. Ownership models are an area that’s ripe for disruption. A more recent example is Patagonia. In 2022 Patagonia made Earth the only shareholder when the Chouinard family transferred all ownership to two new entities: Patagonia Purpose Trust and the Holdfast Collective. With this ownership move, every dollar that is not reinvested back into the company will be distributed as dividends to protect the planet. How would your relationship with your job change, if you knew its success was funding what you value most?

●      There’s a lot of work to be done around changing the way we measure the success of an investment, and equally, the way we measure the success of a company. Collectively, we don’t have the measurement systems nailed down yet for ESG. This will take time. A lot of organizations are innovating new approaches.  It’s important to find ways to come together and collaborate,  to share what’s working and what’s not working, and to establish best practices. We don’t have the luxury of time for each company to invent the wheel from scratch.

References:

●      Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

●      American Century Investments

○      Sustainable Investing at American Century

●      Stowers Institute for Medical Research

●      The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

●      Sarah’s article about the Dept. of Labor’s new rules on allowing firms to consider ESG factors when building 401k retirement plans.

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Amy Lesnick is the Chief Executive and President of Pledge 1%, a global movement to integrate social impact into the DNA of every company.  Founded by tech luminaries such as Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce, and Scott Farquhar the co-founder of Atlassian, the Pledge 1% movement has rapidly grown to over 15,000 companies in +100 countries. In 2017, Fast Company named Pledge 1% the most innovative non-profit in the world.

With over 20 years of experience leading, scaling, and advising early-stage, high-growth ventures, Amy is a tech industry veteran. Amy’s previous experience includes, Full Circle Fund (CEO), Indiegogo (Head of Cause), McKinsey & Company, American Airlines/SABRE, and Netscape. Amy’s especially passionate about the intersection of technology and social change.

Note: Podcast was recorded on February 17, 2022, before the Ukraine-Russia war.

In this episode we discuss:

• The power of the compound effect in relation to social impact and business impact
• 5 significant trends influencing social impact
• How Pledge 1% ignited $2 Billion in new philanthropy in 2 years
• Creative ways that companies are contributing to Pledge 1% that leverage the core competency of their business

Key Takeaways:

• The story of how Pledge 1% came to be reminded me of the Margaret Mead quote “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” We create change through actions, and change starts small, with one person deciding to take one action. Movements start when others follow their lead. Never doubt, with your intentional actions, you might just shape the future of the world for the better.
• A theme throughout the conversation was the amplified impact—or the force multiplier—of when multiple groups come together to create solutions. This could be breaking down silos across your organization and leveraging your organization’s core competency to develop a more holistic solution to impact. This could also be creating strategic partnerships with other organizations to make an even bigger impact than you could on your own. Look for opportunities to unify groups under a united vision.
• As a call to action from this episode, if your company doesn’t have an impact approach, consider suggesting Pledge 1% to your senior leaders. Share this episode with them. And as an individual, consider what making a personal 1% pledge might look like.

References:

• Pledge 1%
  • Follow Pledge 1% on Twitter
  • Pledge 1% blog
  • Join the Pledge 1% community
• WePledge
• Full Circle Fund
• Yelp’s Black-Owned business directory
• Information on the Postmates Food Fight! program
• Stanford StartX Accelerator
• Jefferson Awards page at Multiplying Good

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

For today’s episode of the Purpose and Profit Podcast, I’m so happy to be joined by a very special guest, Yancey Strickler. He’s an author, entrepreneur, speaker and thought leader. He’s also the co-founder and former CEO of Kickstarter and the creator of a framework, Bentoism, which he shares in his book: This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World.

Sign up for Yancey’s newsletter here: https://www.ystrickler.com/

In this episode Yancey and I discuss:

• The key perspective that will enable you to create a workplace culture without fostering organizational anxiety.
• The most dependable way to maintain core values throughout leadership and employee turnover within a company.
• The surprising reason why changes needed for decarbonization will happen.
• The message to our generation from a moderate time traveler set back from 2050.
• What today’s business leaders can learn from JFK.
• The secret to moving beyond the randomness of life, and tapping into fully intentional decision making.

Takeaways from this episode:

1. Take time to question the way things are done, and be intentional about how you’re operating your company. Question the status quo to determine if it’s the right way forward, or if there is a better way.
2. Employees and consumers are in a position to create the most pressure for change. Use the power you have. As a consumer, and employee, use your dollars and voice to support the change you want to see.
3. The marketplace for all categories continues to be more crowded. To be successful, you’ll need to define who you are and who you aren’t. In each category, there is a low price leader, and there is a most loved leader. Becoming the most loved has to do with values and unselfish thinking on behalf of the company.

References:

• This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto For A More Generous World by Yancey Strickler: https://www.amazon.com/This-Could-Our-Future-Manifesto-ebook/dp/B07P9MTN2F/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=this+could+be+our+future&qid=1616616837&sr=8-1
• http://www.bentoism.org/
• Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins: https://www.amazon.com/Built-Last-Successful-Visionary-Essentials-ebook/dp/B0058DRSHW/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Built+to+Last%3A+Successful+Habits+of+Visionary+Companies+by+Jim+Collins&qid=1616616878&sr=8-1
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make The Leap And Others Don’t by Jim Collins: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others-ebook/dp/B0058DRUV6/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Good+to+Great%3A+Why+Some+Companies+Make+The+Leap+And+Others+Don%E2%80%99t+by+Jim+Collins&qid=1616616902&sr=8-1
• Public Benefit Corporation is a legal tool to create a solid foundation for long term mission alignment and value creation. It protects company missions through capital raises and leadership changes, creates more flexibility when evaluating potential sale and liquidity options, and prepares businesses to lead a mission-driven life.
• B Corporation certification is a third-party validation of a company’s current practices in fulfilling a certain threshold of considering stakeholders beyond shareholders: consumers, suppliers, community and the environment. Each year certified B Corporations get a score on their performance. Being a B Corporation is not legally binding like a PBC (a company can choose to stop being a B Corporation without legal ramifications).
• Tariq Fancy op-ed: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/03/16/wall-street-esg-sustainable-investing-greenwashing-column/6948923002/
• The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells: https://www.amazon.com/Uninhabitable-Earth-Life-After-Warming-ebook/dp/B07GVPFH5V/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=The+Uninhabitable+Earth%3A+Life+After+Warming+by+David+Wallace-Wells&qid=1616616930&sr=8-1
• Yancey Strickler’s Interview with David Wallace-Wells: https://ideaspace.simplecast.com/episodes/author-david-wallace-wells-on-the-new-economics-of-the-climate-Pj3bMhlk
• Greta Thunberg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Thunberg
• Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide To Changing Capitalism by Mariana Mazzucato: https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Economy-Moonshot-Changing-Capitalism-ebook/dp/B089SZL4W7/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Mission+Economy%3A+A+Moonshot+Guide+To+Changing+Capitalism+by+Mariana+Mazzucato+%5C&qid=1616616984&sr=8-1
• https://www.ystrickler.com/

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If you want to work with me to embed purpose into your business, go to www.KathyVarol.com.

Amy Looper is an AI EdTech/MedTech social venture entrepreneur and the Co-Founder/COO of OneSeventeen Media.

With nine partners and a stellar team, she grew her first tech company 8,164% in 35 months resulting in a $158M IPO. Now on her fourth company, Amy and her partner have built a digital mental health & analytics platform called reThinkIt! for School™ that makes kids emotionally healthier through a combination of AI and interpersonal communication and intervention. The evidence-based mobile app has already prevented a school shooting and multiple student suicides.

OneSeventeen Media is a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) recognized for meeting the highest standard of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency as one of the top 5% of B Corporations in the world using their business as a force for good.

Learn more about OneSeventeen Media here.

In this episode we discuss:

• The foundational component to building resilience (at any age)
• The mental and emotional impact of valuing and validating kids and their experiences
• An example of repurposing technology to approach a human problem in a new and effective way
• 4 practical business lessons learned from a serial entrepreneur
• The value of using an “ecosystem approach” to problem-solving

Key Takeaways:

• Going back to the story Amy told about being consistently bullied as a child, I can’t help but think of the profound impact on self-concept and self-esteem that results from being able to separate our experiences from our identity. When we are able to learn that we are not the same as what happens to us, that we are not the same as how people treat us, then our potential becomes limitless. However, when we internalize these experiences and confuse them with our identity, the narratives end up becoming a prison.
• I’m blown away by the impact reThinkIt! has had on kids and consequently their school environment. It’s great from a school P&L standpoint, but what’s more important is the human impact. As a society, what would we pay to reduce or eliminate teen suicide and school shootings? How about teen depression? It seems an obvious choice that the government would mandate reThinkIt! in every single public school. Since we aren’t there yet, let’s leverage the power of Word of Moms and Dads and PTA’s to start demanding it.
• I’m very intrigued by reThinkIt! being offered through employee benefit programs to help employees’ kids. It seems like a really creative solution, and I haven’t seen many employee benefits targeted to employees’ kids before. I’m curious how much presenteeism is caused by parents being distracted at work with worries about their kids, and how much that loss in productivity would lessen if kids were equipped with a tool they trusted to help them navigate their emotions.

References:

• Communities in Schools is a non-profit organization supporting schools across the country
• Strategyzer offers tools and training for companies
• The difference between mental health and emotional health, from “The Emotional and Mental Aspects of Well-Being” by Andrea Herron: Mental health refers to our ability to process information; Emotional health refers to our ability to express feelings that are based on the information we’ve processed.
• The time teachers spend disciplining students in the classroom, from the “Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/Scholastic Teacher Survey” says: 53% of teachers reported they would like to spend less time disciplining students; Teachers reported they spend 4 hours out of their 7.5 hour day disciplining students in their classrooms.
• Report from the American School Counselors Association (ASCA), “State-by-State Student-to-Counselor Ratio Maps By School District” by Pooja Patel and Melissa Clinedinst. The ASCA’s data in this report was commissioned for the district-level student-to-counselor ratios to provided and further inform policy discussions at the local, state, and federal level about the need to hire, train, and equip more school counselors. “ASCA recommends that schools strive to maintain a ratio of no more than 250 students per counselor. In 2015–16, only two states, Vermont and New Hampshire, had average ratios that met this standard. There are several additional data points worth noting that also suggest a critical lack of access to school counseling assistance for students nationwide.” 1) The national average during this time (2015 - 2016) was 470 students per one counselor (470:1), nearly double the recommended ratio. 2) Nearly one in five students don’t have access to a school counselor, leaving approximately 8 million students without access to proper counseling support. 3) 1.7 million students go to a school with a police officer but no counselors.

While the 250 students to 1 school counselor ratio (250:1) has been a long-time recognized standard that various education and counseling industry organizations accepted, to be fair, it should be noted there is debate that this number lacks evidence-based research. There is now a renewed debate and new on-going research about what the exact ratio should be.

• “Lowest student-to-school-counselor ratio since 1986: Economic recovery and concerns about school shootings led to hiring more counselors” By Jill Barshay, April 27, 2020.
• S. Department of Education’s “Student to School Psychologist Ratio by state 2019 - 2021”: Based on the US Department of Education Common Core of Data.
• Report written by EAB Adolescent Mental Health In Schools –– “Are Districts the Nation’s Adolescent Mental Health Care Providers? A Mandate to Support Seven Million Students in Crisis.” This report provides an in-depth look at the state of the adolescent mental health crisis in the U.S. It provides easy to read data and recommendations for all stakeholders –– Students, Parents, Teachers and Educators. A couple of staggering statistics in support of why products and services that provide a broad range of wellness and mental healthcare solutions for kids need to be easily accessible for them at school and at home: 1) An 80% increase in the percentage of U.S. adolescents reporting a major depressive episode per year, 2010-2018; 2) 3,069 is the number of suicide attempts made on average each day by students in grades 9-12; 3) 75% of children receiving mental health care received that care in a school setting; 4) Youth are 21 times more likely to visit a school-based health clinic for their mental health care than a community-based clinic; 5) 8 in 10 of people considering suicide give some sign of their intentions.
• “Back to School amidst the New Normal: Ongoing Effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Children’s Health and Well-Being” by Elizabeth Williams/Kaiser Family Foundation.
• Report from Mental Health America. A community-based nonprofit dedicated to helping all people achieve wellness by living mentally healthier lives: “2021 State of Mental Health in America” by Maddy Reinert, Theresa Nguyen and Danielle Fritze.
• “Access To Mental Health: Startups Tackle Sector’s Complexities As Investors Go All-in” by Christine Hall.
• Strategyzer

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If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

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This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Andrew Winston is one of the most widely read and respected writers on sustainability. The author of four books and hundreds of articles, his work has been published in many outlets including the Harvard Business Review and the MIT Sloan Management Review. In 2021 Andrew was named a top 50 management thinker in the Thinkers50 list.

Andrew's latest book is, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take. It was co-authored with Paul Polman, the legendary ex-CEO of Unilever. This book is a must-read.

In this episode we discuss:

●      What Net Positive means and why it’s crucial for business

●      How ESG got tied up in American Politics

●      The difference between ESG and Sustainability

Key Takeaways:

●      There’s a big difference between the ambition of 1) minimizing the damage your company causes to humans and the planet, versus 2) becoming neutral, and causing no harm, versus 3) making the world better through your operations. Where we set our ambition anchors our thinking (in psychology this is referred to as the anchoring effect). In business, we create company ambitions to anchor the entire organization and orient employees in the same direction.  The ambition you set will determine how inspired your organization is to reach it, the types of innovation they develop to attain it, and ultimately your ambition will influence how far you go. Take a look inside your organization. Where have you set your ambitions? What are you anchored against?

●      ESG and Sustainability are not the same things. They were created for different reasons. ESG, at its most fundamental level, was created to assess the risk of investments, mainly by understanding how the future of a business could be affected by environmental and social issues. It includes an additional lens on whether a company has good governance in place to manage those risks. Sustainability, on the other hand, looks at how a company impacts the world and society, not limited to the lens of business risk.

●      As humans, we have a cognitive bias toward hiring people similar to ourselves. We also know from sound research that diversity makes the strongest teams. How can we help overcome our cognitive bias in hiring? Next time, before you start interviewing to fill vacant spots on your team take a moment to do this visualization. Close your eyes and imagine your workforce filled with clones of you. Honestly assess: what you would be good at and what are your known weaknesses and blind spots. Then mentally scan each of your current team members to determine which of your strengths are reinforced, and which of your weaknesses are compensated by them. Now you know what you and your team already bring to the table, and more importantly, what’s missing that a new hire could offer. Knowing this will help intentionally shift your focus from the common “culture fit” question, which is often a disguised way of asking “is this person like me and do I want to be friends with them”, to instead asking “is this person adding to our Super Hero Marvel Team, bringing what none of us have to the team?”

References:

●      Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn

●      Andrew’s website

●      Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take by Andrew Winston and Paul Polman

●      Paul Polman’s website

●      “ESG Is Going to Have a Rocky 2023. Sustainability Will Be Just Fine.”, MIT Sloan Management Review, February 7th, 2023

●      “2022: A Tumultuous Year in ESG and Sustainability”, Harvard Business Review, December 21st, 2022

●      Learn more about Edelman’s research and reports on trust here.

●      You can read BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s most recent letter to investors here.

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

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Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Mary Harvey is an accomplished sports governance and sustainability executive with 15+ years of leading worldwide initiatives to achieve societal change and gender equity through sports. As Chief Executive of the Centre for Sport and Human Rights, Mary oversees the Centre’s vision, including facilitating the deliberations of the Centre’s multi-stakeholder Advisory Council, operational and financial management, stakeholder engagement, and good governance. Prior to leading the Centre of Sport and Human Rights, as a FIFA executive, Mary pushed for gender inclusion during a period of organizational reform. She also served as a sport envoy for the US State Department’s Sports Diplomacy Division, and as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Green Sports Alliance. 

Mary’s work has improved the empowerment of girls and women, inclusion of marginalized groups, stewardship of the environment, and achievement of health and educational objectives. 

A lifelong athlete, Mary enjoyed an 8-year career with the US Women’s National Soccer Team, winning the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991 and Olympic Gold in 1996.  

In this episode, we discuss:

●      Why the protection of human rights is needed in sports

●      The true heroes who are raising awareness of human rights violations in sports

●      How businesses can help push for human rights reforms through sport 

Key Takeaways:

●      Awareness is where change starts. Simply put, we can't fix problems we don't know about. When we become aware of issues, like injustice or inequality, we begin to understand the need to address them. It's like a lightbulb turning on, showing us where things are going wrong. This understanding helps us take action to make things better. This is why whistleblowers are so important. Once we know about a problem and understand it, we can work together to find solutions and create a better world for everyone.

●      The importance of truly understanding a problem before trying to fix it. While this is true in each area of life, it’s especially true when dealing with social problems like human rights abuses. Social problems are complicated. As Mary mentions, you need to get input from every perspective,  think very carefully about what you’re trying to do, who you’re trying to help, and what your collective understanding of a desired outcome is.

●      Every voice matters in the pursuit of human rights, especially for the most vulnerable among us. The movement to codify human rights in sports is new, but the truth is we need to look for how to protect human rights in every corner of society. It is not just a moral duty but an act of humanity to ensure that every individual, irrespective of their status, feels the protection of rights, respect, and dignity. To successfully disrupt systems that allow for violations and abuses will require collective action and accountability. Every individual deserves an existence in which justice is not a privilege but a universal reality.  

References:

●      The Centre for Spot and Human Rights is developing a new series produced by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Production. The series will launch in 2024 and will feature documentary-style short films exploring critical issues on the sport and human rights agenda.

●      Connect with Mary on LinkedIn

●      Centre for Sport and Human Rights

●      International Labour Organization (ILO)

●      “For the Game. For the World.” FIFA and Human Rights by John G. Ruggie

●      U.S. Center for SafeSport

●      Council on Foreign Relations page on the kafala system

●      Building and Wood Worker’s International (BWI) 

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes. 

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com. 

Senan Ebrahim is a physician-scientist and entrepreneur dedicated to creating technology to improve global and maternal health. Senan is the founder and CEO of Delfina. He developed Delfina to create lifesaving AI-powered pregnancy care after personally witnessing the challenges faced by pregnant patients and their care teams.

Senan previously founded Hikma Health, a tech nonprofit creating digital health solutions for refugees, migrants, and other vulnerable populations. He has an MD and PhD from Harvard in Computational Neuroscience

In this episode, we discuss:

●      Why the United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the developed world

●      Why maternal health inequity exists across populations

●      The importance of data for better decision-making (and better health outcomes)

Key Takeaways:

●      Change Takes a Village - Real change, the kind that reshapes systems, is a team effort. It thrives on a network of individuals across the whole system that are ready to rethink, test, and collaborate to create better solutions for us all. Senan's initiative with Delfina in maternal healthcare shines a spotlight on this truth. Senan is the first to acknowledge all of the partners that have shaped Delfina’s journey. From doctors willing to pilot a new idea, to users offering feedback for refinement. The truth is, that it takes a village to create systemic change.

●      Tailoring Solutions to Fit the User - The principle of one size fits all falls short in addressing complex human behaviors, especially when it comes to health and wellness. Delfina's approach to maternal healthcare highlights the importance of understanding and respecting individual risk, environment, and challenges. By integrating recommendations that resonate with the individual's daily life and cultural context, Delfina makes behavioral change more approachable and sustainable. This sensitivity to the nuances of the user experience isn't just thoughtful—it's effective, bridging the gap between knowledge and action in meaningful ways that create better outcomes for all.

●      Closing the Gap Between Us and “Other” - Refugees are often painted with broad strokes that obscure their individuality and humanity. Senan mentioned his grandmother was a Syrian refugee. My family is intertwined with narratives of displacement and resilience as well. From my father and grandparents' escape from Lithuania during WWII, to my sister-in-law’s flight from war-torn Cambodia. Each story is a testament to the human spirit, and each story reminds us that the plight of refugees is not a distant issue; it's woven into the very fabric of our communities. By bringing these stories into the light, we bridge the gap between 'us' and 'them,' transforming refugees from abstract concepts into fellow humans deserving of empathy, dignity, and support. The more we share stories of displacement, the more the refugee crisis moves out of the shadows of “someone else’s problem to solve”, and gently nestles into our interconnectedness, asking us to care for our fellow humans. 

References:

●      Connect with Senan on LinkedIn

●      Delfina

○      Learn more about Delfina’s collaboration with the Mayo Clinic here

●      Hikma Health 

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes. 

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

“I was a four-time loser before I realized I was in the wrong game.” That was the first line of the autobiographical story that appeared on the back of every loaf of Dave’s Killer Bread. “Four-time loser” refers to his four prison sentences for crimes ranging from burglary to armed robbery to drug dealing.

He once shared abandoned houses with cockroaches on the streets of Detroit and now he lives in a luxurious high-rise penthouse. His story epitomizes transformation.

Dave Dahl found success following fifteen years of incarceration by helping to turn his family’s bakery business into the now famous Dave’s Killer Bread, which has become a cult favorite across the nation.

During his years at the helm, Dave’s Killer Bread offered jobs to the formerly incarcerated—a demographic of people who have an incredibly difficult time finding employment. Although Dave and his family sold the company in 2015 for $275 million, Dave’s Killer Bread continues to be a “Second Chance Employer” and is the largest organic bread company in America.

Today Dave continues to inspire others through his story of struggle and redemption.

Connect with Dave and learn about the Against the Grain podcast on Facebook.

In this episode we discuss, among other things:

• 
The secret to hiring the most loyal employees
• 
How to gain free publicity from doing the right thing

• How to grow a cult following around your brand

• The magnetic power of vulnerable storytelling

Takeaways from this episode:


1. Sharing all sides of a story—the good and the bad—enables people to see themselves reflected back, and offers greater connection between the teller and the listener.

2. You can expand the standard definition of a “diverse workforce” by becoming a Second Chance Employer, and opening your talent pool to formerly incarcerated employees. Considering each candidate and what they can bring to your business. Impacting people’s lives, and their communities, by providing second chances through employment.

References:

• Dave’s Killer Bread
• You can learn more about Dave’s Killer Bread’s Second Chances program here.
• “Out of Prison & Out of Work: Unemployment among formerly incarcerated people” is a 2018 report prepared by the Prison Policy Initiative which found that the unemployment rate for formerly incarcerated people was over 27 percent.
• “Indicators of Mental Health Problems Reported by Prisoners and Jail Inmates, 2011-12” is a 2017 report prepared by the Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics which found, among other things, that 37 percent of state and federal prisoners had been diagnosed with a mental health disorder prior to their conviction.
• Nucelos
• Discover African Art

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. (I also love reading them!)

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com

If you want to work with me to embed purpose into your business, go to www.KathyVarol.com.

Amelia Nickerson is the CEO of First Step Staffing, an organization that connects people experiencing homelessness, veterans, and recently incarcerated individuals to sustainable employment and income. The First Step team has created an ecosystem for success, coordinating closely with other nonprofits to help provide clients with resources and services such as housing, healthcare, childcare resources, transportation, food, and clothing needs to develop a stable path out of poverty and homelessness.

First Step has successfully replicated the Atlanta-based model they started in 2007 to become the largest nonprofit staffing agency in the U.S., with operations in seven states. They employ more than 1,900 individuals weekly and in 2022, 75 percent of their staffing placements were actively experiencing homelessness, and 25 percent were recently incarcerated. 

In this episode, we discuss:

●      Untapped talent waiting to fill your labor shortage

●      The power of solving social challenges through a business framework

●      The importance of avoiding mission creep

Key Takeaways:

●      Blending Worlds – Nonprofits and Businesses Learning Together. Imagine a nonprofit moving with the agility and strategic growth mindset of a tech startup, reaching more people, creating greater impact. Now picture a corporate giant, inspired by the heart and purpose of a grassroots organization, igniting passion and commitment in its team. This is the essence of cross-sector learning. Nonprofits using business strategies can scale their impact, ensuring their cause isn't just a flash in the pan but an enduring beacon of change. On the flip side, businesses adopting a nonprofit’s purpose-driven approach can see a transformation in their workforce. It's like adding a soul to the corporate machine; employees are no longer just working for a paycheck, but for a purpose. This cross-pollination of approaches between nonprofits and businesses isn't just beneficial—it's a powerful catalyst for sustainable growth and genuine engagement.

●      Reframing Challenges into Opportunities. How we frame a situation can transform it. Take, for instance, the employment of individuals with past criminal records. Viewing this as businesses benefiting from the untapped potential of these individuals, rather than doing them a favor, shifts the entire narrative. The statistics are compelling—$87 billion in GDP is lost from 1.9 million workers excluded due to criminal backgrounds. The unemployment and underemployment rates for formerly incarcerated individuals are staggering, and yet, those who find employment have a 70% lower rate of recidivism (i.e. reentering the prison system). They’re not just employees; they often become dedicated, fast-learning members of the workforce. It’s about changing the story from charity to opportunity, from exclusion to economic empowerment, from broken communities to thriving lives.

●      The Power of a Focused Purpose. There's a lesson to be learned from the Swiss army knife: trying to do everything can mean excelling at nothing. In business and life, it's easy to stretch yourself too thin when attempting to be a multi-tool. However, true effectiveness comes from honing in on your core purpose and core skills. Follow the example of First Step Staffing, and avoid mission creep.  Stick to your core focus and you'll not only do it well, you'll do it exceptionally. This approach is the key to making a meaningful impact.

References:

●      Connect with Amelia on LinkedIn

●      First Step Staffing 

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good! 

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Zimri T. Hinshaw, Founder and CEO of Rheom Materials, Inc., is a graduate of Temple University's Economics program and SOSV's IndieBio Program. Zimri started the company from his Temple University dorm room with initial ambitions to design leather jackets and pivoted to creating the materials themselves after realizing a gap in the market.

Rheom Materials is pioneering the use of biopolymers derived from plant-based matter for new applications across the fashion, home goods, electronic, and automotive sectors. Their collaborative approach and advanced melt extrusion techniques allow them to develop new materials effectively and sustainably while transforming the plastics industry to create a cleaner, greener, future. They currently have a bio-based resin designed to replace petrochemical plastics and an eco-friendly plant leather.

In this episode, we discuss:

●      Lessons in creating a start-up

●      What makes Rheom Materials suited for explosive growth

●      The librarian as a secret ally

Key Takeaways:

●      University as a Prime Launchpad for Entrepreneurship: Universities can be the perfect testing ground for entrepreneurial ideas. When Zimri founded Rheom Materials, Inc. at Temple University, he leveraged the rich ecosystem a university provides—tapping into students across various disciplines for collaboration, leaning on the university Librarian for market research support, and taking advantage of programs like the Blackstone LaunchPad. Universities, you might say, are the original incubators, offering access to resources, mentorship, and a network of motivated peers. It’s a unique environment where big ideas can be nurtured and refined if you have the vision and drive to create something new.

●      Building a Sustainable Future with Alternative Materials: We’re witnessing a boom in the development of alternative materials, and it’s paving the way for a more sustainable future. Companies like Rheom Materials are creating innovative solutions that could replace plastics, leather, and other harmful or environmentally costly materials. Continued innovations in materials science will be key to transforming industries and shifting toward a future where sustainability is the norm.

●      The Power of Self-Awareness in Business: When Zimri started Rheom Materials, he had a clear understanding of his strengths and weaknesses. As a young entrepreneur, his strengths were boundless energy, optimism, and a huge vision for what’s possible. But he also recognized there was a lot he didn’t know—like what could potentially sink his company. Instead of pretending to know it all, he hired experienced professionals with decades of industry expertise to complement his vision. This level of self-awareness is crucial in business. It’s not about trying to be good at everything; it’s about leaning into your strengths and surrounding yourself with people who fill in the gaps. The mix of complementary strengths around the table is what paves the best path forward for long-term success.

References:

Connect with Zimri on LinkedIn

Rheom Materials

Blackstone LaunchPad

Temple University|Fox School of Business Innovative Idea Competition

SOSV IndieBio

Biofabricate

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If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

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This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

My friend Ed sent me a link to the most beautiful artisanal glassware made in Kabul, Afghanistan, sold by an amazing social enterprise called ISHKAR. When I learned more about the company and how they work with local craftspeople in difficult regions of the world I knew I had to feature them here.

On this episode of the Purpose and Profit Podcast I’m joined by Edmund Le Brun. Edmund is the co-founder of ISHKAR, a business using trade and travel as a means to create economic opportunities in countries impacted and cut off from the larger world by war and conflict. Edmund studied at Oxford University, and was made a Forbes 30 under 30 for his contributions to social enterprise.

Visit   (www.ishkar.com) to buy unique products or sign up for one of their once-in-a-lifetime trips.

In this episode Edmund and I discuss:

• Why you don’t always need to do something new or innovative to create change.
• Why ISHKAR was founded as a for-profit business instead of a charity NGO.
• How the stories told by table glasses and hand-woven carpets ring louder and more true than bomb blasts and gunfire.
• What today’s and future consumers are looking for when they go shopping.
• How not being a trained business person can actually give you an edge.

Takeaways from this episode:

• Crafts are a huge part of the economy in developing nations, second only to agriculture. As a consumer, consider the potential impact you can have based solely on your purchase decisions.
• Singular narratives do a disservice to everyone involved by robbing both the listener and the subject of a full, complete story. Next time you hear a news report about conflict in a country on the other side of the world, challenge your own perceptions by digging deeper to discover more dimensional stories of the same country.
• Social enterprise and traditional NGOs both have their places in conflict zones and other challenged countries. By combining their unique strengths, both can work together and achieve more impact than when operating in their individual silos. Don’t dismiss any organization out of hand just because they’re structured differently, see how they can compliment the work you’re trying to do.

References:

• Ishkar
• Glassware by Mr. Nasarullah of Herat, Afghanistan
• Jewelry by Saeeda Etebari of Kabul, Afghanistan
• Carpets designed by Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry, woven in rural Afghanistan

Connect:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com .

If you want to work with me to embed purpose into your business, go to www.KathyVarol.com.

Marissa Fayer is the founder and CEO of HERhealthEQ, a global non-profit with the mission to improve women’s health in developing countries by providing access to medical devices & equipment, creating an equitable standard of care.

Here are two 2020 statistics from the World Health Organization that highlight the inequitable standard of care for women in developing countries that HERhealthEQ is trying to combat:

●       90% of cervical cancer and related deaths worldwide occurred in low- and middle-income countries

●      approximately 95% of all maternal deaths occurred in low and lower-middle-income countries, and most could have been prevented
 

Marissa has spent the last 22 years growing medical device companies into world-class organizations through improvements in their operations, implementation of new innovations, connections to capital sources, and creation of more sustainable impact-driven organizations. She is a strategic advisor, board member, and executive leader of several venture-backed private companies. Marissa is also a UCSC Miller Center Social Entrepreneur Fellow and has been listed as one of the Top 100 Women in Medtech. 

In this episode, we discuss:

●      Why HERhealthEQ is focused on noncommunicable diseases

●      The counterintuitive healthcare consequences of foreign aid ending as a developing country grows its economy

●      The importance of strategic partners in creating change

Key Takeaways:

●      While we often spotlight sustainability in business, focusing on financial, social, and environmental sustainability, it's crucial to turn this lens inward and consider personal sustainability. This is about finding that sweet spot where what we do aligns with what we love and what we're good at. This harmony is the antidote to burnout. It's about not just being a cog in a machine, but being a vibrant, contributing part of a meaningful pursuit. Working towards something that resonates with our values and beliefs isn’t just fulfilling; it's personally sustaining and personally regenerative.

●      There's a curious magic in the act of paying, even a token amount, for something. It's like a psychological switch that flips our perception of value. When people invest in something, even minimally, they're more likely to use and appreciate it. This principle is a fundamental human truth that applies to products and services. Charging a fee isn't just a business strategy; it can be a way to ensure engagement and respect for what's being offered.

●      Amazon famously paid zero federal income taxes in 2018, despite an $11.2 billion profit. They achieved this through completely legal tax strategies: heavily reinvesting profits back into the business, which allows for tax deductions; utilizing tax credits, especially for research and development; paying employees with stock options, which can offer tax advantages; and carrying forward financial losses from unprofitable years to offset taxes in profitable years. It feels unfair that a successful company can avoid federal income tax, which supports the common good for a nation including roads, infrastructure, emergency services, and education. However, I love the idea that corporations should only be eligible to enjoy certain tax benefits if they demonstrably contribute to society or the planet. It's about modifying our systems to align financial success with ethical responsibility, transforming business from a mere profit-making entity to a force for positive change. 

References:

●      Connect with Marissa on LinkedIn

●      “How to ensure social enterprises have an impact”, TEDxLugano

●      HERhealthEQ

●      Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières 

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! 

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good! 

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Joan Steinberg is the Global Head of Philanthropy and President of the Morgan Stanley Foundation. She also serves as the CEO of the Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children’s Mental Health, which was established in February 2020. To date, the Alliance has benefited over 11 million youth, families, and educators globally. Joan is an expert on the impact the pandemic and social inequity have had on youth mental health. Through the Alliance, she works with Child Mind Institute, The Jed Foundation, and others to unite cross-generational leaders, advocates, and activists to raise public awareness and bring to life new initiatives to combat the global crisis.

After a decade in the nonprofit sector, Joan joined Morgan Stanley in 1997 and oversees its global philanthropic programs, including strategic planning and execution, employee engagement, and corporate and Foundation grantmaking totaling more than $90 million annually. She has more than quadrupled the firm’s giving; created programs for more than 70,000 employees; and expanded the philanthropic geographic outreach to serve more communities.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why children’s mental health is an important cause (for all businesses)
• An example of a transformative performance review (that puts human wellness at its center)
• How Joan was successfully able to quadruple the Foundation’s giving
• The importance of “doing good” being integrated into the DNA of a company

Key Takeaways:

• Pre-COVID it’s estimated that 1 out of every 5 adults in the US lives with a mental illness. Post-COVID, the statistic is most likely higher. Given those numbers, it’s safe to say that all of us are impacted by mental illness either personally, through family, friends, or colleagues. Talking about mental health is a huge step toward removing stigma, helping people get support, and ultimately transforming our culture into a more compassionate, empathetic, and human environment for all of us.
• Your corporate culture is a barometer for the collective mental wellness of your workforce. Intention and support structures are needed to nurture a healthy corporate culture, just as they are needed to nurture a healthy mind and body. Ask yourself, how healthy is your corporate culture? What are the structures, systems, and norms in place that either support or deteriorate creating a healthy culture? Are there any that need to be replaced?
• I really appreciate the way Morgan Stanley is supporting children’s mental health, which is rooted in what their company does best. They are evaluating solutions to the issue as an investor would—through growth capital, seed funding, and capacity building. Identifying the gaps, looking for new and more effective solutions to problems, and investing in proven approaches that are primed to scale. At the same time, they’re sharing what they are learning, becoming a thought leader in this space, and bringing visibility to get other investors onboard. All while partnering with experts in children’s mental health, helping them do what they do best, at scale.

References:

• Connect with Joan on LinkedIn
• The Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children’s Mental Health
• Children’s Mental Health Innovation Awards
• Institute for Inclusion
• The Jed Foundation
• The Steve Fund
• Child Mind Institute
• Black Girls Smile
• Smart from the Start
• Teen Line
• Braven
• America Needs You
• SEO
• A Better Chance

• The Center for Disease Control and Prevention page on children’s mental health

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Christopher Gavigan is Founder + Co-CEO of Prima. Christopher is a seasoned champion for environmental and human health, an acclaimed author, speaker, and social entrepreneur. His ‘commitment to better’ has spanned his entire career, including his earlier roles as CEO and Executive Director of Healthy Child Healthy World and Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of The Honest Company.

Christopher also sits on the Board of Directors of Mount Sinai Hospital’s Children's Environmental Health Center, and is The New York Times Bestselling Author of Healthy Child Healthy World.

If you’re interested in learning more about Prima, or speaking with Christopher about his past endeavors, he invites you to email (christopher@prima.co) or call (tel:3108495093)

Want to try Prima? Use discount offer “CTG" for 20% first order at prima.co.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The importance of transparency in building trust
• How having a purpose and strong company values simplifies decision making
• How efficiency can get in the way of connection

Key Takeaways:

• One theme that came up was leaning into what lights you up. It was great to hear that this is the advice Christopher gives to his four kids, and also to see how he has acted on this advice throughout his own career. Let me be clear, following what lights you up is not selfish, it’s what you’re here to do. The more we lean into what lights us up, the bigger impact we’ll have.
• The Honest Company wanted to make sure they weren’t hiding behind, or hiding under, stories. Important lessons for organizations are often also important lessons for individuals. After all, an organization is only a collection of individuals. His comment reminded me of a personal theme I’ve had come up repeatedly this past year. I’ve been intentionally looking for the personal narratives I’m hiding behind or hiding from. Stories from my past that my ego believes are what gives me value—or takes my value away. This is in line with Christopher’s comment about having tough conversations with yourself. The more aligned we are as individuals, the better leaders we’re able to be.
• I didn’t know that both cannabinoids and opioids block the release of pain-propagating neurotransmitters in the brain and spinal cord. Opioids are very addictive. So addictive they’ve caused a crisis in America, which the mini-series Dope Sick does a great job of portraying. Cannabinoids are not addictive. CDB is one cannabinoid from the cannabis plant. If you want to try CBD products as part of your wellness approach, check out Prima.

References:

Prima

The Honest Company

Healthy Child Healthy World

Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home by Christopher Gavigan

American Cancer Society information on Wilms tumors

Learn more about B Corp certification here

“An introduction to the endogenous cannabinoid system” by Hui-chen Lu and Ken Mackie

The Sierra Club

Children and Nature Network

The Loveland Foundation

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Lata Reddy is Senior Vice President of Inclusive Solutions at Prudential, and chair of The Prudential Foundation. In these roles, Lata harnesses the power of capital markets to drive financial and social mobility. By combining diversity strategies, impact investments, philanthropy, corporate contributions, and employee engagement with Prudential’s full business capabilities, she helps position the company to promote inclusive economic opportunity and sustainable growth. 

Under Lata’s leadership, Prudential became one of the first institutional investors to grow and manage an impact investing portfolio with $1.2 billion in assets under management. Additionally, she oversees a yearly grant-making budget of over $40 million through The Prudential Foundation, and a $17 million corporate contributions budget. 

In this episode, we discuss:

●      What it means to be an anchor institution (in your corporate HQ geography)

●      How the revitalization of a Newark mansion is supporting equity and access in the city

●      The importance of a learning mindset, and systems for continuous improvement 

Key Takeaways:

●      This conversation reminds me of how small the world is, and the beauty that lies in finding overlapping connection points with others. Lata and I both have immigrant parents. Both of Lata’s parents are from India. My father, and his parents and siblings, were refugees from Lithuania after WWII. When my family immigrated to America, they moved to Chicago. My grandmother found a job as an office cleaning-lady in the Prudential building downtown. Through employment, Prudential played a significant role in supporting the agency and financial security of my family, helping them integrate into a new community. I share this story to highlight the generational ripple effect. If my grandparents couldn’t find work as refugees, my story would be drastically different. During this conversation, we discuss many ways that Prudential supports inclusive growth through its operations, investments, and grants. As Lata defines it, inclusive growth is about creating agency within people’s lives so that they have the ability to make the best decisions for themselves and their families. These actions create ripples.

●      Over the course of history, our expectations for the timeline an investment should take has drastically shrunk. The Great Wall of China was built over the course of more than 2,000 years. Notre Dame took more than 100 years of major construction, and work continued for hundreds of years after. The Giza pyramids were built over the course of three generations. In contrast, modern-day shopping mall takes 2-5 years. With these shrunken timelines, the beauty and joy the end result delivers has also plummeted. The same immediacy mindset has happened with financial investments. The existence and growth of day trading is an illustration of this. In day trading, a trader buys and sells a financial instrument within the same trading day. The truth is, most things in life don’t maximize over a day, or even a year. Getting a college education. Having children. Growing your career. Starting a business. If you’re only focused on immediate returns, you can miss out on some of the most rewarding and impactful opportunities. From an investment standpoint, Prudential bucks this immediacy trend. They use a different approach called long-term investing, or patient capital, which means making a financial investment with no expectation of turning a quick profit but an anticipation of more substantial returns down the road. As the saying goes, good things come to those who wait.

References:

●      Connect with Lata on LinkedIn

●      Corporate Social Responsibility at Prudential

●      My Brother’s Keeper Newark (and nationally)

●      Makerhoods

●      L+M Development Partners page on the Hahne’s department store redevelopment

●      Brick City Run Club

●      Newark Anchor Collaborative

●      Read more about “Equity Re-Imagined” here

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

In this episode, I am so excited to speak with Joshua Haynes, a Founder + Managing Partner at Masawa, the mental wellness impact fund. After a long journey learning to approach his own issues of depression, anxiety, and addiction, Joshua founded Masawa to help address mental illness, a silent epidemic that is the leading cause of disability worldwide and costs, in the EU alone, €600 billion a year. Joshua believes that after society is more mentally well by focusing on the internal first, it can overcome the seemingly intractable problems like climate change, poverty, and injustice.

I met Joshua 20 years ago in the Peace Corps. He’s one of those friends that I’ve been continuously impressed by. When I saw he was starting Masawa, I was so excited that I reached out to see if I could help, and Joshua graciously let me support as a strategic adviser from the beginning of this journey. I’m so excited for this discussion to share Masawa, their mission, and what makes them so unique in the investment space.

Sign up for the Masawa newsletter here.

In this episode Joshua and I discuss:

• The early life experiences that sparked Joshua’s passion for social impact.
• The next evolution of venture capital
• The down-side of the hustle-mindset
• The gaps in the traditional investment model that can have a significant impact on ROI
• The secret to creating systemic change that we learned in preschool
• An unexpected blessing from COVID

Key Takeaways

• An organization’s health hinges on its culture. The mental health of employees, when aggregated, is the mental health of the organization. It shapes the culture and tone of the organization. Senior leaders have an out-weighted influence on culture, which means founders’ and CEO’s mental health can set the tone for an organization in a positive way, or in a toxic way.
• The importance of continuing to normalize the cultural conversation around mental health. In the workplace, we can read the best books and talk about psychological safety all we want. But the real shift happens through implementation. Talking openly and being vulnerable about who we are as leaders and founders. Setting an example for the normalized change we’re trying to drive.
• Our most important long-term asset is mental health, and mental wellness is currently one of the greatest global challenges. It affects every country, it affects every community. Depression alone is the number one cause of disability. Not even looking at the human perspective, from a business perspective companies not taking care of employees has a huge cost to the bottom line. Not only from absenteeism, when they can’t show up to work because of their mental health issues, but presenteeism, where they’re at work but they’re not able to do their intended role.

References:

• Masawa
• Zebras unite
• Effective altruism movement
• Studies show that 50% of entrepreneurs experience mental health issues, and a full 94% of founders report symptoms of burnout, anxiety, and panic attacks.
• Mental illness is the leading cause of disability worldwide (WHO, 2020).
• 1 in 5 people are set to develop a mental health condition in the course of their lifetime (WHO, 2019).
• Around 1-in-7 people globally (11-18 percent) have one or more mental or substance use disorders.
• Globally, more than 264 million people of all ages suffer from depression. Bipolar disorder affects about 45 million people worldwide (WHO, 2019).
• In the US, mental illness affects almost 20% of adults (NIMH, 2017).
• 50% of mental health problems are established by the age of 14 (Arch Gen Psychiatry, 2005).
• 1 in 5 deaths among 15 to 19-year-olds in the EU are caused by intentional self harm (Eurostat, 2017).
• The health of family caregivers taking care of someone with a mental health issue is reported to be 34% worse than of non-caregivers (National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, 2015).
• In Africa, there is a treatment gap of up to 90% (UCT, 2018).
• In Europe, about 50% of major depressions are untreated (WHO, 2012).
• Among children and adolescents with a diagnosed mental health disorder , only 25-35% have access to treatment.
• There is a rapidly growing number of startups active in the mental health sphere. There are more than 1000 mental health startups in the EU and US alone, most of them founded after 2015.

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com .

If you want to work with me to embed purpose into your business, go to www.KathyVarol.com.

Genevieve Leveille, the founder and CEO of AgriLedger, is using blockchain to improve one of humankind's oldest industries. Agriledger is on a mission to revolutionize agriculture and provide a better life for farmers by leveraging new technologies to enable trust and transparency in the agriculture ecosystem. Providing traceability from seed to customer.

Originally from Haiti and now based in the UK, Genevieve has a reputation for the delivery of disruptive technologies in large-scale projects, and is recognized as an authority in the realm of digital identity and financial transformation. She is vice-chair for the techUK Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) Working Group, an organization that provides strategic direction for all UK activities related to blockchain and DLT; an inaugural member of the Advisory Group for the Estonian Government’s eResidency initiative for the digital identity; finalist in the Women in IT Awards 2016 (Security Champion); recognized by Innovate Finance by inclusion on their “Women in 2016/17 Fintech Power List”.

You can follow Genevieve on Twitter.

In this episode we discuss:

• What 60% of the world's population has in common
• The lesson from NFT’s (non-fungible tokens) that can be used to sustainably lift the bottom 40% out of poverty
• Creating a more equitable system for the largest global industry
• The test project that increased Haitian mango farmers income by 7x
• How agriculture shaped start-up vernacular, and what start-ups can teach agriculture
• How repurposing blockchain technology can reduce child mortality

Key Takeaways:

• How much waste there is in the current food ecosystem, and the considerable impact on solving food insecurity and reducing hunger that can happen from increasing food distribution effectiveness.
• We’ve all heard of blockchain, which is a type of distributed ledger technology. And while blockchain remains shrouded in mystery for most of us, distributed ledger technology has the potential to change the way markets function. For example, by allowing artists to make money with each subsequent sale of their art (instead of just the first sale), or by allowing farmers to receive a greater share of the value from their harvest. This is a great example of the power of repurposing innovation from one industry to another.
• Certain crops grow best in certain places. This took me back to economics 101 and the concept of competitive advantage, which refers to factors that allow a company or country to produce goods or services better or more cheaply than its rivals. No country wants to be completely food insecure (dependent on imports from other countries to feed itself) but, maybe not every country needs to be producing avocados. One thing that COVID has demonstrated is just how integrated the globe is, and how, if we work as a globe to solve problems, we are able to move mountains in record time. If we were to look at the food ecosystem more holistically from a global standpoint, I wonder what would happen,what changes we would make, and how value would be redistributed around the globe.

References:

• Agriledger
• Taxol is a brand of the cancer drug paclitaxel
• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York
• Yo! MTV
• “Digital identification: A key to inclusive growth”, McKinsey Global Institute, 2019
• The OECD site on blockchain and distributed ledger technology
• "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power
• “What Are NFTs, Anyway? One Just Sold for $69 Million.“, Josie Thaddeus-Johns, The New York Times, March 11th, 2021
• The World Bank site on global agriculture
• Centers for Disease Control information on E. coli outbreaks affecting romaine lettuce
• Food & Drug Administration information on Walmart’s voluntary recall including mango
• World Health Organization factsheet on food safety, 2020
• Wageningen University, the Netherlands, project in Haiti

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

If you want to work with me to embed purpose into your business, go to www.KathyVarol.com.

Ken Banks is the Head of Social Purpose at the digital identity startup Yoti. The Yoti app was built with security and privacy as a priority, ensuring a safer way for people to prove who they are, both online and off. The company believes in using tech for good, and is a certified B Corp.

Ken is an award-winning founder, technologist, anthropologist, and author committed to supporting positive social and environmental change around the world. Before joining Yoti he worked for more than two decades in global conservation and development, with a particular focus on mobile technology in Africa. Ken has had the honor of working with eminent leaders such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, taken part in expeditions for National Geographic, and joined delegations to Africa with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

In this episode we discuss:

• What an encrypted ID is, and why it’s useful
• The importance of simplicity in creating a user experience
• The intersection of technology and social impact

Key Takeaways:

• I appreciate learning about how Yoti has been built. A company focused on identity protection, built on the principles of security and privacy, that can’t even access information on their users. Building their platform that way is leading by example, with the best interest of the customer front and center as opposed to the best interest of the company.
• The world is full of great ideas. What’s far less common are people who act on those ideas. In the book Big Magic, author Liz Gilbert writes that ideas are life-forms existing alongside all other life on Earth, They wish to become manifest, which they can only achieve through collaboration with a human partner. So ideas visit us, wave for our attention, wake us in the middle of the night, and distract us during the day. Finally, in a moment of quiet, the idea will ask “Do you want to work with me?” Most people say no, and the idea moves on to find someone else that is willing to bring the idea to life. But for those who say yes, “you officially entered into a contract with inspiration, and you must try to see it through, all the way to its impossible-to-predict outcome.” I was reminded of this theory as Ken shared his story of creating Frontline SMS. He had an idea. He said yes. Then he spent a few weeks working on a kitchen table to code the idea into life. Because he said yes. Because he acted, Ken created a technology that benefited tens of millions of people across 190 countries. Ask yourself, what idea is trying to get your attention? And are you brave enough to say yes?
• Ken’s journey is a beautiful example of what can happen if you’re brave enough to follow the path of curiosity into the unknown. Maybe curiosity is our sixth sense, excitedly leaving breadcrumbs to lead us down the life path each one of us was meant to walk. From Ken’s humble upbringing, he went on to travel the African continent, use technology to impact lives, surviving a pirate attack and close encounters with lions along the way. Ken shares his unlikely journey in his book, The Pursuit of Purpose: Part Memoir, Part Study - A Book About Finding Your Way in the World. If you’re interested in learning more about where the path of curiosity led Ken, I encourage you to read it.

References:

• Connect with Ken on LinkedIn
• The Pursuit of Purpose: Part Memoir, Part Study - A Book About Finding Your Way in the World by Ken Banks
• Yoti
• UN Sustainable Development Goal 16, which includes a target for legal identity
• Togetherall
• Frontline SMS
• Listen to the Purpose and Profit episode with Unreasonable founder Daniel Epstein here
• Desmond Tutu Health Foundation
• Insulate Britain
• Elizabeth Gilbert: When a magical idea comes knocking, you have three options. The author of Eat, Pray, Love has spent her life in devotion to creativity. In an extract from her new book, Big Magic, she writes about the ‘transcendent’ world of ideas – and how we should respond to them

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Amy Terpeluk leads the CSR & Social Impact Practice at FINN Partners, a values-based marketing and communications agency. FINN Partners helps brands share their stories in ways that drive business value and make a positive impact in the world. Amy has created initiatives in education, DEI, public health, economic inequality, sustainability, climate change, and veterans’ well-being.

Amy also helped launch the NO MORE Foundation, a global campaign galvanizing greater awareness to end domestic and sexual violence and continues to serve on its board of directors.  

In this episode we discuss:

●      The process FINN Partners uses to help clients assess the potential risks and rewards of publicly taking a stance on an issue

●      The importance of authenticity and transparency in corporate communications

●      The impact of company and employee value alignment

Key Takeaways:

●      Authenticity is an inside job—for a person and for a company. It means being clear on your values and acting in alignment with them. It means standing up for what you believe in, as well as standing up for yourself. It means staying true to your values, regardless of the pressures you are under to act otherwise.

●      One litmus test for authenticity is to ensure that what your company says externally is in alignment with how your company shows up internally (i.e. how your company treats its employees). For example, if your company says they stand behind equality externally,  make sure they stand behind equality internally. Ask questions. Here are two examples: has your company ensured that pay and benefits are equal across gender and race within each salary level; has your company instituted hiring practices to remove cognitive bias?

●      When a company has strong values, it’s easier to navigate an unexpected PR crisis. When values are referred back to habitually, and used in daily decision making, the shared knowledge of what decisions are right for your company grows across the organization. That means, when hard decisions come your way (as they inevitably will) deciding what to do becomes a little less hard. Values make it easier to land on a clear direction even in the middle of a storm. One classic example of values in action is the Tylonal recall of  1982,  after capsules laced with cyanide killed 7 people in Chicago. The Johnson & Johnson CEO at the time, James Burke, credited the Johnson & Johnson Credo—their company value statement—to helping navigate the crisis, and giving him “the ammunition to persuade shareholders and others to spend the $100 million on the recall. A move that would name him as one of history's most outstanding CEO’s. (Read more on that crisis here.

References:

●      Connect with Amy on LinkedIn

●      FINN Partners

○      Societal Return on Investment Index, with The Harris Poll

○      FINN Purpose Alignment Index

●      Miami Lighthouse for the Blind

○      Learn more about FINN’s work with Miami Lighthouse here

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! 

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes. 

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Life is Good® is an apparel brand dedicated to spreading the power of optimism. Launched in 1989 from the back of a van, the Boston-based business has grown through word of mouth and customer engagement to become a $150 million company. 10% of their annual net profits go to their partner organization Life is Good Kids Foundation, which provides underserved communities with the tools to help children persevere through adversity and trauma.

Kay Pancheri is the Vice President of Brand Marketing. Before joining Life is Good, Kay spent 15 years leading advertising efforts at two internationally awarded agencies. She collaborated with global and national brands to establish their brand vision, communicate purpose, and deploy game-changing creative to drive business growth.

In this episode we discuss:

• The tension between accelerated growth and employee satisfaction (and what to do about it)
• The superpower of letting life infiltrate work
• The power of thought patterns, and the importance of being intentional about the thought patterns you practice

Key Takeaways:

• As the saying goes: your employees are your first customer, and your most important product is your company culture. Employee surveys can be a treasure trove of insight on how to create a better company. Listen to what your employees are telling you, and act on their input with gratitude and humility. Remember, you hired capable and talented people, so trust them. After all, your employees have the greatest incentive for your company to succeed.
• Doing what you love, sharing what you love, and talking about what you love causes a ripple effect. As Kay shared, these simple acts are one way to spread optimism.
• Companies that truly care about their customers—their well-being, making their life easier, making them smile—also tend to be companies that truly care about their employees. This is the interesting thing about patterns of thinking: they don’t stay isolated in one area. On the flip side, businesses that view consumers as a group to extract as much value as possible from will tend to treat employees the same way—as a company resource to extract from. This thought pattern of extraction, from an employee standpoint, drives the toxic culture of burnout. From a consumer standpoint, it drives mistrust in companies since consumers can tell if you only care about how much money they give you. What does this mean? Be careful about the thought patterns you practice. Also, as an employee, pay attention to the language used internally around consumers, since that mentality is going to transfer over to how the company thinks about you too.

References:

• Life is Good

• Life is Good Kids Foundation and Playmakers
• Good Vibes Tribe

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Chris Kanik is the CEO and Founder of Smart Cups, a sustainability-driven technology company that achieved global recognition with its flagship product—a printed energy drink. All of the flavors and ingredients are printed on the button of a cup, just add water. The Smart Cups printed technology eliminates the need to bottle and ship liquids, significantly reducing carbon footprint.

Smart Cups Technology was recognized on Time Magazine's 100 Best Inventions of the Year list for 2021. Chris also gained global exposure for Smart Cups by winning Season 1 of Gordon Ramsay's Food Stars, securing a $250,000 investment from Gordon Ramsay himself.

In this episode, we discuss:

●     The inspiration for Smart Cups

●     Why Smart Cups is pursuing a white-label strategy

●     The reasoning behind releasing an energy drink as their first product

Key Takeaways:

●     A Simple Truth with Big Ripples: Smart Cups is tackling a profound yet simple truth: shipping water as a primary ingredient in products is unnecessary. By letting the end consumer add water themselves, industries can slash emissions from transporting heavy, water-laden goods. Think of the potential impact across sectors—soft drinks, laundry detergents, cleaning supplies, shampoos, conditioners—the list is endless. This shift doesn’t just cut emissions; it reimagines how products are made, sold, and consumed.

●     Awareness as the Seed of Change: Actions drive change, but awareness is often the spark that starts it all. Awareness has the power to shift perspectives and open minds, creating a ripple effect that spreads through society. As more people become aware, the momentum grows, leading to collective action that can transform entire systems. Awareness isn’t just a passive state—it’s the ignition point for meaningful change.

●     The Unexpected Doorway to Innovation: Innovation can strike at the most unexpected times. Often, the doorway to innovation opens through frustration with the status quo or daydreaming about what could be. For Smart Cups, the doorway to innovation happened at a Taco Tuesday. When you find that doorway, let your imagination wander through it. You never know where it might lead—perhaps to a transformative idea that changes how we live.

References:

●     Connect with Chris on LinkedIn

●     Smart Cups

●     The Smart Cups investment offering on StartEngine

●     UCLA paper: “Reducing life cycle material, energy and emissions for liquid consumer products through printing”

●     Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars

●     “The Best Inventions of 2021”, Time Magazine

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Since 2023, Rukaiyah Adams has served as CEO of the 1803 Fund, an innovative firm that seeks to grow shared prosperity through the alignment of financial investments and investments in community-based organizations. It is not a conventional investment firm, and it is not traditional philanthropy—its work includes aspects of both and is ultimately about ‘investing for the people’.

Rukaiyah has been a pioneer in socially responsible investing, establishing key frameworks in the field. Previously she was CIO at Meyer Memorial Trust, where she spent 8 years growing the foundation’s assets under management to more than $1 billion. Rukaiyah has also managed a $6.5 billion fund at The Standard and chaired the Oregon Investment Council, the board that manages approximately $100 billion of public pension and other assets for the State of Oregon. During her time as chair, the Oregon state pension fund was among the top-performing public pension funds in the United States. 

Rukaiyah holds a BA from Carleton College, a JD from Stanford Law, and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

In this episode, we discuss:

●      A need to move away from putting bandaids on broken systems and move toward building new systems with awareness and intention

●      The problem inherent in reacting versus responding

●      The gifts of awareness that 2020 brought

Key Takeaways:

●      The legacy of African Americans serving as the "original capital" in America is a deep stain on our history. It’s a narrative that's still being wrestled with today. Rukaiyah explained it well: Imagine moving from being an object in the economic system to being a subject in control of it. Moving from being chess pieces to becoming the players. With the lens of being players in control, let’s look at the term “capitalism”. The word "capital" isn't just about dollars; it encapsulates the value and benefits you bring to the table through your skills, energy, and time. Think of it as the ink in your personal narrative. The "ism" suffix? It converts the noun “capital” into action, practice, and process. No matter who you are, or what narrative society has tried to force on you, it’s worth asking yourself: what story do you want to help write with your ink?  How do you want to use your inherent capital to contribute to—or reshape—existing narratives? What practices do you want to support, and where can you build something better than we ever imagined possible?

●      Language isn't just a collection of words and grammar; it's the very framework that shapes our perceptions and dreams. If your aspirations are so grand that no existing term captures their magnitude, then it's time to create new language. Once that new language is in place, it acts like a bridge, facilitating collaboration and sparking movements. Then we can evaluate the systems that support this new dream and identify those that act as roadblocks. Language shapes the way we think and defines the boundaries of our dreams; it's a tool for both reflection and revolution.

●      Discomfort is a precursor to growth. Much like a toddler learning to walk, stepping into unfamiliar territory is bound to involve stumbles and moments of frustration. But it's within this discomfort and uncertainty that expansion takes root. When you stretch beyond your current boundaries, knowledge, and capabilities, you're essentially investing in your future. And the currency? It's your newfound growth and abilities. Discomfort always precedes expansion; it's the gritty, less Instagrammable side of personal development. Yet, it's precisely in navigating this discomfort that your new capabilities evolve and eventually become as natural as walking. 

References:

●      Connect with Rukaiyah on LinkedIn

●      1803 Fund

●      “A Love Letter to Portland, OR”, Rukaiyah’s 2nd TEDx talk

●      “Homegirls’ Guide to Being Powerful”, Rukaiyah’s 1st TEDx talk

●      Meyer Memorial Trust

●      Michael McAfee

●      Beyond Doer and Done to: Recognition Theory, Intersubjectivity, and the Third by Jessica Benjamin

●      Albina Vision Trust

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes. 

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Daniel Epstein is one of the most impactful leaders of our generation. He is the Founder and CEO of Unreasonable Group, a company that takes a unique approach to accelerating the scaling of growth-stage companies solving the world’s biggest problems. Unreasonable Group does a lot of things, as Daniel says, “It's hard to describe exactly what Unreasonable Group is. It's a company. A portfolio of initiatives. A rallying cry. An investment firm. A family. But to try to fully define it would mean to put it in a box, potentially jeopardizing its multifaceted uniqueness.”

Today, their community of 324 Unreasonable Fellows is positively impacting over 1.4 billion individuals in more than 180 countries, and they have raised 8.9b in financing and generated $7.9 in revenue. Unreasonable Group believes that community is everything. Standing by that belief, the Unreasonable Fellows have lifetime support from their fellow peers, and a community of top-notch mentors ranging from Nobel Laureates to renowned executives and policymakers.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Unreasonable Group is re-purposing capitalism (the most powerful tool of our age)
• The importance of mentorship and peer support at any stage in a CEO’s journey
• What business and a hammer have in common (you might be surprised!)
• The important life lesson we can all learn from a little-known parable

Key Takeaways:

• I loved Daniel’s logical approach, rooted in his philosophy background, to business. “What do all entrepreneurs have in common? All entrepreneurs design solutions to problem sets. I can choose the nature of the problem sets I want to solve. Therefore, I’m only going to work on problem sets worthy of my life's work.” Take a moment to consider, is your organization working on problem sets that are worthy of your life's work?
• Never underestimate the magnetic power of making a difference. I am blown away by the caliber of mentors Unreasonable Group has, from Nobel Laureates to renowned executives and policymakers. It was refreshing to hear Daniel explain how they got these top-notch, unpaid mentors onboard. Unreasonable Group humbly offered them a chance to use their expertise where it’s needed, with a chance to contribute to world-changing enterprises. That offer is compelling. It’s not transactional. It taps into our deeply wired intrinsic motivation to contribute to something bigger than ourselves.
• There is power and freedom in shifting thinking from harnessing a competitive advantage, to nurturing a collaborative advantage in business. The very definition of a competitive advantage builds off a scarcity mindset. There isn’t enough to go around, so hone your niche as well as possible while you fortify the walls of your castle in order to take an increasing slice of the limited pie. This mindset is insular, creating a divide of “us” and “them”, and a winner-takes-all world. But a collaborative advantage creates a cooperative world full of abundant possibilities. Your business can still be an expert in something, but you are liberated to lift your gaze to see how your expertise can be combined with another expert, and another, to create a collaborative impact that would never be possible from a single entity. You start building an “us” world, where you’re playing on the same team, each position working together like a championship basketball team. Instead of being rooted in scarcity and fear, you’re rooted in collaboration and possibility.

References:

• Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn

• Unreasonable Group
  • Unreasonable Change
  • Unreasonable Collective (Mention the Purpose and Profit podcast on your wait list application for a prioritized review.)

• The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith
• The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
• Air Protein
• Accenture
• The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Buddy is President & CEO at Soles4Souls, a not-for-profit social enterprise creating opportunity through the collection and distribution of shoes and clothing around the world. Teaster’s experience at Soles4Souls, along with the organization’s global economic impact, is chronicled in his book, shoestrings: how your donated shoes and clothes help people pull themselves out of poverty.

Previously, Buddy was President of StarKart and the National Association of Local Advertisers, and served as Chief Network Officer for the nonprofit Young Presidents’ Organization. In 2012 he joined Soles4Souls to rebuild the organization after a period of leadership turmoil. 

In this episode we discuss:

●      How to regain trust after it’s been lost

●      The surprising impact new shoes have on kids experiencing homelessness

●      The business case for partnering with Soles4Souls (from my adidas days)

Key Takeaways:

●      One important pathway of impact Soles4Souls uses is to foster economic empowerment by supplying micro-enterprises with gently used shoes and clothing. There is a strong case for using this approach to alleviate poverty, versus giving products away. While giving products away is important during times of crisis, poverty is a systemic issue and therefore requires a systemic solution. Some academic research points to evidence that free donations can flood a market, ruining demand for local businesses. As Michael Matheson Miller, the director of PovertyCure says, “When you give away something free, you’re giving away a band-aid. You’re not addressing deeper causes of poverty and you may be inhibiting long-term solutions. Poor people aren’t poor because they lack stuff; they’re poor because they lack the infrastructure to create wealth.” This is an important distinction that explains why supporting economic empowerment is so powerful.

●      Dignity is a powerful word. Each person deserves to be treated with dignity. It’s important to keep that word front and center when helping others, and when seeking help ourselves. Each of us will be on the receiving and the giving end of help countless times throughout our lives. Too often the foundation of dignity is lost when the numbers of need exceed our ability to imagine the individual. In these cases, emotion gets lost in faceless numbers and is replaced with efficiency. But it’s acting on the foundation of dignity that keeps humanity on both sides of the equation. It’s a standard worth holding ourselves accountable to in every interaction.

●      As consumers, it’s important for each of us to take accountability for the lifecycle of the products we consume. It takes time and energy to sort and recycle items. It takes time and energy to drop off your old clothing and shoes at a donation center, instead of throwing them away. It’s these small acts of time and energy that are needed from each one of us to enable a circular economy. A circular economy is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible—keeping the material out of landfills and letting material be repurposed for a second life.  

References:

• Connect with Buddy on LinkedIn
• Soles4Souls
•   Learn more here about how you can contribute to the Soles4Souls mission
• shoestrings: how your donated shoes and clothes help people pull themselves out of poverty by Buddy Teaster
•  For deeper insight into how charitable donations may impact economic development, I recommend “The One-for-one Business Model: Avoiding Unintended Consequences”, Knowledge at Wharton, February 16, 2015.
• Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good! 

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Mike Salguero is the founder of ButcherBox, the leading high-quality, direct-to-consumer meats brand. Since its launch in 2015, the company has grown to become a $600 million business, all while putting an emphasis on animal welfare, the environment, and supporting farmers and fishermen. ButcherBox is a certified B Corporation, signaling the brand’s commitment to using its business as a force for good.

In 2020, Mike was named an Entrepreneur Of The Year® National Award winner by Ernst & Young. 

In this episode we discuss:

●      Lessons from a failed start-up that informed the approach to building ButcherBox

●      What it looks like to develop the whole human (personal and professional) at work

●      How Mike would like every employee—past, present, and future—to feel about their time at ButcherBox

Key Takeaways:

●      ButcherBox relies heavily on suppliers to support its business. Not just farmers and fishermen, but also box manufacturers, website developers, and many other service providers. Often businesses will choose to create these things in-house, but there is beauty in ButcherBox’s approach. First, it enables ButcherBox to focus on what they’re good at. Second, by going to suppliers with a request for a sustainable box (for example), ButcherBox causes a ripple effect by creating demand for goods and services that will benefit many other companies. This approach reminded me of the African Proverb that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” It’s the “together” piece that’s needed to create systemic change.

●      I can’t help but see parallels between common-day cubicle life and feedlots. Both were created to maximize efficiency, with a sole focus on profit. Both are unnatural habitats. Both have damaging consequences. The basic principle of the feedlot is to confine the animal in order to fatten it up as quickly as possible. The cramped quarters make animals distressed and prone to disease. In cubicle life, employees are confined for better management oversight. Research shows that cubicles result in less productivity, because of constant distractions. Plus, the uninspired environment reinforces a message that each employee is a replaceable cog in the machine (not great for mental health).  Trying to liven up corporate environments with foosball tables and free drinks is like adding disco balls to feedlots to drive cow happiness and engagement. Broken systems need a complete overhaul. A shiny disco ball band-aid won’t make cows healthier or workers happier.

●      Regenerative agriculture moves away from conventional mono-crop farming (which takes from the soil without giving much back) to mirroring mother nature in its design. Regenerative agriculture embodies a natural cycle of give and take that improves soil health, biodiversity, and climate resilience. As Mike shared his leadership approach, I couldn’t help but think of it as regenerative leadership. Here’s why. The relationship between an employee and an employer usually resembles this: the employee gets a paycheck for showing up to perform a mono-function. The employer is taking energy out of the employee, and mainly replenishing through a transactional payment. It’s lopsided. Mike talked about developing both the professional side and the personal side of his workforce. Not compartmentalizing—only investing in the “work version” of employees—but investing in employees to grow holistically as individuals.   

When you compartmentalize, you show up as less than yourself, a fractional compartment of who you are.  

I’m willing to bet that regenerative leadership results in a more healthy, more innovative, and more resilient workforce. 

References:

Follow Mike on Twitter and let him know what you think about this episode

Connect with Mike on LinkedIn

ButcherBox (New members can get $30 off their first box by entering the promo code “Mike sent me”)

CustomMade

You can learn more about the B Corp movement here

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

David Bronner is the CEO, or Cosmic Engagement Officer, for Dr. Bronner’s. Family-owned and run, Dr. Bronner’s makes socially & environmentally responsible products of the highest quality—all while dedicating their profits to help make a better world. David and the rest of the Bronner family are leaders that set an example of being human, and supporting humanity, at the core of everything they do.

You can learn more and keep up with what Dr. Bronner’s is doing by visiting their website.

In this episode we discuss

• How Dr. Bronner’s instigated a fight with the DEA over hemp, and won
• Why organic certification doesn’t go far enough
• The most effective tool we have for fighting climate change
• The cultural norm we’ll look back on as “cruel and unusual punishment”
• What Patagonia’s founder believes is required reading for those who are serious about transforming business to help save our home planet

Key Takeaways:

1. I’m reminded by the Margaret Mead quote “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” It’s incredible to see the impact this one company, Dr. Bronner’s, has made by committing to drive social and environmental change. Just imagine what the world would look like, if we all behaved as trusted stewards of the planet and humankind.
2. As consumers, we can start demanding more than just organic. We can go further in our expectations of the food and products we bring into our homes. The ROA created the Regenerative Organic Certification by combining the best standards across soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness into a single certificate. With the objective to heal a broken system, repair a damaged planet, and empower farmers and eaters to create a better future through regenerative organic farming. Look out for the Regenerative Organic Certification on products you buy.
3. The immense healing power in psychedelic therapy for PTSD, depression, anxiety and addiction. I’m very grateful for the support Dr. Bronner’s has put behind advocating for this cause.  I’m also immensely grateful for the healing power psychedelic therapy had on me. Never forget the power of your own voice, to share your own story as a way to help shift the cultural conversation around psychedelic therapy or any other taboo topic. Also, never forget the power of your vote, to support causes you care about and create change.

References

• Bronner’s Six Cosmic Principles
• This case study examines codifying “steward-ownership” in Germany
• All-One or All-None: A Conversation with David Bronner and Gero Leson. Article in Los Angeles Review of Books by Ayize Jama-Everett. June 21, 2021
• Regeneration International’s page on Regenerative Agriculture
• Regenerative Organic Certification
• Rodale Institute
• Patagonia
• Demeter biodynamic certification
• Compassion in World Farming animal welfare organization
• Fair World Project fair-trade organization
• A Greener World page on Animal Welfare Approved certification
• Global Animal Partnership animal welfare certification
• Honor Thy Label: Dr. Bronner's Unconventional Journey to a Clean, Green, and Ethical Supply Chain by Gero Leson
• Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
• The Compassionate Use Act (California Proposition 215)
• The Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer
• FDA page on Breakthrough Therapy designation
• Psilocybin Program Initiative (Oregon Measure 109)
• Campaign to Decriminalize Nature DC
• Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act (Oregon Measure 110)
• Bronner’s Magic All-One Chocolate
• Theo Chocolate
• Maestrani

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

If you want to work with me to embed purpose into your business, go to www.KathyVarol.com