Values-driven Business and C.E.D.

Business in Transformation• needs to reorient to the needs of

community and planet in its goals and means.

• needs to expand its moral and legal status to include its workers and all stakeholders affected by its actions.

• needs to support positive business activity in every community.

• special difficulties of small business in the existing economy.– need for a fundamental shift in economic

resources from the Wal-Marts to the Small-Marts.

Limits vs. Transformation

The Oil / Suburb / Debt / Mass Consumption economy created a structure of development.

A green economy must create a logical structure of its own.

Redefining Wealth

Quantitative: Money & Material

Accumulation

Qualitative: Well-being

Regeneration

Dematerialization & the ESCO model

• Savings as a virtual source of energy• The Green Economy: creates Wealth through

savings (or dematerialization) • Savings as a source of Investment

Challenge of financial design: dealing with first costs

End-Use & the Green Economy

1. The Service Economy“Hot Showers and Cold Beer”

Nutrition, Illumination, Entertainment, Access, Shelter, Community, etc.

2. The “Lake Economy”Flowing with nature, Every output an input,

Closed-loop organization, Let nature do the work

Structural obstacles to sustainability

• Nature of the Corporation & the SBL

• Centrality of Economic Growth• Ownership patterns inconsistent

with Stewardship• Alienated relationship to human

need– Creating rather than

responding to it

The Corporation in History• initial charters• the Corporate Person & industrialization• Bureaucracy: the rise of Big Organization• Fordism: Mass production & the crisis of

effective demand – postwar Waste Economy

• Post-Fordism: “commanding heights” shift from manufacturing to finance and retail, globalization & outsourcing

• Current pressure to create “Stakeholder Corporations”

Corporate Strategies• Corporations as financial, not

production, entities• Structural problems: the ‘bottom

line’ • documentary: The Corporation• Need to change corporate DNA• Need for outside help: regulation

(EPR), new enterprises networks, certification

• The Stakeholder Corporation & democracy

The Business Case for Sustainability

• Single Bottom Line Sustainability (SBLS)

• Essential to large corporations

• Not sufficient to create ecological economies

Corporations need outside help!

Internal & External Action

• The balance is different for big & small business

• Relationship between democracy & economic evolution

• Centrality of Stakeholder relationships

• Importance of New Enterprise Networks

General Priorities• labour vs. resource intensity

--beyond cog-labour; upgrading work (“human capital”)• qualitative indicators of wealth and progress

--corporate accounting / community indicators• place-based production & development• economic democracy: workers, community, society• organizational change: structure & culture that infuses all

operations with sustainability goals & practices.• transparency: de-monopolizing information • restructuring of manufacturing: means/ends• marketing: affects all aspects of the firm

Quantification & Value

• What is measured gets done

• What gets counted is valued;

What is valued gets counted

Market Transformation

• Social & Environmental Values become drivers of “mindful markets”

• Money & capital increasingly a means (not the end-goal) of economic development

• Involves the transformation of regulation —incentives & disincentives built into everyday economic life

Manufacturing & the Ecological Service Economy

“Match Manufacturing to Mission”• Production contributes to Qualitative Wealth• Waste Equals Food • Dematerialization of Production and Higher

Resource Efficiency• Reduction of the Speed of Resource Flow through

the Economy• Appropriate Scale• Regenerative Work is Created• New Rules & Closed Loops: LCA and EPR

Distributed Regulation• Need for incentives &

disincentives embedded in everyday production & exchange.

• 3rd Party certification systems as non-state regulation.

• Finance & taxation as regulation• Power of “collective consumerism”• B-Corp: certification of corporate

governance: changing corporate DNA

• Ownership tailored to stewardship and democracy.

Values-driven Business

Economic tendencies towards decentralization

Technological: networked info economy

distributed generation

miniaturization

Ecological: economic biomimicry / ecosystem model of development / peak oil / distribution costs

Social: creativity base: human-scale

Companies that provide products or services that improve the quality of life in their communities

Companies that operate more responsibly

Companies that invests their profits in

social or environmental causes

Values-Driven Business

employees

suppliers

customers

community

company

5 Dimensions of Values-Driven Business

Community / Small Business • The realm of cutting-edge alternatives in almost

every sector• Need for new & stronger networks• Local market power based on solid knowledge• Import substitution • Regenerative finance• Necessity of empowering all sections of the

community• Community development Plans & Indicators

                                                                                      

                                           

Localization

• LOIS vs. TINA

• Local First not “buy local”

• Multipliers

• Employment

• Stability / security – Peak Oil / Corporate Mobility

• Quality of Life

• Efficiency

TINA vs. LOIS

• localism & accountability

• job creation• stability• diversity• multiplier effect• ecological scale

What BALLE Networks Do

Members of Local BALLE Networks have a direct stake in the future of their communities and bioregions and include local business owners, non-profit leaders, government representatives, and engaged citizens.

Members of Local Networks work together to:

• Support the growth and development of community-based business

• Encourage local purchasing by consumers and businesses

• Create opportunities for business leaders to network and share best practices

• Advocate public policies that strengthen independent local businesses and farms, promote economic equity, and protect the environment

In order to support our Local Networks, BALLE:

• Provides Local Networks with tools, business models and other resources

• Maintains an online marketplace of independent, community-based businesses

• Links Local Living Economies to share best practices • Promotes Local Living Economies through media, public

forums, and partnerships• Develops pilot initiatives to strengthen Local Living

Economies

Principles of Local Living Economies

• Living economy communities produce and exchange locally as many products needed by their citizens as they reasonably can, while reaching out to other communities to trade in those products they cannot reasonably produce at home. These communities value their unique character and encourage cultural exchange and cooperation.

• Living economy public policies support decentralized ownership of businesses and farms, fair wages, taxes, and budget allocations, trade policies benefiting local economies, and stewardship of the natural environment.

• Living economy consumers appreciate the benefits of buying from living economy businesses and, if necessary, are willing to pay a price premium to secure those personal and community benefits.

LLE Principles (con’t)

• Living economy investors value businesses that are community stewards and as such accept a 'living return' on their financial investments rather than a maximum return, recognizing the value derived from enjoying a healthy and vibrant community and sustainable global economy.

• Living economy media provide sources of news independent of corporate control, so that citizens can make informed decisions in the best interests of their communities and natural environment.

• Living economy businesses are primarily independent and locally owned, and value the needs and interests of all stakeholders, while building long-term profitability.

LLE Businesses:

• Source products from businesses with similar values, with a preference for local procurement

•  Provide employees a healthy workplace with meaningful living wage jobs

•  Offer customers personal service and useful safe, quality products

•  Work with suppliers to establish a fair exchange •  Cooperate with other businesses in ways that balance their

self-interest with their obligation to the community and future generations

•  Use their business practices to support an inclusive and healthy community, and to protect our natural environment

•  Yield a 'living return' to owners and investors

Local First Campaigns

• Money spent local, stays local

• Local owners are local contributors

• Local owners offer stable employment

• Lower environmental impact

• Tax revenues go further

• Maintain uniqueness