B-Corporation

Last Friday I read an interesting article in NRC Handelsblad after which I dived into the subject. Nothing inferior, B- Corporations are the companies of the future. B is benefit. These companies are now legally supported in the USA to have social and environmental responsibility as objectives for entrepreneurship. IceStone is an example; workers are earning twice the minimum wage, work in daylight as much as possible to save energy and work with recycled materials. And still make beautiful work surfaces for kitchens. Patagonia outdoor gear is another example. No child labour, environmental awareness and even a think-before-you-buy-policy.
Different from multinationals who want to keep growing while proclaiming to reduce their footprint. Ofthen there's a lot of clever marketing involved. Juliet Schor, sociologist from Harvard says in her book 'Plenitude' : Responding to our current moment, Plenitude puts sustainability at its core, but it is not a paradigm of sacrifice. Instead it’s an argument that through a major shift to new sources of wealth, green technologies, and different ways of living, individuals and the country as a whole can actually be better off and more economically secure.
Of course also in The Netherlands we have these kind of companies which are focusing on corporate responsibility. Quite a few I would say.  But to have it as an objective, that's quite radical. So it's good news that in the huge USA this kind of entrepreneurship is supported. It could be a game-changer!
Truly redefine business, truly redefine profit, truly redefine entrepreneurship. Wow.
In the end consumers have the power, of course. These products will not be the cheapest. But in the long term they might be. If you really think ahead....