Sometimes in life it’s the prepositions that matter.
My company Wicked Ideas has been named a 2019 BCorp ‘Best For the World’ Changemaker honoree, which means I’m in the top 20 per cent of certified BCorps with the highest increase in our overall impact.
BCorps measure our impact (and earn certification) via the BCorp Impact Assessment, which is the only certification in the world that measures a company’s entire social and environmental performance. Things such as Wicked Ideas’ operations and business model, who and how I hire employees, contractors and employees, who I serve and the effect my work has on my clients’ stakeholders. It measures my charitable giving, my volunteer work and all the other ways I give back to my community here in Saint John and in New Brunswick.
Today’s recognition is special to me because it tells me I’m on the right track in build a company that aligns with my personal desire to make society more equitable, more connected and more empathetic.
Happily I’m not alone in this great endeavor. There are over 2,900 Certified BCorps around the world, 64 countries and counting. I’m particularly excited to be a founding member of We The Change, the BCorp Women CEO collective that this past May released our Declaration of Interdependence.
The We The Change Founding Mothers at our second annual gathering in May 2019 at designer Eileen Fisher’s headquarters in Irvington, NY. That’s me down front in the pink and white, sitting at the knee of Eileen, she of the silver bob. (Photo Courtesy of EILEEN FISHER)
“As women leaders of certified B Corporations and other purpose-driven enterprises, we believe in business as a force for good to generate abundance and prosperity for all. We are building a world where business is in harmony with nature and all life thrives.”
This includes a commitment to:
- Advance women’s leadership, prosperity and well-being.
- Promote sustainable business practices and innovations.
- Increase the flow of capital to women-led enterprises.
- Advocate for systemic changes to uplift marginalized identities.
- Align with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
You can learn more about #WeTheChange here and please join us by signing on as an ally in our work to champion an optimistic and hopeful approach to fundamental societal change.
To do that, we’ve set up working groups to begin to figure out how to move each of these complex issues forward. Not one to shy away from a challenge, I’ve signed up to co-chair the conversation on shifting capital and also on the work of building this peer-to-peer network, both topics that are driven by my love shared for southern Ontario, where I grew up, went to school and started working as a journalist, and New Brunswick, where I have lived, worked and written about for over two decades.
Over the years I’ve reported first hand on the changes that have disrupted local resource economies; the steady outmigration of young people to bigger cities; and the inequity and anger felt by Indigenous people and their attempts to assert greater control over their lives and resources.
Underlying all those stories was a current of resentment and growing distrust towards distant governments and corporate players who, if they did come to town, were there to announce closures, shut downs or social support programs. Travelling back and forth between Saint John and Toronto has for a long time been a portrait of contrasts; while my hometown has changing rapidly, my adopted home hasn’t. The former presents an image of confidence and growth; the latter a portrait of loss and decline.
This is the story of North America in 2019; growing inequity between booming major metros and everyone else. That is unacceptable to me, which is why I created Wicked Ideas: to change it by creating safe and welcoming spaces for people to learn how to make their communities and organizations better.
So one day, we can all lay claim to being the best for our world.
