Month: March 2023

With a new year and a new conference season almost upon us; I wanted to reflect on one of my biggest highlights of 2022 – attending the B-Corp Champions Retreat in Philadelphia.

I’m generally quite familiar with the typical crowd that attends a mainstream sustainability conference – after all, these are people I have worked with for years – many of whom have since become close friends. It’s a mix of corporate leaders and sustainability/ESG champions from some of the largest organizations on the planet, and now an increasing amount of investors too. Last year things finally felt back to some semblance of ‘normal’ – and I’d forgotten how enjoyable it is to be around such inspiring humans in real life.   

When filling in the application form for any of these events, I’ve historically been registered in the ‘Consultant or Service Provider’ category – as opposed to the ‘Sustainability Practitioner’ category. Because while I feel I live and breathe ESG & Sustainability in my day to day, I’m also the one advising clients on what a strong sustainability leader looks like – or qualifying and coaching candidates looking for their next role, as opposed to being the one implementing a sustainability strategy myself.

However, with Acre now a certified B-Corp, I was excited to have the opportunity to attend the recent B-Corp Champions Retreat in Philadelphia. I had been part of a small team at Acre working on the certification process, which took more than two years to complete – a lot longer than any of us could have imagined when we began this journey; we were required to answer around200 externally verified questions, across everything from labor and human rights to energy, waste, supply chains and governance.

And so, the B-Corp Champions Retreat was the first conference I attended in over ten years that felt like an authentic and hard-earned reward. I helped take Acre through this process and so proudly stood in that room, officially part of what is a truly audacious and impactful sustainability movement.

The retreat began with a land acknowledgement led by We are the Seeds, a local organization that celebrates and educates about contemporary Indigenous arts and culture.

Philadelphia sits on the stolen land of the Lenape people – 14,000 of whom still live in the city. The session began with a native song, performed by an indigenous community leader. This set the tone for the rest of the retreat; poignant, authentic, beautiful, respectful, impactful – and very human.

Over the next three days, following a theme of Humanity at Work, we attended sessions on climate justice, fair business, building a movement and racial equity in action.

We also heard from Andrea Chase (who I had the privilege of placing as Dir Sustainability at Arbonne) speak about ‘B Beauty Coalition’, a group of 25 B-Corp beauty companies that have come together to share best practices in addressing key sustainability issues. A great example of true collaboration and leadership – where industry peers may still feel restricted from forging such partnerships due to Legal and Commercial concerns around divulging sensitive information to their competitors.

Most B-Corps are SMEs, but individually – and more so as a collective, the potential to make an impact is not limited by their size. Quite the opposite, in fact.

We heard from a number of incredible and transformative businesses, for example, Hanahana Beauty, MaineWorks and Greyston Bakery. In particular, Greyston is the supplier of all the brownies in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. The company also has an ‘open hiring’ policy which means: no resumes, no interviews, and no background checks. This potentially life-changing practice means that anyone – from the previously incarcerated to refugees and people on the poverty line – can simply put their name on a list and when a job comes up, they’re hired. No questions asked.

The result? Dramatically reduced hiring costs times, as well as a positive work culture, high levels of loyalty and trust, and pride in the workforce.

The Body Shop also began piloting opening hiring in 2020, which demonstrated 13% increase in productivity and 60% reduction in staff turnover. The company has since expanded the initiative to 3,000 open hiring positions. This is DEI made manifest: Creating true impact across a business while serving the wider community at the same time.

While I heard many examples of true, responsible business in action throughout the retreat – there was only one session on ESG frameworks – led by Navine Karim at Guayaki, and Julien Gervreau from SSF. Guayaki is a certified B-Corp and one of the founding members of the movement, a company where sustainability principles are truly part of their DNA and always have been. During the session, Navine spoke about the impact that regenerative agriculture can have – at source – using techniques that have been employed for centuries in Latin America and maintained to this day. 

It soon became apparent during that session that ESG reporting frameworks were a new topic for many in the room. When a slide came up highlighting the alphabet soup of standards that most of us are all too familiar with, a murmur rippled through the room, cameras were whipped out, and notes were hastily scrawled.

For some attendees, acronyms like SASB, GRI & SBTs may have been foreign but that does not mean these companies were not already living, breathing and implementing the equivalent of these standards already in their day-to-day.

I would imagine most businesses at this retreat – including Acre – became B-Corps because they wanted to make their values manifest in a way that felt authentic, transparent and far-reaching.

What makes B-Corps different is that in addition to meeting stringent social and environmental standards, a company must make it their fiduciary duty to become legally accountable to all stakeholders — customers, employees, suppliers, communities and the environment. While the majority of for-profit businesses are generally designed to do the exact opposite.

This is beyond revolutionary to me, and for most larger corporates (with the exception of trailblazers like Danone and, now more recently, AVEDA – part of the Estee Lauder Group), it is extremely hard to achieve.  It’s also far from perfect, as we all know, and is experiencing multiple growing pains and challenges that need to be addressed – but perhaps that’s for another blog.

The journey to becoming a fully embodied sustainable business, from the grassroots up, can be a tough one. The attendees at this retreat have made the decision to embark on that journey and become the change we now so urgently need to see.

I’ll confess I went to this retreat unsure of what I might find – perhaps even feeling cynical after ten years of recruiting in this space. But instead, I came away feeling enlightened, inspired, humbled, deeply moved and in some way transformed.

 

Catherine has been recruiting Senior Sustainability Executives and Non-Executives for over 10 years. Prior to Acre, Catherine worked for a boutique search firm with a focus on the charity and public sector. Catherine also sits on the board of Future-Fit Foundation, a non-profit offering tools to help investors and business tackle key Sustainability and climate change issues. With a passion for board diversity and appointing exceptional leaders at board level, she is also co-author of The Social Board, a paper exploring how to engage board members on key ESG and Sustainability issues. Catherine completed a Master’s at Kings College London in Sustainable Tourism, Development and the Environment in 2001, with a focus on standards and benchmarking in the tourism sector.

 

At Acre, we work with the most aspirational businesses with potential to make real change; from those who are just starting out to those who are well on the journey to crafting a legacy. Our 18 years’ experience in sustainability recruitment, combined with our extensive global network, enables us to provide talent solutions that are designed to deliver this change. Through our unique behavioural assessment technology, we understand the types of people, skills and behaviours required to create impact. We can develop these qualities within your existing teams too. We find talented people and develop their skills to ensure they make a true impact in ambitious, progressive organisations. Acre. Making companies ready for tomorrow

What you need to know: 

Verizon Innovative Learning, the company’s education initiative supporting digital equity and inclusion, has now provided over 3M students nationwide with digital skills training.Verizon Innovative Learning Schools will welcome 32 new Title I schools for the 2023-2024 school year, bringing the program’s reach to 593 schools across the country.Verizon Innovative Learning HQ now includes over 275 lesson plans, 20 AR/VR apps, and over 40 professional development courses.

NEW YORK, March 15, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Today, Verizon announced that its award-winning education initiative focused on supporting digital equity and inclusion for some of the most vulnerable populations across the country, Verizon Innovative Learning, has now provided over 3M students nationwide with digital skills training. The initiative, launched in 2012, addresses barriers to digital inclusion by leveraging technology to help students obtain the skills needed to pursue careers for success in the digital world.

The Verizon Innovative Learning initiative strives to help close the digital divide through key programs and resources, including: Verizon Innovative Learning Schools, Verizon Innovative Learning Labs, Verizon Innovative Learning STEM Achievers and Verizon Innovative Learning HQ. This effort is part of Citizen Verizon, the company’s responsible business plan for economic, environmental and social advancement, which uses leading-edge technology to help drive social impact and create lasting change across communities. Through Citizen Verizon, and the key pillar of Digital Inclusion, the company’s responsible business goals include providing 10 million youths with digital skills training by 2030.

“Creating an equitable education system depends on our ability to connect under-resourced areas with tech tools and education. Through the success of our Verizon Innovative Learning program over the past 10 years, we’ve seen millions of students thrive when those connections are made,” said Rose Stuckey Kirk, Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer at Verizon. “These tools open students’ worldviews, showcase new career paths, and create experiences that might not have existed otherwise. Our teams at Verizon are steadfast in continuing this work and helping to ensure that classrooms across the country reap the benefits that this education can provide.”

Bringing digital learning skills to under-resourced classrooms

Verizon is continuing to expand its Verizon Innovative Learning Schools program and will welcome 32 new Title I schools from 11 new school districts for the 2023-2024 school year, including schools in Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City and Memphis among Page 2 others. The addition of these schools brings the program’s reach to 593 schools nationwide and will benefit an estimated 18,000 additional students for the upcoming school year.

In partnership with long-time nonprofit partner Digital Promise, the program works to improve the quality of and access to digital learning for students in under-resourced schools by equipping students and teachers at select Title I schools across the country with free technology, internet access and innovative STEM learning programs. The Verizon Innovative Learning Schools program also provides schools with extensive teacher and administrator training focused on effectively integrating technology into the classroom, ongoing support, and the opportunity to engage in powerful teaching and learning strategies that leverage technology.

“Digital equity is about more than just handing a device to a student or improving internet access,” said Jean-Claude Brizard, president and CEO of Digital Promise. “To truly achieve digital equity, we must support teachers with the training on how to effectively leverage the technology for powerful learning experiences, and that is what the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools program does. We are proud to continue our partnership with Verizon through this powerful program.”

Next-gen learning for all 

Verizon Innovative Learning HQ, an award-winning, free education portal that makes the next-gen learning tools of the overarching Verizon Innovative Learning initiative available to all K-12 educators nationwide, now includes over 275 lesson plans and 20 corresponding augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) apps. Launched in Page 3 2021, the education portal offers a curated collection of lessons, ranging from supplemental turnkey lessons to yearlong design thinking courses, created by leading education partners including the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute at Arizona State University. Educators can leverage immersive AR and VR learning experiences in a variety of content areas, from history to biology to engineering, that can be accessed with any device.

Verizon Innovative Learning HQ also provides educators with extensive training and resources, which now includes over 40 professional development courses, many aligned with microcredentials, enabling them to learn new skills and feel confident integrating technology into the learning experience. The site was built in partnership with trusted education partners such as Discovery Education and McGraw Hill, among others. Educators can visit Verizon.com/Learning to sign up at no-cost.

Providing connectivity to all communities 

Working to provide connectivity to families in need both inside and outside of the classroom, Verizon participates in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a U.S. government program run by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to help low-income households pay for internet service, through the Verizon Forward Program. With ACP eligibility and the Verizon Forward Program, customers can get free home internet service – no hidden fees or annual contracts, and no equipment charges or data caps. You are eligible for ACP if you (or someone in your household) participate in certain government assistance programs, such as the Free and Reduced-Price School Page 4 Lunch Program. Learn more about the Verizon Forward Program by visiting www.verizon.com/home/free-verizon-internet/.

Beyond access: advancing digital equity 

To further the conversation on advancing digital equity, Rose Stuckey Kirk, chief corporate social responsibility officer at Verizon, will join Jean-Claude Brizard, CEO and president of Digital Promise, D’Andre Weaver, chief digital equity officer at Digital Promise and Joseph South, chief learning officer at ISTE, for a LinkedIn Live discussion on March 15 at 2PM ET. To register and listen in, visit here.

To learn more about Verizon’s efforts to bridge the digital divide, visit CitizenVerizon.com.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) was formed on June 30, 2000 and is one of the world’s leading providers of technology and communications services. Headquartered in New York City and with a presence around the world, Verizon generated revenues of $136.8 billion in 2022. The company offers data, video and voice services and solutions on its award-winning networks and platforms, delivering on customers’ demand for mobility, reliable network connectivity, security and control.

Verizon Innovative Learning, Verizon’s award-winning education initiative, is celebrating over a decade of commitment to addressing barriers to digital inclusion for students and teachers. Since 2012, the initiative has committed $1 billion in market value to support digital equity, reaching over 3 million students. Verizon Innovative Learning provides free technology, internet access and innovative learning programs to students in under-resourced communities – enabling students to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence needed to build an innovative workforce of the future. In 2021, Verizon launched Verizon Innovative Learning HQ, a next-gen online education portal that provides free access to immersive XR educational experiences to all educators, including K-12 teachers, nationwide. A key initiative under Citizen Verizon, the company’s responsible business plan for economic, environmental and social advancement, Verizon Innovative Learning is helping to drive the company’s goal to provide 10 million youths with digital skills training by 2030. Learn more at CitizenVerizon.com.

VERIZON’S ONLINE MEDIA CENTER: News releases, stories, media contacts and other resources are available at verizon.com/news. News releases are also available through an RSS feed. To subscribe, visit www.verizon.com/about/rss-feeds/.