Depending on how I count, I’ve started either 3 or 4 businesses during my life; the difference between 3 and 4 lies with the window washing company I started at age 15. Westhampton Window Washing was a summer job, but unlike most of my friends, I decided to work for myself. I usually don’t count it as a business I’ve started, but perhaps I should.
When I left Seventh Generation three years ago, the thought of starting another business was close to unimaginable. But as time passed I realized two things:
First, there are many things I’m passionate about that I’d failed to accomplish at Seventh Generation. Most importantly, evolving the model of responsible business to what I’ll call a regenerative or net-positive state. This idea comes from long time advisor Carol Sanford. A regenerative business is one that, rather than being focused on minimizing it’s negative impact (being sustainable), its focus is on repair and regeneration; improving the planet and its people. Undoing the damage we’ve caused, whether that’s social inequity or global climate change, and building a healthier and more resilient world.
Second, I’m not sure there’s anything I’m really good at other than starting and running a business. And while I love to teach, serve on boards, write, read and travel, I missed the singular focus that running a business brings to your life and being part of a tightly knit team.
So as the new year of 2013 came into view, my wife Sheila and I decided to start Sustain. Some two decades ago the idea of sustainably produced condoms was one that intrigued me. Those were the days when rainforest destruction was making daily headlines. While “rainforest rubbers” remained on the drawing board for the next twenty years, it was the genesis of Sustain and the heart of my vision of bringing a net-positive product to market.
At its essence, Sustain is about two things: connecting the dots and evolving the model of responsible business to a higher plane. Connecting the dots is about showing how all the challenges we face in the world are interconnected. Sustain is committed to approaching everything it does from a systems perspective, a perspective that allows us to see the larger whole, not a fragmented, compartmentalized world, not just what we want to see, our own point of view, our own reality, but a world that is endlessly interconnected, in which everything we do affects everything else.
Second, to evolve the model of what we call responsible business, or corporate social responsibility, and more recently, social innovation. Today this world of responsible business is about slow, incremental, mostly un-innovative change in the face of ever growing social and environmental challenges that require a radical, if not revolutionary approach. We need new models to inspire both young entrepreneurs as well as established multi-national companies. Perhaps the closest to this that I’ve seen is Kingfisher’s “Net-Positive” program.http://www.kingfisher.com/netpositive/index.asp?pageid=1
Much more to come on this topic in following posts.
Jeffrey