I love the potential of the business world to make a positive impact. One great example of that is Green Standards North America, a company built on the idea of doing well by doing good.
On the surface, it sounds like a brilliant PR scheme. Big business shuns corporate world in favour of small-town Nova Scotia, where the players live out their dreams - and stoke their conscience - making the world a better place for poor people. Dig a little deeper, and you realize it's actually true.
It's hard to argue with their success. The multimillion-dollar company, Green Standards North America of Bridgewater, did more business in the first three months of 2007 than in all of last year. The program is called Waste to Wonder, and it involves diverting corporate waste such as furniture and equipment from landfills and donating it to worthy causes, like schools and charities. Computers, desks, chairs, boardroom tables, projectors - more than 30 million tonnes of corporate waste head to Canadian dumps each year.
The company combines money-making with money-giving.
"It's altruistic capitalism. At the front end, we've got an operating company that charges other companies to do work and makes profit. The back end of the business is a charitable trust, and the operating company covers a lot of the cost of the charitable trust. So we don't go out asking for money, we go and earn money to run the charitable trust. That's unique. The other aspect, which is equally important, is the people involved. We've got an environment here and a team of people here who really feel they're making a difference, and that's very, very motivating for those involved."
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