I’m a fan of the Clinton Global Initiative. I’m a fan of former Presidents risking their political capital and I think CGI has been and hopefully will continue to play a significant leadership role engaging the private sector in creating public benefit.
CGI recently hosted an event titled ‘Creating Value for Business and Society’. The discussion was introduced by Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution, and featured Bill and the CEOs of Coke and ADM. In the invitation, it says that: ‘The Clinton Global Initiative will host a discussion on corporate philanthropy and social responsibility in the midst of an economic downturn. The discussion will focus on how businesses can create value for both shareholders and society, and how some companies have integrated ‘doing good’ into their core business to reduce costs, increase profits, and confront the world’s most pressing problems.’
I am certain that Coke and ADM are doing some great things. I am also certain the scale of some of these things is quite large. I am equally certain that they have not integrated ‘doing good’ into their core business models. In fact, these great things are marginal to their core businesses. This doesn’t make them bad companies or unimportant initiatives, but corporate philanthropy and CSR are simply not capable of ‘confronting the world’s most pressing problems’.
CGI and Brookings are looking in the wrong places for examples of next generation business leadership which is using the power of business to confront the world’s most pressing problems. (Not to mention capable of ‘restoring public confidence in corporations’ – another stated goal of the CGI conversation.)
There are about 200 companies who are legally accountable to create value for both shareholders and society and who have met comprehensive and transparent standards which demonstrate that they have integrated doing good into their core business models. Hopefully, you will get to know many of them in this blog, but today I’d like to introduce you to just one of them which would be good to include in a next discussion with Bill.
Guayakí is a beverage company like Coke. Guayakí introduced yerba mate to the US market (yerba mate is to Argentines what espresso is to Italians) and sells it in tea bags and ready-to-drink refrigerated bottles. They are small, growing, and have the backing of Whole Foods distribution and Clif Bar mission-aligned growth capital (Clif Bar has a very cool fund to help independent high impact businesses stay independent and high impact.)
Guayakí’s products are tasty (this makes them competitive) and sourced sustainably, actually sustainably squared, S2 (this makes them high impact).
Guayakí was created for the purpose of confronting the world’s most pressing problems. Most social entrepreneurs would have been satisfied with confronting one pressing problem (say either climate change or poverty), Guayakí’s founders doubled down and give us a BOGO (Buy One Get One free).
Guayakí’s global sourcing creates economic opportunity for marginalized indigenous peoples in South America while protecting one of the world’s most endangered tropical rainforest biodiversity hotspots.
Through Guayakí’s innovative business model, indigenous peoples are trained in sustainable agriculture, paid according to fair trade standards, and their communities offered a dignified way to integrate into the global marketplace; rainforests are left un-cut, preserving biodiversity and soaking up our carbon, and we get to drink a tasty drink, maybe even experience the beauty of fellowship in passing around a well-packed communal gourd, knowing that scaling this business means scaling good.
Thanks to Bill and CGI, Impact Investing will be featured at the big CGI event this Fall (and in another upcoming blog).
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