Champions Retreat Day 3: Connections, Challenges, and Collaborations

“Ethical Markets is proud to also be a Certified B Corporation. Congratulations to All.

~Hazel Henderson, Editor”

All week, we’ve been updating you on what’s going on in Philly and sharing ways to join the conversations and collaborations that make Champions Retreat so special. Thanks for being with us in spirit!

CELEBRATING THE CHANGEMAKERS

Jessica Thomas of North Carolina State University wins the Bill Clark Award

Every year, we take time to celebrate some of the B Corps who have gone above and beyond over the past year. This year, we gathered at the National Constitution Center to reflect on our Declaration of Interdependence and honor exceptional contributions from the past year. Whether they collaborated with a record number of fellow B’s, improved their score on the B Impact Assessment, or modeled what it means to have a mission-aligned exit, all our honorees are well worth celebrating.
Download Honoree Slideshow

Sitting a block from Independence Hall, we reflected on our B Corp Declaration of Interdependence—a global document defining the shared values of our community.PANELS, PROGRAMMING, & UNCONFERENCE TIME

Wednesday was jam-packed with content! Here are a few snapshots of the work we’ve done together so far around our theme of Towards an Inclusive Economy.

Inclusion & Diversity Workshops
Building on the energy around the launch of the B Corp Inclusion Challenge, attendees chose between nine workshops on different elements of building an inclusive economy. Some brainstormed how to be an effective ally in the workplace or create opportunities for the chronically under-employed, while others spent time exploring inclusive ownership structures and value chains. Be on the lookout for Best Practice Guides on these topics coming soon!

Brand Advocacy for B Corps
For B Corps interested in lending their voices to causes they care about, a panel of experts from Ben & Jerry’s, Seventh Generation, and UncommonGoods had some suggestions. With experience advocating for the Paris climate agreements, #BlackLivesMatter, new chemical transparency standards, local living wages, and paid family leave, the panel walked through the uses of thought leadership, policy advocacy, and consumer-facing campaigns. Ben & Jerry’s reminded us that “You don’t need to be experts—we’re ice cream makers! We find the experts and ask them: as a business, how can we be most helpful?”

Climate Change as a Social Justice Issue
Any issue that affects the planet affects people too—and affects different groups in different ways, often along existing power imbalances. Our panel on the intersection between climate change and social justice featured five B Corps: Fetzer Vineyards, Dr. Bronner’s, Global Policy Solutions, Big Path Capital, and National Co+op Grocers. Topics included the move from “sustainable” to “regenerative” agriculture; the need to insulate smallholder farmers from the economic impacts of climate change; and the way extreme weather events like Hurricane Katrina disproportionately harm already vulnerable and marginalized populations.

Unconference Sessions
We spent several hours were in Unconference sessions, where B Corps proposed their own session ideas and convened workshops and discussions with like-minded attendees. Sessions ranged from conversations on climate change and campus activism to faith-based business and mission-aligned financing.

Yesterday, B Lab released the first set of resources to help B Corps get started on the B Corp Inclusion Challenge! Check out the Inclusive Economy Metric Sets and catch up on the Challenge if you haven’t signed up yet.
“Freedom From Fear” and Aung San Suu Kyi
As in past retreats, we spent time this year in small discussion groups reflecting on a reading we shared ahead of time. This year’s reading was “Freedom From Fear,” a speech by politician, activist, and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Yesterday afternoon we used “Freedom From Fear” as a jumping-off point to dig into questions of corruption, courage, and what it takes to achieve a revolution of spirit. Download “Freedom From Fear”