Unicorns, entrepreneurs and 7 great ideas

Yesterday I attended the annual meeting of a visionary and exceptionally responsible venture capital fund. There are not a lot of them out there — maybe these are the real unicorns. I heard a few interesting things: Extraordinary entrepreneurs take on huge,...

Let’s be Honest…

The Guardian recently posted an interactive dictionary of corporate values and terms to explore what words like ‘authentic’ and ‘green’ actually mean when used to describe companies and products. The company values dictionary defines 8 terms: authentic, ethical,...

Planet Home: living green

Planet Home is a guide to going green, but this book goes a step further and challenges readers to think deeply about how our actions and purchases are part of a much larger planetary system than we may be aware of. This book was written in 2010, but it is just as, if...

We’ve Lost Our Moral Compass

This post first appeared in my new column Inspired Protagonist on Greenbiz.com. http://www.greenbiz.com/article/weve-lost-our-moral-compass Over the past several years, legal settlements for unethical, fraudulent or criminal activity by the world’s largest...

Scaling business sustainability: Why be timid?

This post first appeared in my new column Inspired Protagonist on Greenbiz.com. http://www.greenbiz.com/article/scaling-business-sustainability-why-be-timid A report released last year by Ceres and Sustainalytics found that while a few U.S. businesses are exhibiting...

8 ways to shape a more sustainable workforce

This post first appeared in my new column Inspired Protagonist on Greenbiz.com. http://www.greenbiz.com/article/8-ways-shape-more-sustainable-workforce I’ve spent most of my life, since age 19, starting and running four businesses. I’ve never paid any employee who’s...

The Trouble with Inequality

This post first appeared in my new column Inspired Protagonist on Greenbiz.com. http://www.greenbiz.com/article/trouble-inequality-sustainability The Wall Street bonus pool for last year was roughly double the total earnings of all Americans who worked full time at...

Net Positive: The Future of Sustainable Business

This article by Jeffrey Hollender first appeared in Stanford Social Innovation Review, April 29, 2015 Business efforts must become more sustainable and responsible to turn the tide on social inequity and environmental decay. Net positive is a new standard that can...