Blog posts by Jeffrey Hollender,
featuring posts about sustainability,
social responsibility, entrepreneurship,
and more.

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Recent Posts

I almost didn’t go to the Women’s March

As a man, I almost didn’t go to the Women’s March. It was a rare Saturday that I had set aside to clean up the house in preparation for a small renovation project. The sky was grey and the air was damp. Spending hours standing outside in Northern Vermont in the middle...

Fixing the Freest Marketplace Money Can Buy

This is an excerpt from my article originally posted on the Standford Social Innovation Review on 03/30/16 We live with an illusion so powerful that we endlessly mistake it for reality. Merriam-Webster defines “free market” as “an economic market or system in which...

The Conscious Business Blueprint

The secret is out! Companies that give away money are actually more profitable! In fact conscious, values-driven, sustainable companies outperform the market 9 to 1! The tide has turned. Being values-driven and environmentally friendly is no longer a costly add-on to...

The Political Power of Single American Women

All the Single Ladies, a new book by award-winning journalist Rebecca Traister, explores the history of social and economic change in America…through the lens of the single American woman. The bottom line is this: historically, when women were given options beyond...

Insights on Millennials from Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs recently published a “data story” on the social and commercial behaviors of the millennial generation Y (those born between 1980 – 2000). Millennials make up the biggest generation in United States history, and have grown up in a time of rapid economic,...

Over The Counter Pill = Justice

Despite the ongoing attacks on reproductive healthcare, with the New Year we are seeing some policies on women’s health care change for the better; California and Oregon will be providing birth control pills over the counter at pharmacies. Women who are at least 18...

Must (absolutely positively) see this movie

Just saw The Big Short that chronicles the 2008 financial collapse through the stories of a small handful of people who realized what was happening to the U.S. economy while it was still happening — and then made vast fortunes by betting against the markets while...

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 financial...

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...

The Best Advice You’ll Ever Get

Many of you know David Brooks, the reasonably conservative, Republican-ish, op-ed columnist of The New York Times. The first and only time I ever attended a TED conference, Brooks was there, speaking to promote his latest book at the time. I found him arrogant and...

Rating Investors

The tech community has an amazing resource: TheFunded.com. This website allows entrepreneurs to research, rate, and review venture funds from around the world, providing invaluable information and guidance to entrepreneurs looking to raise critical growth capital. Wow...

Sex And No Common Sense

We created a national crisis by not investing in birth control and family planning. We often do things that totally defy common sense, and when it comes to sex we’re often outright stupid. Where does this stupidity come from? The sources are many: our discomfort with...

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