Benefit Corporations
James Wernicke
31 Jan 2023
About Me
I grew up in New Mexico and love living in Los Alamos where I can feed my twin passions of science and nature while raising my family in a safe and quiet community. I started my first business in 2022 and shortly thereafter, stumbled into studying corporate responsibility when I accidentally enrolled in a graduate course on the subject at UNM’s Anderson School of Management. I believe there is a lot of injustice in the world, and that for-profit enterprise and voluntarism are the keys to eliminating it.
Our Economy Runs On Capitalism
As Capitalism Rises, So Does Global Prosperity
“There is one and only one social responsibility of business—to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits.”
Profit At All Costs?
Worker Exploitation
Pollution
“Capitalism means you have the opportunity to use your talents to produce things you share with other people, and if they are a value to others, you will be rewarded in a relatively fair system.
Do we have a fair system?
Where multinational corporations pay less taxes than Jimmy Carter? Where young people have to wait until they're 40 to buy a house?
Is that capitalism the way it was intended?"
Source: wikipedia.org
Stakeholders Are First Class Citizens
Stakeholder Corporation
Balances stakeholder and shareholder values
Shareholder Corporation
Maximizes shareholder value
Demand For Responsible Business Is Rising
World’s largest organizations are using GRI standards [2]
80%
Cost to businesses for climate-related events by 2026 [2]
$1.3T
Growth in ESG investments by 2026 [1]
84%
New Tools To Empower Corporate Responsibility
Benefit Corporation
Certified B Corp
Why Certify?
Maintain Mission
Differentiate From Pretenders
Measure Performance
Attract Talent
Collaborate With Peers
Save Money
Generate press
“In my work, I often wonder to what extent business can help society in its goals to alleviate poverty, preserve ecosystems, and build strong communities and institutions…
B Lab has proven that there is a way – the B Corp movement shows us that business, the driving force of our economy, can be an agent of change and live up to society’s standards.”
- Madeleine Albright
B Impact Assessment
Best For The World
“B Lab’s vision is that one day all companies will compete to be best for the world, and as a result society will enjoy a more shared and durable prosperity.”
“We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules because the rules have to be changed. We need a system change, rather than individual change, but you cannot have one without the other.
So I ask you to please wake up and make the changes required possible. To do your best is no longer good enough. We must all do the seemingly impossible.
Everything needs to change. And it has to start today.”
- Greta Thunberg
References
Questions?
James Wernicke
me@wernicke.com