Small Business, Big Change

Chapter 1: Your Business as a Social Change Agent

ONE: Your Business as a Social Change Agent

SOME individuals, it seems, come into the world hard-wired to bring about social change, whether through their personal or professional activities, or both. For some people, those activist tendencies are awakened gradually; in others, the “on” switch is activated early in life. Kate Sutherland, an organizational and community development consultant, facilitator, and author who lives and works in Vancouver, has self-identified as a change agent for most of her life, but has only come to identify herself as a business person in recent years. Initially, Kate thought she would be able to help create changes by applying her study of economics to community development work, but in practice she found herself on a different path. When asked about what inspired her to start a socially responsible business, she replied that while the passion was there (she’s been involved in projects that focus on food security, recycling, sustainable living, and citizen engagement initiatives), her interest in connecting her personal interests to business came later. “I’ve been interested and involved with trying to figure out how to change the world, make changes for the better, since I was a teenager,” says Kate. “But what has been interesting is learning to see myself as a business person. I’ve come to see a positive role for business. I can see a synergy between social purpose and business.”

Each of the microentrepreneurs interviewed for this book stepped into their roles as entrepreneurial social change agents in different ways. Some, like Kate, have always seen themselves as social change agents and made deliberate choices to incorporate their social activism into their paid work. Some, such as Julie Beyer, the founder of For the Love of Food, started out as a socially conscious, accidental entrepreneur. Julie’s interest in transforming the global food system was first sparked while studying economics and international development, but she thought she’d be making those changes in a detached kind of way through policy work. Julie’s love of delicious food was ignited when she studied abroad for a year in France. A stint of volunteering on an organic farm in Turkey helped her to see first-hand the connection between her food choices and the food system, and their implications for small-scale farmers, but it wasn’t until she returned to Canada that she figured out what she wanted to do. A debilitating illness that included symptoms of severe food allergies and a hypersensitivity to food additives and pesticides sparked her four-year journey of holistic healing that included embracing a 100% organic, whole foods lifestyle and a commitment to cultivating a love of healthy food.

Along the way, Julie discovered she had a natural talent for combining flavors and making healthy food taste delicious. She developed a passion for teaching people how to make healthier food choices and to cook with organic and sustainably produced whole, plant-based foods and eventually launched For the Love of Food. Julie also makes and sells her GLOW product line of sweet and savory treats made from high quality, raw, organic ingredients. Julie laughs at the irony in her radically revised approach to transforming the global food system. “I never intended to start a business, let alone teach people how to eat and cook healthfully,” says Julie. “[When I was growing up], I used to be teased for my lack of cooking skills.”

Unlike some of the entrepreneurs in this book who started from day one as a socially responsible business, Toby Barazzuol started Eclipse Awards, a company that creates recognition awards for corporations, nonprofits, and other organizations, as a regular business. The catalyst for transferring his personal interest in sustainability and social responsibility (S-R) to his business operations was nothing smaller than the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Back in 2002, when local businesses started hearing that Vancouver might be hosting the 2010 Winter Games, they also heard that companies bidding for contracts would be asked about their sustainability practices. Toby started talking to other people about sustainability, as well as reading Paul Hawken’s books. What he learned changed everything. A couple of years later, he launched Eclipse Award’s S-R transformation starting with green energy certifications. Eclipse Awards is well into its S-R journey and Toby continues to find new ways to refine or expand his S-R practices.