Social Impact Examples

Businesses Impact in Many Ways

As a business, you can make a positive social impact through more than your product or service offering. Business owners and their employees can incorporate social good into their operations, striving to create wide-reaching benefits for their customers, the surrounding community and environment. It can be at the core of your operations and help determine each and every business decision that is made. 

Some employers encourage or offer grants for their staff to participate in volunteer abroad placements during their vacation periods and match the hours worked with a financial donation from the company to a designated charity. Others encourage employees to donate their paid time off to working with a charity of their choosing.

Here are a few examples of businesses that are making a positive social impact:

Ben & Jerry’s

Since their inception Ben & Jerry’s has been connected to promoting grassroots efforts for social justice, protecting the environment, and supporting sustainable food systems. While often they connect their social initiatives to the process of making ice cream, like supporting Fairtrade, Ben & Jerry’s also partners with different social equality groups. One of their initiatives “Justice ReMix’d” focuses on criminal justice system reform and how people of color are disproportionately affected.

Esri

As the world's leading mapping technology, Esri has a special focus on designing a smarter, more sustainable future. Esri supports organizations working in conservation, education, environmental management, ocean science, green energy, sustainable development, and humanitarian affairs. The technology provided by Esri helps their customers find solutions to local and global problems, from delivering clean water and electricity, sustaining population growth, educating a community, fighting crime, slowing climate change, and stamping out disease.

IKEA

IKEA focuses on bettering the lives of children through their social initiatives. In the 1990’s, they began fighting child labor practices and have continued to support healthy living conditions for children since then. Since 2001 IKEA has donated over $200 million to UNICEF, to help supply a healthy environment, like access to clean drinking water, for children around the world. In 2016 the home brand also launched their “Let’s Play for Change” initiative that focuses on providing children a nurturing space to grow and develop in areas where they often lack a safe space to play.

LEGO

As a toy company rooted in plastic products, LEGO is aiming toward a more sustainable future for their company and their blocks. They partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to help source more responsible materials for their toys, and in 2018 released a line of legos that are made entirely of sugarcane. Also, in 2015 they pledged to invest $15 million over the following 15 years to reduce their carbon footprint. As part of this initiative, 100% of the energy used to create the bricks comes from renewable wind power.

NRG

NRG is an energy provider committed to becoming a sustainable source of power for businesses and residential communities. They outline the importance of taking substantial action to drastically reduce CO2  emissions in the coming years. NRG’s own goals include achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and cutting their current emissions by 50% within five years.

Patagonia

Patagonia is an outdoor clothing company well-known for their commitment to sustainability and fleeces made from recycled plastics, but they also support a number of other social initiatives. They pledge at least 1% of their sales or 10% of their pre-tax profits (whichever is more) to environmental grassroot groups. Since 1985 they’ve donated over $100 million to these organizations. Patagonia also supports local involvement through their initiative Action Works where individuals can see what volunteer opportunities and events are happening in their area.

TOMS

TOMS Shoes produces their shoes in Argentina and China following fair labor practices and having minimal environmental impact. TOMS donates a pair of shoes for each pair purchased to a child in need in Argentina, Africa and other places around the world.

Organizations with Innovative Solutions

Some innovative organizations have created unique solutions to address serious social issues, and a few examples are described below:

Hello Tractor

Many communities in Africa lack access to the labor and equipment necessary to increase their production, which results in a loss of income and smaller harvests. Hello Tractor unites technology and service through their “smart tractors.” These affordable pieces of equipment not only complete farm work more effectively, they also collect data on usage to help analyze and inform best practices.

PCI

Drought poses problems for farmers with migrating herds of stock in need of grazing land. Typically, these farmers rely on experience and methods like scouting and oral communications. PCI’s Satellite Assisted Pastoral Resource Management (SAPARM) initiative uses satellite data collected on grazing conditions to inform farmers who herd and migrate their stock. Instead of dealing with the problem after the fact, this tool helps farmers prevent running into the problem. It’s designed to lower the rate of herd mortality and help farmers become more profitable and maintain a stable source of income.

Timberland

Due to natural disasters, 98 percent of Haiti is deforested. For the last five years, Timberland has worked with local partners in Haiti to create the Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA). The alliance attacks the issue of deforestation and lack of support for the farming industry and agriculture by creating a sustainable business model for farmers. Their program introduces farmers to key business leaders and helps them build these relationships for exporting their crops. In the business model, farmers tend to nurseries, and in return for their work, they receive seeds and tools to produce a harvest. They repay the seed bank and then sell their crop.

Team4Tech Foundation

At Team4Tech Foundation, tech volunteers from large companies all over the country give their time to teach master teachers in Kenya. They help teachers implement learning software that teaches “21st century skill development” with a focus on areas like STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), literacy, and entrepreneurship. This program helps nonprofit clients bring education via technology to those with limited access to educational resources.

Learning Equality

Learning Equality’s KA Lite works to bring online learning “offline” for members of developing communities. The organization recognizes the gap between those with and without internet access, and they know that people who could benefit the most from online resources lack the ability to do so. Their program uses open-source educational information on portable tools and devices to provide a universal education that anyone can access, anywhere.

Coalitions for Queens

Coalitions for Queens works to strengthen the tech community in Queens and NYC by making it more diverse and involving more minorities in the space. Specifically, the organization aims to bring more women, immigrants, underrepresented minorities, and those without a four-year degree into the tech industry. The nine-month Access Code program instructs participants on how to develop and launch a mobile app and then go on to secure a position that will increase their income and standard of living.

Edovo

Education is proven to reduce prison recidivism rates by 43%, and according to Edovo, today’s correctional facilities fail to “correct anything.” To combat this, their Endovo Suite for Corrections program uses secure tablet technology to help incarcerated people take the steps to make positive change and reenter society. Tablet users may browse topics related to cognitive behavioral therapy, vocational training, academics, and more.

Soldier On

Soldier On, Inc. provides ways for veterans to move from homelessness to homeownership. While they operate several veteran assistance programs to this end, their unique Incarcerated Veterans program focuses on this particular population, providing them with resources catered to their needs in order to reduce their recidivism rates. Prisoners are grouped into a pod at the facility and then given access to 45 hours of programming every week. From sobriety and mental health guidance, to services focused on post-release, the program equips this population with the skills and steps to succeed in their new lives.

SHE

In a large part of the world, women’s menstruation is considered taboo. Consequently, there is a lack of access to feminine products that prevents them from living their lives to the fullest. Girls are forced to miss school, which widens the gap in education. Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE) get women directly involved by helping them create their own businesses to manufacture and distribute feminine products. Banana fiber that would have been thrown away is processed, cleaned, and sold back to SHE Innovates to be manufactured into a menstrual pad.

Be Girl

Be Girl Inc.’s business model is geared to sell reusable and disposable menstruation management options to women all over the world. Their buy-one-get-one model distributes products to girls in need for every purchase made on their site. The innovative design of their products is an important piece of their success. Be Girl Inc. focuses on design that helps girls feel empowered and autonomous.

Each Person Can Make an Impact

As an individual, you can make a positive social impact in many ways, such as your choice of career or by starting a business with social impact at the core. There are effective “volunteer abroad” programs that strive to make beneficial impacts on local communities in a diverse range of fields. In addition to benefiting the local community, volunteers often gain new skills and perspectives that can be used to benefit their communities back home. How you vacation can even make an impact. For instance, supporting community tourism initiatives and staying in locally owned guesthouses helps create jobs within communities. In addition, eco-tourism projects can help conserve vital habitats for wildlife and people.