Blogs
Champions and allies of the Canadian Purpose Economy Project will post insights and updates about our work here. To receive these updates to your inbox, please subscribe.
Becoming a Purpose Professional: Using Your Career to Become a Greater Force for Good
Image: Kindel MediaMore and more companies are adopting a social purpose as the reason their business exists. There are different definitions of a social purpose business, but fundamentally it is a business whose reason for being is to create a better world. This...
The Purpose Economy: Reshaping the metrics of business success
“Business leaders across Canada are increasingly aware of aligning their business with their corporate purpose. Businesses with more established [sustainability] may even be looking at putting their corporate purpose at the core of everything they do.” This is how...
GLOBE Forum Social Purpose Community Meetup
Since our launch last year, the Canadian Purpose Economy Project has accelerated, mobilizing the Canadian social purpose ecosystem, developing tools to support social purpose stakeholders and influencers, and convening supporters across the country. On February 13,...
A Call to Purpose
An invitation to CEOs to lead the way toward a social purpose economy in Canada
Purposeful Policy: How Governments at All Levels Everywhere Can Accelerate the Purpose Economy
Policymakers everywhere now have a blueprint — and role models — for purposeful policy to better align corporate behaviour with public interest and to create allies for the work that lies ahead.
Closing the Purpose Governance Gap
The private, public, and third sectors all have their roles to bring about a fairer, greener economy. How can they work together to forge a better future?
Social Purpose & Civil Society
The private, public, and third sectors all have their roles to bring about a fairer, greener economy. How can they work together to forge a better future?
Accelerating Social Purpose
Corporate Knights’ recent publication presents insights into how 34 Canadian social purpose companies are implementing and operationalizing their purpose—and reaping the benefits.
The Difference Between Social Purpose and ESG (video)
A long and winding road has lead Peter ter Weeme to his current role as Chief Social Purpose Officer and VP, Player Experience at British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC).
We talk about some of the steps he took along the way, and his passion for the #SocialPurpose movement.
The Social Purpose of Associations
We’re in a moment of awakening about the role of organizations in society. Organizations are examining what they stand for in a world undergoing fundamental transformation. This includes associations who are at the interface between their members and the stakeholders...
ESG, Social Purpose, and the Power of Business
Those critics seem to be coming out in droves this year. Some, like former Vice President Mike Pence in his Wall Street Journal piece, seem clearly motivated to politicize the work. Some, like Tesla CEO Elon Musk via his anti-ESG remarks, seem petulant in the face of...
Social Purpose & Business Leadership
Our client had needed to downsize by about 30% in the year before the pandemic, due to a ‘perfect storm’ of issues. We of course spent time unpacking those issues and discussing how the right strategy post-pandemic could make the firm more resilient to such shocks,...
5 Ways Companies Can Transform to Social Purpose
Too many companies still understand their purpose — or fundamental reason for existence — as maximizing profits or shareholder wealth. How can they move beyond that narrow definition of purpose, towards defining how their businesses help address society’s challenges?...
The Purpose Gloves Are Off: How to Not End Up on the Ropes
Purpose in Canada just entered the ring. Corporate Knights, the famed Canadian publisher that annually ranks the world’s 100 most sustainable corporations, recently released its rating of 34 Canadian companies with a social purpose (a report I co-authored). It found...
Are Corporations Serving Their Purpose?
With a growing number of companies adopting a social purpose beyond profit, Corporate Knights and I weigh in on the leaders and laggards in this report. You will know Corporate Knights for their annual ranking of the world’s 100 most sustainable corporations and...
Measuring Purpose: Redefining Success For the Purpose Economy
The rapidly growing movement toward social purpose in business holds the promise of better ways of doing business, leading to healthier communities, restoration of our shared environment, and better outcomes for companies’ staff, customers, and other stakeholders. In...
Prospering in the New Purpose Era: The Business Benefits of Becoming a Social Purpose Company
Expectations of business and its role in society are changing. As society faces challenges including rising inequality, pandemics, recognition of systemic racism, accelerating climate change and biodiversity loss, stakeholders increasingly look to business to play a...