[WEBINAR] Finding Corporate Success While Promoting Social & Environmental Responsibility (Video)

Michael Pirron, Founder and CEO of Impact Makers, sits down with Jeffrey Hollender, CEO & Co-Founder of the American Sustainable Business Network and Co-Founder and Former CEO of Seventh Generation. Through their impressive and extensive experience founding companies with unique business models, Pirron and Hollender will discuss how large corporations can find success while promoting social and environmental responsibility.

In this webinar, Hollender discusses the common misconceptions about the term “social enterprise,” suggesting that many businesses might unintentionally create negative impacts on society and the environment. Social enterprises, however, exist to solve problems through systemic and organizational practices, allowing them to maximize their positive impact and minimize any negative impact.  

This conversation leads into a discussion about impact investing as a practice through which investors can increase their positive impact by investing in sustainable, responsible businesses and nonprofits. Through impact investing, investors may also invest in women-owned businesses or Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)-owned businesses.

Pirron later explores Hollender’s background and upbringing, including the events that inspired his first book, How to Make the World a Better Place, and how that book led him to create and become the CEO of Seventh Generation alongside his Co-Founder Alan Newman in 1988. After a few other stops along his career trajectory, Hollender became the CEO and Co-Founder of the American Sustainable Business Network in 2019. 

After speaking about his inspirational background and personal experience in the social enterprise industry, Hollender offers insights on how Seventh Generation became one of the 19 founding B-Corp businesses. They further discuss why Seventh Generation chose to undergo the B-Corp assessment, how that decision impacted the development of the B-Corp certification as a systemic, holistic evaluation process, and what led him to position the American Sustainable Business Network as a B-Corp business in 2019. 

In addition to these conversations, Pirron and Hollender further elaborate on the social enterprise movement, share their thoughts on the cultural impact of the movement, how the movement is “changing the rules” of business every day, pending legislation around the social enterprise space (including diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and regenerative agriculture initiatives) and offer advice for individuals and businesses who are looking to break into the social enterprise and impact investing spaces. 

Watch the full webinar to learn more about social entrepreneurship, the social enterprise movement, impact investing, and more.