B Lab and Finding Humanity: Podcast Series Recap
In January and February of 2022, B Lab made our first foray into the podcast world. In partnership with Webby-award winning series “Finding Humanity,” we launched a pilot season that offered honest and insightful conversation with leaders and policy experts examining the role that the business community can play in addressing pivotal challenges facing our world.
Led by “Finding Humanity” host Hazami Barmada and former B Lab Global CEO Juan Pablo Larenas, the limited series wove a conversation featuring voices from the B Corp movement and beyond, addressing four revolutionary practices that are being spearheaded by sustainable and socially responsible business innovators.
Catch up on the series before our all-new podcast “Forces for Good” debuts later this week!
What if businesses removed barriers to employment and gave job seekers a fair shot at self-sufficiency? In 1982, Greyston Bakery removed barriers to entry for potential employees who are formerly incarcerated, unhoused, or have limited education by piloting Open Hiring, a recruitment practice where simply putting your name on a list puts you in the running for a job — no work experience, background checks, resumes, or interviews. In the first episode, we explore how this revolutionary practice has been scaled by companies like The Body Shop, and how Open Hiring continues to unleash human potential and uplift populations that have been historically excluded from the workforce. Listen here.
Each year, about a third of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. Food loss and waste contributes to some of the most pressing health, environmental, and economic challenges of our day, accounting for 8% of all greenhouse gas emissions and $1 trillion in economic losses annually. How can businesses innovate and help win the fight against food waste? In this episode, we explore how global brands like Danone are contributing to aggressive targets aimed at reducing food waste. We also discuss how social impact companies, like Too Good to Go, are pushing for policy and behavioral change by building a movement of food waste warriors. Listen here.
Replacing your smartphone every two and a half years is not uncommon. In fact, it’s by design. The consumer electronics industry is fraught with unethical business practices, from planned obsolescence, to the dark side of cobalt mining, to the 40 million tons of electronic waste that's generated each year. In this episode, we learn about Fairphone, a social enterprise that creates smartphones which are both repairable and built to last. We also share how the circular economy and “Right to Repair” movement is a win for consumers, companies, and the planet. Listen here.
In 1970, the New York Times published Milton Friedman's seminal essay, "The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits." For more than half a century, Friedman’s doctrine of profit maximization helped accelerate the racial, economic, and environmental injustice we see today. In our final episode of this special series, we discuss corporate solutions to our broken economic system. We examine stakeholder governance and its role in transforming the business community into a driver of positive change for people and the planet. Listen here.