B the Change Weekly: April 5, 2019
Delivered on Fridays, B the Change Weekly delivers the most important and most relevant stories about people using business as a force for good. The newsletter features a weekly note from the B the Change team alongside insight and context on the stories we share here on Medium. Below is our latest roundup. To receive these insights directly in your inbox, sign up for B the Change Weekly today. Now onto the good stuff:
Oceans cover nearly three-fourths of our planet, hold 97% of its water and are home to more than half of all living things on Earth. They’re a vital natural resource, but one that increasingly is suffering from the effects of plastic waste, fishing, travel and other human impacts.
The threats to our oceans are part of broader climate concerns, outlined in last year’s U.N. climate change report, that are creating an uncertain future. As Rachel Alexander writes on B the Change, these “worries about the world we’re leaving for our children” have her questioning what the future will bring for her young son: “These days, loving the planet feels similar: a foolish attachment in the face of staggering and imminent loss. I often find myself wondering: How do I love what I may soon lose?”
This week, we share examples of Certified B Corporations working to protect and provide for the oceans they love (and refuse to lose).
Making Waves and New Memories on Restored Waters
Greg Hemmings has fond childhood memories of time spent on the water. Days of swimming, sailing, paddling and skating on the waterways surrounding Saint John on the East Coast of Canada.
As an adult, Hemmings launched a B Corp filmmaking business in Saint John and found a new water sport: surfing. But one visit to Courtenay Bay in the late 2000s left Hemmings with a rash requiring antibiotics and concerns about the now-polluted waters near his home.
Since that time, a community cleanup effort has reopened the bay to recreational activities and restored it as a healthy home for fish, birds and vegetation. To celebrate that effort and his community, Hemmings created a video. See an excerpt of the video and learn more about Hemmings’ history with the water near his home on B the Change.
B Corps Make an Impact Splash
Through fishing, travel, plastic waste and more, humans are having an outsize impact on the health of our oceans’ ecosystems. The scale of human impacts on the health of the ocean ecosystems, including the amount of plastic waste, has driven many Certified B Corporations to take action.
And there are plenty of impacts to address in addition to waste: unsustainable seafood harvesting, the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, and more. These facts have inspired B Corps to build their businesses around protecting the ocean, by removing plastic waste for each product sold or creating harbor-to-plate tracking to ensure sustainable seafood harvests.
On B the Change, learn more about five B Corps making a positive impact splash.
Building an Impact-Driven, Water-Loving Tribe
While Adrianne Chandra-Huff considers herself something of an “unlikely entrepreneur,” she and her business partners at Bodhi Surf + Yoga are making waves — in a good way — in the hospitality and ecotourism space.
On the Grow Ensemble podcast episode, Chandra-Huff shares the story behind Bodhi, a Certified B Corporation based in Uvita, Costa Rica, and how an appetite for social and environmental justice has molded the surf and yoga resort to become what it is today.
Find highlights from the podcast and more about Chandra-Huff and the rest of the Bodhi team on B the Change.
Book of the Week
If you have a specific suggestion, let us know at [email protected] with the subject line “book recommendation.”
Blue Urbanism
By Timothy Beatley
What would it mean to live in cities designed to foster feelings of connectedness to the ocean? As coastal cities begin planning for climate change and rising sea levels, author Timothy Beatley sees opportunities for rethinking the relationship between urban development and the ocean. Modern society is more dependent upon ocean resources than people are commonly aware of — from oil and gas extraction to wind energy, to the vast amounts of fish harvested globally, to medicinal compounds derived from sea creatures, and more.
In Blue Urbanism, Beatley argues that city policies, plans, and daily urban life should acknowledge and support a healthy ocean environment. He examines how emerging practices like “community supported fisheries” and aquaponics can provide a sustainable alternative to industrial fishing practices. Other chapters delve into incentives for increasing use of wind and tidal energy as renewable options to oil and gas extraction that damages ocean life, and how the shipping industry is becoming more “green.”
B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
A Sea Change for Business was originally published in B the Change on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Source: B the Change