780: Use Your Benefit Corporation to Make a Difference Environmentally and Socially with Kerry Worden

Business can be a force for good or bad and if you are not helping, you are hurting.

Kerry Worden is a mortgage broker with 30 years of experience in the industry. He recently founded Green Stream Advisors, a benefit corporation focused on supporting environmental and social causes. Worden was inspired by the book "Let My People Go Surfing" by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, which explored the concept of using business as a force for good. Today, Kerry talks about the purpose and structure of benefit corporations, explaining how they require businesses to operate in socially responsible ways and report on their progress annually.

Quotes

“Business can be either a force for good or not. There's that saying, if you're not helping, you're hurting.” - Kerry Worden

“If your business has a deeper objective or a deeper purpose, then you can align all of your activities, your advertising, and your message to that purpose.” - Kerry Worden

“There's so much more that people can do from a financial planning standpoint, or in other words, on their asset side of their balance sheet than they can on their debt side of their balance sheet.” - Kerry Worden

Takeaways

03:22 Benefit corporations require businesses to align their activities with a deeper social or environmental purpose and report on their progress annually.

04:59 Becoming a benefit corporation can help businesses diversify their income streams and connect with like-minded customers and partners.

12:49 Individuals can support benefit corporations and social causes through their financial planning and investment decisions.

20:22 Establishing a benefit corporation requires additional legal and compliance work, but the impact can be significant, regardless of the business size.

24:07 Resources provide guidance and certification for businesses interested in becoming benefit corporations.

Resources

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:47 — 22.0MB) | Embed

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Filed in: Archive 4: 2020-2023 • Interview • Podcast

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