This week we met Jeff Hollender, a successful and inspiring leader who is currently building support for the American Sustainable Business Council. It was interesting to hear about Jeff’s thoughts on the ASBC’s role in giving voice to all the small businesses who want Congress to act on the climate bill and other important issues; the latest round of corporate malpractice and malfeasance; and what it takes to be a truly regenerative business.
So, Jeff leads the American Sustainable Business Council and just published the Responsibility Revolution. Apparently he likes both terms?
All of this brings to mind our own process of defining our mission. In particular, what qualifies as a ‘responsible’ investment? Is that any different than a ‘sustainable’ investment?
When we created Coastal EcoVentures (over two years ago now), we actually dwelled on this either-or question of responsible vs. sustainable for some time. In the end, we agreed that ‘Investing in Responsible Tourism and Conservation’ best described our mission.
‘Sustainable’ was too loaded of a term, one that, because of real uncertainties in the science of environmental impacts, defies efforts to defined and articulated. Although ‘sustainable’ is a more common and universal reference point (albeit one that is regularly appropriated by greenwashing), we thought it was important to avoid the uncertainty and debate surrounding sustainability.
So as we keep our pulse on this space, we’ll keep working on the EcoValuator and our complementary analytical and due diligence tools. We'll also look to a few key initiatives to shed more light on what constitutes responsible investing.
