San Francisco Board of Supervisors President and SF Mayoral Candidate, David Chiu, today held a press conference at the Hub SoMa and laid out his plan for San Francisco to become the beacon and capital of Social Entrepreneurialism, starting with a plan for the City to provide contract bid preferences to CA B Corps or Benefit Corporations. BetterWorld has stood by Supervisor Chiu through this process, which began at a Silicon Valley Leadership Group event a few months ago and culminating recently in a roundtable with Supervisor Chiu with many SF Access Economy and B Corps leaders, including Jeff Marcous of Dharma Merchant Services, Brian Back of Sustainable Industries, David Brodwin from the American Sustainable Business Council, Alex Michel from the 5M Project and others.
“Benefit corporations create value for shareholders and society at the same time. These are exactly the types of companies that we need to be encouraging and rewarding in San Francisco,” said Supervisor Chiu. “San Francisco is known as an international leader in sustainability, economic innovation, and social entrepreneurialism. This first-of-its-kind proposal to provide City contracting preferences to B Corporations reaffirms our City’s leadership.”
Two weeks ago, when Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 261, California became the sixth state to charter this new kind of corporation, joining New Jersey, Virginia, Hawaii, Vermont, and Maryland. A Benefit Corporation is defined as 1) having a corporate purpose to create a material positive impact on society and the environment; 2) redefining fiduciary duty to require consideration of non-financial interests when making corporate decisions; and 3) reporting on it’s overall social and environmental performance using recognized third party standards.
The City currently provides contract bid preferences to local businesses, a program administered by the Human Rights Commission. The proposed legislation would be modeled after this existing program. “As a founding B Corp, BetterWorld Telecom has been involved with this movement since it was just an idea in 2004. “We would like to thank Supervisor Chiu for his leadership in delivering ground-level results that support businesses that place people and the planet alongside profits,” said Matt Bauer, President of BetterWorld Telecom. “It is due in part fo the City of San Francisco’s support of B Corps that BetterWorld Telecom will be moving its headquarters to San Francisco in 2012.”
Currently, there are over 450 certified Benefit Corporations in 60 different industries nationwide. San Francisco has the most Benefit Corporations of any city, and the Bay Area is the home of approximately one quarter of all Benefit Corporations. San Francisco would be the first U.S. City to provide contracting incentives to these companies, thereby fostering the formation and growth of Benefit Corporations here.
“It’s so obvious that San Francisco would be the first major city to be in alignment with the B Corporation model,” said Jeff Marcous of Dharma Merchant Services. “This isn’t just about finding local, sustainable service providers, but it’s also about working with partners who see beyond a single bottom line motivation.”
“Businesses that are on top of their environmental, health and economic impacts on their customers, employees, and the community are not only more valuable overall, they are less risky,” said Sarah Olsen, the Founder and CEO of SVT Group, a B Corp. “SVT Group is a strong supporter of efforts to make these qualities transparent, so the market has more perfect information with which to make decisions.”
Two weeks ago, California became the sixth state in the country to authorize the creation of a revolutionary new category for businesses that choose to operate in a socially responsible, environmentally sustainable way. Today, I will introduce groundbreaking legislation at the Board of Supervisors to help award more City contracts to companies that are promoting the public good. I want to send the message that San Francisco wants its businesses to do well and do good. If my proposal is adopted, San Francisco will be the first city in the nation that directs more of our city dollars to companies that create jobs and make a positive impact on their communities.
BetterWorld and our colleagues who participated in the process would like to salute Supervisor Chiu for his vision and desire to catalyze the amazing energy and innovation that lies within the San Francisco borders – – we are all looking forward to the coming months and years working together to showcase a new public-private partnership model, helping to pave the way for the fast approaching Access Economy.
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