General Blog
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Doing Well by Doing Good
[As originally in Virginia Business by Nicole Anderson Ellis] In 2002, Matt Bauer’s telecommunications career was at a crossroads. In the wake of Enron’s collapse and more than a trillion dollars in global write-offs, the industry was slogging through what Bauer calls its “darkest period.” He’d had enough and faced a choice: leave the field or change it. ... -
An Impeccable Method
“Innovation is an unreasonable request” says Adam Lowry, Co-founder of Method, the ground-breaking San Francisco-based company who has taken soap to heights of “coolness” normally reserved for electronics and pop culture. Lowry was just one of many business leaders in discussion at the inaugural Sustainable Corporation conference, put together recently by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and held at Oracle’s campus in Silicon Valley.... -
The Garden of Business
Being a good business is like being a good gardener. Or so says William Rosenzwieg, 2010 recipient of the Oslo Business for Peace Award. Rosenzwieg is the Co-founder at Bay Area-based Physic Ventures and works with purpose-driven businesses like Recyclebank, Revolution Foods, GoodGuide, and Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy.... -
Historic Benefit Corp Legislation Passed in SF
Board of Supervisors Unanimously Approves City Incentives for New Type of Socially Responsible Corporations Legislation Provides Bid Preferences to Benefit Corporations Contracting With the City San Francisco, CA – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to support an ordinance sponsored by Board President David Chiu that will provide bid preferences on City contracts to Benefit Corporations, a new form of a corporate entity recently authorized by the State of California. The ordinance will be voted on for a second time next Tuesday, April 24, with passage expected.... -
Reston Interfaith
BetterWorld was out this past weekend supporting the 29th anniversary fundraiser for Reston Interfaith, a leading service provider promoting self-sufficiency for those in need of food, immediate shelter, affordable housing, quality child care, and other human services. Reston Interfaith offers comprehensive programs for about 20,000 people each year in Reston, Herndon and northwest Fairfax County.... -
BetterWorld on The Wendel Forum
BetterWorld’s Matt Bauer recently visited The Wendel Forum, a radio show dedicated to focusing on the legal side of the green economy. Interviewed by Bill Acevedo, The Green Business Practice Leader at Wendel Rosen, Bauer spoke of BetterWorld’s journey as a company, bringing purpose and mission to an industry traditionally not involved in the green economy and sustainability efforts. ... -
With spread of high-tech devices, telecom expecting explosive growth
As originally featured in Washington Post.com by Matt Bauer, President, BetterWorld Telecom. By all accounts, the telecom carrier industry is set to grow again in the coming year. In a world of 7 billion people, almost every one of them owns a handset. And more than 10 percent of the globe is now wired on broadband. BetterWorld has been a part of the telecom industry’s tremendous growth and was fortunate to make the 2011 Inc. 5000 List. We are on pace to be there again in 2012 due, in part, to industry growth, growing demand as our customers use more teleconferencing and telecommuting and BetterWorld’s firm commitment to social and environmental sustainability. This commitment has engendered customer loyalty through tough times, and it helped us build partnerships and goodwill rarely found in our industry. ... -
BetterWorld TechSoup Global Program Case Study
We were thrilled to receive this review from one of our newest TechSoup Global nonprofit customers, FishWise: FishWise provides innovative market-based tools to the seafood industry, enabling consumers and grocery retailers to support marine conservation through their seafood purchasing decisions. Letter from Fishwise: I was hired to organize a growing non-profit office of eight. ... -
Lessons from Jack Dorsey at GigaOm RoadMap
A little while back BetterWorld was out at GigaOm's RoadMap conference listening to Jack Dorsey, famed Founder of both Twitter and Square, a new company poised to cut the red tape on transactions and merchanting. This is just some of the wisdom he had to share in his interview with Om Malik, Founder of GigaOm. **Role of Technology ** Jack believes that technology creates empathy, which helps to end conflict. In this way, it makes the world feel closer and moves us towards a more compassionate future. Country boundaries are convenient for organization, but really are arbitrary; the human tendency is to create “temporary autonomous zones”, or places where people come together for a purpose and then naturally disperse. Both Twitter and Square bring peer-to-peer interactions to the forefront and allow for more transparency and access, to share information (Twitter) and goods (Square). ... -
Don’t Repeat Mistakes of the Past: Keep Internet Free
(This blog was originally posted as a guest blog on Triple Pundit by Matt Bauer) Throughout the late 19th century and for all of the 20th Centuries, most forms of communications and media, from telephony, to radio, movies and TV, all went through the same cycle. Initial experimentation, innovation and when their use began to spread, all were the target of business in an effort to control the medium. Eventually ownership of these communication mediums became concentrated in one or just a few corporate entities. In all cases, innovation was stifled; smaller business and opportunity shut out, and centralized command established. ... -
A Week of Inspiration
The BetterWorld team was fortunate to attend two very different events this week that both shed a great deal of hope and inspiration on our short and long term future. With nothing but bad news coming out of the mainstream media, no solutions coming from Capitol Hill and Wall Street clinging mightily to its profits, it is the story of the millennials, the Access Economy, and the Shared Economy that help paint a pathway towards a more socially and environmentally sustainable The 12th Annual Brower Youth Awards: Not a dry eye in the house as a packed house at the beautiful Herbst Theatre across from City Hall in downtown San Francisco listened for almost two hours to the stories of 7 incredible, young changemakers. The recipients hailed from places as diverse as the Bronx, Santa Cruz all the way to Appalachian West Virginia. Their stories held a common bond of both frustration with the current system, and their own beautiful answers for helping to change things in their communities and beyond. This year’s Brower Youth Award recipients are: ... -
B Corporations
In a huge stride forward for business and communities alike, Governor Brown signed into law the historic Assembly Bill 361, creating a new class of corporation, a benefit corporation. The legislation, introduced by Assembly member Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) legally requires benefit corporations to prioritize positive impact on society and the environment, while meeting higher standards of accountability and transparency. Current law requires corporations to prioritize the financial interests of shareholder over the interests of workers, communities, and the environment. The California legislation is unique, providing the strongest consumer and investor protection, with more rigorous transparency provisions than the states that have so far enacted benefit corporation legislation. California is the sixth and largest state to enact benefit corporation legislation and has a strong existing base of entrepreneurs connected to sustainability. ... -
American Sustainable Business Council 2nd Annual Conference
Dozens of sustainable business and organizational leaders descended on Washington, D.C. this week for the 2nd Annual American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) Conference. The myriad of member organizations and business members that make up ASBC, now include and represent over 100,000 businesses across America. We discussed sustainable policies from the Jobs Act to Toxic Chemical Legislation with members of the EPA, representatives of the Obama Administration, and over 30 congressional and senate offices, many times with the members themselves.... -
Dreamforce – Taking CRM to a new level!
BetterWorld had an amazing time at Dreamforce recently, learning about the latest and greatest happenings in the cloud. With a jaw dropping 45,000 attendees, this conference was beyond buzzing with activity. Inspiration was clearly in the the air as Salesforce outlined where it is headed and the future flexibility of business as a whole. The overwhelming mantra of the conference was a drive to shift to the cloud for all aspects of business operations and the tool kit that Salesforce itself provides (let along its partners and tag-along industries) addresses the majority of a business' core competencies. The main events included a great conversation with Executive Chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt and several keynotes highlighting new services in the upcoming Winter ‘12 release of Salesforce. ... -
Welcoming Walden House to the BetterWorld Family!
BetterWorld is thrilled to welcome the Walden House to the BetterWorld customer family! The mission of Walden House is to give hope and change lives for people affected by substance abuse and mental health conditions. They do this by offering behavioral health services and tools for living to youth, adults, and families throughout California. Their services aim to relieve the burden of societal problems by promoting wellness, healthy relationships, productive living, and community involvement. Recently Walden House in San Francisco merged with Haight Ashbury Free Clinic to better serve local residents. ... -
Customer Spotlight : Bigelow Laboratory of Ocean Sciences
BetterWorld is happy to welcome Bigelow Laboratory to the BetterWorld customer family! Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences is a nonprofit research organization based on the coast of Maine which studies the ocean. Their research ranges from microbial oceanography (examining biological productivity and phytoplankton community dynamics in the world’s oceans at the molecular level – phew!... -
Green Chamber Clean Tech
What precisely is Clean Tech? This vague, hip and ever buzzing emerging field in and around Silicon Valley is not obvious to someone not already in the know. With terms like “sustainability” and “green industry” being used freely and indiscriminately in public discourse, this event was a breath of fresh air, bringing the vague and broad reaching dimensions of “Clean Tech” into focus.... -
Golden Gate Audubon
BetterWorld is honored to support an organization doing so much for conservation and education about our natural environment right here in the Bay Area. Golden Gate Audubon has worked tirelessly since 1917 to preserve and protect local birds and their habitats. Recently, Audubon has been responsible for the agreement by the wind industry at Altamont Pass to shift their windmills over the next four years and avoid the death of 4,700 birds annually.... -
BetterWorld Volunteers: Hope Montessori School
BetterWorld Telecom believes in giving back to the community, and that translates directly into volunteering hours for everything from house-building to helping out in schools. BetterWorld’s Ali Gunertem volunteered this past week at Hope Montessori School.”It was fun to help the youth at Hope Montessori School and interact with them and their parents, while helping the faculty of the school,” he said....
