What is Net Positive Business, and how do I begin?
Net Positive business is the evolution of conscious capitalism and business for good.
It’s a cumulative effort of more than thirty years of thought leadership into making a profit and doing social and planetary good.
“It’s business that improves wellbeing for everyone it impacts and at all scales. It includes every product, every operation, every region and country and for every stakeholder, including employees, suppliers, communities and customers, and even future generations and the planet itself.” – Andrew S. Winston & Paul Polman
Becoming Net Positive means:
Recognising that the cost of action is significantly more than the cost of inaction.
Shifting our business model, so profits increasingly come from solving the world’s problems.
Embracing the idea that less ‘bad’ leads us down the wrong path. We should create MORE good.
Zero is not the end goal. Net Positive business brings the idea of ‘MORE good’ over ‘LESS bad’ to life. It challenges us to improve our positive impact for people, purpose, planet, and profit.
How do I begin?
The first step to becoming a Net Positive business is to establish a baseline. Without knowing where we are, how can we map where we want to go? In this phase, we ask: what is our impact to date? What do we care about? Why do we want to shift – and what do our people think? We explore these questions and document as we go, so we can create an air-tight Net Positive strategy.
What comes next?
When you’re comfortable with your baseline, it’s time to begin thinking big. What could Net Positive look like to your organisation? What would ‘great’ look like? We bring a co-design team together for monthly or fortnightly for 90-min sessions to ideate and design your Net Positive Strategy. As a group, it’s your job to scale those intentions.
Impact reporting
Impact reporting doesn’t have to be onerous. In fact, we see it as a celebration. When else can you pull together all of the great work you’ve done, tell so many stories of impact, and drum up collective excitement for your future with all of your stakeholders? There are a thousand ways to complete an impact report, and often, it comes down to your country, industry, and your purpose and values.
Optimising your future
Net Positive business isn’t set and forget: it’s an opportunity to keep growing and doing better. In the optimising phase of your Net Positive business strategy, you might review what your business will look like in the years to come.
