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A Visit to New Belgium Brewery: Here’s to Healthy People, Healthy Profits and a Healthy Planet!

Sure, New Belgium Brewery makes pretty fantastic beer. But they didn’t win one of our Top Small New Belgium Tasting RoomWorkplace awards for simply making a tasty product.

Pay their central offices a visit and you’ll get a taste of exactly what’s behind their remarkable success- a completely embodied dedication to the basics of the Triple Bottom Line- healthy People, healthy Profits and a healthy Planet!

The secret brew may start with great ingredients, but it’s a corporate culture that flows through every person, building and artwork in their workspace that ensures a proper pour in the end. Place even one foot in their Fort Collins “Mothership” facility and you’ll see what they’re all about: Eco-Conscious architecture, lots of light, bright colors, employee bikes everywhere and trails extending from the front door to miles of pristine Rocky Mountain beauty.  This is indeed a fit and friendly establishment.

The other week brought me to Fort Collins to visit with Katie Wallace, New Belgium’s Sustainability Specialist, and I couldn’t help but feel as if I was stepping into a temple of healthy, responsible business.  When the office messaged her of my arrival, I was told it would just be a short wait while she biked back from running an errand (this is November in the Rocky Mountains!)  New Belgium walks the talk, that’s for sure.New Belgium Tasting Room

New Belgium even went toe to toe with their much-loved hometown when the city demanded they expand a new parking lot to accommodate more vehicles.  “Not gonna happen,” said the Brewery, as so many of their employees walk, carpool or bike to work.  Known for bucking the status quo in terms of how a business should operate, New Belgium understands that it’s not always easy being green. Sometimes you’ve got to draw a line in the sand, sometimes you overspend and sometimes you get blasted for not doing enough… but the Brewery argues that such measures are good for their staff and the community alike.

As was mentioned in my coverage of the organization in our Top Small Workplace media, New Belgium represents one of the most vocal advocates for a Triple Bottom Line approach. As Katie explains, at her first All-Staff Meeting their CEO & Co-founder, Kim Jordan mentioned that a company’s greatest asset is indeed their people.  Not your buildings, your big stainless steel tanks, but your people.  “I truly feel as though I am a member of this New Belgium family and more than just an employee.”  This wholistic approach to business has been maintained in nearly all aspects of the company’s operation since it’s founding in 1991. Comprehensive asset analysis and True-Cost evaluation go hand in hand at New Belgium, and the brewer has been one of the most visible examples of a manufacturer keen on addressing eco-responsibility in all aspects of their product line. New Belgium Gear

Their staff even voted to make use of all-renewable electricity back in 1999!  Since then they’ve been the largest private consumer of wind-power electricity, buying all of their electricity through the first city-sponsored wind program and off-setting through credit purchase any non-renewable fuel consumption.  Despite the increase in cost per kilowatt-hour of 57%, which impacted employee’s profit sharing pool, staff were all for it from the get-go, and the company remains one of the most visible advocates for renewable fuel in the business world.

The New Belgium tasting room is adorned with dynamic art installations championing bicycle culture and responsible yet Bacchanalian celebration.  Works titled “Salvation from Consumption” and “Grain to Glass” entertain visitors while they sample the newest brews.  Such pieces illustrate, quite colorfully, the details of their cradle-to-cradle approach to production, with stats on CO2 generation following emissions from harvest to packaging and frosty pint glass.  Says Wallace, “A beautiful and distinguishing aspect of Sustainability in the business world is that it is a very collaborative and transparent effort. By commissioning a Life Cycle Assessment of the Greenhouse Gases emitted during the entire life of a 6 pack of Fat Tire, New Belgium has started to look beyond its limiting walls.  Through sharing this enlightening information, we hope to inspire others to do the same.”

Indeed, education, and New Belgium’s signature “Advercacy” campaigns (advertising + advocacy) have reached throngs of consumers, partners, vendors and competitors, helping steer the beer market toward greater environmental and social responsibility. Their “Follow Your Folly” campaigns  and programs such as their well-known Tour de Fat festival serve to highlight environmental causes while also providing advertising space for New Belgium’s delicious beers.  The Tour de Fat has raised more than $1 million over the years for local non-profits in the cities it visits.  Says Wallace, “When we feature environmental organizations in our ‘advercacy’ campaigns, we give them the art so they can use it to get the word out through their own avenues.  All of these efforts have helped to highlight the good work that New Belgium is doing while positively affecting the environment and local communities.

And, my friends, bicycle advocacy, recycling, and water conservation have never tasted so good! As I raise up a smooth pint of their very winter-friendly 1554 Enlightened Black Ale, I’ll leave you with New Belgium’s working definition of sustainability, that we all may gain a taste of such delightful inspiration:
“With regard to environmental sustainability, we believe in:
* Lovingly caring for the planet that sustains us.
* Leadership through environmental stewardship.
* Stewarding natural resources by closing the loops between waste and input.
* Minimizing the environmental impact of shipping our beer.
* Reducing our dependence on coal-fired electricity.
* Protecting our precious Rocky Mountain water resources.
* Focusing our efforts on conservation and efficiency.
* Supporting innovative technology.
* Modeling joyful environmentalism through our commitment to relationships, continuous improvement, and the camaraderie and cheer of beer.”

Well put.  Very well put.

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By Jason Ticus – November 20, 2009

King Arthur Flour- Two centuries of commitment to Quality and Community

The most recent of the “Success Stories” I write for our non-profit Winning Workplaces features King Arthur Flour Company, voted Top Small Workplace in 2008 and an outstanding example of sustainability in business as it pays off for employees, consumers, community and environment alike.
A brand familiar to generations of Americans, King Arthur Flour Company represents the nation’s oldest flour company and the single largest educator of home bakers in the world. Founded in Boston in 1790, impressive growth has accompanied the company’s transformation from a small, fifth generation operation to the 100 percent employee-owned business seen today.

Most recently, as a founding member of the “B Corporation” certification project, King Arthur has again embraced transformation as a means to remain competitive, finding great success through their longstanding commitment to a quality product and the triple bottom line.

“King Arthur Flour’s commitment to quality and ideals probably hasn’t changed much since the 18th century,” argues employee-owner Beth Latchis, Senior Programmer/Analyst in the firm’s IT Department. Having only been with the company nine months, she explains that such principles, though not new to King Arthur, are still a thrill for her.

“It is very refreshing to work for an organization that’s actively committed to the environment, its employees and the community,” she says.

Indeed, King Arthur’s history is rich with stories that speak to its distinct character.

“Frank Sands’ grandfather would hire Irish workers in Boston 100 years ago,” explains CEO Steve Voigt, “when a lot of other shop keepers were hanging out signs that said ‘No Irish need apply.’ It always was in the company’s DNA and we’re just making it more and more explicit for all of us, internally and for our customers.”

In 1891 the company demanded that its product remain unbleached and sold to all dealers at the same fair price. Inspired by the mythical King Arthur and his insistence on sitting alongside his knights as peers at the Round Table, the ideals of strength, purity and honesty continue to permeate the business and strengthen their brand.

“King Arthur Flour has always been known for creating the best flour available,” explains Travis Oman, Team Leader in the Customer Service department. “Now we’re helping to blaze a trail for other socially responsible companies to follow.”

For decades the company operated small scale and independently, actually shrinking to the point of having only three employees in 1990 (with revenues of $3.5 million). But a pivotal switch to push items through catalog offerings meant huge growth, eventually leading to 160 employees in 2009 and 1,500 product offerings. Roughly two-thirds of the business involves flour production, but one-third has become direct-to-consumer services through their physical store, mail catalog, and an award-winning online presence that includes Facebook and Twitter pages in addition to the King Arthur website.

“As more and more small companies were subsumed by large companies, KAF was flexible and courageous enough to create an organization that is multifaceted and able to stay competitive,” adds Latchis.

In 1996 legacy owner Frank Sands felt like the company needed to make another big change. In a move to avoid the classic model of union-management relations in which a union must protect the workers against a management drive solely to maximize value to the owners, papers were drawn up to sell the 200-year-old company to its staff. Revenues at the time were $14.5 million.

“The classical model,” explains Voigt, “does not include the workers. So when you have a model that is 100 percent owned by an ESOP, it isn’t an ‘us-them’ situation.”

It took until 2004 for the company to become completely bought up by its associates, but it’s a move that has cemented success for the organization: Revenues jumped 124 percent from the start of the sale, to $32.5 million. After being named a Winning Workplaces/Wall Street Journal Top Small Workplace in 2008, King Arthur made this year’s list of America’s fastest-growing private companies in Inc. magazine, and has remained one of the fastest-growing companies in Vermont since going ESOP.

Accolades and sales growth have naturally translated to employee recognition – something the company takes pride in and does in a way that fits their culture. “Knighting” ceremonies honor long-term employees and “Vesting” ceremonies mark an employee’s vested stake in the ESOP account. Even the stationery awarded for a job well done has the image of a knight on horseback and the stamp, “A message from an owner.”

Travis Oman calls the Knighting ceremonies a “truly unique and terrific experience,” and P.J. Hamel, a Senior Editor with 19 years tenure at the company, says such activities, though whimsical, are worthwhile.

“I love to see a colleague celebrated. The ceremonies themselves are touching, funny, and memorable,” Hamel says. “Bottom line, they’re an opportunity for us all to say thanks to one another.”

Giving back is a theme that plays out at a high level at King Arthur as well. It was one of the first companies to distinguish itself as a “B (Beneficial) Corporation” and the first to utilize the B Corp logo on product packaging.

The title is reserved only for “purpose-driven corporations that create benefit for all stakeholders, not just shareholders.” To become certified, B Corporations must meet comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards, and amend their corporate governing documents to incorporate the interests of employees, community and the environment.

As Hamel puts it simply, “It reinforces our 200-plus-year history of doing the right thing.” And doing the right thing has continued to pay handsomely: from 2004, when the sale of the company to its employees was completed, to today, revenues have increased over 100 percent to $67 million.

Company: King Arthur Flour
Web site: www.kingarthurflour.com
 Industry: Food manufacturer, catalogue, retail, school
Location: Norwich, VT
Number of Employees: 160
Sales: $67 million

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By Jason Ticus – October 27, 2009

A visit to the inspired sustainable business, “Lundberg Family Farms”

Here’s a quick tale taken from our Winning Workplaces blog, recounting a trip out I took out West to visit the lundberg172-year-old organic rice-farming operation Lundberg Family Farms.

The company had applied for the Top Small Workplace recognition project last year and won; their “Success Story” can be viewed here.  We’ve featured them several times in our media, but it was fantastic to get a first-hand glimpse of this excellent family-owned operation, which builds it workplace culture firmly on the values of respect for the land, support for your fellow man, and taking care of the soil.
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Drivinlundberg2g out to see the good folks at Lundberg Family Farms, I was surprised to find the sun-baked valley south of Chico quite temperate.  This time last year, local residents were wrestling with yet another bout of extreme temperatures and raging wildfires.  But on the heels of Richvale’s Centennial celebration, the community was enjoying a break in the heat, with employees of the organic rice farm stacking bags of flour, preparing delicious baked goods, and tending to the employee garden during a pleasantly cool spell.

We were thrilled to have Rhonda Turner and Michelle Jackson as our guests in Chicago for our annual conference in 2008, and these Lundberg ladies were kind enough to give me a of tour of the operation.  From climbing through the belly of complex grain sorting machines, to marveling at the production line where rice cakes go flying by in a blur, it’s clear that the company runs a very tight ship.  A lot is expected of employees at Lundberg, but the company takes good care of the team, and there’s a sentiment of concern and camaraderie throughout the facility.lundberg3

Beyond abundant safety measures, in each department you’ll find lists of the fresh produce everyone eats from the free batches delivered daily.  Head out to the employee garden (featured previously in my work) and you’ll see every department has a raised bed of their own.  Michelle made sure I tried a few of the sun-warmed strawberries while discussing their homemade yard art and compost setup.

Driving out beyond silos that line these old California railways, I passed by the rice fields that have filled bellies for generations.  From New York kitchens to Miami cupboards and the tables of Richvale residents that very night, the same product that has made for many tasty dinners continues to provide for Lundberg employees and their families.  Having also accepted the 2009 Agricultural Stewardship Award from the USA Rice Federation in addition to their Top Small Workplace award, Lundberg continues to set the precedent for sustainable rice farming and responsible people practices.

lundberg4Out toward the highway, a massive wetland bird could be seen over the very patties that Lundberg tends to so responsibly.  And with a bag of tasty rice chips at my side, I headed back for my own flight out of Oakland, very happy to have met the delightful people that bring us such tasty treats, and continue to make Richvale proud with its progressive farming, business and people practices.

Related: Lundberg’s VP of Administration, Tim Schultz, helped present a webinar for Winning Workplaces earlier this year on “Sustainable Workplaces – The Workplace of The Future” and also led a panel discussion at this year’s Top Small Workplace conference on “Leading Through Sustainable Growth and Expansion.”

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By Jason Ticus – October 13, 2009

‘Us’ and ‘Them’ – Employee Engagement: Self, Wholes and Hierarchies

Allow me to share with you a firsthand perspective from the due diligence phase of our Top Small Workplace recognition project, in which I’ve conducted many, many of the employee interviews over the last two years and compiled massive findings for publication in the Wall Street Journal.

Consider-
If we ask you and your employees about the company, will we hear references to “us” or “them” in the response? Don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s a simple question.  Are you sure you know how your staff would answer?  Are we talking the boardroom or the warehouse here? Should it matter?

This is more than just being able to recite the tenets of your brand values or corporate identity.  There’s a question of involvement here, of employee engagement, that speaks volumes about the character of your organization.  Perhaps it won’t make or break your business… But it’s a question of identity that matters a great deal to the welfare of your organization, whether you pay attention to it or not.  Clients can see it, investors can see it, and competitors can see it.  Are your employees working for the company?  Or ARE THEY THE COMPANY?  Are they embodying the business and fully invested in it?

social network + group identity visualization

social network + group identity visualization

This quickly becomes clear in the interviews we conduct with employees as part of our due diligence for our annual Top Small Workplaces recognition project.  Even an application crafted by the best PR team in the world can’t hide the language your employees use when we get them on the phone. When we hear “They tell us communication is really important” or “They say product quality is huge” coming from someone with a similar role as an employee at another business who says “Communication is really important to us,” or “Product quality is huge for us,” you can bet it leaves our judges with a different feel for the latter organization.

Sometimes it’s just in casual language used, or maybe it’s more explicit.  As an employee from one of our 2008 Top Small Workplaces Finalists mentioned, “Maybe at other places it’s easier to separate yourself from the job.  I mean, I don’t talk about [the company] in the third person.  It’s never ‘they,’ it’s always ‘us’ or ‘we.’  There are very high expectations here.  That’s a key element in maintaining our culture – integrating new people into that. We really try to gauge their level of engagement.”

Our friends at Winning Workplaces would simply ask- Is a sense of ownership and sincere investment fostered within your workplace?  Or, on the flip side, do you foster a work environment where it seems leadership is actually afraid of an ownership mentality among employees?

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By Jason Ticus – October 13, 2009

Astronomical earnings of our glorious corporate overlords.

Winners in the great game of “Get Yours.”  I’m sure they deserve every penny.

CEO compensation

Great infographic depicting the earnings of our glorious corporate overlords.

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By Jason Ticus – October 7, 2009

Winning Workplace “Fleetwood Group” pays employees to volunteer for community when biz is slow!

Like so many of our TSW Finalists and Winners, Michigan based manufacturer Fleetwood Group continues to amaze their community and the press with innovative and passionate approaches to their business.

I’ll be visiting this fantastic organization again in our media, but this article (from Erin Albanese, The Grand Rapids Press) came out recently with their distinction as a Finalist in this year’s TSW 2009 competition, and some very big kudos need to be given to their management team, who continue to impress with creative and committed ways to stay competitive and provide for their stakeholders.  Great stuff here.

Instead of laying off employees while business is slow (down by about 20 percent) Fleetwood Group, a furniture and electronics manufacturer, keeps staff (“Team-Member Owners”) on the payroll while helping the community.

24 furniture-division employees are helping at Habitat for Humanity, pet rescue, camps and ministries.

During their stints, the workers continue earning their regular wages and benefits.

“The goal is to retain a well-trained team so the 54-year-old company is poised to resume production when the economy recovers,” their President and CEO Doug Ruch explains in the article.

Five-year employee Dan Stitt added, “They try to take care of us when times are tough.”

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By Jason Ticus – October 6, 2009

Here’s to the Nation’s Top Small Workplaces!

Man!  My head is still spinning from the edu-tainment marathon which was the Top Small Workplaces conferenceLarry and Joe of 2009!  What a blast!  It’s going to take me a week to de-brief and package-up all the lessons learned and stories shared… but let me say this->

There is no single gathering which so effectively re-affirms my belief that the very real solutions we seek to many of the world’s ills lie with the passion and commitment of this nation’s small business leaders!

I have been going on for days about the inspiriting tales and practices gleaned from the get-together.  I’ll be sure to recap online over the next couple days… And post all the glamorous photos!  Here’s to those proving we can do this right!

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By Jason Ticus – October 6, 2009

TOP SMALL WORKPLACES 2009!

The news is out!  The Wall Street Journal broke the story Monday morning, and we’ve been awash in press inquires since!  

This year’s Top Small Workplaces are a stellar crowd, and I’m thrilled to be able to meet them all at our annual Top Small Workplaces Conference this Thursday and Friday. Among our Finalists and Winners we have some of the nation’s finest small business.  Take a gander at their profiles on our Homesite: Winners and Distinguished Finalists. These are the folks leading the way and inspiring us all through doing incredible things for their clients, their associates, their communities and their planet.

I look forward to exploring this year’s batch of Honorees in great detail with our audience- but for now must get back to preparing the Audio-Visual materials for our conference in Chicago!

Congratulations TSW 2009!

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By Jason Ticus – October 1, 2009

The Redwoods Group: Driven by Giving Back

A piece I wrote from our 2008 Top Small Workplace coverage!  The Redwoods Group has done fantastic work over the years in helping their clients and community, and their CEO, Kevin Trapani, argues that the good they do is simply a response of their faith, their compassion, and their dedication to others. He argues that they operate on the concept central to most faith communities – “Of those to whom much is given, much is expected” – and that this should ultimately be the unifying theme of all businesses.

The Redwoods Group is no customary insurance operation. With 87 employees, the North Carolina-based firm, a 2008 Top Small Workplace, specializes in cultivating a focus on safety at YMCAs and Jewish Community Organizations.
Since its founding in 1997, the company has operated with an explicit mission of service to others, dedicated to improving the lives of those in the broad communities within which it operates. The firm believes, and proves, that business can be a powerful force for positive social change while providing work/life balance and development of all its employees.
In addition to contributing a large percentage of their pre-tax profits to nonprofit organizations internationally (50 percent in 2006-2007), Redwoods is up front with its staff about its core value/requirement of participation by all in community projects. While the business has grown significantly in recent years, Redwoods argues that they are not driven by size or profit margin but, rather, to “make a difference.”
“What you have to understand is that it has to be about much more than your current leader, or even your company,” says Redwoods Group President and CEO Kevin Trapani. “It has to be about changing something fundamental about how this society works.”
Trapani didn’t shy away from a challenge when he founded The Redwoods and he certainly doesn’t now. Oft told is the story of the cocktail napkin, saved from a dinner, labeled with the blueprint of what would become the firm’s organizing principle: “Serve Others.”
“I think that most people who are doing good work in the world understand this. The problem is, for many years the only thing that anyone read about as a model for business was greed, and that’s never been sustainable,” Trapani says.
At Redwoods, success is built upon fundamental differences in how they insure clients. “That’s where we get our juice,” says Trapani. As opposed to moderating against volatility simply though risk differentiation (where variety and volume provide a buffer from loss) Redwoods makes it a point to specialize and gather loss causation data in an insightful way to drive behavior change in specific customer segments.
“I have been in insurance for going on 18 years and in no way does any standard insurance carrier I have worked for compare to The Redwoods Group,” says Senior Underwriter Linda Jaqua.
Jaqua goes on to state that it is the children who participate in YMCA and JCO programs, not the premiums acquired, that inspire the company’s efforts. The firm walks its walk by ensuring the safety of the all children in “Ys” and “Js,” regardless of whether a given program has yet to become a Redwoods client.
“This is what focuses the mind,” explains Trapani. “At the end of the day there isn’t anybody that comes in here thinking we’re in the business of insurance. They think we’re in the business of saving people’s lives.”
Having grown up in YMCAs, Dan Baum, Risk Manager of two years, says he came to work for Redwoods primarily because of their culture.
“I work here because every day we prove what is possible for a for-profit company,” he says. “I wanted to be a part of a company that makes a difference.”
Dan, like all Redwoods associates, participates in wider community service while on the clock. Each employee is expected to give 40 hours per year to community service, and many go beyond the call of duty in this respect. Soup kitchens, substance abuse recovery programs, women’s shelters – all benefit from the enthusiasm of the Redwoods staff. Baum and a coworker even assisted Habitat for Humanity in Zambia this past year.
Trapani admits that getting that balance right wasn’t easy in the beginning: “We ground through people our first five years. We were very demanding,” he says. Since then they’ve become more intentional in recruiting talent, placing the emotional demands of the job and the expectations of community service on the table from the get-go.
They’ve also become better at meeting employee needs once they’re on board. Mac Kendall, Regional Claims Leader of seven years, attests to this.
“We demand a lot of our employees, but we treat them like adults and family members,” he says. “We expect that our employees are whole people, with big hearts, outside interests and a drive to fulfill our mission.”
Hard times are upon us all and Redwoods isn’t immune to the pinch, having recently experienced their first-ever operating loss. But Trapani and his team remain confident that their comprehensive approach to safety and coverage will continue to win them clients, even in the face of new predatory agencies offering commodity-based, partial coverage.
Even when profits are thin, Redwoods continues to demonstrate an unparalleled commitment to community projects, if only in “sweat equity” and man hours contributed to local charities.
“For Redwoods to preach a larger purpose for business, then focus narrowly on profit during a recession, would be hypocritical,” observes Baum, reflecting a sentiment shared by many at the firm. “During tough times, you find out what really matters to organizations. And from day one, this company has existed to change the world.”
Company: The Redwoods Group
Web site: www.redwoodsgroup.com 
Industry: Commercial specialty insurance
Location: Morrisville, NC
Number of Employees: 87
Sales: $12.8 million

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By Jason Ticus – October 1, 2009

“The Web of Life”: Eliminate Dualism-> Embrace Interconnectedness->Assume Responsibility

Frijof Capra’s The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems was given to me by a professor years ago.  It has since traveled many continents, its pages now covered in highlights and underlines, having been referenced in numerous papers and journal entries over the years.  

Concerning many of the struggles we currently face as a species, Capra argues that, ultimately, we suffer from a crisis of perception.  They problems we face in science and philosophy, but also business, politics, health care, education and everyday life, are systemic problems, interconnected and interdependent.  “Ultimately these problems must be seen as just different facets of one single crisis, which is largely a crisis of perception.  It derives from the fact that most of us, and especially our large social institutions, subscribe to concepts of an outdated worldveiw, a perception of reality inadequate for dealing with out overpopulated, globally interconnected world.”

The book is rich with discussion of dynamics in interconnected systems from a molecular/physical scale through to ecological and cognitive systems, but tying the work together is an attempt to resolve conflict in what has become a wildly divided and unhealthy global society.

Accusing our political and social leaders of clinging to dying notions of isolation and dualism, he asserts that they refuse to recognize how their so-called solutions might affect future generations.  “From the systemic point of view, the only viable solutions are those that are ‘sustainable.’  The concept of sustainability has become a key concept in the ecological movement and is indeed crucial.  Lester Brown of the Worldwatch Institute has given a simple, clear, and beautiful definition: ‘A sustainable society is one that satisfies its needs without diminishing the prospects of future generations.’

Our collective, peaceful future demands a holistic, ecological worldview.  This is no small matter, and paradigm shifts are rarely smooth transitions.  The reality of limits, accountability and responsibility are nothing new to our species on a larger timeline.  Yet it seems recent generations have done a shockingly good job of shucking all concepts of consequence.  Capra reminds us, like many, that the plight of modern society is nearly indivisible from the “progress” of modern society, which has been harvested primarily under the relatively recent assumption of a Cartesian dualism.

“This paradigm consists of a number of entrenched ideas and values, among them the view of the universe as a mechanical system composed of elementary building blocks, the view of the human body as a machine, the view of life in society as a competitive struggle for existence, the belief in unlimited material progress to be achieved through economic and technological growth, and—last, but not least—the belief that a society in which the female is everywhere subsumed under the male is one that follows a basic law of nature. All of these assumptions have been fatefully challenged by recent events. And, indeed, a radical revision of them is now occurring.”

He ties much of his physical theory into an understanding of “deep ecology,” or the recognition that humans are not separate from the natural environment.  In this way we see the world not as a collection of isolated objects, but as a network of phenomena that are fundamentally interconnected and interdependent. “Deep ecology recognizes the intrinsic value of all living beings and views humans as just one particular strand in the web of life. Ultimately, deep ecological awareness is spiritual or religious awareness. When the concept of
the human spirit is understood as the mode of consciousness in which the individual feels a sense of belonging, of connectedness, to the cosmos as a whole, it becomes clear that ecological awareness is spiritual in its deepest essence.”

An deep-ecological POV demands we ask profound questions about the very foundations of our modern, scientific, industrial, growth-oriented, materialistic worldview and way of life.

I will prod those of us in the business of “corporate responsibility” to consider our sincerity, and the sincerity of our clients, in precisely these matters.  It is not uncommon that I hear among our Top Small Workplaces that the wonders they’ve achieved in their professional organizations are simply intuitive.  That they do these things because it only makes sense.  Because it is “the right thing to do.”

Indeed, “if we have deep ecological awareness, or experience, of being part of the web of life, then we will (as opposed to should) be inclined to care for all of living nature. Indeed, we can scarcely refrain from responding in this way.”

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By Jason Ticus – October 1, 2009