Socially Responsible – Choosing Right
If an entrepreneur approaches me about their business and points to ‘awards won’ I lose interest
If an entrepreneur demonstrates they know how to reach milestones, I’m interested to learn more
But if an entrepreneur can *really* show me how they care about something that matters, I can identify with them
Richard Zwicky
This is how I think. I’m probably not alone. I never considered it “socially responsible,” it is just how I think.
I have been sharing this perspective with a few people recently. The subject came up when I mentioned to an associate that I just finished helping a really nice group of entrepreneurs, and was interested in looking at some new opportunities to contribute via advisory boards. They had asked me why I choose to engage with one group over another, and why I sometimes chose to help ventures that were not viable. My response “It doesn’t have to be viable to be worthy”
This topic was brought back to my attention earlier today when chatting with Cec Primeau, a long-standing to Alacrity, and former CFO of a Wesley Clover company. Cec drew my attention to a company called Ronin8, whose mission is
“We want to leave a better world for future generations.”
Unlike so many other companies that pay lip service to this socially responsible statement, Ronin8’s business model actually makes this possible.
Like many others, I read the recent story about Apple recovering $40MM of gold from recycled iproducts, and thought “nice.” But then Cec sent me a link to an interesting award-winning documentary from UBC for Frontline on PBS a few years ago, and described what Ronin8 is doing.
For those of you who are not watching the video; every year enormous quantities of ‘garbage’ computers, phones, TV’s and other assorted electronics are sent to landfills. What we don’t realize is these waste products have a devastating human and environmental impact. As the documentary shows; disposal of such devices is considered to be too expensive to be economically viable, so scavengers ship them in bulk to Ghana and other locations where they can cheaply dispose of them. Dumping grounds in these countries are mined by people trying to earn enough to eat. The materials they extract; gold, copper, nickel, and of course mercury which gets re-used in next-generation devices. In other words, to stay alive, these people are slowly killing themselves. Enabling, and continuing this is not socially responsible.
The entrepreneurs behind Ronin8 recognized the problem: We as a society produce high value waste products that could be recycled into high in-demand consumer electronic products, but doing so is currently a toxic process. Ronin8 developed an environmentally friendly method of extracting the high value components that does away with the toxic methods currently employed.
Ronin8 is a small start-up company located in Vancouver B.C. Companies globally can utilize their services and affect broad social change. Utilizing their model, leaders can positively impact the lives of people around the globe, and also improve their bottom line!
No one should have to kill themselves so we can enjoy a cheaper new phone.
Recognizing this is not being “socially responsible” or “socially aware,” it’s just right.