[Sust-mar] Tue Jul 21 Forum Reminder

[IBS]

IBS/PEI Social Forum
Tueday July 21
"THE SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS MOVEMENT: ITS HISTORY, ITS IMPACT AND 
ITS FUTURE"
 
The Institute for Bioregional Studies Ltd. (IBS), invites you to join our 
Social Forums. Each event begins at 7:00 p.m. with a potluck dinner, 
presentation and informal discussion. The intent is to share ideas and inform 
each other about social issues affecting our future.
Each forum is held at 114 Upper Prince Street, Charlottetown, Prince Edward 
Island.
For more information and to RSVP, call:902-367-0390; Email: ibs_pei at yahoo.com; 
Internet: www.ibspei.ca
 
There was a time in the distant past when businesses were the 
anchors of their communities. While not utopian, they were at the center of 
their communities, supporting the social fabric with jobs, philanthropy and 
concerns for all things local. Many were multi-generational family-owned 
businesses, and the family members were proud of their contributions to the 
cities and towns where they lived and raised their families.
 
By the 1950s, improved transportation, communications and manufacturing 
capabilities made "the local" less important as companies looked to 
national and international markets for both supply and demand. Professional 
managers came and left; and efficiency became the highest priority, 
devaluing the impact on the social infrastructure and the "limitless" strength 
of the earth.
 
In the 1970s, the first seeds of a new movement were planted. They were 
largely invisible, except in what might be considered fringe communities; but 
they were planted in the hopes of creating a renewed prioritization for both the 
planet and its residents. In the 1980s, the movement started to coalesce around 
the idea that business may have caused many of the world's problems but that it 
was the most efficient mechanism for solving them. In the 1990s, the now-called 
Socially Responsible Business comunity moved from the margins into at least 
some portions of the mainstream business world. Some leaders were featured as 
icons of a new way of thinking about business, and the sub-sector of Socially 
Responsible Investing became a booming category. In the first years of the new 
century, both the language and actions of social responsibility have crept into 
large portions of mainstream business. And yet, this movement is very much a 
work in process.
 
This conversation will review the history of the movement with informative 
and often entertaining stories about its early days. We will discuss its many 
successes, its failures, and its opportunities for further expansion in the 
future.
 
Mac McCabe will lead this discussion. Having graduated with an MBA from 
Harvard in 1971, he spent his early years honing his skills in mainstream 
businesses; but in 1989 he committed himself full-time to the socially 
responsible business world as a sustainable business consultant, interim 
management and entrepreneur. This community foregrounds the importance of 
the "triple bottom line": financial, environmental and social.
 
Mac has run such diverse companies as Northeast Cooperatives, the 
original wholesale distributor to the natural and organic grocery world- and a 
worker-owned cooperative; the Greyston Bakery, a renowned inner city training 
and employment project that makes all the brownies for Ben and Jerry's Ice 
Cream; and most recently O'Naturals, the first natural and organic quick-service 
restaurant chain in the US founded with Gary Hirshberg, CEO of iconic organic 
manufacturer Stonyfield Farm Yogurt. Mac lives in Portland, Maine, is spending 
his 15th summer vacation on PEI with his wife, and is particularly proud that 
two of his four grandparents were from the Atlantic 
Provinces.

Phil Ferraro and Nancy Willis
Institute for Bioregional Studies Ltd.
114 Upper Prince Street, Charlottetown 
Prince Edward Island Canada  C1A 4S3
"Restoring Community, Protecting the Land and Informing the Earth’s Stewards"
www.ibspei.ca


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