Purpose businesses - redesigning business for social impact
Recently there has been a Kickstarter campaign in the USA for designing 'The Purpose Hotel'.
It was oversubscribed.
The Purpose Hotel concept is based on hotel guests, who use the hotel, 'changing the world while you sleep'.
The whole design is to maximise the social impact:
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Every product (soap, shampoo, linens, furniture, curated art, specialty products) is purchased from partners who are making a difference.
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Your room fees sponsor a child.
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Upgrade your free wifi to faster access and fight human trafficking.
By choosing such a hotel, you touch a hundred lives or more locally and internationally. You literally change the world in your sleep.
And that’s just the beginning. The design reimagines the hotel as a creative, interactive experience that ignites the imagination, promotes play and fosters community.
Here is a short video of the concept:
Why not take the concept wider and examine all aspects of your business, your organisation or the workplace you are employed in?
Could you switch to socially impactful suppliers not only for workplace products e.g. soaps in toilets, coffee, but also services?
Could you add a social impact proposition to your customer offerings?
I'm not suggesting to just increase your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. I'm suggesting you try to puposefully redesign the business to maximise social impact i.e. design it into the DNA..
Why not do an assessment and start a campaign at work?
There is a Buy Social Directory which could be helpful.
Here's a few examples:
Ethical Addictions - farm direct coffee
Tea People - supporting education in tea growing regions
Mbikudi - established to manufacture natural hair and skin care products in order to offer confidence and skills building workshops to women and children from ethnic minority and low-income backgrounds.
Ruby Moon - transforming ocean waste into activewear, creating half the carbon footprint and giving profits to female entrepreneurs in developing countries.
There are many more - (the above have been randomly selected with no recommendation).
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Geoff Knott, 27/09/2016