When I took social studies as a kid, I didn’t think much about the word “social”. Now social is a busy adjective: social action, social media, social purpose. Maybe this means we’re paying more attention to how we interact as people on this Earth. I hope so because by 2050 there will be 9 billion of us living on this planet. Then we’ll definitely need advanced social skills in order to live comfortably together.

So let’s get social and think more about how to create social value in business and through business. Check out my new Social Value Business Guide in the "Tips, Tools, Trends & Trailblazers" section below.

This brings me to my use of social media and the new Canadian Anti-spam legislation (CASL). Nobody likes spam (except spammers) so I carefully considered my communications in light of CASL. Here are my thoughts. I use social media in my personal mission to help catalyze the transformation to a sustainable marketplace. I don’t do this for economic gain. With my blog posts and newsletter I freely share tools, tips and trends to foster social change and empower people to activate sustainable practices and behaviour. I never sell or share my list. If at any time you no longer want to receive information from me, please take advantage of the unsubscribe option at the bottom of my emails and/or this newsletter.

Thanks to Delta Management, Gavin Pitchford and his team at Canada’s Clean50 (www.clean50.com) for recognizing me as a 2015 Clean16 honouree and an outstanding contributor to clean capitalism. This kind of recognition helps to build the social movement to sustainably. I am particularly impressed to learn about the dynamic work of my fellow honourees.

While business has lots of guidance on environmental footprint reduction, there are no global roadmaps for corporate social sustainability. Building upon tools I developed for Industry Canada and my clients, I created a how-to business guide on social value creation. It focuses on community hiring, living wages, social sourcing and social innovation. Given the buzz about corporate social innovation, I was surprised no one has yet published a comprehensive how-to guide on this topic. I encourage you to scan the tool, particularly the section on social innovation, co-authored with social innovation master, Darcy Riddell.

As interest in sustainable lifestyles and business practices increases, forward-thinking companies find ways to help customers improve their social and environmental impacts. Whether driven by innovation, market share or risk management, increasingly companies are enabling greener, healthier and more sustainable lives and businesses. I am joined by David Willans, marketing director at Futerra, a leading sustainable communications agency, and Frances Edmonds, director of environmental programs for Hewlett-Packard Canada. We will address the following questions:

• What can companies do to inspire, enable and persuade business or retail customers to practice sustainable behaviours?
• What are the barriers and how to overcome them?
• What tactics are most effective in driving customer behaviour?

Learn More. For a $150 discount sign up for the Conference Board of Canada in three quick steps here.

Adapting the Qualities of a Transformational Company to the post-secondary sector, I helped Vancouver Community College (VCC) to refresh its environmental plan. Earlier this year VCC adopted a 10-year vision to advance toward zero environmental impact (and in some cases restorative environmental impact) and to become a green community hub, catalyst and partner. The college commits to graduating students with the competencies to play a leadership role in Vancouver’s sustainability transformation. Check out their “lead, live and learn” objectives here: VCC Environmental Strategy. Here is a link to the Qualities of a Transformational Education Institution tool we used in the strategy process.

Over the past year I have helped four companies develop “social purpose strategies”. This is the new CSR frontier, in which companies embed social and environmental value into their core purpose and business models. Social purpose companies go beyond managing CSR as a separate strategy and commit their operations, relationships and value chains to improve social and environmental conditions. I call this new frontier of CSR “CSR 4.0”. I am happy to share my insights on this new social purpose journey if you would like to get in touch.

Earlier this year I moderated a webinar for The Conference Board of Canada on the emerging sustainability role of the CFO. You can access this webinar here. I summarized key insights in this popular GreenBiz article on “Why CFOs are Sustainability’s Surprising New Superheroes”. You may wish to share the article with sustainability champions in your finance department, or gather a group of finance executives to watch the webinar with you.

Increasingly boards are rewarding executives for sustainability results. This article I wrote for Corporate Knights explores the up- and downside of the sustainable pay trend.

My long-term client, The Co-operators Insurance Group, continues to be recognized as a top corporate citizen in Canada. This year they were named one of the top 50 socially responsible companies by both Maclean's/Sustainalytics and Corporate Knights.

Social finance investments have grown to over $5 billion in Canada – a far cry from the few million dollars we attracted at Vancity when the board launched one of the first social finance funds in Canada twenty years ago (I was a director back then). However, there remain many gaps that limit the growth of social enterprises and social investments in Canada. Read this blog, which profiles research I conducted for Employment and Social Development Canada on social finance barriers and opportunities, to learn about some of the surprising findings.