Building a Better Future: The Purpose Economy Movement

By United Way BC Social Purpose Institute

November 18, 2024

November 18-24, 2024, marks the 4th Annual Purpose in Business Week – an important event designed to generate national conversation and global awareness of the social purpose business movement.

Three years ago, the 2021 Purpose Economy Summit, detailed in the report: “Propelling the Canadian Purpose Economy: A Framework for Action,” ignited insights and call to action that remain just as timely and impactful today.

The Summit convened over 300 leaders to jump-start Canada’s Purpose Economy and accelerate the purpose pivot. Nearly 70 panelists, drawn from business, academia, government, finance, accounting, standards bodies, associations, and civil society, were optimistic about social purpose business. They believed their acceleration would unlock insights, resources, and assets to improve society’s prospects and business viability. All of them recognized that the orthodoxy of conventional business is under threat and that social purpose business holds the key to a sustainable future.

Global social and environmental challenges – such as climate change, social polarization, and income inequality – are reshaping the role of business in society. These issues have sparked a global demand for businesses to prioritize serving society, not just shareholders, and to actively contribute to addressing these challenges. Social purpose businesses, which exist to create a better world, are responding to this call, reconfiguring their enterprises to be a force for good.

Imperatives to Mainstream Social Purpose in Business

Along with partners, including Globe Series, the Business for Purpose Network and others, we consulted over 500 people and organizations to create an agenda to accelerate the Canadian Purpose Economy.

The consultations revealed four imperatives that comprise the steps needed to accelerate the transition to a Purpose Economy:

• Systems: Transition regulatory, legal, financial, investment, governance, measurement, accounting, procurement, and education systems from a profit to a purpose focus
• Actors: Mobilize ecosystem actors to create an enabling environment for social purpose business to start, transition, thrive and grow
• Diversity: Engage diverse and Indigenous business communities in the design and realization of the purpose economy and social purpose business models
• Awareness: Amplify the stories of social purpose business in action to raise awareness with the public, consumers, and the business community

Leading on Purpose: The Role of Boards, Investors and Accountants in Advancing Purpose Finance and Governance

To accelerate the uptake of social purpose in business, financial players have an important role to play. Yet there are many questions ahead that need to be addressed, like what’s the role of the board to provide oversight of the purpose and make sure it’s future fit? What’s the role of investors to help social purpose companies start, transition, and grow and then what’s the role of accountants in measuring purpose and authenticating purpose claims and disclosures?

Insights from business leaders, summarized in the e-book chapter on “Leading on Purpose,” inspired a number of strategies to mobilize financial players including: convening a cross-section of financial sector professions to create a purpose finance and accounting roadmap, providing guidelines for audit committees to help them with purpose measurement and disclosure, and educating investors, clients, accountants, boards and pension funds on the purpose imperative.

The Purpose Economy is in its infancy. Yet, we have the tools and levers at hand to change the direction of the economy for good. Check out the “Leading on Purpose” chapter of the Purpose Economy Framework for Action and find the role you can play.

Learning on Purpose: Reimagining Business Education to Advance Social Purpose Business

Business schools are increasingly interested to equip their students and alumni with an understanding of the role and value of business in society. Many have embraced programming about sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues.

Insights from Canadian business school thought leaders, summarized in the e-book chapter on “Learning on Purpose,” inspired a number of strategies to mobilize business schools to teach the social purpose business model including: integrate social purpose across the entire curriculum, don’t marginalize it as an alternative model, update textbooks with social purpose, develop social purpose case studies, and encourage business school alumni to return for a social purpose tune-up.

To understand the state of affairs, we conducted a preliminary scan of business school offerings and found that social purpose teaching is not yet explicitly included in business school curriculum. It is time for a business school product recall to re-equip Canadian business leaders to lead their business in ways that create a better future for Canadian communities. If we are to accelerate social purpose in business, we need business school allies.

Check out the “Learning on Purpose” chapter of the Purpose Economy Framework for Action and find the role you can play.

The Purpose Business Ecosystem: Strategies for social purpose procurement and B2B engagement, and the role of intrapreneurs

Every business relies on other businesses for their success, whether that is suppliers, business customers, joint venture partners or others. To grow the Purpose Economy, leading social purpose businesses engage this ecosystem to become a force for good. They mobilize their business networks to adopt a social purpose and help mainstream purpose in business.

Insights from Canadian business leaders, summarized in the e-book chapter on “The Purpose Business Ecosystem,” inspired several strategies to accelerate social purpose businesses by mobilizing business networks. These include becoming a social purpose thought leader and educator (e.g., conducting and sharing social purpose research with buyers, suppliers, customers, etc.), engaging staff to become social purpose champions so they promote it to their business relationships, and engaging suppliers by hosting supplier social purpose workshops, including social purpose in the RFP process and making it part of reviews with strategic suppliers.

As social purpose businesses need partners to help them achieve their social purpose, engaging other businesses to join the social purpose in business movement will increase the number of potential partners. Social purpose allies benefit from the trust that is created and the increased potential for meaningful impact through collaboration.

Check out the “The Purpose Business Ecosystem” chapter of the Purpose Economy Framework for Action and find the role you can play.

The Social Purpose Association: A New Mandate for Associations to Serve Both Members and Society

As all sectors and professions pay more attention to the market and societal imperative to embrace social purpose, a new social contract for associations will call on them to evolve from supporting only their members to serving society as a whole. Associations are centrally placed to accelerate social purpose across their organizations and memberships.

Insights from associations’ leaders, summarized in the e-book chapter on “The Social Purpose Association,” include: associations should start the social purpose conversation with their members as by talking about it they find member champions who can help drive it further among the membership, train association staff about social purpose and they will surface it in their work, associations can uncover their own social purpose and then help their members go down the same road by providing them social purpose education and resources.

United Way BC collaborated in the creation of this tool for associations to get them thinking about developing a social purpose: “An Association’s Social Purpose: A Benchmarking Tool”. Share it with associations in your network, including those you belong to, whether professional or industry focused.

Check out “The Social Purpose Association” chapter of the Purpose Economy Framework for Action and find the role you can play.

Designing the Ecosystem: Cross-pollinating practices across sectors

Canada has a successful track record in building enabling ecosystems to accelerate and scale innovation across industries and sectors—in technology, social innovation, labour, and energy, for example. There is much we can learn from these ecosystem-based approaches to social change for the design of the purpose economy in Canada.

Insights from leaders, summarized in the e-book chapter on “Designing the Ecosystem,” inspired a number of strategies to create an enabling ecosystem to accelerate social purpose in business. They include: create a common platform and elevate the profile and work of participants on the platform, have an institutional home for systems change work to create a focal point for the movement, and bring diverse interests and perspectives to the table to scope the opportunity broadly, focusing on the areas of consensus.

Check out the “Designing the Ecosystem” chapter of the Purpose Economy Framework for Action and find the role you can play.

Activating the Social Purpose Ecosystem: Naming, knowing, and engaging the players

More and more people are beginning to question the purpose of the economy and whether it does, indeed, serve the common good. More organizations are developing a social purpose as the reason they exist stimulated by employees looking for more meaningful, purpose-driven work, as the pandemic showed it is possible to change the dial on the economy. So why not change the purpose of it? How would we do so? We would first start by mapping the Purpose Economy, and then imagining a future state where purpose is the predominate economic model.

Insights from ecosystem builders, summarized in the e-book chapter on “Activating the Social Purpose Ecosystem,” inspired a number of strategies to transform today’s profit economy to tomorrow’s Purpose Economy. They include: build a movement by taking significant coordinated strategic action by a whole range of influencers, shapers, and actors, understand the Purpose Ecosystem’s current state, then the future state and show people the pathways to engage in purpose economics, and support all organizations to serve the common good and rally them to accelerate the Purpose Economy.

To understand the current state of the purpose ecosystem, United Way BC created the Canadian Corporate Social Purpose Ecosystem Map. It is a data source to find out who is playing in the space, where the gaps are and where we might need further energy. Organizations that want to know how to further work in the Purpose Economy, support other people, and be supported need to start by getting a sense of the system. This map enables them to do so. The map is a work in progress and a starting point for moving the Purpose Economy forward, with over 70 organizations in it. By working together we can start forming projects and collaborations out of a data source like this.

Check out the “Activating the Social Purpose Ecosystem” chapter of the Purpose Economy Framework for Action and find the role you can play.

Raising the Bar: Setting standards and developing accreditations

To embrace a social purpose is to set an overarching societal ambition that reaches beyond the financial bottom line, mobilizing all a company’s assets, resources, relationships, and platforms for social good. To pave the way for this transformation, standards, certifications, and accreditations are necessary. They provide stakeholders authentic social purpose assurance and drive transparent accountability that a company is delivering its purpose in the way intended.

Insights from standards thought leaders, summarized in the e-book chapter on “Raising the Bar,” inspired a number of strategies to create a social purpose certification for business. They include: build on other purpose standards work to date, including the ISO 37000 Governance Guidelines which are centred on the organization’s purpose, and PAS 808 guide on purpose-driven organizations put out by the British Standards Institute, avoid creating a standard with too many elements as it becomes onerous and costly to implement and rate, when developing a standard include experts, a multi-stakeholder process and public consultation, and plan to update the standard on a regular basis to reflect new developments.

United Way BC created the Social Purpose Assessment Tool to help social purpose companies evaluate the degree to which they are authentically implementing their social purpose. Going through this tool is one level of accreditation – if a third-party is hired to conduct the assessment, a more advanced level of accreditation is achieved.

Corporate Knights created another template for social purpose certification in the world’s first social purpose rating of 34 Canadian social purpose companies. It includes 8 criteria for effective purpose implementation that can be used to inform a social purpose standard. Read about it in “The Social Purpose Transition Pathway: Helping companies move from “say” to “do””.

Check out the “Raising the Bar” chapter of the Purpose Economy Framework for Action and find the role you can play.

Enabling Public Policy: The role of municipal, provincial, federal and Indigenous governments to accelerate social purpose

Sometimes, public sentiment pushes governments to act. And sometimes, government priorities can shift the way people, communities, and companies work. Either way, governments have an important role to play in advancing businesses’ adoption and pursuit of social purpose and in embracing a purpose economy. And they need to remove the roadblocks that inhibit it.

Insights from government experts, summarized in the e-book chapter on “Enabling Public Policy,” inspired a number of strategies to mobilize governments to accelerate the Purpose Economy. They include: increase the number of social purpose businesses in jurisdictions to create a competitive advantage in the global economy and attract capital and talent, treat social purpose policies as economic policies, harness the $13 trillion per year governments spend globally purchasing goods towards purpose-driven suppliers, adopt social purpose strategies and assign resources, and learn from and engage the $100 billion Canadian Indigenous economy.

United Way BC published a report on Promoting Purpose in Canadian Public Policy: Options for Governments in Canada to Accelerate Social Purpose in Business. This report includes 250 measures local, provincial and federal governments can pursue to create an enabling environment for social purpose businesses to start, transition, grow and thrive.

Check out the “Enabling Public Policy” chapter of the Purpose Economy Framework for Action and find the role you can play.

Profit on Purpose: The role of purpose in the modern corporation

When Larry Fink, CEO of the world’s largest wealth management firm, sent his 2018 letter to CEOs, he catapulted social purpose to the forefront of business thinking. It has been central to dialogues on the strategies, responsibilities, and priorities of companies ever since. Now that social purpose is in the mainstream of business discussion, how will it enter the mainstream of business practice? Where can we turn for information and inspiration in the Canadian context?

Interested in more information on the business case for purpose? Check out our Social Purpose Business Case workbook.

Interested in more case studies of social purpose business? Check out our Social Purpose Case Studies.

Check out the “Profit on Purpose” chapter of the Purpose Economy Framework for Action and find the role you can play.

Social Purpose Development and Implementation

Purpose leaders agree that the definition of organizational success is the realization of purpose. These two chapters of the Propelling the Purpose Economy e-book provide more insights and wisdom from purpose-driven leaders: Developing your Social Purpose and Implementing your Social Purpose.

Check out these two chapters of the Purpose Economy Framework for Action and learn from the masters about how to uncover and bring a social purpose to life. If you are interested in an international perspective on becoming a social purpose company, the chapter “International Perspectives” offers insights from an Australian social purpose expert, Phil Preston. All three chapters include recordings of these social purpose leaders and are a valuable resource for internal social purpose education and awareness. Watch them with your teams.

International Insights: Lessons learned to jump-start Canada’s social purpose ecosystem

Global efforts are underway to transform the economy from shareholder purpose to social purpose. Two leading initiatives are transforming the global economy so it serves people and planet, not profits – and provide inspiration for how we might embrace and build upon them in Canada.

The Future of the Corporation Program, operating from the British Academy in the UK, looks at how business needs to change to address the social, environmental, and technological challenges that it faces in the 21st century. It defines the purpose of business as “producing profitable solutions to the problems of people and planet, and not profiting from producing problems for either”. It recognizes that the current system coherently focuses companies on profits: Corporate law is about the rights of shareholders. Regulation is about the rules of the game within which profit maximizing companies operate. Ownership is about the rights of shareholders. Corporate governance is about aligning the interests of directors with those of their shareholders. Measurement is about measuring the financial performance of companies and performance is measured in terms of profits and share prices. Finance is about creating returns for investors and investment is about maximizing share value. The Future of the Corporation Program argues that to put purpose at the heart of companies it is necessary to have as coherent a frame around the purpose of business.

The Well-being Economy Alliance (WEAll) is a global network of organizations from around the world that collaborate to bring about economic system change. WEAll recognizes that the social and ecological crises we face are largely driven by our current economic system, so it seeks to transform the economy to serve people and planet. It synthesizes the knowledge base and creates narratives to tell an exciting and compelling story about the possibility of economic system change. It amplifies the stories of the economic transformation to prove the possibility of economic system change that add up to a new normal and not just isolated examples. WEAll works through local hubs that are emerging around the world including in Canada, whose local hub is called WEAll Can.

There is so much we can learn from others around the world, and we should. The “International Insights” chapter of the Purpose Economy Framework for Action will help you learn from the global architects of the Purpose Economy.

Canadian Purpose Economy Roundup

The pandemic created the opening to analyze and reset everything we do. It brought into clear focus the compelling need to design an economy whose core purpose is to create long term well-being for all within nature’s limits. We call this reimagined economy the Purpose Economy. On this blog, we shared strategies to transform the economy – and the businesses within it – to become a force for good.

We have the tools and levers at hand to change the direction of the economy. They are described in the Purpose Economy Framework for Action with links to 15 recordings of 70 purpose thought leaders and influencers sharing their passion, optimism and strategies to accelerate social purpose in business. Watch and share them with your colleagues and networks.

The Canadian Purpose Economy Project (CPEP) has taken up the mantle from the Propelling Purpose Summit, evolving its groundbreaking insights into a national program. CPEP continues to advance the Purpose Economy by creating tools, resources, and opportunities for collaboration. Visit CPEP to explore how this work is shaping the future of business and society and how you can get involved.

There is a sea change underway from the old economic order to the new economic order, being led and defined by social purpose businesses and their allies in the social purpose community. The purpose genie is out of the bottle. We have the tools, the vision, and the audacity to change the course of business – for good. Join the movement and make your mark on history.

Let’s build the Purpose Economy together and unleash business assets to foster flourishing communities on a flourishing planet!