Social Impact in Corporate Companies

Inspiring Corporate Social Impact Stories

Corporate Social Impact is growing and more imperative than ever for consumers. Burberry, Starbucks, and Bain & Company illustrate a few examples.

One example of social impact strategies recently brought Burberry to partner with Lucky Fish.

Burberry Foundation teamed up with social enterprise Lucky Iron Fish to tackle iron deficiency. Lucky Iron Fish is a small fish-shaped piece of iron which families can boil in liquid-based meals to enrich their food (the company also donates one iron fish to a family in need for every one bought). The fish lasts for five years and provides a significant portion of the daily recommended iron intake.

Iron deficiency negatively impacts 2 billion people around the world, especially those living in poverty. The World Bank estimates that £52.2bn is lost each year from the global economy due to illnesses related to iron deficiency. Iron is an essential nutrient that helps vital organs receive the oxygen they need to function properly.

Starbucks leading the way with a comprehensive social impact strategy.

They committed to sourcing Ethically and Sustainably. They plan to have 100% ethically sourced cocoa and tea by 2020 for all Starbucks cocoa based beverages.

Not only are they committed on the production side, but they also give back on the community/consumer side:

Providing their employees opportunities to go back to school
Minimizing their green footprint by “…working to shrink our environmental footprint and meet the expectations of our customers by increasing recycling, promoting reusable cups and reducing the waste associated with our cups and other packaging.”
Promoting civic engagement by offering an online search tool for volunteer opportunities.

In addition, they have created a Global Farmer Fund with a $50 Million commitment goal to provide financing to coffee farmers by 2020.

They have grown to now more than 25,000 stores in over 75 countries, so too has their commitment to create global social impact. The report is quite impressive.

Another company, Bain & Company, is taking part in social impact by providing pro bono services.

They “partner with organizations that have pioneered and scaled models of change that demonstrably work, but which often lack access to the type of strategic consulting that Bain can provide to help them reach full potential.” Their commitment to invest $1B of pro bono consulting work over the next 10 years by 2025 is impressive.

Bain has also committed to focusing on two other critical issues:

improving the futures of underserved children and youth by working with school systems and education nonprofits
fostering inclusive and sustainable economic growth through partnerships with organizations that harness the power of business models to create jobs, increase incomes and improve quality of life.

Bain recognizes that companies increasingly have to do good to do well.