social delta

Consulting and support for social enterprise in Canada

Tag: social justice

Purposeful Commerce

February 13, 2025 /

When you buy something—anything, really—there is an exchange of value. Money is exchanged for a good or service, right?

The trouble is that we frequently forget that there are more currencies than money, and more products than a single good or service.

Time is maybe our most valuable currency. It is a fixed asset. It is always limited in supply. We get to choose how we spend it, and once spent, it can’t be refunded. Like money, we need time to thrive. We also have compassion to spend. And patience. And privacy. And commitment. These are all currencies.

As for the products we purchase, we can easily forget that when we buy a loaf of bread, for example, we are actually buying many goods and services. We are buying the grain from the nutrients of the land. We are buying the labour of the farmer, the miller, the trucker, and the baker. We are buying a small fraction of the combine harvester and even the time of the person who built that machine. And we are buying the raw materials that were used to make that machine. We are also buying the environmental impact of the process by which that loaf of bread arrived at our local grocery store.

The purchase of a loaf of bread, then, is an exchange of two BUNDLES of value:

(Money, time & commitment)

is exchanged for

(Bread, agricultural community livelihoods & supply chains)

This expanded view of commerce is important is because making deliberate purchasing choices matter, and every choice affects multiple aspects of what might appear to be a simple transaction.

Let’s look at some scenarios:

  • Right now, Canadians are fearful of potential financial losses and inflationary trends in an environment of threat of tariffs and trade restrictions; therefore, we can choose to spend on products and services that reinforce the growth and resilience of our local and national communities.  
  • In every transaction, if we spend the time to speak to the vendor, we gain more than just their product, we gain an understanding, a connection, and a relationship; buying online might be cheaper, but we are making a choice to relinquish social cohesion.
  • When we consume social media, we are exchanging time, patience, privacy, and editorial control for quick news, comedy, and the financial wealth of the media owners; we can make a choice about what we are spending and what we are getting. (note that this “purchase” doesn’t use the customer’s money as currency in the transaction)

Why am I writing this blog on a site about social entrepreneurship?

Well, social enterprise is a form of commerce which deliberately takes into account a broader understanding of an exchange of value. When the vendor is clearly and intentionally working to improve some form of social justice, then a customer’s purchase takes on a multi-dimensional aspect.

Let’s take the loaf of bread example: If you buy a loaf of bread from a social enterprise, you also might be “buying” sustainable wages for local bakers, or the knowledge that you are supporting sustainable agricultural processes, or you the multifaceted benefits of helping to create a job for someone otherwise excluded from the work force.  You are exchanging your money, time and commitment for bread and some (or many) forms of positive social impact.

For those who may be feeling as though the social fabric is being eroded by political divisiveness, the rise of oligarchical actors, and growing intolerance and cruelty, it is powerful to recognized that buying choices can make a tremendous positive impact.

When you buy something—anything, really—you are able to affect the course of history.

Build Back Better

October 27, 2020 /

These are times when starting or expanding a social enterprise is either a fantastic opportunity or an impossible folly.

There are unquestionably many challenges facing people and communities locally, nationally and globally as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, and perhaps not entirely by coincidence, we see cracks and fissures appear in the social fabric: polarized and angry democracies, growing income disparities, wildly unsustainable consumerism, incredibly potent and punishing environmental changes, more xenophobia and irrational fear of “others,” increasing intolerance and racism, and a sincere lack of resources as our economies are (and have been) shown to be fragile constructs.

If social action is borne of injustice and and fomenting of the desire for positive change, then surely we must look at new ways of creating a just and sustainable society. Social enterprise is potential tool to make that happen, although starting any sort of business in a pandemic is risky; fantastic or folly, indeed.

I have many thoughts on how we can redesign business and movements and individual actions and responsibilities. However, I believe that my colleague and friend Vinod Rajesekaran, of Future of Good, expressed it brilliantly in his recent article “Stop idolizing your sector and demonizing another.” I quote from him directly:

Let’s build back better by asking different questions. When an organization or a project inspires you, don’t ask about their legal structure. Instead, look deeper and ask about their values, intentions, and actions. Look at the ratio between the highest and lowest paid workers, look at their carbon footprint, look at how diverse their leadership teams and boards are, look at how they act on reconciliation everyday, look at how well they include and give voice to their stakeholders, and follow the money — look at where they save and what they invest their money in. 

One of the first questions I get from aspiring social entrepreneurs is about how (and when) they should incorporate. I always tell them “form follows function” and that they should wait as long as possible before they formalize their social purpose in an organizational structure. Only once they’ve identified and lived by their values, intentions and actions (ie determined their function) will they know the best structure to support their work. In fact, once they’ve started their work in earnest, the form of their business is almost always determined for them.

We are, regrettably, stuck with largely antiquated legislation that enshrines for profit, co-operative, or non-profit structures, myths, and expections. However, we can–and must–push the parameters of each of these structures to create businesses that measurably improve social conditions, justice, fairness and protection of the environment.

In the coming years, we can, person by person, build back better.

Redefining Success

May 26, 2020 /

“What this pandemic shows…is that we can stop everything in a moment’s notice. I hope that rather than panic and try to rush back to normalcy, people will reflect on what it is we should leave behind, rather than resume.”

Journalist Sam Blum expressed this hope in a recent article in VOX magazine. It complements the UN aspirations to “Build Back Better, ” which is “an approach to post-disaster recovery that reduces vulnerability to future disasters and builds community resilience to address physical, social, environmental, and economic vulnerabilities and shocks.” (Read the full resource here)

Everyone–and let’s fully grasp what that means–everyone on the planet is affected by this pandemic. The numbers of deaths and illness may be small relative to the global population of over 7.8 billion people, but they are significant and scary. Every house and refugee camp, every person rich and poor, and every community urban and rural are having to adjust what they do, how they do it, and how to adapt to fear and uncertainty. This global response is unprecedented. Even the world wars were not fought on battlegrounds in every country. Previous global health scares in the last century (AIDS, SARS, MERS) seem to have had far less of an immediate impact on every family. The Spanish Flu had a similar reach…and far more deaths associated with it…but it existed at a time of limited global interactions and travel.

COVID-19 has made apparent the stark disparities in our world. Front line workers–from grocery clerks to health professionals to law enforcement–are forced to work and put themselves at risk for a greater good. The poor (whether relatively poor in developed countries or abjectly poor in other parts of the world) are at a sincere disadvantage as they simply can’t afford to not work, nor to socially isolate. Some ethnic groups and age groups have reportedly been disproportionately infected. Political figures are disguising their authoritarian tendencies behind the shield of “protecting their people” by applying emergency measures, or even boldy proclaiming power. Access to information, in spite of the ubiquitous Internet, has been confusing as conspiracy theory and mis-information is mixed seamlessly with the data-driven health edicts and expert, reasearched opinions.

For those who have health and wealth, the pandemic creates a mind game that might question one’s purpose. For those who are struggling to just get by, the pandemic is a frightening daily reminder of our own frailty and mortality.

Economies are opening up now; some are taking modest steps, other are more bold. Health professionals warn of a second wave of infection and each society or community must weigh the risks of infection against the necessity of employment and liberty.

Social Delta, with many others involved in helping to create just societies in which work has both individual purpose and community benefit, sees an opportunity to indeed “build back better.” Our businesses must be more focused on meeting the basic needs of citizens: health, education, nutrition, sustainability, justice and minimizing poverty.

Our global economy has had a heart attack and we collectively have the power to resuscitate it and nurse it back to good health.

There will undoubtedly be many changes in the way we define work, where we work, the value we place on family and social interactions and security. Indeed, if we redefine success such that we focus on what is good for us as individuals living in community, then the future after the fear may well be more humane, forgiving and sustainable.

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