The Conscious Capitalism movement is growing in Portland. It is two years since the last conference was put on by Portland’s Conscious Capitalism chapter at the Ecotrust Center on Snowmagedden, 2019.
This year the gathering is back and it represents a collaboration between 11 like-minded groups of caring capitalists, including Benefit Corporations for Good and B Local PDX.
Benefit Corporations for Good is a nonprofit that supports companies to become certified and thrive under the State of Oregon’s Benefit Corporation structure.
Its certification program is not quite as robust as that of the official B Corps. It has 55 questions that must be answered, as compared to a B Corps’ 150 questions.
The master of ceremonies of the ELEVATE Business 2020 Conference is CEO and publisher, Corey Blake. who began his storytelling career as an actor, starring in one of the 50 greatest Superbowl commercials of all time (Mountain Dew, Bohemian Rhapsody). The message is people, community, and planet, not just profit.
“It is where capital meets heart,” says Vawn Hicks, co-chair of Portland’s Conscious Capitalism chapter. “Today’s forward-thinking business leaders know they must focus on how they best meet the needs of investment, consumer and talent markets. It’s no longer an option if that business leader wants her business to survive and thrive in the future.”
The Business Roundtable in 2019 redefined corporate purpose to make business more humane, has inspired greater attention to the conscious capitalism movement since.
At the Roundtable nearly 200 chief executives, including the leaders of Apple, Pepsi and Walmart, said businesses should no longer advance only the interests of shareholders but also invest in employees, protect the environment and act ethically toward their suppliers.
Hicks was a volunteer in 2018 in Portland and got hooked on the idea that business could be about more than making money.
“Capitalism took us from the Dark Ages to the Industrial Revolution,” Hicks told the Business Tribune. “Some people are turned off by the word capitalism. Whatever you’re thinking, we’re doing the opposite of that. We’re putting the conscious into conscious capitalism.”‘