Business as a Force for Wellbeing, Worldwide

Business as a Force for Good Business as a Force for Good

Sustainable Business x Regional Hearth Summits

At the regional Hearth Summits, a dynamic environment of collaboration, innovation, and wellbeing inspires actors in the corporate sector to fully embrace their potential as agents of change.

These gatherings serve as a fertile ground for the growth of a whole new type of business: one that puts the wellbeing of people and planet first, where profit and purpose are one in the same. Here at the Hearth, changemakers in business take in the latest research and insights from leaders and innovators; share best practices and successful case studies; and foster partnerships to drive collective, sustainable progress.

Whether in exploring the wellbeing of employees, in the value chain, or within the company’s social and environmental ecosystem, the Hearth Summits empower businesses to not just learn and share, but to lead and transform as actors of positive social change.

WHEN WELLBEING IS BUSINESS AS USUAL WHEN WELLBEING IS BUSINESS AS USUAL

“How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top.”

Yvon Chouinard

How to Build a Wellbeing Economy

Session From Hearth Summit Athens

In its holistic exploration of the future of wellbeing cities, Hearth Summit Athens took a deep dive into the concept of impact economies: how can we transform systems to truly value wellbeing? Watch this debate between Lorenzo Fiaromonti, former Italian Minister of Education and Founding Director, University of Surrey Institute for Sustainability, and Conchita Galdon, Vice Dean, Instituto de Empressa.

How Organizational Wellbeing Inspires Welldoing

LEARNINGS FROM THE WELLBEING PROJECT’S ORGANIZATIONAL EXPLORATORY PROGRAM

The Wellbeing Project, along with eight organizations from around the world, the Tavistock Institute, and the Center for Healthy Minds spent five years researching the value of organizational wellbeing and how to foster it. They learned that any organization, public or private, can benefit from promoting organizational wellbeing: it improves employee performance, which translates into improved organizational performance.

Read People & Culture Elder Ricardo Paz’s summary of the research findings, which he presented at Hearth Summit Bogotá, in English and Spanish.

Understanding the Mental Health of Social Entrepreneurs in Latin America

Research from The Wellbeing Project and the Interamerican Development Bank

In Bogotá, Juan Pablo López Gross from the Interamerican Development Bank Lab (BID Lab) presented the findings of new research conducted with The Wellbeing Project on the mental health of high-impact social entrepreneurs in Latin America, ultimately sharing the business case for wellbeing: if the entrepreneurs are doing well, the ventures will do better. Watch the session (in Spanish) and download the research.

Employee Mental Health: From Burnout to Holistic Wellbeing

Research from McKinsey Health Institute

The findings of an international survey by McKinsey Health Institute were shared with participants in Bogotá, which dive deep into mapping and understanding various factors that influence employee wellbeing, offering employers insight into how to best support their employees’ mental health.

Companies That Impact the Wellbeing of Communities | Empresas que Impactan el Bienestar de las Comunidades

Session From Hearth Summit BOGOTÁ

In Bogotá, Gaby Arenas de Meneses, director of the TAAP Foundation, Ashoka Fellow and Co-chair of Catalyst 2030 Latam, invites us to explore how social wellbeing influences our individual wellbeing, and what role companies can play in improving living conditions in their communities. Watch the session (in Spanish).

In Brussels, Isabelle Grosmaitre, founder of Goodness & Co., shared her recommendations on how businesses can transform themselves to make a positive impact; place diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the heart of their work; and foster of a culture of agency to empower all collaborators towards success and wellbeing.

In Brussels, Eleanor Allen explained B Lab’s ethos for making sustainable business the norm — explaining the B Corporation certification process, its benchmark indicators for positive social and environmental impact as well as employee wellbeing — inspiring changemakers to reflect on how profit and purpose can be one in the same.

In Brussels, Hugues Karemera, Deputy COO of Euroclear Bank, and Michel Mersch, CEO of Nestlé Belgium and Luxembourg, explained their companies’ successful approaches to organizational wellbeing, including the feedback mechanisms used to understand employees’ satisfaction with policies and determine new paths for action.

Sustainable Work: From Burnout to Excellence — Engaging Today’s Employees

Session From Hearth Summit BOGOTÁ

In Bogotá, Eleanor Allen, CEO of Catapult for Change, explores how to move from burnout to work-life balance and integration and how this impacts worker wellbeing and retention in companies. Watch the session (in English).

featureimage_wbs-brussels_bcorpcompanies

Meet Five B Corps That Put People and the Planet First

At Brussels, Eleanor Allen highlighted five companies around the world with some of the highest scores in B Lab’s social and environmental benchmark. Read about the following B Corporations and why their models for employee wellbeing, sustainable production and consumption, and positive social and environmental impact can inspire other entrepreneurs:

BioCarbon Partners, Zambia
Caravela Coffee, Colombia
Namaste Solar, USA
Seetec Business Technology Center, United Kingdom and Ireland
Tridos Bank, The Netherlands

Paving the Path to an Inclusive, Home-Grown Dairy Market in Senegal

The STORY OF LA LAITERIE DU BERGER

In Dakar-Thiès, changemakers learned about La Laiterie Du Berger, the very first B Corporation-certified company in Senegal. Since 2005, the laiterie has been collecting milk from more than 1,400 smallholder dairy farmers in Senegal to collectively sell them under a single brand, Dolima. By integrating them into the mainstream dairy market together, it has been able to revolutionize the Senegalese dairy market, which, in 2005, imported 90% of its dairy products as powdered milk. As a result of the company’s mobilization and collective action, more than 3,000 families have benefitted from a steady income, improving their business ventures, quality of life, and the wellbeing of their community. Furthermore, the support of these smallholder farmers has helped preserve traditional veterinary and agricultural practices as a cornerstone of the Senegalese economy.

Hear from director general of La Laiterie du Berger, Bagoré Bathily, in our Voices of Wellbeing series.