On June 16th, 28 volunteers committed to being the change that they would like to see in the world helped to construct a home with Habitat for Humanity. The event was one of 30 volunteer service events organized by B Corporations in 23 cities. For the past decade, Enviro-Stewards, a Certified B Corporation, has closed its office for a day each summer to help construct a home. This year, volunteers from Enviro-Stewards’ clients, other B corporations, aspiring B Corporations, and community members joined for the build day.
Most of the volunteers for this local build also collaborate globally through Enviro-Stewards’ Safe Water Projects. Smart Watering Systems, a Certified B Corporation, has sponsored the construction of 44 residential water purification systems in South Sudan in the names of its various significant irrigation clients. Kuzuka reviews the avoided greenhouse gas emissions associated with the Safe Water Projects (as people no longer need to boil water).
Grosche International and Hydrated World intend to certify as B corporations. Each brought their staff to participate in the build day and have developed business models designed to benefit the disadvantaged.
For every teapot or French press that Grosche sells, they are committed to providing 10 litres of safe water in a developing country. For each 5 articles of clothing Hydrated World sells, they are committed to providing one person with access to clean drinking water in a developing nation.
Other volunteers included engineers wanting to enter into sustainability field, volunteers from House of Friendship, Toronto Water and Community Carshare members.
B Corporations, which are certified by B lab, redefine success in business by changing their articles of incorporation to include the environmental and social stakeholders and commit to 3rd party audited transparent reporting of their Governance, Worker, Community and Environmental performance. There are currently 1,035 Certified B Corporations from 34 Countries and 60 Industries.
Enviro-Stewards’ Safe Water Project and its development partners (Impact South Sudan and Go Ye Africa) help to train and equip teams in developing countries to construct BioSand filters and to operate as a sustainable business (social venture). These affordable filters purify water using locally available materials, require no chemicals or energy to operate, and remain in service for 25 to 30 years.
In order to develop local markets for these filters in East Africa and to provide water to those who could not otherwise afford the filters, the Safe Water Projects also distribute a number of BioSand filters sponsored by Enviro-Stewards’ industrial customers (Tim Hortons, PepsiCo Foods, Chudleigh, etc.). Each biofilter provides safe drinking water for about 10 people, purifies about 20,000 L/yr of water and avoids at least 3 tonnnes/yr of greenhouse gas emissions that would otherwise be necessary to boil a portion of this water to make it safe to drink.
