Industry: Food service

Headquarters: Centennial, CO

Founder: Mark Berzins

Founded: 1994

Number of Employees: 130

Markets: Denver Metro Area, CO

Interviewed: Mark Berzins, Founder

Little Pub Company is a group of neighborhood bars in Denver, CO loosely collected under the Little Pub Company name. Each pub is a distinct neighborhood place for patrons to hang out and be social with their neighbors and other members of the community. The firm has grown over the past 13 years to have about 130 employees and 10 different pubs. The company’s business model is to provide an evening alternative to the morning coffee shop; a place where people can routinely go to end their day with others in their community. Some of the company’s restaurants include Senor Rita’s, Salty Rita, Three Dogs Tavern, Spot Bar & Grill and Irish Hound.

Little Pub Company’s community involvement began as a way to reach their desired target market of locals, neighbors, and pedestrian traffic. In order to build relationships and reputation among their desired clientele, the company devoted its marketing budget toward getting involved with various nonprofit and community organizations.

Little Pub Company

7348 S Alton Way
Centennial, CO 80112

http://www.littlepubco.com/

Industry: Clothing and accessories

Headquarters: Ypsilanti, MI

Founder: Benà Burda

Founded: 1992

Markets: Nationwide

Interviewed: Benà Burda, Founder

Maggie’s has been in business since 1992 providing comfy, basic, durable clothing and accessories, making them affordable, and all the while supporting the founders’ beliefs and values in integrity, social responsibility, humility, sustainability and fun. The company began marketing organic corn tortilla chips, but when one of the farmers growing the corn added organic cotton to the crop rotation, the company needed to sell it. After doing some research about cotton growing techniques and discovering the harsh facts of conventional cotton cultivation and garment manufacturing, the firm began making garments a different way – using the farmer’s organic cotton. The firm began with a line of organic cotton socks and today sells a comprehensive line of organic cotton clothing and accessories, including baby clothing. Being the first company to utilize organic materials in non-food products, Maggie’s and founder Benà Burda are considered pioneers in the organic product industry with such large companies as Wal-Mart and Nike now selling products utilizing organic cotton.

The community involvement philosophy of Maggie’s organics is that there is no environmental sustainability without social responsibility. The firm practices social responsibility by using environmentally sustainable methods and materials in production as well as in all aspects of business, and by adhering to fair labor standards.

Maggie’s Functional Organics
306 W. Cross Street
Ypsilanti, MI 48197

www.organicclothes.com  

Beyond Organics: Social Aspects: http://www.organicclothes.com/social.asp  

Industry: Salon beauty services

Headquarters: Denver, CO

Founder: Jason Linklow

Founded: 1999

Markets: Denver, CO

Interviewed: Jason Linklow, Owner

Metafolics Salon is primarily a full service salon. Along with providing all hair services, the firm also offers skin care and massage services. The name is a make believe word created by the founder, Meta is a prefix that means to transform or to evolve to a higher level and Folics means care. So, Metafolics means to evolve to a new level and place, which is what the salon tries to provide for its customers. The philosophy of Metafolics is to provide a high level of salon care without the pretension common to higher end salons. Everything from how the salon’s atmosphere was designed, to the location, to the type of people the firm hires, and the manner in which it conducts business, is all designed to not be intimidating, but instead to make people feel welcomed, positive, and happy.

Salon means a gathering place for the community, and the community philosophy of Metafolics is based upon that definition. By managing a symbiotic relationship, Metafolics supports the community that supports it.

Metafolics Salon

1070 Bannock Street, Suite 170
Denver, Colorado 80204-4058

www.metafolics.com  

Industry: Beer brewing

Headquarters: Fort Collins, CO

Founder: Jeff and Kim Jordan

Founded: 1991

Markets: Nationwide

Interviewed: Brian Simpson, Media Relations

New Belgium Brewery is an employee-owned regional brewery in Fort Collins, CO. The firm’s best selling brand is Fat Tire, named for the founder’s bike trip through Belgium during which he was inspired to start the company. The firm brews Belgium style beers, which tend to be more heavily spiced and which use more fruit, including more exotic fruit strains. The Belgian brewing process utilized by the firm is arguably a more creative process than English or German styles. One of the great underpinnings of the firm’s culture is that it has many cyclists and many of the employees commute to work on a bicycle.

New Belgium endeavors to be a good corporate citizen through its community involvement. Since New Belgium Brewery’s philanthropy program was established in 1993, the firm has donated one dollar for every barrel produced. Funds from this program are given to four different kinds of causes, including environmental, social, cultural, and drug and alcohol awareness. The funds are distributed regionally based on sales, such that one dollar is donated to a state for each of the barrels sold there. In 2004, the firm donated $350,000 to charitable non-profit organizations nationwide.

New Belgium Brewery

500 Linden St

Fort Collins, CO 80524

www.newbelgium.com  

Industry: Freelance photography services

Headquarters: Sausalito, CA

Founder: Nita Winter

Founded: 1982

            Number of Employees: 1

            Markets: Bay Area California

            Interviewed: Nita Winter, Owner

Nita Winter has been in business for 25 years as a professional photographer. Before becoming a photographer, Nita worked for two and a half years scheduling events at the Women’s Building in San Francisco, which began her passion for working with nonprofit organizations. In this position, Winter had extensive exposure to the diverse projects of non-profits in San Francisco. When she established her freelance photography work, her first clients were mostly nonprofits due to her existing connections in the community. Over the next 25 years, Nita Winter Photography has continued to work with non-profits. Winter’s photographic specialty is people and she has become nationally known for the work she does with children and diversity.

Nita Winter Photography works mostly with nonprofit and philanthropic causes because it is the work she has found to be most fulfilling. It is her community involvement philosophy that if people had a stronger sense of community there would be less conflict and healthier children, and that a healthier sense of self-worth also contributes to having a stronger community. Early in her career, Winter realized the power of the photograph as a universal visual language and how she could harness that power to create stronger communities and to communicate the essence of a community with those outside of and different from it. 

Nita Winter Photography
3001 Bridgeway Blvd, Suite K #339
Sausalito CA 94965

www.nitawinterandrobbadgerphotography.com

Industry: Coffee

Headquarters: Minneapolis, MN

Founder: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)

Founded: 1996

Number of Employees: 12

Markets: Midwest United States

Interviewed: Andy Lambert, Event and Outreach Coordinator

Peace Coffee is Minneapolis-based 100% fair trade organic shade grown coffee company that was started in 1996. The firm buys coffee directly from farmer-owned and operated coffee cooperatives from six different countries (Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Ethiopia and Sumatra.) The coffee is delivered locally in the Minneapolis area by bike. To deliver to suburban accounts, the firm uses a van that is 100% bio-diesel. The company’s commitment to fair trade and organic farms goes well beyond buying coffee; the firm also practices social and environmental responsibility when it delivers its coffee and operates its business. Peace Coffee is a for-profit subsidiary of a nonprofit organization. The nonprofit organization that owns Peace Coffee is the Institute for Agricultural and Trade Policy (IATP).

The community involvement philosophy of Peace Coffee revolves around the firm’s total devotion to the idea of a fairly traded, farmer-friendly product and the wonders of a great cup of coffee. The fair trade principles the firm uses to buy its coffee facilitate the farmers and their communities to thrive in a sustainable way, giving them the capacity to improve their own quality of life. The firm also believes it is important for small business to support their local community, whether in supporting the arts, education or supporting other small businesses, working and making connections to help their own business thrive.

Peace Coffee

2801 21st Ave S #120

Minneapolis, MN 55407

www.peacecoffee.com  

Fair Trade: http://www.peacecoffee.com/fairtrade.htm  

Industry: Cosmetics

Headquarters: New York, NY

Founder: Jody Weiss

Founded: 2002

Markets: Nationwide

Interviewed: Jody Weiss, President

Peacekeeper Cause-Metics is a cosmetics company that donates its after-tax profits to urgent human rights issues and women’s health advocacy issues. Peacekeeper has given one half of one percent of its gross revenues to domestic violence issues each year and will continue to do so until profitable, when all profits after costs and reasonable retained earnings will be given to charity. The firm’s first donation was given to UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) for its work on behalf of women and girls worldwide. In addition, Peacekeeper has given over $25,000 in retail merchandise to women’s focused non-profit organizations for their silent auctions or VIP programming. Peacekeeper produces a mineral-based cosmetics line without harsh chemicals or synthetic preservatives. Even as of 2005, the company’s products were already acceptable under the European cosmetic directive of 2007, which holds cosmetics companies selling in Europe to higher standards in terms of the ingredients utilized in their products.

Peacekeeper’s community involvement philosophy is based on the idea that women of privilege and of status who have the privilege to afford lipstick and other luxuries should be able to help women with less privilege that maybe have never held a lipstick in their life. The slogan is “look good, feel good, do good,” whereby the firm helps women both in the United States and overseas who are disadvantaged.

Peacekeeper Cause-Metics

50 Lexington Ave #22G

New York, New York 10010

www.iamapeacekeeper.com  

Advocacy Issues: http://www.iamapeacekeeper.com/advocacy/advocacy.html  

Industry: Coffee

Headquarters: Seattle, WA

Founders: Chris Dearnley and John Sage

Founded: 1992

Markets: Nationwide

Interviewed: John Sage, Chairman of the Board and Co-Founder

PuraVida Coffee has grown to become one of the largest sellers of Fair Trade, organic coffee in the U.S. The mission of PuraVida is to create good by using capitalism to empower producers, motivate consumers, inspire business leaders, and ultimately serve the poor. From the very beginning, the founders viewed PuraVida as an engine to generate awareness and funding for the programs the firm runs in Costa Rica. The company is involved in four neighborhoods in San Jose with six full time staff, and a crew of about thirty volunteers providing hot food and nutritious meals six days a week to about 500 kids. It also operates four computer centers and an extensive after school soccer program that gives kids a way to get off the streets and to be in a community surrounded by people who really care for them. It is in these ways that the business makes community transformations possible. In addition, the firm builds an emotional connection between the producers of the coffee and other beverages, and the consumers who buy them. The goal is to transform the daily act of making a cup of coffee into an act that creates change in the world.

The involvement philosophy of PuraVida is based on the idea that business has enormous potential to multiply resources; capitalism is unique in its ability to take a good idea and capital and to return results to shareholders in a dramatic way. It is the basis of PuraVida’s involvement philosophy that those same principles should be applied on behalf of positive social change. As a result, the community involvement of the company inspires its customers and increases their loyalty to the PuraVida company.

PuraVida Coffee

3517 Stone Way N.
Seattle, WA 98103

www.puravidacoffee.com  

Industry: Food service, Beer brewery

Headquarters: Louisville, CO

Founded: 2000

Markets: Selected states, Nationwide

Interviewed: Jessica Newman

Rock Bottom Foundation is the corporate giving arm for Rock Bottom Restaurants, Inc. which includes, Rock Bottom Restaurants and Brewery, Old Chicago Restaurants, The Chop House and Brewery brands, Sing Sing, Walnut Brewery and Boulder Beer Company. Dedicated to combating hunger in the communities in which they live and operate restaurants, the Foundation provides support through the restaurants to organizations and programs that address this social issue. Rock Bottom Restaurants believes in giving back to the communities in which they do business. All of the restaurants are casual dining establishments featuring friendly attentive service, high-quality, moderately priced food, and a distinctive selection of micro brewed and specialty beer served in a comfortable and entertaining atmosphere.

Rock Bottom Restaurant’s mission statement is “to run great restaurants for the benefit of our guests, our communities and ourselves”. To that end, the firm started the Foundation, which became the engine for all of the firm’s volunteer projects, and the giving to and support of the community, specifically in the area of hunger and homelessness. The Foundation also facilitates the firm’s support of any of its employees who are in a crisis situation, a home fire, a medical emergency, a death in the family, or any other unexpected needs.

Rock Bottom Foundation
248 Centennial Parkway
Louisville, CO 80027

www.rockbottomrestaurantsinc.com  

Industry: Cleaning products

Headquarters: Burlington, VT

Founder: Jeffrey Hollender

Founded: 1987

            Markets: Nationwide

            Interviewed: Gregor Barnum, Director of Corporate Consciousness

Seventh Generation is a producer and seller of over 52 different environmentally friendly cleaning products, including soaps and paper products. It is the number one producer of non-toxic, environmentally safe household cleaning products in the country. The name refers to seven generation sustainability, the idea that decisions should be considered for their impact on the seventh generation to come, inspired by the laws of the Iroquois. The business began as a catalogue company and has, over the years, changed the catalogue model to retail distribution in thousands of natural product and grocery stores nationwide.

The community involvement philosophy of Seventh Generation is closely related to the philosophy that gave the company its name – the idea of doing business in a way that improves the plant and communities for future generations. As a small company starting out, Seventh Generation did not have a lot of money to throw at the problem of improving the community. Instead, the company looks for proactive ways to solve community and environmental problems. The company tries to be a satisfying company to work for and do business with; a major part of that effort is having a well-developed vision of what it means to be a responsible business and a good corporate citizen.

Seventh Generation

60 Lake Street
Burlington, VT 05401

www.seventhgeneration.com

Making a Difference: http://www.seventhgeneration.com/making_difference/