The Positive Power of Business: How Fashion can Change the World

Scott Leonard, founder and CEO of Indigenous Designs

Joining us this week is Scott Leonard, CEO and Co-founder of Indigenous Designs Corporation, a leading apparel brand and producer of hand-knit, natural fiber clothing. Scott is responsible for directing the Indigenous Brand identity and Indigenous private label production model.

Founded in 1994, Indigenous Designs develops and markets premium quality apparel to high-end fashion retailers around the world. These fine garments are designed in-house and produced to specification by artisan cooperatives located primarily in South America, Guatemala and India.

In 2009, the company was selected by Apparel Magazine as a “Top Innovator,” in the fashion industry. The company has received the national Socially Responsible Business award from Co-op America.

Scott and Indigenous Designs continue to be heavily involved in promoting sustainability in collaboration with Organic Exchange, the OTA, SVN, BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), and B-Corp.

Scott is an ardent advocate about the positive power of business for the benefit of people and the planet. He has been a pioneer in the areas of fair trade apparel, organics, social justice and the sustainability movement. Scott has served two terms on the Steering Committee for the Organic Fiber Council, where he collaborated with the USDA to help set the standards for organic cotton. Scott has also worked with Root Capital to establish a breakthrough financial model for funding the fair trade Artisan apparel sector in South America. In 2005, Scott founded the Green Steps program to raise business awareness of sustainability issues.

NOTE: Scott Leonard stated in his interview with us that he is open to providing mentoring and feedback to up-and-coming social entrepreneurs. Contact him at Indigenous Designs for more information.

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Vacations that Change the World

Andrea Ross, co-founder of Journeys Within

This week on Planet Good Radio, our guest is Andrea Ross, founder of Journeys Within Bed & Breakfast and Tour Company/Journeys Within Our Community (JWOC).

For the last 6 years, Journeys Within B&B and Tour Company has been offering tours throughout SE Asia and is a pioneer in philanthropic travel and voluntourism, in fact being named a Conde Naste Travel World Saver because of their focus on helping their community. JWOC is their non-profit arm that focuses on projects that help reduce poverty and increase educational and economic opportunities in the region. Philanthropic travel is key to their business model and to their growth and success. Some of the ways Journeys Within has aided the community are:

• Building wells in villages to provide clean drinking water
• Providing micro-finance loans to help local entrepreneurs build their businesses
• Funding and providing equipment and supplies to local schools, orphanages and museums
• Providing scholarships to students for high school and university
• Disaster relief (for example, local fires and the Myanmar tsunami)
• Providing a fair trade program to help local artisans sell their handicrafts at a good market price

And one of the most involving ways Journeys Within helps their local communities is through Voluntourism. Tour guests are offered the option to make a donation of as little as $50 or $100 towards a program or project they’d like to donate to and a visit to that project is then incorporated into their tour. Nearly every guest opts to donate and incorporate voluntourism into their trip – a key part of the Journeys Within business model and company vision. 

For the industry, voluntourism has often meant a guest spending the majority of the vacation in a service project (volunteering at an orphanage, building houses, etc.). And although Journeys Within does offer those kinds of intensive volunteering tours, they realize that’s not a feasible option for everyone, so they’ve pioneered this hybrid approach to allow everyone – no matter the amount of time or money avail – to incorporate philanthropic travel into their tour, and make a huge difference.

With British parents, Andrea grew up in England listening to stories of colonial Africa and the Far East. At the age of eight she took her first solo trip to Australia to visit her aunt and she hasn’t stopped traveling since. In 2003 Andrea moved with her husband Brandon to Cambodia where they started Journeys Within Tour Company and B&B. In the last seven years Andrea has also set up offices in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar. Andrea has been on the Wendy Perrin expert list for the last three years and takes her role as a regional expert seriously, she lives in Cambodia for half of the year and travels extensively through Southeast Asia to make sure the guides, drivers and hotels used by Journeys Within are up to standard. She loves to find new and unique trips, hotels and experiences for her guests. Since starting the tour company Andrea has focused on philanthropic travel and the idea that travel can change the world and she is a volunteer executive director for Journeys Within Our Community, a non profit organization she and Brandon founded in 2005. She has two children who are great travelers and go wherever Mom goes! When in the US for the summer Andrea continues to travel, speaking at clubs and schools, promoting Philanthropic Travel and fundraising for JWOC.

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Making an Impact: The Not-Just-For-Profit Business Model

Michael Pirron, CEO of Impact Makers

Joining us this week on Planet Good Radio is Michael Pirron, CEO of Impact Makers, one of Business Week’s Most Promising Entrepreneurs.

As founder of Impact Makers, Michael developed a business model that takes social entrepreneurship to a new level.  Impact Makers is a non-stock, competitive social venture dedicated to delivering quality professional services in IT and Management consulting, as well as Web design.  However, there is a critical difference between Impact Makers and their competitors: their profits go directly to charitable community partners rather than to shareholders.

Their community impact is guided by four important principals. They allow the community to support Impact Makers’ efforts with the least potential for conflict and with full disclosure of their process.  Here are those principals:

* We will partner with local, non-profit, community organizations – ensuring our profits will always be used to improve the quality of life in our own backyards.

* Our partners will be secular, apolitical organizations in existence to help people help themselves to improve their lives.

* Our Board of Directors is empowered to make all the decisions regarding the organizations we select to be our partners.

* The Board will hold our executive leadership accountable to maximize our profits while growing our firm and will allow the public to view our records.

Impact Makers also provides every employee the opportunity to spend part of the week, each week, working with their partner organizations, or any community organization they prefer, while being paid (by Impact Makers). In this way, their support and partnership with local non-profits deepens well beyond the fiscal support the firm supplies and provides the opportunity for their people to make a personal impact on their community.

Michael spent the early years of his career as a Senior Consultant with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) based in Sophia Antipolis, France. His tenure allowed him to consult, with increasingly complex engagements, throughout the EMEAI (Europe, Middle East, Africa, and India) region. As a result, Michael has lived or worked in seven countries and spent significant time in over 25 nations. He became conversant in French, and when he moved on to be a Product Manager with ViryaNet Systems in Jerusalem, Israel, he added Hebrew to his language skills. Later, while an independent consultant, Michael completed an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Join us for this week’s conversation and learn about a new business model that’s making real impact all around the world.

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