B Corporation just might represent an emerging new market for meeting and motivational professionals, offering corporate social responsibility event management and consulting. Here is a brief video from one of B Corp.'s founders. Revolutionary? Yes.

B (which stands for benefit) corporations are companies that aim to benefit society. In their own words, "B corporations are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems."

B Corp. has created a demanding certification process. To become a "certified B," a company has to pass a rigorous standards evaluation and essentially rewrite its mission statement to reflect the ethos of the B corporation community. There are now 300 certified B corporations, and more are working toward that status every day.

As a community, they will ultimately bring change to what consumers, employees, and other stakeholders expect and demand from the business world. At the same time, there will be resultant new opportunities for creative solutions and products from the events and meetings industry.

Even if you don’t want to become a B corporation, you can work through the questionnaire to see how your company rates. More details are available at B Corp.’s Web site.

In talking with colleagues and friends, it is clear that there is still much misunderstanding about what corporate social responsibility or sustainability is, and let’s not forget all this green stuff in the media. It can be confusing to know where to start when it comes to taking the first steps to incorporate green and CSR aspects into a meeting or an event, or into your own company’s business strategy.

To assist industry professionals looking to further their education, Margo Wendorf & Associates (MWA Consultants), Royal Caribbean International, and Cruise Architects recently combined their products and expertise to offer an invitation-only familiarization program. The Basics of Going Green Training Seminar was held in February aboard Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas and was limited to a select group of planners and suppliers.

MWA Consultants is a consulting firm providing sustainable business solutions to the incentive, meeting, and group travel industry. It blends industry insight with a broad collection of resources to deliver cost-effective and innovative sustainable solutions to businesses wanting to be recognized as leaders in the green marketplace.

Royal Caribbean Chairman and CEO Richard D. Fain notes, “In everything we do, Royal Caribbean is ever conscious of a very special, and very certain, responsibility. Simply put, we must protect the marine environment and sustain the well-being of the people and places we serve.” For more details on Royal Caribbean’s initiatives, check out 2008 Stewardship Report.

This made it a perfect host for the four-day cruise training seminar, which departed Miami and spent a full day in Cozumel. It provided six hours of green-event seminars over the two days at sea using materials based on MWA’s Sustainable Training curriculum, which is aligned with the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria and the Convention Industry Council’s guidelines for green meetings and events. Cruise Architects, noted for its creativity and purchasing power in event-building at sea, collaborated with MWA Consultants on the event production that made up the balance of the four-day training program.

The program was very well received; by combining a positive experience with compelling education, it allowed the sponsors to bring a new awareness to their products and to the increasingly important and highly topical issue of sustainability.

Geraldine Gatehouse is an independent meeting and incentive planner with a passionate belief in the value and potential global impact of CSR. She is based in southern California, pursuing studies in CSR and sustainability and is the 2010 VP of CSR & Sustainability on the Site Southern California Board. She can be reached at geraldine-g@cox.net, via her Web site www.geraldine-gatehouse.com, and via LinkedIn, www.linkedin.com/in/geraldinegatehouse. This page is protected by Copyright laws. Do Not Copy