President and Co-founder, Give Something Back, Inc.

Give Something Back, Inc. is California’s largest independent business to business office supply company. GSB was started in 1991 modeled on Newman’s Own food company. Company profits are donated to non-profit groups selected by customers and employees. GSB was named Corporate Grantmaker of the Year in 2003 and Small Business of the Year in 2005 by the US Small Business Administration. They are a Certified Green Business in Alameda County, a founding B-Corp company, and have a 50 Kilowatt solar power system on the roof of their headquarters in Oakland.

How do businesses incorporate sustainability practices that engage their employees, customers, clients, and stakeholders in a meaningful and proactive way? Over the last 15 years GSB's social and environmental practices show how sound sustainability practices are not only good for the planet, but good for business, and good for the community too. Give Something Back is an example of a whole new breed of companies that are quietly transforming business and shifting the value base of business from getting to connecting. These companies, known as social enterprises, are beginning to have a broad positive impact on the way business is done in the 21st Century.