Business

Putting the SDGs Back on Track

By Amanda Williams, Patrick Haack & Knut Haanaes 1

Worldwide SDG efforts are failing. How can businesses do their part to make things right?
Open access to this article is made possible by a research grant from E4S (Enterprise for Society Center)

Nonprofits & NGOs

From Doing Good to Being Good: The Movement for Nonprofit Social Responsibility

By Shawn Pope & Patricia Bromley

Nonprofits today are expected to go beyond their missions to adopt a wider set of commitments and values. This movement is remaking the sector in surprising ways.

Environment

A Circle That Isn’t Easily Squared

By Ken Pucker 1

As the fashion industry’s environmental footprint attracts increasingly negative attention, circular business models are promoting opportunities to sustain growth by decoupling revenue streams from resource use.

In this Up for Debate series, Ken Pucker, former Timberland COO, explains the industry’s turn to circularity and the barriers to its adoption, then researchers and experts in the sector respond.

Social Services

Queering Mentorship

By Noor Noman

The Minneapolis-based nonprofit QUEERSPACE Collective provides mentorship and community to queer youth at a time when they are facing endless attacks.

Education

Archiving Indigenous History

By Tim Keary

Native Bound Unbound is digitally documenting the long-overlooked history of enslaved Indigenous people throughout the Americas.

Cities

Cabin Solutions

By Kathy O. Brozek

DignityMoves’ interim housing provides immediate support to urban homeless populations.

Health

Accelerating LGBTQ+ Health Solutions

By Abigail Lynn

UPenn’s ambitious Eidos initiative marries business innovation with health research to tackle LGBTQ+ health inequities.

Nonprofits & NGOs

The Nonprofit Decolonizing Itself

By Eric Kawa

OneVillage Partners is transforming the meaning of partnership by shifting from community-led programs to becoming a community-led organization. | Open access to this article is made possible by OneVillage Partners.

Social Enterprise

A Haven for Transitional Youth

By Elizabeth MacBride

First Light Hospitality has developed a scalable social enterprise that provides jobs, life skills, and outdoor fun for young people aging out of the social-services system.

Environment

Conjuring Liquid Gold from Air

By Atharv Agrawal, Wajed Nadine El-Halabi & Jina Yazdanpanah

The nonprofit Dar Si Hmad utilizes the ancient technology of fog harvesting to address water scarcity in Morocco.

Foundations

Open Society Under Threat

By Paul Hockenos

After more than three decades of promoting liberal democracy, Open Society Foundations sees itself on the defensive. Can a strategic restructuring and new leadership turn the tide?

Business

The Portfolio Defense of ESG

By Frederick Alexander 1

Shareholder stewardship should prioritize companies’ effects on the economy and investors’ entire portfolios.

Foundations

Rating Foundations Without Their Permission

By Caroline Fiennes

We created the Foundation Practice Rating to encourage UK foundations to improve their practices.

Measurement & Evaluation

The God’s-Eye View of ESG

By Ben Filewod, Murray Collins, Simon Dikau, Alexis Moyer & Luca Taschini

Satellite technology can remake the reporting of environmental, social, and governance standards. But this spatial finance revolution requires help from industry and government.

Philanthropy & Funding

India’s Corporate Philanthropy

By Chana R. Schoenberger

Indian companies tend to spend required social outlays on important stakeholder groups.

Human Rights

The Invisible Woman

By Chana R. Schoenberger

Women of color confront multiple forms of invisibility in the workplace.

Environment

Politics, Values, and the Green Transition

By Daniela Blei

Shifting consumer values can combine with market forces to green the economy.

Governance

Why Do Collaborations Fail?

By Daniela Blei 2

Collaborations of diverse stakeholders confront predictable governance traps.

Human Rights

Poverty Persists Because of Us

Reviewed By Lydia Burleson 1

In Poverty, by America, sociologist Matthew Desmond argues that America’s welfare state doesn’t help those who need it the most.

Organizational Development

Organizations … Again!

Reviewed By Bob Hinings

Organization theorist Henry Mintzberg offers a mixed bag of old and new ideas on organizational structures in his latest book.

Leadership

New Beginnings

By Eric Nee

New publisher. New art director. But the mission of SSIR hasn't changed.

Environment

SSIR Online, Summer 2023 Issue

By SSIR Editors

A collection of standout pieces published online about fighting climate change, funder accountability, telemedicine in Ukraine, and inclusive social entrepreneurship.

Food

Soup Relief

By Marcie Bianco

Simple acts of charity prove to have profound impact at the individual level.

Environment

Further Reflections on Fashion’s Circularity Reckoning

By Ken Pucker

Ken Pucker responds to his readers’ critiques of his Up for Debate article “A Circle That Isn’t Easily Squared” and reiterates his call for a systemic shift in how the fashion industry does business.

Environment

Response: Increasing Environmental and Social Sustainability at the Same Time

By Roland Geyer

The fashion industry could decrease its environmental impact by shifting its sources of revenue from material and energy to labor.

Environment

Response: Contextualizing the Colonial Climate Crisis in Black and Indigenous Thought

By Dominique Drakeford

Currently, every predominant aspect of sustainability discourse and practice is white-centered. It’s time to change that.

Environment

Response: Embracing Regulation and Fighting ‘Corporate Capture’

By Maxine Bédat

Funders must examine how to realistically drive measurable progress on sustainability in the fashion industry.

Environment

Response: Collaborating Can Optimize Circularity’s Benefits

By Yuly Fuentes-Medel

People working within fashion supply chains must collaborate to determine where and how their evolving business models can contribute to circularity.

Environment

Response: Driving Sustainability From Within Business

By Nancy Bocken

Rather than canning the circular-economy concept altogether, business leaders and policy makers should prioritize sufficiency over recycling.

Environment

Response: Investing in the Transition to a Less Wasteful Future

By Ron Gonen

Opportunities for innovative solutions exist across all areas of the value chain, including design, supply chain technologies, and molecular recycling.

Environment

Response: Using Industrial Symbiosis to Address Barriers to Circularity

By Giorgos Demetriou, Claire Hammon & Valentina Ort

Collaboration is an essential driver for discovering and scaling innovative approaches that can move the fashion industry toward circularity.