(GreenBiz) When it was founded roughly 23 years ago, Salesforce was unique in many ways, not just for its core product — software delivered only via the “cloud” — but also for its early embrace of what has become the Pledge 1% movement. It’s a model that designates 1 percent of the company’s equity, revenue, product and time to philanthropic causes. High-profile enterprise software companies — such as Atlassian, Slack and Twilio — were early to adopt this same approach. And Salesforce last month moved to make “sustainability” one of its core values.
In a similar way, I believe the initial public offering of trendy shoe company Allbirds, known for its early embrace of business practices centered on environmental and social sustainability, will mark a turning point for how ESG issues are considered in the life cycle of startups — not just by climate tech entrepreneurs, but the broader universe of up-and-comers.
To be clear, the Allbirds IPO was far from smooth. Because of the very real sensitivity over greenwashing, the company was forced by the Securities and Exchange Commission to stop using the phrase “sustainable initial public offering” as part of its messaging. But it didn’t negate the fact that Allbirds has embedded some very specific requirements into its operating model that every startup founder — along with the venture capitalists helping them get a leg up — would do well to study.
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