Warren King, President of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) serving Western PA, explains the importance of social responsibility within a business setting

Thank you to Warren King, President of the BBB serving Western PA (cover), for visiting with us!

The BBB seeks to (1) empower consumers to identify social impact businesses in their communities by creating an online directory of social impact businesses (2) spotlight, celebrate and recognize organizations that integrate social impact into their business plans (3) expand our reach through partnerships with like-minded organization that are providing critical support to social impact organizations.

Students learned the difference between social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility describes the efforts taken by corporations to address the company’s effects on environmental and social well-being in order to promote positive change. The Better Business Bureau (BBB), founded in 1912 and consisting of 106 independently incorporated local BBB organizations in the United States and Canada, is a private, nonprofit organization whose self- described mission is to focus on advancing marketplace trust.

Since its inception the BBB has recognized honest businesses that acted with integrity. Now the BBB is recognizing businesses with a focus on purpose, people and the planet, as well as profit. So, what is a social impact business? A social impact business is a business, either for profit or nonprofit, that pursues purpose in addition to profit. This higher purpose can be social and/or environmental and provides impact that can be measured. This higher purpose can be social and/or environmental and provides impact that can be measured.

For more information about the BBB serving Wester PA, please visit https://www.bbb.org/local-bbb/bbb-of-western-pennsylvania. 

If you’d like more information on the eAcademy program, please reach out to Program Director, Katie Parr, at kparr@lindenpointe.com.