The reasons why we love what we do here in our email marketing agency that tugs at our souls and fills our dreams boil down to two main goals: a desire to upgrade your business the right way with your email marketing, and an appreciation of our wonderful planet. Yup, we're a bunch of softies, in case you didn't notice. This is a story about that.

The City of Oakland is committed to leading this town's progress in becoming a way more sustainable place, or to be more precise, a community where every single person has the opportunity to pursue happy, healthy, safe, and fulfilling lives, now and into the future. That’s exactly why it has undertaken various sustainable development initiatives. The City of Oakland adopted a Sustainable Community Development Initiative in 1998 that called for applying a sustainable development strategy as an overarching principle guiding our town's economic development program. Today, this place has demonstrated a renewed commitment to meeting its sustainability goals.

The Bay Area Green Business Program coordinated by the California Green Business Network certifies nonprofits, companies, as well as local public agencies throughout the nine Bay Area counties as Green Businesses if they're meeting all the program's standards. What's more, it helps them get noticed and acknowledged for their efforts.

Green Your Business in Oakland - What are We doing? Post Highlights:

  1. What's good for the planet is good for business - 1% For the Planet movement
  2. What are we doing about that?
  3. What do our clients do?
  4. What can you do?
  5. Why is sustainability so important?

What's good for the planet is good for business - 1% For the Planet movement

The 1% for the Planet movement is innovative and unique in its kind. In case you didn't know about it, this is a Vermont-based nonprofit founded by the folks at Patagonia. Not the region of Argentina, although it’d be awesome for an entire part of a country to take part in something so profound, but the apparel and outdoor gear manufacturer we all know and love. Member companies are donating 1% of their annual revenue to a list of vetted environmental nonprofits and the organizations that they support. 

This is an alliance of businesses that understand the necessity of protecting the natural environment. They're concerned with the social and environmental impacts of industry and realize that profit is directly linked to our beautiful planet's health.

Oakland Oakland

What are we doing about that?

We're here to talk about our goal to make the world a better place today. Yup, but how do we actually do that? Here at CodeCrew we donate 1% of our revenue each year to help support global environmental causes that help fight polluted waters, climate change, and sooo much more than that. Though one of our main goals is to do well by our clients, we also want to do well by our local San Francisco Bay and to the global community as well, as much as we're able to.

We've additionally provided pro bono help to some of the most inspiring NGOs, like:

Mission Graduates, a San Francisco-based nonprofit helping provide underserved communities' children the ability to go to college. 

Impact Matters, a New York based nonprofit aggregator and rating system to understand the real efficacy of your donations. 

What's our plan with the further NGO commitment through the 1% for the planet program? Well, now that we have a more extensive number of NGOs we can reach through their assistance, we would love to help at least a few a year, each year. 

What do our clients do?

One of the many ways we’re working on making a positive impact – along with everything we’ve previously mentioned – is through conscientious consumerism. We aim to vote with our wallets and support companies that have the same priorities as we do. Yep, I'm talkin' bout the companies that care about the world and the people in it, that are striving to fight climate change, that pay their workers a fair, living wage, and that is pretty much aligned with our values. Without further ado, let's jump into the introduction part, shall we?

Single-use plastics are a disaster. You might have to read this twice. What, how?! Have you ever wondered what pollutes our lands, contaminates the food chain, and endangers marine ecosystems? Of course, you did. And what was one of the answers? Single-use plastics. That's what our friends from FinalStraw and we are talking about. 

Plastic straws are not recyclable, and these won't decompose, which leads to what? To the long-term pollution of our oceans and our land, that’s what. How? These little things are so lightweight, they often blow into waterways that land in the ocean and that is how they are harming wildlife. You don't wanna let that happen…

Americans use enough straws per day (approximately 1.6 per person) to wrap around the Earth 2.5 times. Do you get me, like, the whole Earth? Why do we even need that many straws per day in the first place?!

FinalStraw's mission is to create reusable, responsibly made, badass products that will raise awareness of the impacts of our everyday decisions. They're trying to help reduce the need for plastics and to empower folks to change their buying habits.

You can tell that collaboration is critical for efficient sustainability practices, in particular in solving puzzles and in shaping more progressive solutions. The BCG data shows that over 67% of executives see sustainability as a field where collaboration is essential to succeed.

You can truly feel good about treating your loved ones (or yourself) this holiday season. Or just like... whenever? Our friends from Highwave are committed to helping reduce single-use plastics by designing products that can be reused every day. This year, they have also committed to giving 1% of every sale back to organizations that help heal our environment. 

I'm a true believer that you just need to collaborate with such amazing people who inspire you, whom you can learn a lot and develop constructive relationships. I'm talking about the people who are willing to invest in the environment just as much as they invest in their business. Why am I saying this? Without clear and healthy all-round principles, the chase for success will stay just that - a relentless pursuit with nothing left to make you a better person or professional.

What can you do?

In case you're a business owner (or you soomeehow have any influence over your boss), we advise you to consider becoming a member of this socially and environmentally progressive organization. By donating 1% of total annual traffic to grassroots environmental groups, members of this organization affect real change. Moreover, members have many other benefits like the satisfaction of paving the road for much more corporate engagement and responsibility in the business community as well as the recognition, patronage, and support of conscientious clients that value your serious commitment to our planet.

Increasingly, companies across the globe are responding to customers' demand to go green. According to an international survey, over 80% of people respect brands and companies that opt for eco-friendly practices.

Why is sustainability so important?

Does this question even need to be asked? Well, in case you’re one of the few who don’t understand the huge impact of a sustainability-first mindset, sustainability is becoming more and more important for all businesses, across all industries, and not just here in Oakland, but all around the globe. Over 62% of executives consider a sustainability strategy unavoidable in order to be competitive in today's market, and another 22% of them think that it will be in the future.

As the expectations on corporate responsibility increase, and as transparency becomes more prevalent, I love how companies are recognizing the necessity to act on sustainability. Good intentions and professional communications are no longer enough.

What should you do about it? Engage your organization broadly. An example? Sure. Salesforce.com contributes to each employees' personal ability to engage with environmental organizations and initiatives that are supporting local communities through their "1/1/1" philanthropy program. Not sure about you, but this sounds amazing to us.

In sum, sustainability is the main challenge. We're talking about the challenge that matters beyond individual companies. But reassuringly, a number of large businesses are developing forward-thinking sustainability policies. It's becoming so clear that sustainability is a megatrend that simply isn't going away any time soon, so I truly hope this article helps and that you'll never ever ask yourself again why it is so important.

Here at CodeCrew, we're so happy to support these fabulous organizations and so thrilled to join the ranks of 1% for the Planet businesses around the world. Oh, wait before you go - don't forget that every business can do its share!