Building Better Business: Creating Socially, Environmentally, and Economically Sustainable Businesses

For most of capitalism\u27s 400-year history, business has been focused on maximizing shareholder return at the expense of other people and natural environment, a system known as shareholder capitalism. In this article, I examine stakeholder capitalism to answer to the question: What are the critical success factor(s) required to operate an environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable business? I conclude that to be an environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable business, the business must commit to a stakeholder approach and hold themselves accountable by setting goals, creating metrics, and tracking their performance. I then explore the B Corp certification as a tool for business to be accountable, by analyzing several B Corp businesses in located in Bellingham, Washington