Business
Looking for positive and inspiring business stories? From green operations to employee rights, from innovative corporate structures to diversity and inclusion, the Business section at The Optimist Daily has got the latest innovative solutions from the corporate sector.
Ikea’s invest in plastics recycling plant to cut down on waste, use raw materials
Ikea wants to become more sustainable by avoiding environmentally damaging activities like illegal deforestation and plastic waste. The Swedish furniture giant has bought forests in Romania and the Baltics, wind farms in Poland and now it is investing in a plastic recycling plant in the Read More...
What is the fastest growing job in the US?
You could guess the answer: As the solar industry continues to grow fast, so do its job opportunities. A new study shows that between 2012 and 2016 solar photovoltaic installers or someone who assembles solar panels was the fastest-growing job in the U.S. The average solar job pays about $42,500 Read More...
Nature is the best business consultant
From The Intelligent Optimist Magazine Summer 2016 Nature provides the principles for sustainable business, but a fear-and-greed-driven mindset obstructs us from running business naturally. Why the “whole brain state” is essential to sustainability. By Rob Williams Photography: Bruce Read More...
'It's like Airbnb for refugees': UK hosts and their guests
Think of it as Airbnb for refugees, quips Robina Qureshi. It’s a simple premise: people with a spare room in their house are matched with a refugee or asylum seeker in need of somewhere to stay. And it’s a popular one: before 2015, Qureshi’s organisation, called Positive Action in Housing Read More...
In good company
Inspiration From The Optimist Magazine Summer 2014 Is there room for idealists inside Fortune 500 companies? Christine Bader’s book The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil chronicles the time she spent with BP, and what it was like to be a corporate idealist in one of the Read More...
Salesforce offsets all its emissions 33 years ahead of schedule
In February 2015, a group of business leaders, including the CEO’s of Unilever and Salesforce and led by Richard Branson committed themselves to completely offset the harmful emissions of companies processed by 2050. A great goal that also seemed far away. Now Salesforce has shown that Read More...
This factory sucks up carbon dioxide and feeds it to vegetables
At the end of this month the Swiss company Climeworks will open the first commercial plant that sucks carbon dioxide out of the air and feeds it to vegetables in a neighboring greenhouse. It will be the first business to sell carbon dioxide drawn right out of its surroundings, using a technology Read More...
These companies show that sustainability makes better business sense
You can do the right thing and run a successful business. That’s the inspiring message of this story about three clothing companies. Patagonia, Cariloha and Fair Indigo show that fair trade and the use of organic materials can improve business Read More...
French multinational food company Danone creates the world's largest public benefit corporation
French multinational food company Danone has acquired the health-focused brand WhiteWave, uniting under the name DanoneWave. This is special because Danone is listing the company as a public benefit corporation, becoming one of the largest in the world to date. Benefit corporations are unique Read More...
IKEA aims to take 200,000 people out of poverty in social sustainability drive
IKEA is to employ refugees at production centres in Jordan this summer as part of a long-term plan to create employment for 200,000 disadvantaged people around the world through social entrepreneurship programmes. The centres in Jordan, which should be operational by August, will employ a mixture Read More...