Balancing business sense and conscientiousness: a conversation with Bryan Welch

August 1, 2024

VIVACE recently had a chance to sit down with Bryan Welch, CEO and founder of multiple impact-driven businesses with strong commitments to social and environmental responsibility, particularly in the media, software, manufacturing, household goods and financial sectors. 

Today he serves as a coach, board member and advisor for purpose-driven companies.  Here is a recap of our engaging discussion covering sustainability in business, climate-positive consumption models, media and universal spirituality.   

VIVACE:  You wrote in 2010 in "Beautiful and Abundant" that humanity was at a turning point with respect to sustainability.  What is your vision of the progress made on sustainability in business over the last decade, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic?

I started looking at sustainability as a journalist covering environmental issues starting in 1977, so my work in the field started well before publishing the book.  For example, in 2000, my company acquired Mother Earth News, one of the largest sustainability media platforms, and developed the magazine and a series of national events. 

My immersion in sustainability in business has continued for over 40 years.  One of the key things I have learned is that the extent to which business can help solve environmental issues is strongly influenced by consumers’ awareness of environmental and social issues. 

Since the pandemic, consumers are making purchasing decisions more frequently from their couches or their desks.  This means that they can be more aware of traceability and the impact of their decisions as consumers, in both social and sustainable ways.  It’s a very relevant time to be having this conversation. 

Sustainability can be small-scale, but to be truly transformational, we need to engage large-scale players.  It’s great to grow your own food and support local and artisan manufacturers of beauty products, but to have a big impact, we need to influence companies that move significant resources, whether in terms of natural resources, goods or financial flows, on a global scale. 

I am a big supporter of engaging with multinational companies to find win-win, shared value partnerships.  It’s counterproductive to refuse to engage with international energy companies or retailers out of a sense of puritanical values.  The influence we have on Wall Street is the influence that will change the world.

VIVACE:  In your view, how can multinationals and smaller businesses advance these wider objectives for humanity, especially with respect to adopting circular economic solutions and protecting nature and biodiversity?

I think that story-telling is very important.  If you are able to communicate to your customers and partners that setting a higher standard for sustainability is valuable, you will gain allies.  I think that the growth of third-party certification standards has been a productive development in growing collective expertise on sustainability, in everything from supply chains to consumption of natural resources. 

I am a long-time supporter of B Lab and the B Corporation movement.  Having a third-party, independent certifier does raise a brand’s credibility in that it promotes adherence to a higher set of standards as opposed to the baseline that directives, laws and regulation provide. 

What impresses me most is the brands that choose to layer this challenge on top of all the commercial imperatives that they still need to meet.  At the end of the day, brands have to be profitable, but some are choosing a revenue model that is more aligned with long-term, sustainable growth for people and the planet. 

I have had the good fortune of working with a number of companies that manage to make this a success, although it’s certainly a challenge getting consumers to understand and integrate these principles into their everyday purchasing and consumption decisions.

VIVACE:  That’s a very important point.  Indeed, one of the things we have been working on is building economic models that allow multinationals and consumers to work together on promoting, adopting and rewarding responsible consumption habits, and leveling the playing field to access sustainable products and solutions.  On a broader level, what role do citizens have in creating the world they want, and shifting to more sustainable models of consumption (food, energy, natural resources...)?

No significant change in the history of human society has ever been instigated other than at the grass-roots level.  Change does not come from the vested interests of power because hubris and inertia tend to prevent the self-reflection and awareness that give rise to change. 

Change is born in the parts of our society that are not already powerful or influential.  Paradoxically, however, in order for that change to have a material impact, the ideas and enterprises that are born in these parts of society have to achieve certain levels of success and mainstream awareness in order to be scaled across geographies and markets. 

I could certainly point out some profound virtues of a lot of corporate entities today. For example, companies like Lyft and Uber, although imperfect, have created powerful economic opportunities for many people, which brings positive transformation to their families and communities.  The next set of ideas and innovations is being incubated in out-of-the-way places.  Some will break through and create the next wave of change. 

I try not to be doctrinal about structures like cooperative, corporate or employee ownership.  I have seen the advantages and disadvantages of all of these equity structures.  At the end of the day, it’s the quality and conscience of the people involved that determines the success of the initiative.

VIVACE:  That’s absolutely right, and successfully navigating these issues often determines the level of success that a given movement or organization will reach.  How do we promote the right mix of business sense and conscientiousness, particularly in an age of increased automation, division and polarization? 

At Mother Earth News, we worked very hard to address issues of sustainability in language that was not specific to one of our American subcultures.  For example, we learned early on that saying “green” can actually alienate some of our audience because it is associated with a certain political subculture.  We even stopped running pictures of people on the cover of the magazine, because no matter who the person was or what they looked like, the effect tended to segment the audience, just based on their appearance.

Media channels tend to be associated with systems of belief, which translate into voting patterns.  This can be really counter-productive in the quest to build an audience centered around the environment, clean air, clean water and the opportunity of self-determination.

VIVACE:  I think you’ve really nailed the challenge.  How do you rally attention and engagement around ideas, projects and products that promote cooperation and uniting humanity?  What role does the media have in changing the way we look at healthy habits, success and a healthy lifestyle?

Our focus at Mother Earth News was building adhesion to values that are universally positive and attractive.  We built audience engagement in ways that were not specific to a subculture or a political statement.  I think that’s one of the reasons the magazine grew exponentially during those years. 

There are certainly challenges.  Editors, managers and owners are all inclined to make a media platform that speaks to their peer group, whether socio-economic, religious, political or cultural. 

People’s identities are often designed by a set of values that they instinctively pitch against an “Other.”  The successful media models of the future will need to counter these tendencies.

VIVACE:  Absolutely.  In my own journey, I have met many gurus in sustainability and spirituality – ranging from CEOs and founders to priests, rabbis and monks – who are all engaging with this balance between other-ness and universality.  How do you translate the idea of “one-ness” in business, media and everyday life all while leaving space for each of our differences and identities to co-exist?  For example, land as mother to all?  Water as friend to all? 

I think that elevating the media landscape is not only a question of sustainability, but also spirituality. 

We are willing to accommodate extreme and distorting ideas so long as they reinforce the views of our peer group. An open-minded experience in the world is a less comfortable state of mind than having made our minds up, but we can understand and become comfortable with the fact that we all have different ways of doing things.

It requires a strong effort to remain open-minded.  There is very little discussion today about the importance of open-heartedness, compassion and mutual respect in public discourse.  Those ideals are not discussed enough, but perhaps we can bring them in through a more spiritual focus in the media landscape.

VIVACE:  We are on the same page!  Thank you Bryan for sharing your perspective.  We wish you much joy, learning and success as you move forward and look forward to crossing paths again soon!

CPM