THE RISE OF BENEFIT BUSINESSES.

• Author: Ciaramella, Elainna

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Historically, the focus of business was profit without regard for employees, the community, or the impact on the environment. But that's in the past. Recently, there's been a dramatic shift toward the positive power of capitalism.

According to Steve Klass, the executive director at P3 Utah-an organization that believes in business for people, planet, and profit--government will never be big enough to deal with all of our social and environmental problems. But big businesses can help, a lot.

People, he says, have supported each other through trade, barter, and commerce forever. And since business is one of the major things people take part in, it needs to create positive outcomes. Enter benefit businesses.

If you've never heard of a "benefit business" before, that's probably because it's still a relatively new concept in Utah. SB 133-the bill enacting the Benefit Corporation Act was sponsored by Senator John L. Valentine and Representative Kevin J. Stratton, and went into effect in 2014. Now, there are 62 Benefit Corporations in Utah, 33 of which have a current, active registration.

"A Benefit Corporation is a corporation form designed for for-profit entities that want to consider society, and the environment in addition to profit in their decision-making process" says Jason Sterzer, the director of the Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial Code.

This emerging concept may be novel to entrepreneurs and investors, but Utahans have most certainly come across benefit businesses, such as Ben & Jerry's, Hootsuite, Stonyfield Farm, Patagonia, and Utah's pride and joy: Cotopaxi-Gear for Good.

INTRODUCING THE PURPOSE ECONOMY

For hundreds of years, the "fortune economy" has reigned, but now it's the 21st Century, the dawn of the "purpose economy." Unlike traditional businesses, benefit businesses are defined by, and closely aligned with terms like: sustainability, triple bottom line, socially conscious, social enterprise, and corporate social responsibility.

When I asked Davis Smith, CEO at Cotopaxi what inspired him to make Cotopaxi a benefit business, he talked about how his family moved to the Dominican Republic when he was four years old, and how he ended up spending much of his childhood and adult life in the developing world.

"From the time I was a child. I knew that I wanted to find a way to positively impact people. I wanted to help those who lived in extreme poverty, who lacked basic human needs, simply because...