(Justmeans.com / CSR News) - FT + JustMeans announce The Social Innovation Award Winners
The Social Innovation Awards, sponsored by Hewlett-Packard, showcased companies that are balancing the needs of shareholder and society—employees, customers and activists.  These are the companies and individuals that are taking action and having an impact on shaping the new world of sustainable and socially responsible enterprise. 

The Financial Times + JustMeans would like to congratulate this year’s Social Innovation Award winners in the following categories:

Large Company:

Procter & Gamble and REI

Small to Medium Size Company:

Equal Exchange

New Venture:

Clear Standards

The awards ceremony was held during the luncheon of the FT Sustainable Business, Responsible Investing conference which took place March 2nd in New York City.  For more information about the awards and to view a list of all participants, please visit:  www.socialinnovationawards.com 

Procter & Gamble

P&G has taken a business-minded approach to sustainability – each initiative must make a meaningful impact on the company’s environmental footprint and make business sense.  As the largest Consumer Packaged Goods Company in the world, P&G sells more than 300 different brands in 180 markets around the globe, touching three billion people each day. This creates a tremendous opportunity for meaningful impact.  P&G believes that Sustainability, when approached holistically and sustainably, will serve to benefit the consumer, the communities in which they work and market their brands, and the Company.

REI

REI is the leading retailer of outdoor gear and apparel and largest U.S. consumer co-op with over 3.5 million members. With $1.4 billion in revenue, REI delivers performance-sales growth, profitability and member dividend returns. REI’s stewardship (CSR) goals and efforts are companywide.  Employees at 105 retail stores are actively recycling: i.e, sending cardboard back to the distribution center for reuse, commuter reduction programs, showers to facilitate riding bikes to work, and identifying local nonprofits for conservation and recreation grants. Five stores have received LEED certification, 11 stores have solar electric systems & 24 more are powered by local renewable energy. Each store has an Outreach Specialist to interface locally, including non-profits helping to organize volunteer efforts and channel REI grants to the best local organizations.  REI has a growing set of data & analysis along with strong anecdotal support to show that sustainable business implementation has delivered cost reductions, risk mitigation, employee engagement, customer appreciation and loyalty.

Equal Exchange

Equal Exchange, a pioneer and U.S. market leader in Fair Trade coffee since 1986, is a full service provider of high quality, organic coffee, tea, cocoa products and chocolate to retailers and food service establishments.  100% of Equal Exchange products are fairly traded, benefiting 39 small farmer cooperatives in 19 countries around the world. In keeping with its Fair Trade mission Equal Exchange is a worker cooperative, owned and democratically controlled by its employees.  The philosophy of the management – and that of the co-op and the Board of Equal Exchange – towards sustainability is to balance the ecological with the human and with market competitiveness and financial viability.

Clear Standards

Clear Standards was established in 2007 by enterprise software executives, who sensed a need for solutions to help global organizations manage their operations with the added dimension of sustainability as a true driver of growth and innovation. At Clear Standards, we believe that by integrating carbon management and sustainability practices in to standard operational processes businesses will ultimately enable to both generate value to shareholders while preserving, or even improving, their environmental surroundings. By integrating best practices such as product footprint modeling and energy efficiency optimization, corporations can achieve both bottom line savings and top line growth in the emerging carbon-constrained economy.