For my day job I paid a visit to Justin and Sheldon at Betterbee – www.betterbee.com. I was thoroughly and completely amazed by these gentlemen and this company. As you may guess from the company name, they specialize in honey bees themselves, and the wares and help for beekeepers. I could tell very early into the conversation with Justin that something was different here. Beside Justin’s brilliant articulation about business, agriculture and the business of agriculture, I quickly became comfortable in a way I have not been (out in the business world) to speak from my core value system. Many of the things I brought up in conversation had a resonance between us. And with things I would traditionally never bring up in conversation during a business meeting for the company I was representing.
Things like how I love the solar panel street lights right down the street from their headquarters in Greenwich NY. Justin and Sheldon agreed with how cool it is that the village installed renewably powered street lights. From the way Justin was speaking about how it is just as important in HOW you run the business as it is what the business does - I blurted out this sounds like Conscious Capitalism to me. That comment was met with warm agreement.
Learning about the innovation Justin and his team are on the verge of doing is pretty impressive as well. Information Technology can provide some significant economies of scale if strategically utilized in the business model. That was my purpose for being at Betterbee. To talk about how the wares that the company I work for can provide that will enable the innovation they want to do with innovative uses of technology.
From a sustainability standpoint, Betterbee is doing it better in this regard as well. They have installed energy-saving lighting systems and a geothermal heating and cooling system. Again, feeling as comfortable as I did, I recommended they seriously look into renewable energy for electricity generation and storage to protect themselves from electricity rate hikes and issues with the power grid.
Betterbee is the first company I have experienced in my day job that has the presence of mind about the impact they have and the importance of their efforts to lighten the impact they have in the operation of their business.

Recent Comments