Inspiring impact: Why it’s important to tell the world about your good work

I recently watched Disney’s Tomorrowland with my kids. If you haven’t seen the movie, the basic plot involves other-dimensional beings from the future who see the end of the world coming (from war, environmental collapse — the works) and, in an attempt to stop it, broadcast images of this dystopian future to earth’s inhabitants. Unfortunately their efforts have the opposite effect and the human race accepts their seemingly inevitable demise. This movie hit pretty close to home. There’s no denying we live in a world in crisis and it can sometimes feel like we’ve all resigned ourselves to our fate.

Of course Tomorrowland is a kids movie so there is a happy ending thanks to our plucky protagonist! She shares the story of two wolves, constantly fighting. One wolf is despair and the other is hope. “Which wolf wins the fight? Whichever one you feed!” And this brings me to my point! If we knew there were people actively trying to change the world, to end social injustice, to combat climate change, and to protect the world for future generations, wouldn’t it inspire us to do so too?

Many fellow impact-driven businesses have been guilty of green blushing or green hushing. As Decade Impact explains, “[Green blushing refers to] companies that remain silent about the positive impact they are creating and the methods they are employing to get the job done. Either out of fear they’ll be labeled as greenwashers, or because they don’t believe in “boasting,” these companies don’t share the amazing work they are doing.”

At iilo, we’ve integrated our values into our business and we use certifications to provide external validation and credibility around these efforts.

Here are some of the ways we’ve chosen to show our values in action (in hopes it will inspire you):

Living Wage Employer

At iilo, we aim to align our impact goals with UN SDGs: #5 gender equality, #8 decent work and economic growth, and #10 reduced inequalities. Having been undervalued in the past ourselves, Madelen and I were determined to build a business that created fairer working opportunities and paid above living wage. We take pride in the fact that our workforce can make a decent living by engaging with us and that we’re contributing to a healthy quality of life and work/life balance for our team. This is why we’re proud to be a certified Living Wage Employer.

Member of Community of Accessible Employers

One of our core values is inclusion and accessibility for everyone and we aim to support underrepresented creatives wherever possible. Madelen is strongly influenced by her experience as an immigrant to Canada and she strives to advocate for others who might feel left out due to language or physical barriers. As a left-handed person with dyslexia, I have also come to equate sustainable design with accessible design, and in recent years, it’s become a professional goal to design with accessibility top of mind. We’re actively working with an accessibility consultant to find ways to be more accessible and integrate more accessible practices into our business. This is of course an ongoing commitment and a work in progress but we feel everyone should be an advocate for themselves.

1% For The Planet

When all your clients are doing such amazing work, it’s hard to resist the knee jerk urge to cut your rates! But it’s pretty difficult to run a business when you keep giving everything away (and even harder to pay your team a living wage). While we’re still quite generous and affordable, being a member of 1% for the planet helps us bake our donations into our business. We love the community they’ve built, how simple their reporting is, and the beautiful marketing templates they provide their members. 

LOCO BC Member

Remember heading to a specific shopping destination to visit your favorite boutique store and find the perfect locally-made, limited quantity gift for that special someone? Over the last few decades, we’ve noticed that every shopping experience has become genericized. Regardless of where you choose to shop, the same large chain stores with the same mass-produced products swamp your shopping experience. LOCO BC measures the impact of buying local campaigns, works with communities to promote local economic development, researches trends, and recommends policy changes. We love humans and through supporting other local businesses, we’ve met so many great people who are connected to this group and share our values.

B Corp

Our latest (and possibly greatest) achievement is becoming a certified B Corp. “Certified B Corporations are leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy.” The B Corp impact assessment process helps us measure our impact in a way that is wonderfully in-depth and helps us really understand all the many ways to define “good.” By joining this global community of businesses who see the need to be a force for good, we can show our clients that we’re not only serious about supporting their changemaking efforts, but we’re taking responsibility for our own impact too. (And we wouldn’t have gotten here without the expert guidance of Decade Impact and their Getting To 80 program.)

So now that we’ve shared how we’re aligning our values, it’s your turn. Get in touch and let’s discuss how we can amplify your impact.