At our sold-out 2020 Q1 Lunch & Learn, we heard from a panel of nonprofit and business leaders on how to build strong relationships, including on-the-ground examples of what works well and what to avoid.

Speakers included:

• Kris Carico, CEO of SOLVE
• Tony Arnell, Managing Director of EarthShare Oregon
• Mary Moerlins, Corporate Citizenship Manager, NW Natural

Lesson 1: Make sure it’s mutually beneficial

In his current role at EarthShare Oregon, Tony Arnell often gets requests from businesses looking for nonprofits to give presentations or organize volunteer events. While he is happy to make these connections, he wants to make sure they’re mutually beneficial, especially given how stretched nonprofits are on staff time and resources.

Here are few things business can do:

1. Make a donation to the nonprofit – essentially paying the speaker’s organization an honorarium, to honor their time and expertise.
2. Work with EarthShare Oregon to set up a workplace giving program that encourages staff to donate to nonprofits (businesses should offer to match employee donations).
3. Ask a nonprofit if there are skills or resources they could use that your business could provide pro-bono.
4. Ask the nonprofit if there’s something you could donate that they could use in an auction or as an incentive to donors (something your business makes, or has special access to, like tickets to games, shows or theater).

Tips for Lunch and Learns and other educational events

If you’re hosting a Lunch and Learn with a nonprofit speaker, always offer staff an incentive to attend. Everyone’s busy, and having only a few people show up is embarrassing for the business, awkward for the attendees and frustrating for the nonprofit staff member, who spent time preparing for, traveling to, and attending the event.

• Provide lunch if you can, or snacks or dessert.
• Tie into an existing employee incentive program if you have one (e.g., getting points for attending).
• Have leadership promote and attend the event.

Example: A short term loss, but a long-term win

Tony Arnell of EarthShare Oregon, a membership of 27 local nonprofits focused on employee philanthropy, described how a one-time ask from a business turned into a fruitful long-term relationship.

In a previous job with another local nonprofit, a business asked Tony to table at their event, so people could learn about the nonprofit. Tony agreed, but attendance was low and very few people came to talk with him. It had taken quite a bit of Tony’s time and the business felt badly that what they thought was a mutually beneficial event didn’t turn out that way.

However, a few months later, the nonprofit was organizing an event and looking for wine donations. Tony reached out to his contact to see if they could help – and they were able to donate 20 cases of wine, a huge help to the nonprofit.

Lesson 2: Be clear from the start about each partner’s goals

Mary Moerlins, Corporate Citizenship Manager of NW Natural, stressed that in her experience, nonprofit-business relationships were the most valuable when there was clear communication about the goals of each organization.

Often, nonprofits and volunteer organizations are asked for, and promise, more than they can realistically deliver. This can have serious negative impacts on the nonprofit’s financial and organizational health – and result in an event or effort that doesn’t match what the business expected.

To avoid this, it’s important to have an open dialogue about what is mutually beneficial for both the business and the nonprofit. Mary recommended having an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) from the start – a growing trend among nonprofits – which outlines the expectations from the business, a cancellation policy, number of people expected to be there, and a wish list of skills that the nonprofit is looking for.

This is especially true for customized events. Mary shared that at NW Natural, they’ve worked with nonprofits to organize volunteer activities that all staff can participate in. Not all staff are able or interested in offsite activities like pulling ivy, cleaning up litter or volunteering at a food bank. So they look for ways to offer onsite volunteering, which can also be easier for hourly workers who have long shifts and can’t necessarily leave for an extended period.

Mary knows – and the nonprofit panelists confirmed – that custom events are often the most successful, but also take a lot of time for nonprofits to organize. Mary recommended that businesses have a budget in mind when approaching a nonprofit, especially when asking for a customized event or effort.

Regular check-ins during the planning and after the event are helpful to stay on the same page and learn what worked well and what didn’t, to improve future events.

Lesson 3: Partner with other businesses to maximize nonprofit benefit

While nonprofits value the opportunity to work with businesses and educate and engage a business’s staff, it does come at a cost: It takes staff time and resources to organize volunteer or fundraising events.

By partnering with other businesses to organize a volunteer event or fundraising effort, you can maximize the benefit the nonprofit receives, while minimizing the staff time it takes them to organize it.

Example: Downtown hotels partner with SOLVE

Kris Carico of SOLVE, a statewide nonprofit that organizes volunteers to clean up beaches, parks, neighborhoods and natural spaces, shared an example of multiple businesses coming together for a joint volunteer event.

The event, called Hospitality with Heart, brought together 250 people from 20 different downtown hotels to pick up litter around downtown Portland. The hotels shared the goal of cleaning up downtown to make the city a safer and healthier place for the community and visitors alike – and by coming together, they were able to clean up a much larger area than they would have alone. The event also provided an opportunity to create community and connections among hospitality staff around Portland. The event ended with a celebration at one of the hotels, with food, drinks and prizes.

Want to connect with other businesses? Let us know.

Our goal at the Corporate Sustainability Collaborative is to foster connections so we can learn from each other (and not reinvent the wheel, since none of us have time for that!). If you’re interested in doing more work with nonprofits, but would like to talk with another business who has more experience, let us know: oregoncscollaborative@gmail.com

Thank you to our event sponsors!

Our March 5th lunch event was hosted by the Energy Trust of Oregon with food generously donated by Elephants Delicatessen.

Energy Trust of Oregon highlighted their work helping businesses and residents reduce their energy use, saving $3.4 billion on energy bills and adding $7.4 billion to Oregon’s economy since 2002! Several people at the lunch event spoke highly of Energy Trust’s Strategic Energy Management program and recommended others sign up to participate. Energy Trust also spoke about their internal sustainability efforts, sharing that their sustainability team focuses on the 3E’s: energy, environment, engagement.

Elephants Delicatessen, a certified B-Corp, provided a delicious lunch of vegan and vegetable salads and sandwiches (as well as an amazing assortment of desserts). Lunch was served on reusable platters which Elephants collected after the event.

Every year, we hold our December meeting as an opportunity share – and celebrate – our sustainable business community’s hard-earned successes.

This year was as inspiring as ever, with over 50 sustainability leaders coming together to share their accomplishments and plans for the coming year. We’ve captured some of those success stories here – enjoy!

We raised a glass to all the important “firsts” that were accomplished this year, both large and small. Parametrics, Toole Design, and Papercut Software got their Green Teams off the ground, encouraging sustainable practices like recycling and composting in their buildings. NEEA started a DEI group, and Propeller Consulting drafted their first Sustainability Report. Walsh Construction recently began work on the first ever Living Building in Portland.

Many organizations used 2019 to formalize their sustainability efforts by becoming LEED or Sustainability at Work certified, with Toole Design and Vestas achieving Gold certification and the HDR Engineering offices becoming LEED certified. Two businesses, Business on Purpose and consultant Eric Croswell, are looking forward to becoming BCorp certified  in the new year.

WSP USA placed in the top 4 in April’s Drawdown EcoChallenge! CLEAResult staff completed close to 5,000 hours of community service. Energy 350 (our hosts for the evening!) grew their business by 25% and was voted the #4 Best Green Workplace in Oregon. Vestas went 100% VOC-free this year, and Elephants Deli saw a 25% reduction in GHGs through significant investments in refrigerant monitoring.

Daimler announced the production of a fully carbon-neutral fleet of vehicles and developed an Executive Perspective series in order to showcase the importance of a top-down strategy to sustainable change. PacifiCorp launched an internal communications plan to let their employees know about all their sustainable practices and opportunities to get involved.

KINK FM (Alpha Media) uses their platform to spread the word about being a carbon-neutral radio station and highlights the work of local sustainability leaders in their podcast series Talking Trash.  Stillwater Energy worked with school districts in rural Oregon to create student Green Teams, encouraging a new generation of environmental stewards.

As for the Corporate Sustainability Collaborative, we purchased reusable dishware for events, created a list of criteria for sustainable catering, and offered our first half-day workshop.

Thank you to our host Energy 350, who graciously provided their space (and drinks!) for a very festive gathering, and to CLEAResult for sponsoring food for the evening. (If you’re interested in hosting or sponsoring future events, please email us: oregoncscollaborative@gmail.com.)

Thank you also to all the attendees for sharing the great work they’ve been doing!

On to 2020

As we go into the 50th anniversary year of the first Earth Day, we will continue to Convene, Inspire, and Elevate. We look forward to another year of supporting one another as we push forward to a brighter future.

Whether it’s bagels, bagged lunches, or buffets, many of us buy food for work meetings or events. To make sure these purchases match our principles, there are many elements to consider, from what to serve and where it comes from, to how much waste it creates.

At our sold-out fall quarterly meeting on September 5, we discussed the challenges and opportunities in Sustainable Catering.

Best practices for staff who purchase food

We first heard from Pam Neild, Sustainable City Government Coordinator for the City of Portland, who talked about the food purchasing best practices the City’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability has created for staff. Their best practices fall under four general categories: the food you serve, the beverages you choose, setup, and waste prevention.

Employees are encouraged to purchase food from local vendors, with a focus on vegetarian and vegan dishes as much as possible.

Serving food in smaller portions and served family style are best, since it allows people to choose how much they want and reduces food waste.

For beverages, provide water carafes and reusable cups instead of individual bottled water.

Communication with your food provider is also key: Let them know what not to bring, such as stir sticks and disposable cups.

To avoid waste, have reusable dishes and cutlery on hand, along with bins for dirty dishes, and let your food provider know not to bring disposable cups, dishes or utensils.

Pam stressed that the success of best practices is relative to the ease of the program. Make the program easy to understand and follow.

Vegan catering policy

Next, we heard from Ryan Shanahan of Earth Advantage, who told us about Earth Advantage’s policy of only serving vegan food for all internal and public meetings and events. This policy was voted on by staff (only one of whom is vegan) and passed by a two-thirds vote. Ryan said the response has been positive so far, and suggested framing the issue as a environmental one.

If you want to lower your organization’s carbon footprint by adopting a vegan-only policy, here are some tips from Ryan:

• Let people know the benefits of vegan food. Meat and dairy production are huge contributors to climate change, and reducing consumption is a great way to lower your carbon footprint. Vegan food often has great health benefits as well.
• Host a tasting party for vegan food – this helps combat people’s misconception that vegan food won’t taste as good, or be as filling, as food with dairy or meat.
• Make it easy for staff: Create a list of vegan vendors and highlight popular vegan dishes (mezza platters, veggie tacos, etc.) so staff who have never ordered vegan dishes can be confident that their choices will be crowd-pleasers. A good place to start is NWVeg.org/resources or www.meatlessmonday.com

How are we walking our talk with sustainable catering?

We did our best to follow sustainable catering best practices for this meeting:

• Vendor: Aprisa, locally owned, and co-owned by an entrepreneur of color.
• Food: Burrito bar with grilled veggies (vegan), salsa, and dairy sides (vegetarian).
• Reusables instead of disposables: We provided reusable serving utensils, plates and utensils. Aprisa served food in reusable metal pans, and we contracted with Portland Pedal Power to pick them up after the event and return them to the vendor.
• Delivery: We contracted with Portland Pedal Power to deliver the food by bike.
• Donation: We contracted with Portland Pedal Power to pick-up any food that could be donated and take it to Portland Rescue Mission.

We’re aiming to continue to learn and improve our practices for future events – if you have suggestions or resources, let us know!

Resources

• Reusable dishware: Preserve offers packs of dishware and cutlery in a to-go bag, for 20, 30, 40, or 60 people. Get 25% off your first order with discount code: MEETPRESERVE25. If you don’t already have reusable dishware in your workplace kitchen or breakroom, check out Sustainability at Work’s case study on reusable dishware in offices.
  
• Vegan catering: NWVeg.org/resources or www.meatlessmonday.com
• Donating leftovers: If you’ve got more leftovers than your staff can eat or take-home, consider donating edible food through Lloyd Delivers, WasteNot Taxi, or Urban Gleaners.
• City of Portland’s Food Purchasing Best Practices
• Sustainable Food Pledge for conferences and events

We want to hear from you!

Does your workplace have sustainable catering best practices? Do you have questions about sustainable catering? Or resources that others might find helpful? Let us know! Email us at oregoncscollaborative@gmail.com.