Adam Torres and Don Golden discuss sustainability.
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Show Notes:
Can a business be sustainable, have impact and also be profitable? In this episode, Adam Torres and Don Golden, Founder, Consultant & Author at Just Capital Quotient, explore the new age of business and Don’s book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians: Learning to Read a Dangerous Book.
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About Just Capital Quotient
Integral business is an inclusive approach that considers the interconnectedness of life, work, and business. Instead of isolating professional and personal aspects or narrowly prioritizing financial gains, integral business acknowledges all facets of life. It aims to redefine the purpose and performance of business by integrating it into the broader context of life. Their guided consulting course, Necessity of You, introduces business leaders to integral business practices, starting with spiritual self-discovery as a fundamental aspect.
They connect investors, nonprofits, and philanthropists to the networks they need to make an impact. From economic inclusion to climate-forward innovation, They connect people who want to make a difference to the social and business pioneers who are already doing so. For those who want to go beyond charitable aid, They provide links to vetted business innovators who are pioneering market solutions to social challenges.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of mission matters. My name is Adam Torres. And if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters. com and click on, be our guest to apply. All right. So today’s guest is Don golden and he’s a founder consultant and author over at just capital quotient.
Don welcome to the show. Awesome. I’m glad to be with you today. All right, man. So we, we got a lot to talk about today. So we’re going to talk about equipping small and medium businesses for greater sustainability and impact. I want to hear how you got on that journey, how you got, how you even founded just capital quotient.
But before we do all that, we’re going to start this episode, the way that we start them all with what we like to call our mission matters minute. So Don at Mission Matters, our aim and our goal is to amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives, and experts. That’s what we do. Don, what mission matters to you?
Awesome, Adam. Well, thank you. I love, I love what you’re doing because the mission that matters to me is equipping small and medium enterprises for greater impact and sustainability. That is the mission that I’m passionate about. I spent 30 years in the. Relief and development world, a large international charity space.
And I traveled in over 80 countries and respond to help to respond to some of the world’s biggest crises. And what I learned during that time is that the only kind of development, human development that is truly sustainable is economic development. That really points to businesses. You know, people are not waiting around the world for you to buy one so you can give one.
They like that, you know, they like, they like that. What they’re waiting for is an opportunity to build a life for themselves. And the, the economy touches on all the areas that are the most troubling for the human family. And so what you’re doing, amplifying voices of businesses and what I get to do to help those businesses be more impactful for humanity and more sustainable for the planet that I think is the greatest mission we can work on together in our lifetime.
Amazing. Don, as you’re going through that journey, working for these other companies and working and you’re out there and you’re traveling these, I think he’s had over 80 countries, like. Was it a progression? Was there a moment in time? Like, like, how did you know that this next step or this next thing of helping businesses was going to be part of your calling in your path?
How did you know? Yeah, well, I don’t know if years ago there was a, a pretty, pretty hard nose campaign slogan. This is the, the political campaign season and it was, it’s the economy stupid. Yeah. And, and you know, that really is the issue. It is the economy, the word economy, oikos, or household. You know, what kind of household are we going to build?
And so what I saw is that when people have access to jobs. It’s a job that they can live on and build a family on. They have a horizon of hope. And when they have a horizon of hope, they live flourishing lives. When people are flourishing, they’re not going to war with one another. They’re not tearing one another down.
They’re building a world that’s better for all of us. And so I, I got to see economic development doing that at the very grassroots all across the world. Some of the poorest countries in the world. And so I realized, you know, I love charities. Charities are needed. Absolutely. There are times when there is nothing humans can do, but receive charity from others, but the best charities are the ones that give people a pathway into a flourishing economy.
And so seeing that, understanding that I realized that’s what I want to do with my life. Yeah. I want to help businesses. What was it before this before JC quotient or just capital quotient? Like, did you have other businesses or other entrepreneurial pursuits or like, were you always an entrepreneur?
How’d that piece of it plan? No, I, I like to be harsh on myself and tell people I’ve, I’ve been I’ve been a, a leech on the economy my whole life. I’ve, I’ve. But you make money and I’ve made you feel guilty about the world. So you give me money so I can go do great things. That’s what I did in the charitable world.
Yeah. So no, this is my first foray. In fact, I thought I would really, I was going to say, I thought I would have nothing to offer the business world. But as a, You know, my actual background is in theology. I’m a pastor. Mm-Hmm. . And what I do find is that people need and want to be sort of pastored into a new way of thinking about life.
Mm. And vocation and work. Mm-Hmm. And so, in some ways, I’m just a different kind of pastor. I’m helping people find their way to greener pastures in business. How do you feel going into that transition was for you as an entrepreneur? Like, what was that like? It was, it was very exciting. I felt like I was entering a more of a faith journey.
I left a charity environment and went into the sort of secular business world and it took more faith, which was interesting. So I had, I felt like I was on a, on a faith journey and it’s been, it’s revitalized my, my, my life and my energy. So just capital quotiently, let’s go further into that. Tell, tell us a little bit more about the business and the vision.
So, you know, we exist to equip small and medium businesses for greater impact and sustainability. Why small and medium? You know, I think our current economy is. Ignoring the voice of two and important players. And that that is the person, the average person, the person like you and me, who aren’t the, the, the masters of the universe.
And it’s ignoring the voice of the planet, the systems and the resources that provide us with what we need. And. What I began to realize is that there is a new economy emerging, one that’s beginning to reward impact and sustainability. So this is not about charity. This is not about the old model was go make money and then Maybe you harm people, hopefully you don’t, but maybe you harm people and then spend your charitable dollars to help people.
So, make money and do harm give to charity and do good. But the new model is an economy, are businesses that are positively impactful for people and regenerative and sustainable. For the planet and the economy is beginning to reward that. And so if you’re a landscaper, for example, and you’ve never thought about native plants, you just want to grow grass, take care of grass and cut grass.
There is some young person revolutionizing lawn care, who’s about to eat your lunch because they understand that native plants don’t need as much water, that people are beginning to care about that. And that’s happening everywhere in the economy. That’s the exciting. Thing that we get to tap into is this change and innovation towards impact and sustainability.
That’s a great example. Can you give maybe any other examples of either, you know, businesses or ideas or, you know, how you’re equipping and how you’re helping these businesses so that our audience kind of wrap their head around the work? Yeah, absolutely. There’s You know, so when you think about innovation, you want to be, you obviously need to be innovating in a way that’s going to pay you, you know, that’s, that’s going to pay in the market.
And one way to do that is to follow legislation. And I find a lot of small and medium businesses resent that. Legislation as we all do. Who wants the government dipping into your business, but they are. And so when you can find out ways that laws are changing and that it’s influencing your industry. And so I’ll give you an example.
The painting industry. Coatings and paintings. You know, I’ve become an expert in that because some of our clients are, are painting and coatings companies, but there’s a whole wave of what are called EPRs or extended producer responsibility bills crossing the nation and they’re impacting paintings.
So third in 13 States now, the manufacturer has to provide you a way. To return unused paint. And so if you’re a company that’s not paying attention to that, you’re going to miss the fact that unused paint can be recycled in that recycled content. Paint can lower your materials costs by up to a third.
And some really industrious young guy that look probably looks like you and has a handsome red tie on like that. He’s thinking about how can I. Use this new recycled content paint to lower my materials costs and undercut my competitors and sell more painting jobs. So that’s happening in the painting industry.
It makes a lot of sense. And so one of them would be, so that’s, and that’s a good example, by the way. So legislation, seeing what’s going on in the government side of things. Sustainability, I’m guessing manufacturing, like there’s just every different level, huh? Yeah, absolutely. We could just jotting a few highlights for this chat.
Packaging, you know, packaging is going plastics industry. You know, we create something like 300 million tons. Of plastic annually. I don’t know what that means. So I, I don’t know. So much. Yeah. Well, I asked AI, can you tell me what 300 million tons of plastic looks like? And it said, well, imagine 200 million, the weight of 200 million cars.
Or 240, 000 Olympic size swimming pools. Wow. That’s the plastic we’re generating every single year. So if you’re finding new ways to tackle that problem, biodegradable packaging or reducing single use plastics, you’re getting out out ahead. The whole clothing industry, you know, it was, it used to be all about fast fashion.
There’s some terrible, crazy statistic about. New, the average new piece of clothing being only worn two or three times or something like that. And that’s moving to circular fashion and it’s becoming fashionable to engage in circular fashion and energy efficient appliances, solar, solar, everything coming online.
And I had already mentioned sustainable landscaping. So almost every field, I think there are three categories. And the way that businesses may think about themselves. One is none of this applies to me. Now, I actually don’t think that’s true, but there are some industries maybe where it’s hard to say.
Then there’s the other category where you are facing risk. If you don’t know about this, if you don’t know about native plants and you’re in that industry, you face the risk, this young person about to eat your lunch, but you also have a window of opportunity for innovation. And then there’s the third category.
Which is you’re already at the heart of, of a, of a change issue right now. And do you know its elements? Are you able to speak to the people that can make the decisions that matter? And I’ll give you one example of one of my clients is called white hat industrial and they do roofing. I don’t know if you ever noticed, but every building you go into has one.
And if it isn’t sealed properly, you’re in trouble. You know, a lot of our 401ks, a lot of our investments are tied to REITs. So the way we keep wealth. Is by keeping the value and integrity of our built assets. And that’s about roofing. And the traditional roofing way is you put on a big rubber, heavy roof, material heavy, it lasts for about 40 years.
Then you tear it off and you put it in the ground where it takes 400, 000 years to break down. Or you can choose White Hat Industrial and they will take your old roof and it, and use that old roof as the substrate of a new silicone white roof. Don’t send any of that waste to the landfill. You turn that black roof white, which drastically reduces the energy costs and it doesn’t disrupt the tenants.
It is literally a no brainer. And so I’m working with White Hat Industrial and Joel Bell, the founder of that company, because we know that together we’re in the middle of a disruption. We, we feel confident. And actually, this is interesting. This is something that clients in that risk innovation arena can think about.
Big companies, big corporations are the kind of clients that many. Small and medium companies want to land, you know, they are facing these pressures from impact and sustainability. They’re looking for partners that can speak this language. And I have a friend of mine who likes to say that you’re sent to whom you sound like, and when these companies are talking about waste reduction, when they have goals about, man, how do we reduce waste?
How do we. Make sure that we’re diversified in our hiring and our contracting. How do we reduce energy costs? If you have something in your. Work that you can begin to help them answer that question. You’re going to sound like the decision makers at that big corporation, and they may just give you a seat at the table to sell to them.
And so that’s some of the ways in which the economy is shifting under the pressures Of the challenges in, in our world today, which are really just two, wealth inequality, extreme wealth inequality, and planetary degradation. The plant, those pressures are changing the economy and when businesses can step up with innovation, they can win in the market.
So you mentioned the three different categories. And for those that feel that this doesn’t affect them, that was one of the categories hopefully after listening to this, they’ll know it does affect them, but for those that kind of know, but haven’t gone down this path yet, like they know it’s one of those things, it’s on the list of things that we all have our list of things we want to start thinking about and strategizing about.
We’re in August now, this will be, you know, maybe somebody’s doing their planning for, Fourth quarter or even going into the new year. Like how does somebody start going down that path of even having these conversations? How does that begin? Yeah. In short, you know, we, we can help you do a, an impact in sustainability audit.
We can kind of look at your business and your industry and give you some top line indications about what a. Competitive angle. We call it competing on impact, competing on impact and sustainability, but really it’s, it’s just, it’s following three sort of progressive levels. One is innovation. You just thinking about how your industry is changing, looking at, Almost every business owner knows, you know, you ask them, they see it, they know, and they have varying degrees of comfort with it or engagement with it, but they know.
And so, but where does that innovation come from? Looking at legislation. So having someone help you look at these extended producer responsibility bills or architectural heritage, painting bills, or many of the reporting disclosures that are impinging upon your industry, having somebody help you navigate that to look for the places where it.
Where it is or may or, or probably will be impacting your industry is, is helpful. And so we do, we help people do that work, but actually the area, and maybe it’s the pasture in me, but the vocation side, you know, I have a strong belief, this faith element in me that every human being is made on purpose for purpose.
And if you’re an entrepreneur, I really think you’re kind of the apostle of our age. You’re the one that where the hope for change is going to come because you’re in the middle of our real economy. And so helping people, you know, vocation is that, you know, that combination of profession, what you get paid for and Mission what the world needs.
And so that’s kind of what we help you. Well, what’s in your heart to do? Let me just say one more thing about that. I’m not talking about passionate E. S. G. or tree hugging or or that sort of thing. This is, you know, what I always ask our clients is, If they care about that and often they’ll be a little wishy washy or they’ll be very direct.
No, I don’t care about that That’s a bunch of bs But then i’ll ask the question. Well, you know, where do you like to spend your time to recreate? And it’s always nature. It’s always lakes and rivers and mountains. You’re you care about the world. You want, you want to leave it better than you found it. And you don’t want the legacy of your business to be that you undermine biosystems of life that your grandkids are going to need.
And so learning what is my responsibility and, and what is my opportunity to learn more about. The challenges of our planet and of our societies and how my business can become part of the solution. And by the way, could I win in the market because of that? I mean, that’s turning your vocation into your mission, into your vocation, and that’s called a fulfilling life.
And that, that’s one of my favorite parts is that this is that last piece that you mentioned is that this discussion is kind of moving, not saying that it shouldn’t have always been there in terms of sustainability, what’s good for the environment, all that, because ultimately, you know, we live in it, right?
We’re not getting another earth right now, anytime soon. So we, we want to, we want to be able to enjoy this earth while we have it. Right. But. The fact that now it’s turning into like good business as well, like the stakeholder capitalism side of things go a little bit further in that side and like what, what you see and why it’s good for business.
Yeah. I actually think we’re in the middle of a business paradigm shift. And it is this, it is these pressures forcing us, and I like to use the term, the trade winds of the economy. There’s a documentary out called who killed ESG by the financial times. And the punchline of that documentary is ESG has taken some hits.
But sustainable economic challenges and innovation are here to stay. There are too many forces. And so that’s this ethical shift to a new kind of economy is, is one that is more positively impactful. And more sustainable for people and more sustainable for the planet and likely your business, whatever it is, has some connection to that.
And what I love to do is first help you find in your own heart, why that matters, why, why you should care, why you already do care and how it relates to your business. So, yeah, I think we’re in an epic defining shift to a new kind of economy that you rightfully called a stakeholder economy. So one of the things I like to do on this show, Don, is once I find out I got an author on the show, I love promoting books.
I like talking about them. So I definitely have to bring this up. I know you have a book out there. So Jesus wants to save Christians. I’m learning to read a dangerous article. book. Yes. What was the inspiration for this? Yeah. So I was pastoring a church with a friend of mine years ago in Michigan, a guy named Rob Bell, who has a, is an author himself, a very prominent author.
And the Iraq war was ramping up. And we saw that Christians who are supposed to like love your enemies were all encouraging us to Drop bombs and we were kind of thinking, you know, maybe maybe faith Shouldn’t be a source of division or social fracture or in the case of what we’re talking about today Ecological indifference, you know many many people of faith think oh I don’t need to care about the economy because or the planet because we’re gonna die and go to heaven and this place is you know Secondary.
Yeah, Jesus said thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth As it is in heaven. So, so the idea behind the book is sometimes we Christians participate in the very things that Jesus came to save us from, and we want to see those people of faith and their faith compelling towards acts of peace and healing and loving stewardship of the earth, being leader, you know, what I have found in the ecological movement.
There’s actually a lot of despair. People don’t have hope. They don’t have faith. Well, people of faith are the ones that can bring a vision that even dead things can live again. And so Jesus wants to save Christians. You know, as I think about the message of that book today, I mean, it was written years ago, but today I think Jesus wants to save the planet, because it’s the life support system.
for everything we love. And I think Jesus wants to save people from despair from not having a horizon of hope that they can have a flourishing life and I think people of faith, many of my, you know, America, a third of Americans claim church attendance and, and active faith. And so many people of faith are seeking a way to put that faith into action.
That’s something I, I very much love to help them do, but then people who don’t have an active faith are often. Looking for something deeper within them, and I love to help them as well. So, yes, thank you for mentioning Jesus Wants to Save Christians. It’s really a look at the Bible in such a way that helps us understand what Christ is.
God is calling us to do to make a difference in the world. Now, now I know it’s a, it’s a full book and I’m sure there’s many messages and things that you want your readers to get out of the book. But if there was one that like after somebody’s done, you know, reading the book, what, what do you hope they walk away with?
That their power and their privilege is not something to ignore. It is something to embrace and to understand why they have it. And the message of our book is that God gives Power and privilege for one reason and that is that you will uphold Justice and what is right for others and that means I think for people in planet today, and that’s the the key message Celebrate your power your wealth your privilege.
It’s awesome God’s blessings are awesome, but they’re there for a reason in some ways the only way to keep them Our power and privilege is to find appropriate ways to distribute it and to give it away so that your life is kind of a a conduit of those blessings that can continue to flow. So, yeah, that what’s our power and privilege for and how can we use it in the world for good?
That’s the key message of the book. Amazing. Well, Don, this has been so much fun having you on the show today. I’m glad that we finally got together and got to do this. If somebody is watching this or listening to this and they want to follow up, continue the conversation about just capital quotient or even pick up a copy of your book.
How do they do that? Yeah, you can you know, pick up the book on Amazon or anywhere that you buy, buy books. It’s, it’s available and, you know, reach out to me, find me on, on LinkedIn or come to my website justcapitalquotient. com, justcapitalquotient. com. And right on the landing page, it’ll give you a way to connect with me.
And I’d love to give you kind of a free top line analysis of, Hey, here’s something going on in your industry and something we could think about together. So yeah, find me on LinkedIn or come to my website, just capital quotient. com. Perfect. And for everybody listening and watching this, just so you know, we’ll put, we’ll put the links to all that in the show notes.
So you can just click on the link and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with mission matters and you haven’t done it yet, check it out. Hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new interviews, new content, and hopefully new inspiration that can help you along the way in your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe or follow button and Don, man, so much fun. Until the next time. Thank you so much for coming on. Awesome. Thank you, Adam.