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John Abrams: Behind the Scenes at the World’s Top Scoring B Corp

Ryan Honeyman

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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In this episode of Next Economy Now, Shawn Berry, a Partner at LIFT Economy, interviews John Abrams, founder and CEO of the South Mountain Co, a Design Build construction firm operating for over 4 decades on Martha’s vineyard. They are a worker owned cooperative and boast the highest B Corp certification score in the world! His book Companies We Keep, is a seminal work for the growing movement of worker coop buyouts.

 

In this interview we discuss:

  • John’s background coming from the back to the land movement in the 60’s

  • The political climate following the recent election

  • Climate change and the need for solutions

  • Triple bottom line peer business support network

  • Their strong family centric culture

  • ROI on the best employee benefits package in the world including home ownership and renewable energy

  • Their limits on building big

  • Commitment to affordable housing & place

  • How they survived the great recession and their plan for the next one

  • Building a company culture that makes it safe to fail

  • Trust in people is paramount

  • What the company looks like after he is gone

 In addition to listening on B the Change Media, you can listen/subscribe to Next Economy Now on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting platform.

 

Shawn Berry is a Partner at LIFT Economy, where he works as an organizational strategist inspired to harness the power of business to create resilient local economies as patterns to be documented, open sourced, scaled globally and adapted regionally.

LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Shawn on Twitter @sd_berry or email him shawn@lifteconomy.com.