Sustainable Business NYC October/November 2009

In the spirit of social media, we’re providing you with ultimate transparency –SBNYC just signed on to social media. That's right, we now post, we tweet, we retweet, we DM... and while we may be late to the game, we’ve noticed something on Facebook and Twitter: so many of you are not there! Here's why it's changed our lives, as it will yours. Won't you join us please?

Switch From “Selling” to “Engaging”: Tweeting about issues

important to you or happenings at the office allows your customers to get to know the personality of your company and can help build brand loyalty.

Know What People Are Saying: Share positive feedback, or respond directly (and publicly) to negative mentions: “@hdunce I’m sorry! What can we do to help? Please follow so I can DM.”

Get Your Good Work Out There: Leverage social media to trigger a viral chain reaction of interest around the responsible work you’re doing. People will likely pick it up and share it with others.

Network and Build Community: Gain the attention of potential partners or distributors by reposting their good work to your community or respond directly to something they've posted.

Stay In The Know: Follow your partners, vendors or industry publications and stay up to date with what's going on in your community.

This past October SBNYC was proud to be a partner in the Feast Conference, All Day Buffet's inspiring NYC conference on social innovation. It's cross-disciplinary look at innovative ideas and creative business strategies that have a positive social impact - making it clear that everyone has the power to ignite change, no matter what their profession - is what puts this conference at the very top of our list. This year's speakers included professional poker player Annie Duke, Charity Water's Rod Arnold, Brian Bordainick, Founder of 9th Ward Field of Dreams, and more. Throughout the day we heard inspiring stories about how initial, and sometimes small, ideas were transformed into impactful, "world-shaking change," and the humor and near heart attacks that it took to get there. Think the list of speakers was diverse? SBNYC members were joined by bloggers, designers, investors, business strategists, reporters - all united by the conference's open dialogue format. If you missed the conference this year, well we wish you hadn't! But it's never too early to sign up for next year. Click here to learn more about All Day Buffet, the conference and their other change-inspiring ventures.

Supporting sustainability is an essential part of Great Performances: it is how we make the journey that matters most. Our organic farm in Kinderhook, NY allows us to showcase local, sustainable produce for our farm products and at our events and cafes. Together with Katchkie Farm and Sylvia Center, a non-profit that focuses on nutrition & farm education for at-risk youth, we are able to introduce children to the importance of sustainable living. Additionally, 5% of our harvest is earmarked for hunger-relief programs. Employees at Great Performances are allowed to volunteer 2-3 hours/week with an organization of their choice. On a smaller scale, we recently expanded our composting efforts to the thousands of off-premise events we cater each year. Regardless of the scope/size of the organization, we believe that the key to success as a sustainable business is not to just to have your commitment be an integral part of what you do and how you do it, but also to share your vision with vendors, clients, colleagues, and employees so they become supporters of and participants in your efforts. At Great Performances we have an activist culture because we get to vote 3 times a day – with every meal we eat or serve, we believe we can make a statement. Visit us at www.greatperformances.com

PDS Development Corporation