ABSTRACT
Feeling good is a fundamental and self-evident aim of life. Yet remarkably few companies have ever articulated their role in making life feel better. Despite excitement in public policy circles around the new science of happiness, there has been a deafening silence from the private sector.
This chapter introduces the idea that raising life satisfaction should be the social purpose of all companies because it makes great commercial sense. Business opportunities include improving productivity in the workplace, optimizing the supply chain, and building stronger relationships with customers and local communities.
Companies have all sorts of positive and negative impacts on life. The wellbeing footprint is the total picture, the costs and benefits to life across the value chain from suppliers through to consumers.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable business often aspire to create “impact.” But there is no consensus over what change we are trying to create. A sustainable future means nothing unless we agree what it is about life that we are trying to improve. A social purpose explains why the business exists. The premise of this book is that there is no better purpose for business than to boost our world’s wellbeing.
