ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a personal journey from growing up in the shadow of the founding story of Lever Brothers and Lifebuoy soap in nearby Port Sunlight, to finding Lifebuoy’s social mission once more in Kibera, Kenya, in 2006. It describes how Lifebuoy and handwashing with soap became part of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 and how Lifebuoy returned to the UK after 40 years in 2020 in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. It explores how many of today’s social missions trace their roots to the enlightened entrepreneurs of Victorian England, including William Lever in Port Sunlight, and asks what can we learn from the likes of Lever, George Cadbury, Joseph Rowntree, and Jesse Boot who built sustainable businesses with a social purpose at their heart?
