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A Service to Startups

The WorkSavvy Compendium lists hundreds of enterprises committed to sustainability through the triple bottom line of profits, ecology and society. The Compendium links to each one listed. The listing enables you to visit the enterprises that look interesting, to learn about them, and to help you consider the values for your own new business.

The WorkSavvy Compendium does not include multinationals (for them see the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World) and is focused on entrepreneurial businesses, even though some of them have grown to be very large, like LL Bean, Herman Miller, Interface, Norm Thompson, Novo Nordisk, Shore Bank, Springfield Remanufacturing and Timberland. As with some of these, a growing number of the smaller enterprises listed below are companies with a public quote on various markets. Included in the list are several companies in the WSJ Top Small Workplaces 2007.

There are some entrepreneurial businesses in the list that have been acquired by larger companies and they include: Ben & Jerry's (Unilever), Body Shop (L'Oréal), Burt's Bees (AEA Ventures), Celestial Seasonings (Hain), Ethos Water (Starbucks), Smith & Hawken (Scotts), Stonyfield Farm (Danone), Tom's of Maine (Colgate Palmolive) and Tweezerman International (Zwilling J.A. Henckels). Some of the companies in the WorkSavvy Compendium are publicly listed.

The majority of the companies currently in the WorkSavvy Compendium are US-based, but the international list is growing. Many on the list are also listed by Inc. magazine's "The Green 50".

Presently the WorkSavvy Compendium is complied by William Keyser, Managing Director of WorkSavvy—"Sustainability from the Startup". Rather than following any strict definition of sustainability, the criteria are entirely subjective and personal. I base my own judgment on the Sustainable Business Institute definition of business sustainability as ,"the opportunity for business to improve its profitability, competitiveness, and market share without compromising resources for future generations."

The hyperlinks for each firm listed will take you direct to the page about the company, where you will generally see something of the company culture and the values it holds.

New compilers are sought and should make contact with will @ worksavvy.ws to discuss how they might be involved and the compendium be developed as a practical tool for budding entrepreneurs committed to sustainability. The potential number of businesses for the WorkSavvy Compendium is greatly longer than those here listed.

I you would like to see your enterprise listed, then please contact will @ worksavvy.ws and we can discuss it.

There is no reason why entrepreneurs should not do good at the same time as doing well. Experience shows that values-based enterprises often do better than other companies in cost-savings, productivity, new customer acquisition as well as higher credibility among stakeholders. There are large numbers of values-based enterprises that, while they may not be setting out to change the world, they are setting out to change the way the world works. Those listed are some of them.