Rachel DiRusso
University of Tennessee
Emily Landry
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In a law firm atmosphere, where one might typically assume there to be lots of files and paperwork, Rockridge Venture Law goes against common practices and is an environmentally safe company. This company is here to serve their clients while serving the community and helping them.
Leanne Walker, director of operations at Rockridge Venture Law, had one main aspect of the business that attracted her to the company. Rockridge Venture Law is a company that is creating the path for more law firms to create a sustainable and ethical environment that everyone can feel like they are making an impact.
For Leanne coming into this business was an easy decision. She was able to come into the business and help create events for the company that are going towards a cause. The innovation that was put in place for this company overall was to create a company that was going to help the community. Rockridge is based around helping their clients but also creating a better community and helping the environment. This company is based around printing less, not using as many paper products, and having eco-friendly refrigerators. The innovation came about when Kevin the founder wanted to create a company that was going to provide a service but also better the community and environment. As I found out through the interview, Kevin was the person who created this company and came up with the idea. Leanne said, “I feel like are biggest impact is locally so we do a Thanksgiving project where we will all go and serve for Thanksgiving and we support organizations here like reflection writing that’s like serving the community so we can help give money or we can go serve and help them that way.”
Three global goals that are specifically addressed by this company are global goals 8 (decent work and economic growth), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and 13 (climate change), through the company's operations and decisions.
Kevin, the founder, came up with the idea of doing business better in order to help the world. He wanted to hire people that were just as passionate about creating a better environment as he is. Leanne said that, "It kind of starts with him and it just sort of trickled down into like everybody’s daily work is how can we have clients who do better and then how do we ourselves do better.” Having people be on the same page about being a part of a company that does better and is helping the environment is something Kevin was looking for in each of his employees. Having this impact on the community alone can help make a difference. Starting off with this small community of people, the company can start a mission that can end up growing into something bigger and more of an acceptable standard.
The impact that the innovation had on the business was that it created a community that became aware of how they can make a difference. The business has events that bring awareness to how their business is trying to help not only the community, but also the environment and how to be helpful in their own work environment. Overall impacts on society includes that people in the community are becoming more aware of changes that must be made. Many want to help in any way they can through creating a more sustainable place. On the environment, Rockridge is based in Tennessee and I believe that with the impact they are making by telling everyone about their innovations, they are also creating awareness. They are creating awareness towards how unsustainable practices affects our environment and how we as a society can make a change for the better.
For the short-term effects that came about, what could happen is a company could be inspired to try to convert to a B-Corp or is inspired to at least assess whether they reach the 80 to 200 mark. Long-term effects at Rockridge are impacts that come about because of it's B-corp certification. Employees don't print as much as they might have had they worked for a place that is not a B-Corp. Employees can play a big factor when it comes to the success of a B-Corp because everyone needs them to be on board with the mission in order to spread the message of what their goal is. The concrete evidence that is shown at Rockridge is through the events that they do to help the community and how they use products that are not harmful to the environment.
The benefit of working at Rockridge Venture Law is how they are creating a space that is beneficial. Employees are able to come up with ideas of how the business can do better and create things that are going to help the business. Kevin has allowed Leanne to carry over her event planning into this new career and help the company create amazing events. Kevin said to Leanne “Look, why don’t you come and work for me and we can do events like non-profit work or you can serve on board things like that so that you can kind of like still scratch the itch for events but also work for us”. These are the kinds of benefits where employees are taken into consideration and are valued at their job.
The social benefit would be everyone knowing about societal impacts of unsustainable practices and how they can start to make a change in the world. Individuals can learn to not using products that are harmful to the environment and can learn to be more sustainable when they are printing materials. Another part of the social side is how all the events that they do brings awareness about how the company is starting to make an impact on the community.
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Leanne Walker, Director of Operations
