Ranking: 9
Industry: Cleaning Products
Mission: An eco-friendly cleaning supplies seller that helps protect human health and the environment. They use renewable plant-based ingredients in their products and post-consumer recycled plastic in their packaging. On a mission to transform the world into a healthy, sustainable and equitable place for the next seven generations.
Ranking: 34
Industry: Emergency Medical Services
Mission: A professional ambulance and medical emergency service provider in India, addressing the country’s healthcare gap. They care for all, regardless of their income bracket, and aim to create a leading network of fully equipped ambulances across the developing world. Have grown into a fleet of 3,022 ambulances with 10,000 employees across 18 states in the country.
What 3 words best describe your company culture?
Ethical, Transparent, Socially Responsible
What quote best exemplifies your company?
“Saving a life is one of the most rewarding experiences a person can undergo in his/her lifetime.” — Mahatma Gandhi
How is your product or service having a positive social and/or environmental impact?
In 2005, Ziqitza Health Care Limited (Ziqitza Health Care) was founded by Shaffi Mather, Manish Sacheti, Ravi Krishna, Naresh Jain, Sweta Mangal — a group of young professionals — as a result of two contrasting personal experiences.
Late one fateful night in India, Shaffi Mather’s mother choked in her sleep and had breathing problems. Faced with the uncertainty of what to do, which number to call, and whom to rely on for assistance, the family felt helpless and chose to drive her to the hospital themselves. Just a few days later, Ravi Krishna’s mother collapsed in Manhattan, New York, USA, and within minutes, 911 arrived, provided medical aid and his mother survived.
The founders realized that the difference in both scenarios was the availability and accessibility of standardised emergency medical services provided. Every life matters and every second counts in saving a life. We believe that countless lives can be saved and numerous casualties minimised, with adequate and quick transportation facilities.
ZHL recognized the need of organized and professional ambulance providers in the country, and thus began the journey to create the best emergency response service in India that would be on par with 911 in the U.S. and 999 in the U.K. They realized the urgency of an organized and networked ambulance service required for saving those lives that would have been otherwise lost, for want of timely medical attention.
While EMS services are extremely well developed in countries like United States, they were severely lacking in India till early 2000. Despite other developments in the healthcare sector, India had yet to establish a single, comprehensive EMS system that could be accessed by all. The existing system was fragmented and did not meet the acute demand. The main providers of ambulance services were private ambulance owners, hospitals, NGOs, and government agencies. Some services were free, while others were not.
There was no service that covered the entire city, and most ambulances had little or no medical equipment—they were largely stripped down delivery vans. Victims often arrived at the hospital in the back of an auto rickshaw, in a family member’s car, or even in the bed of a delivery truck. There was no ambulance service that covered the entire city, much less one that could be reached 24 hours a day at an easy-to-remember phone number similar to the 911 system in the U.S. The founders of ZHL were also very clear that the service should be accessible and affordable to all sections of the society without burdening those who did not have the capability to pay for the same.
This made them realize that there was no ambulance service in India that covered the entire city that could be reached 24 hours a day at an easy-to-remember phone number similar to the 911 system in the U.S.
It is a universally accepted fact that a patient who receives basic care and is transported tothe closest healthcare facility within 15-20 minutes of a severe injury has the greatest chance of survival. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is a critical element of any healthcare system as it has the potential to save countless lives by providing immediate care. The state of emergency care, however, varies radically from developed countries to developing countries.
There is a high demand for quality ambulance services in India. India is very disaster prone; almost 57% of India’s land mass is vulnerable to earthquakes, 68% to drought, 8% to cyclones, and 12% to floods. Additionally, the ratio of traffic accidents per 1000 vehicles is 21.3 times higher than the world average. 30% of accident victims in India die due to delays in transportation to medical facilities
The existing system is terribly fragmented and does not meet demand. The main providers of ambulance services are private ambulance owners, hospitals, NGOs, and government agencies. Some services are free, while others are not. These ambulances are often unavailable on a regular basis, are in poor condition and do not have appropriate medical equipment or trained paramedics, and the time taken to arrive at a patient’s location is lengthy. Regardless, most people in India do not use ambulances for medical emergencies The statistics collected show why ambulances are typically not called for in India.
Three key reasons demand the need for high quality emergency healthcare in India:
The solution of the founders to the above questions / issues was to set up and operate the ‘Dial 1298 for Ambulance’ Service as a cross-subsidy fee based business model. Under this model, it uses differential pricing: wealthier customers would pay the full rate for the Ambulance Service while the poor received a heavy discount and free service when required. To generate fixed income to service subsidized calls, 1298 gives external advertising space to corporates on yearly basis. Our corporate partners work with us through branding and awareness opportunities through our highly visible ambulance operations. This innovative pricing and leveraging corporate support has enabled us to make the service financially sustainable and cater to all sections of the society at the same time.
ZHL saw opportunity of partnering government to reach out quality ambulance service across the country, to execute the 108 services. Realising that it limited the opportunities for private organizations to participate in the process, ZHL played a very critical role in getting various states to introduce transparent bidding processes for private ambulance providers to bid for these PPPs in ambulance services. In 2009, ZHL won the 1st ever tendered out ambulance service in India (for Patna), bringing about a sequential change in other states also.
Keeping these factors in mind in 2005 and based on personal experiences of the founders the company was formed as Ziqitza Healthcare Limited. Our organization’s vision is to be the leading Ambulance Service provider in the developing world by assisting in saving human lives by providing a leading network of fully equipped Advanced and Basic Life Support Ambulances across the developing work.
We intent doing so, firstly, by adhering to our core values of being ethical, transparent and fostering teamwork within our organization. Secondly, in our road to realize our vision, we want to make sure that we meet international standards for quality in Emergency Medical Services, be accessible to all people irrespective of income and to be financially sustainable. At ZHL, emphasis on technology has been an important driver for improved service levels and quality of treatment during transit in emergency situations. Early technology adoption has helped ZHL with better management of our ambulance movements. During the very early stages the gap in existing training standards for the paramedics was very evident therefore to bridge this extensive emphasis is laid on skill training of the staff.
Today ZHL is operating more than 3300 ambulances across 16 states in India and has served more than people since inception. In last 15 years have created multiple service solutions that are tailor-made with quality standards benchmarked to international EMS. The focus has always been ensuring efficient transfers to trauma cenrtes by trained pre-hospital care professionals to save as many valuable lives. To this end, Ziqitza created different medical emergency response solutions, each serving the needs of very specific segments of customers and income class in India:
Industry Firsts by Ziqitza: The impact has been tremendous in area of EMS as an effort of ZHL like:
ZHL has been cited as a case study for its social impact in reputable educational institutions like Stanford, Columbia and Yale.
What is your company’s vision for the future?
Be the leading Pre-Hospital Service Provider of the developing world. To assist in saving human lives by providing a leading network of fully equipped Advanced & Basic Life Support Ambulances across the developing world.
Ranking: 112
Industry: Education
Mission: A supplemental education program offering before and after school programs for children and professional development for adult educators. They inspire humans through playful imaginative exploration by bringing them closer to their true nature of love, one family, one community, and one planet. Cultivating the curious child within us all.
Ranking: 58
Industry: Environmental Services
Mission: Sustainably manages the resale, recycling, and donation of corporate office furniture and equipment. They aim to help corporations and organizations recover value, benefit communities, and divert waste. Have thus far diverted over 73,000 tons of furniture, offsetting more than 183,000 metric tons of carbon emissions.
What 3 words best describe your company culture?
People, Planet, Profit
What quote best exemplifies your company?
“Every step towards a circular economy counts. To achieve zero-waste, to extract the full value out of our products at their end-of-life, we need to see waste as the dynamic opportunity it is.” — Richard Beaumont, CEO of Green Standards Ltd.
How is your product or service having a positive social and/or environmental impact?
Background: Inspired by the circular economy, Green Standards (GSL) was founded in 2009 to solve the growing problem of office furniture waste. Green Standards has developed an industry-leading, managed program of office furniture donation, resale, and recycling, making it simple and cost-effective to clear out workspaces and enable our clients to do more good. To date, Green Standards has diverted 70,000+ tons of workplace furniture and equipment from landfill (a 98.6% diversion rate) and generated over $30M of in-kind donations to 5,000+ non-profits and communities across North America.
Now working with 22 of the Fortune100 companies, Green Standards has managed workplace decommission efforts on several of the largest corporate real estate portfolio modernizations/refreshes in history – often to the order of millions of sqft and tens of thousands of employees’ worth of furniture and equipment.
Our unique service gives corporations the ability to turn a conventionally wasteful process into something that actually drives value for their business, by helping them achieve their various CSR reporting mandates.
Initiative: By combining donation, resale, and recycling strategies with turnkey project management, Green Standards maximizes asset recovery, streamlines community donation, and virtually eliminates waste on corporate projects. It’s this innovative approach that generated value for businesses, local communities and the environment.
As pioneers of sustainable workplace decommissioning, GSL manages more than 10M sqft of projects annually and has forced would-be competitors to evolve their service offerings to catch up. Green Standards’ leadership and influence have led to a notable shift in the language and requirements that Fortune-sized companies use when preparing their workplace decom RFPs; “conventional disposal” is simply no longer the status quo – our solution is.
What is your company’s vision for the future?
Where conventional solutions like liquidation produce an alarming amount of waste, we generate value for businesses, local communities, and the environment, demonstrating industry innovation, leadership and social responsibility through our program. When we started, this was a service that people hadn’t even conceived of as an option. Fast-forward ten years, and we’re increasingly seeing Fortune-sized clients expecting a service like ours that can be employed across their portfolio. This is a testament to changing times, but also to how our work has influenced the industry. For many organizations, their real estate footprint is the largest component of their environmental impact. EPA estimates that 8.5M tons of FF&E are sent to landfill each year in the US alone, costing Americans up to $750M spent annually on landfill tipping fees. We discovered a niche and need within an industry and are set out to disrupt the current landscape keeping sustainability at the forefront. In the next 3-5 years we’ll be expanding to provide our services overseas in Europe, South America, and Asia as we have found our client partners are looking for a global solution to their furniture waste.
Ranking: 36
Industry: Food Production
Mission: An American food producer revolutionizing the dairy industry by combining proprietary technology with age-old creamery methods to craft cheese and butter from plants. Dedicated to reducing the world’s consumption of animal products by making a Phenomenally Vegan lifestyle accessible to everyone. Crafting organic foods with artistry, integrity, and ethics.
What quote best exemplifies your company?
“Miyoko’s Creamery is leading the animal-free transformation of the dairy industry for the urgent salvation of the planet and all living beings. Since its launch just five years ago, Miyoko’s has introduced a wide range of award-winning dairy products 100% made from organic plants, that set a higher standard for taste and quality within the dairy industry, are cruelty free, and are radically better for the environment, producing 98% less greenhouse gases than their animal based counterparts.”
How is your product or service having a positive social and/or environmental impact?
Miyoko’s Creamery is known for its delicious, award-winning cheeses and butters that are healthier, more ethical, better for the environment, and 100% made from organic plants. Miyoko’s is a Certified B Corporation, having completed the rigorous certification process that ensures the company is meeting the highest standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability. Going a step further in our sustainability efforts, Miyoko’s commissioned a third-party to complete a life-cycle analysis of the environmental impact in the production of our cashew-based line of cheeses, which proved Miyoko’s products are up to 98% lower in GHG emissions than dairy cheese. With innovation and compassion at its core, Miyoko’s developed a line of cheeses made from American-grown crops of legumes and potatoes and is working with domestic501(c)(3) organizations that help farms transition from dairy farming to plant agriculture for human consumption.
Ranking: 71
Industry: Investment Management
Mission: A leader in global impact initiatives dedicated to the pursuit of financial return and social change. Their clients share a common conviction in sustainable enterprise and a commitment to ethical standards that carry from their missions to their investments. Aligned with 12 Sustainable Development Goals, with the largest contribution towards Climate Action.
What 3 words best describe your company culture?
Authentic, Inclusive, Engaged
What quote best exemplifies your company?
“We analyze opportunities from a wholistic perspective and activate capital with our investor voice, incorporating Environmental, Social, & Governance drivers to enhance traditional assessments of growth, competitiveness, and profitability.”
How is your product or service having a positive social and/or environmental impact?
We integrate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations into every step of our investment process. We seek leaders on ESG issues and avoid investing in companies with unsustainable business models. We look at areas such as the environment, employment practices and labor relations, human rights, and marketing safe and sustainable products and services. The result is portfolios of high-quality, long-term oriented companies with strong sustainability characteristics and significantly smaller portfolio carbon footprints versus respective benchmarks.
We have helped create industry standards in emerging ESG areas, such as climate risk in the financial sector, human rights, access to nutrition, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, access to medicines, human trafficking, renewable energy, hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas operations, and chemical safety. Through our active ownership and engagement initiatives, we seek to improve our portfolio companies’ financial performance and reputations by improving the long-term sustainability of their products, processes and policies. Leveraging our issue expertise and thoughtful engagement approach, we help build and lead investor coalitions engaging companies, industries, and policy makers on ESG issues. Ultimately, we seek to identify key ESG risks and best practices and then raise overall industry ESG practices and investor expectations.
What is your company’s vision for the future?
Boston Common is dedicated to the pursuit of financial returns and societal change, with a commitment to be an ESG/Impact firm where employees, clients, partners, and vendors are inspired to create social change through the deployment of capital, shareowner engagement, and forward-looking integration of ESG and activism.
Ranking: 10
Industry: Agriculture
Mission: A market maker for pasture-raised eggs and butter that exists to improve the lives of people, animals, and the planet through food. They focus on the humane treatment of farm animals and sustainable farming practices. Partnering with 200 family farms to create products sold in 13,000 stores in the U.S.
What quote best exemplifies your company?
“Vital Farms is an ethical food company that is disrupting the U.S. food system.”
How is your product or service having a positive social and/or environmental impact?
Our purpose is rooted in a commitment to Conscious Capitalism, which prioritizes the long-term benefits of each of our stakeholders including farmers and suppliers, customers and consumers, communities and the environment, crew members and stockholders.
Ranking: 87
Industry: Personal Care
Mission: Thoughtfully crafted personal care products empowering people to change the world through everyday, quality purchases. For every product sold, they donate a bar of soap to someone in need in the U.S. or abroad, pairing donations with hygiene education. Helping to improve health through hygiene in 65 countries and counting.
Ranking: 73
Industry: Information Technology & Services
Mission: A consultancy that supports technology innovators by designing, building, and delivering quality software solutions. They lead with a people-centered approach, and are driven by their vision to be a thriving example of business for good. Inspiring others to think differently, thereby growing a collective impact on the world.
What 3 words best describe your company culture?
People-centered, Purpose-driven, Passionate
What quote best exemplifies your company?
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi
How is your product or service having a positive social and/or environmental impact?
A B Corp certification is the only certification that measures a company’s entire social and environmental performance. As a certified B Corp, we are held to this standard. At Ingage this looks like encouraging conversations on equity, inclusion and diversity. We are also committed to contributing 3% of our revenue to transform communities. We have an exceptionally strong culture, driven by passionate and purpose-driven individuals. In 2019, our team served 4,921 hours in our community and made possible $371,518 in donations and nearly $2 million since our inception in 2011. Furthermore, one of our service offerings, the Thrive Accelerator Program, is a proven talent development model, where we invest in training and mentoring technical talent to grow our clients’ diverse teams.
What is your company’s vision for the future?
To be a thriving example of business for good in order to inspire others to think differently, thereby growing our collective impact on the world.
Ranking: 108
Industry: Professional Training & Coaching
Mission: A global network and essential resource for professional women who create, inspire, and lead. They are committed to helping each other succeed, and aim to close the gender achievement gap in business by providing women with a community to lean on and learn from. Connecting over 150,000 women across the globe.
What 3 words best describe your company culture?
Intersectional, Grateful, Authentic
What quote best exemplifies your company?
“Ellevate is the largest community for women+ at work. A powerful coalition of ambitious and supportive women+ who believe there is strength in numbers. We show up for each other, helping everyone — no matter their background or aspirations — build a career they love. And, more importantly, we mobilize our collective power to change the culture of business.”
How is your product or service having a positive social and/or environmental impact?
At Ellevate Network, we’re redefining networking. Although our community is the largest of its kind, we know that navigating a sea of faceless connections is a waste of time. That’s why, at Ellevate, we prioritize the real, authentic relationships that can change your situation, can make a difference in your future.
We help women build meaningful local and digital relationships that can offer insights and open doors. Our community has reach, power and influence, while still remaining warm, welcoming and supportive.
Through collective action, Ellevate is shaping business to be more inclusive. Our goal is full and equal access to power, for everyone. Ellevate is where change makers cultivate their voice, build bridges to understand and mobilize for impact. We work with leading companies to help them hire, retain and improve diversity, equity and inclusion within their organizations.
We also approach our work through a B Corp lens. We want to have a positive impact on our community, our environment, and our team, so we’re always looking to do business the right way, not the easy way. After the pandemic began, we introduced the EllevateHER Forward fellowship, a program for women financially impacted by the pandemic to help them get their careers stabilized and back on track. We launched several new online event series to keep our community connected during these challenging times, and delivered peer mentoring through a 12-week Squads program focused on leading through uncertainty.
What is your company’s vision for the future?
Equality. We believe that when ambitious professional women get more opportunity, it ultimately benefits everyone, and leads to a more equal world. We’re committed to giving these ambitious professional women the community they need to take the next step in their careers — whatever that means to each of them.
