By Michelle Strutzenberger, Axiom News
Even with the trillions of dollars and billions of volunteer hours invested in charity over the last 30 years, it has not succeeded in adequately addressing the world’s most pressing issues, says Andreas Souvaliotis. He’s holding up business as the “only major lever we have left at our disposal” to generate truly effective change.
Andreas imagines a world where every corporation has become a “kind of social enterprise.” He even goes so far as to envision a shift in the global system such that “we’ve made it impossible to do business unless you’re doing good — but to be able to make (loads) of money if you are.”
Andreas is not just a talker.
Following a “jagged” career path that began with an MBA and included desperately seeking a “normal” occupation, a derailment in that career path opened a way for him to launch the world’s first eco rewards program, a social enterprise that rewards people when they made responsible choices.
Experiencing tremendous success, the program, dubbed Green Rewards at the time, was eventually bought by Air Miles. Andreas joined the “giant, multi-million” company where he found himself yet again, as he always had, a “misfit,” always the disruptor seeking to trigger change.
In the course of that journey, he says, he came to the epiphany that being the misfit was in fact something to be embraced, celebrated and leveraged.
Andreas sold his portion of the Green Rewards program, now called Air Miles for Social Change, to Air Miles last year and is now dedicated to bringing his blended message of the power of “misfits” and business as the agent for tremendous global good around the world.
He notes a predominant focus of his message to business is that embedding a concern for social and environmental change is a matter of survival. “It’s about being relevant to the future.”
On the misfit side, he wants young people in particular to realize “that when you are different you can actually do better; when you are different you can have more fun; enjoy your life more; you can inspire more; you can feel more free.
“I love change and I love being the trigger of change,” says Andreas, reflecting on what drives him.
Andreas shared his insights at the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) Oct. 2-4 where he also launched his book, Misfit: Changemaker with an Edge, on his journey to date.
Five winners of a Twitter contest also had a chance for an in-depth conversation on his life story and insights. The contest invited SEWF 2013 attendees to share a tweet about how being a misfit has empowered them to affect social change.
This story originally appeared on ENP Canada’s website.
ENP Canada has partnered with Axiom News to explore the Canadian social enterprise movement one story at a time. Each story will provide snapshots and profiles of local social enterprises and the emerging, supportive environment. This story is one of hundreds we will be publishing. Check in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the latest news.
Axiom News is also a SEWF 2013 media partner.
Sponsor Energy and Andreas met at SEWF 2013.
More About SEWF
The Trico Charitable Foundation was honoured to host SEWF 2013. It made history in a number of ways – it was a first for Canada and attracted a record number of speakers and attendees (1,000 individuals from more than 30 countries and over 100 speakers from 20 countries) – but we are most proud of the quality of the discussions on Skills Building, Social Finance, Indigenous Social Enterprise, Collaboration, Policy and Research, and Social Innovation.
We would like to thank the following partners for making SEWF 2013 possible:
Organizing Partners:
- Social Enterprise Council of Canada
- MaRS Centre for Impact Investing
- Social Innovation Generation (SiG)
- The Canadian Community Economic Development Network
Lead Sponsors:
- Suncor
- Vancity
- Government of Canada
- Canadian Youth Business Foundation (now Futurepreneur)
- Social Change Rewards
Presenting Partners:
Supporting Partners:
Friends of SEWF:
Media Partners:
Each year SEWF gives a different host country an incredible opportunity to celebrate and nurture its own social enterprise movement. The inaugural SEWF met in Edinburgh, Scotland. Since then it has been to Melbourne, Australia; San Francisco, U.S.A; Johannesburg, Africa; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Learn more about SEWF’s history here.
SEWF 2014 will be held in Seoul, Korea from October 12-16. Hosted by the Work Together Foundation, this significant international gathering has an ambitious agenda: “Social Change through Social Enterprise”. Learn more here.
