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Gabrielle Melchionda is owner of Mad Gabs lip balm in Westbrook, a MEBSR member. Mad Gabs packages products with minimal waste, among other socially conscious efforts.

enlarge Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Bill Lanigan shapes dough at Borealis Breads in Wells last week. The business, a longtime member of Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility, donates bread for nonprofit events.

enlarge Courtesy Chris Rushlau

Owner Jim Amaral, in the Borealis Breads bakery and store in Wells, says one reason Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility is important is that some ideas, such as how businesses can save energy, are better received if they come from peers.

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Barrett Brown, president of CedarWorks, a maker of wooden playsets based in Rockport, donates 10 percent of profits to efforts that benefit children and the environment.

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An employee at Coffee by Design in Portland checks on roasting coffee beans. Owner Mary Allen Lindemann says MEBSR now stresses “sustainability” as much as “social responsibility.”

PRACTICING WHAT THEY PREACH

HERE are examples of how some members of Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility show their commitment to employees, community and the environment:

COFFEE BY DESIGN:

Owner Mary Allen Lindemann and her husband travel to coffee farms in South America to ensure suppliers treat their workers well and are environmentally conscious.

MAD GABS:

Provides work for local sheltered workshops who employ adults with physical and developmental challenges.

TOM'S OF MAINE:

100 percent of the company's electricity consumption is offset by wind energy supplied by Green-e, a certified, nationally recognized symbol of independently verified renewable energy.

CEDARWORKS:

The company's ReCedaring program has to date distributed more than 375,000 cedar seedlings to customers, woodlot owners and environmentally concerned groups.

Now the organization is looking to add practicality to that mantra.

Its board of directors has been trimmed from 18 members to six, its Web site will be redesigned to encourage more member- to-member communication and the focus will be somewhat more on helping businesses make and save money – while still doing right by employees, communities and the environment.

"We're moving a little away from, 'When you have lots of time and money, do this," said Sanna McKim, MEBSR's executive director. "We're saying, 'Do these good things and you will have more time and money.' "

Jim Amaral, owner of Borealis Breads and a longtime member of the group, said the new focus is more of a tweaking than a sharp change in direction. He said the organization needs to emphasize how running a socially responsible business is an integral part of managing a company that can be considered successful – by benchmarks other than just profit-and-loss statements.

"I felt they've always had a strong element of practical ways to be socially responsible and do it in a cost-effective way," Amaral said. "They're trying to do a better job of showing people how some of these programs could help."

"It's a natural evolution," suggested another long-time MEBSR member, Mary Allen Lindemann, owner of Coffee by Design in Portland.

McKim said MEBSR needs to change because the world has changed.

When the organization was formed in 1993, people knew what "socially responsible" meant, but may not have appreciated how it could be applied in the business world.

A few companies – among them Kennebunk-based Tom's of Maine – were founded on the principle that making money does not require polluting the environment, paying low wages and ignoring community needs.

Now, McKim said, most companies recognize that not only is treading lightly on the environment and providing solid employee benefits a good thing, it's what consumers expect – and, often, reward.

"It's really become the norm," McKim said. "It's more mainstream."

That change led MEBSR's board to consider what it meant for the organization. Businesses want to know how to apply socially responsible practices in a way that helps a company remain economically healthy, said Andy Spaulding, who is president of the group's reconstituted board.

MEBSR's early seminars and conferences, he said, would often feature someone whose business was committed to socially responsible actions, without focusing on how the business became successful enough to support those efforts.

"Initially, the thrust (for MEBSR) came from folks who were already committed, and maybe it was based on altruism, rather than the proven bottom-line impact," Spaulding said. "It's probably a lot easier to do the right thing when you've got crazy profits, but what do I do in a small- or medium-sized Maine business when I'm trying to grow the business and keep it profitable?"

Lindemann of Coffee by Design said the term "socially responsible," was itself sometimes a barrier to companies that wanted to join MEBSR.

"Social responsibility is probably the most misunderstood term," said Lindemann.

It's hard to define, she said, and some business owners stayed away from the group because they felt they hadn't yet figured out what socially responsible meant. Today, the term that is used more often is sustainability, Lindemann said.

Spaulding said the organization will still share stories of businesses that take steps such as allowing employees to spend a few hours a week working with community groups on company-paid time.

But it will also discuss nuts-and-bolts matters, such as how the owners of small stores can encourage customers to avoid taking their products home in plastic bags. That kind of advice, he said, is a socially responsible...