Great to Good: 7 Ways to Judge a Company

Today’s blog post is reprinted with permission from CSRWire, originally published Dec. 10.

By Gregory Papajohn and Lee Ann Zondag

How do you continually strive to achieve greatness? Where do you look for drivers, tools and benchmarking? How do you turn your achievements, resources and leverage into impact?

The Civic 50 now offers exactly that opportunity. In partnership with the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC), Points of Light and Bloomberg LP, these 50 companies represent the best companies that improve the quality of life in the communities they do business through the application of time, talent and resources.

The selection: The S&P 500 listed firms were surveyed for civic engagement programs against seven critical dimensions later analyzed by independent assessors. These dimensions included:

Measurement and strategy:What are the program structure and metrics?
Leadership: Is the C-suite involved?
Design: Are corporate departments participating in program activities and direction?
Community partnerships: Are companies acting as true partners to nonprofits and other companies?
Employee civic growth: Is the program influencing personal growth and engagement of employees?
Cause alignment: Do the core competencies and workforce skills of the business align with the supported causes?
Transparency: Is the company communicating its work to the public and sharing best practices?

But the The Civic 50 is not just another list.

We see it as a declaration of great brands; companies that can inspire and motivate those not currently on the list to join the ranks.

Community, Community, Community

Following the release of The Civic 50 we had the chance to catch up with Jackie Norris, executive director of the Points of Light Institute and Ilir Zherka, executive director of NCoC, co-collaborators in the new endeavor.

Our first question for the duo was one of ground reality: Why should anyone pay attention to The Civic 50 over any of the other rankings and lists that recognize companies for their civic (using this term loosely) efforts?

The response was a resounding one: Community.

Norris and Zherka both explained that The Civic 50 breaks new ground by focusing on how companies engage in their communities. “Often the conversation stops at environmental sustainability or human rights. Here we present you with the opportunity to tell your story in the community,” stated Norris. “To share the heart of who you are – the full complement of what your people do outside of their families for neighbors, communities, their government,” added Zherka.

We also believe that The Civic 50 provides a new place to communicate – not where you comply and hold yourself accountable to others’ standards (such as can be the case with sustainability indices) – what you proactively decide to do on-the-ground, in your town, and on your teams.

The Name Game

We next asked about the thought process and choice of the words “civic” and “engagement” to describe The Civic 50. “Don’t overthink it,” they said. It was simple, really: they thought about what they woke up to do every day – engage people and passions to take action. And, voila!

The Big Three

Time, talent, and resources are the fundamental components of the survey – and comprise civic engagement – that truly capture the essence of the work The Civic 50 companies do in the space. Main findings:

Time: Between the 430,000 employees of IBM [NYSE: IBM], which took the top spot in the inaugural list, 3.2 million hours were spent volunteering in 2011.
Talent: More than two-thirds of the top 50 companies say they “frequently” or “always” use the professional skills of their workforce to address social issues and real community challenges.
Resources: The top five companies provided $1.5 billion in grant support to community organizations, 17.5 million volunteer hours (valued at over $375 million) and $150 million in matching donations.

“[The contributions of time, talent and resources] demonstrates that the best companies in America are deeply committed to strengthening their respective communities,” Zherka concluded.

So whether we reference Morgan Stanley’s [NYSE: MS] (No. 6) Volunteer Month or Citigroup’s [NYSE: C] (No. 2) Global Community Day, organized volunteer programs show that top companies encourage employees to give back to their communities through the use of time. Talent-based programs like Aetna’s [NYSEF: AET] (No. 4) research on the role of ethnic diversity to deliver the highest quality of healthcare and FedEx’s [NYSE: FDX] (No. 12) work to improve communities’ disaster response and recovery programs exemplify how company knowledge and skillsets can be applied to better communities and professions.

Lastly, partnerships with community organizations and employee gift matching programs like those of GE [NYSE: GE] (No. 9), McGraw-Hill [NYSE: MHP] (No. 8) and Campbell Soup [NYSE: CPB] (No. 7) show that top companies – and employees – are making financial investments to strengthen their communities.

Planning for the Quarter… Century

Shifting base for a second, Jim Collins challenged attendees at this year’s World Business Forum to plan for the quarter century (read: not quarter as in three months, but quarter as in 25 years). Collins was emphasizing what we believe is integral to the whole purpose of the GolinHarris CHANGE team. We look up and down the short- and long-term (positive) impacts you, an institution, can – and should – have.

Zherka demands a similar approach for The Civic 50 applicants. We must look beyond the fiscal quarter, he challenged, asking future applicants to “exist to change behavior.”

For sure, companies listed – and those who applied – for The Civic 50 are looking to change behavior and influence a long-term positive impact. The top companies have even reached a point where their civic programs and use of time, talent and resources in communities are not seen as separate CSR entities, but rather an integral part of the brand identity. IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge is one such example, awarding 100 cities around the globe $50 million worth of IBM expertise to address topics from urban agriculture to public safety.

Campbell Soup, known for its soups and strong community work, prioritizes health and education where Campbell employees live and work by promoting access to nutritious meals and activity through the Nourishing Our Neighbors initiative. And General Electric, known for its innovative thinking, converts its belief that innovations can improve healthcare for more people into action by supporting community health centers around the globe.

It is endeavors like these that help everyone come to the same page and understand not only why companies must make investments and engage with their communities, but also the benefits these commitments have on communities, employees and companies. It’s interesting to note that a lot of the companies on The Civic 50 are household names and aspirational brands, often ranked on Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies and Best Companies to Work For lists.

Coincidence? We think not.

Interested in knowing all of the companies that made the list? Meet “America’s most community-minded corporations” here.

Editor’s Note: As Lee Ann and Gregory exemplify, The Civic 50 is the first comprehensive ranking of S&P 500 companies that best use their time, talent and resources to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business. Beginning in January 2013, Jackie Norris, executive director of the Points of Light Corporate Institute, will launch a new blog series for CSRwire to go in depth into the seven dimensions and illustrate how these 50 companies are demonstrating best in class corporate citizenship practices. Stay tuned!

Students, Parents, and Organizations Coming Together for Hurricane Sandy Relief

Today’s post is written by Ivan Cestero, 9^th grade history teacher, and Director of Avenues Community Engagement.

In accordance with the Avenues community focus on “welcome, safety, and respect,” the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy gave all of us the opportunity to reflect on the important impact we can have on one another’s lives. In response, Avenues Community Engagement, or “ACE,” organized a series of school-wide projects under the umbrella of “Operation Gratitude.” Simultaneous undertakings by parents and independent teacher projects provided further inspiration. By Thanksgiving, our students and parents had provided hundreds of blankets and coats to people without heat, fed over 600 clients at a food pantry, supplied a displaced elementary school in Coney Island, and raised $1300 in small donations. We then shared this service with generationOn through the Joy Maker initiative, and Hasbro donated a toy to Toys for Tots on behalf of each student involved. By collaborating with parents, orgs, and companies, the students made a large and meaningful impact.

Given the urgent need across New York City, and the wide scope of possible classroom activities per grade, we focused on three priorities: the response should be timely and meaningful to aid recipients, age-appropriate and empowering for our students, and conducive to school-wide culture building. And it had to get unrolled quickly.

After initial teacher consultation and community outreach, ACE offered three major activities. First, Operation Gratitude was a school-wide food and supplies drive, with grades contributing different materials. Second, Count Your Blessings was a reflection-focused donation exercise asking students, parents, and teachers to take time to be thankful after the storm and contribute $5 toward relief efforts. Financial contributions were optional. Finally, a Sandy space was created in a corner of the cafeteria with a combination of donation boxes, colorful banners, and meaningful community reflection that allowed us to demonstrate and celebrate our good work as a school.

Led by Tara Misenheimer, 9th grade Art Now students launched the “Power Buttons” Project. It offered K-9 the chance to create colorful, imaginative, whimsical, and thought-provoking artworks in a small circular space on a piece of white paper. The art class used a rotary cutter and button maker to transform these mini masterpieces into wearable artworks to raise money for victims who were without power for so long. They will be sold for $1 in the final days Winter Break—look out for them.

It’s worth noting that Avenues parents provided the first inspiring push toward Sandy relief. Parents were able to donate a seemingly endless amount of material first to our neighbors at the Fulton and Elliot Houses and later, as APA and ACE coordinated their efforts, to P.S. 90 in Coney Island. We are appreciative of the way in which parents worked directly with us on our student projects as well, delivering all of the food to St. Clement’s.

Given the nascent state of ACE and the fact that Avenues itself was only 6 weeks old, Operation Gratitude was was a learning process for all participants. However, we learned to work together in the last month—parents, students, administrators, and teachers—and we found out what we could do with very little time in which to organize and carry out a plan. By looking online for resources, we discovered that we could make an even larger impact instantaneously by sharing our efforts with generationOn’s Joy Maker opportunity. Our resourceful and generous Avenues community has the potential for fully living out our mission statement, by being “humble about our gifts and generous of spirit,” and “aware that our behavior makes a difference in the ecosystem.” From the very beginning, ACE was in place to give students the opportunity to engage in the community in meaningful ways. Hurricane Sandy gave all of us an early lesson on the power of collaboration.

Check out our story on the Joy Maker Wall.

Public Transportation and Poverty Awareness

Todays’ post is written by Alex Green, a recent graduate from the University of Minnesota with a degree in psychology, who is serving with HandsOn Tech in Seattle. He has a solid background in technology as well, having been a projectionist for three years and a sound engineer for two.

My morning commute from Tukwila to Seattle was nothing unusual. I walked down the street from my apartment to the bus stop, still sleepy. It was rainy, blustery and dark. Starting the day with a somber mood, it was all too easy to forget the positives around me. For example, there is a perfect view of Mt. Rainer right from the sidewalk to the bus stop. I guess I missed it that morning.

Since starting my AmeriCorps VISTA year in Seattle, I have had the “opportunity” to go without a car, opting for public transportation instead. Not only has it been cheaper, but personally constructive as well. I can say with confidence that after only two months, I already find myself more knowledgeable about this city than Minneapolis. Considering I grew up around Minneapolis the first 23 years of my life, I think that’s saying something.

My attitude was less favorable at the beginning. Rain, grumpy bus drivers, crying babies and cigarette smoke were all on the list of cons of bussing it, and they still are. However, I ran into a bit of a hiccup that morning: a hiccup that didn’t change my external circumstances, but rather, my attitude.

For whatever reason, that morning my bus pass didn’t work. It just beeped and said, “Try Again.” I just stood there in disbelief since this was completely new to me. After asking if I had cash (which I did not), the bus driver promptly told me I had to get off the bus. “Wow, really?” I thought. These bus drivers don’t mess around. So I’m off the bus, walking up the hill to my apartment, angry, when something occurred to me. My bus pass was something that I have this whole time I relied on, and just like that, it was gone.

It’s amazing how quickly something that you don’t even think about can fall through. By the time I got up the hill, the sun was out and the morning fog was quickly dissipating. I would definitely be late to work.

Although this occurrence was only a bump in the road with an easy fix (I had cash at home), it gave me some insight into a truth that I had not previously realized. Just getting off the bus in Seattle, you will inevitably walk past many homeless individuals, each with their own personal circumstances. New questions came to mind: how many of these people are lacking something so basic that I have not even considered it as “something” to begin with? What is perpetuating itself in a system of poverty that is not allowing individuals to obtain their basic needs, both internal and external?

What has amazed me from this experience, and my accumulated experience as a VISTA, is that the line between everything working out and everything going wrong can be extremely thin.

All it took was my card malfunctioning and I immediately had no way of getting to work. This gave really quick insight into how quickly the system can keep you on the outside looking in, if you don’t initially have what is necessary to succeed to begin with.

I think that as a VISTA, this situation was an invitation to think more critically about not just poverty as a static condition, but how social momentum can perpetuate poverty. Thankfully, I had the personal resilience to bounce back from this obstacle because of personal support that I have access to in my life. This is support that is often overlooked, but not necessarily granted to everyone. This means being able to pay for a bus pass, but more importantly, to actually believe that I can overcome an obstacle that has stopped me where I’m standing. It also means having the resources to get help if I can’t overcome the obstacle myself. Unfortunately, not everyone has this capacity because of their own personal circumstances. That is why serving as a VISTA is more important than ever. This is something extremely important to understand if we want to seriously reduce poverty.

We have had the opportunity to discuss how poverty is something that someone can quickly be pulled into and difficult to overcome if one is not prepared. This has helped us develop empathy and an appreciation for what we have. We hope to translate this understanding into our service for the rest of our year.

HandsOn Tech is a national program focused on increasing the nonprofit sector’s effective use of technology—ultimately increasing community resources and improving outcomes for low-income communities and families. Offering free nonprofit training and pro-bono technology consulting, the HandsOn Tech project serves eight cities across the country.

Learn more about HandsOn Tech Seattle.

Meet the 2012 Purpose Prize Winners

Today’s blog is reposted from encore.org on Dec. 5.

If you’re looking for inspiration, here are five stories that reveal the power of social innovation – and the capacity of individuals in their encore careers.

I’m proud to introduce this year’s $100,000 Purpose Prize winners. Each of them identified a significant, seemingly intractable social problem. Guided by experience, drawing on creativity and anchored in pragmatism, they set out to find solutions. In their 60s, they are changing the world, and with it perceptions of what is possible for millions of others flooding into the second half of life.

Bhagwati (B.P.) Agrawal, 68, brings safe drinking water to six villages in India, home to 10,000 people. He’s doing it by collecting rain.

Susan Burton, 61, a former drug addict, was in and out of jail for 20 years. Now she helps formerly incarcerated women in Los Angeles stay out of jail.

Judy Cockerton, 61, winner of this year’s Purpose Prize for Intergenerational Innovation, sponsored by AARP, creates innovative ways people can help foster kids in Massachusetts – including serving as “honorary grandparents.”

Thomas Cox, 68, a pro bono lawyer in Maine who exposed massive fraud among mortgage lenders, teaches other lawyers how to protect homeowners from unfair lending practices.

Lorraine Decker, 64, is taking her know-how as a financial planner to help low-income families in Houston earn more and to prepare teens for the financial rigors of adulthood.

Read their stories, and learn also about the 35 new Purpose Prize fellows – finalists for The Prize – at www.encore.org/prize. Watch short videos of the winners here.

Nominations for the 2013 Purpose Prize will open in January. I hope this year’s winners and fellows will inspire you to nominate someone you know who is helping change lives.

BOULD Millennial Impact Challenge

BOULD, a member of the Civic Accelerator, a joint venture between Points of Light and Village Capital, has been named a winner of the Millennial Impact Challenge. The competition was a nationwide search for the best social-impact projects launched and developed by innovators under the age of 30.

Based in Denver, BOULD is pioneering a tuition-based service-learning program that equips the next generation of building professionals with the experiences and tools to launch green careers while simultaneously building affordable green homes for low-income families. BOULD is partnering with 1,500 Habitat for Humanity affiliates across the United States to transform their affordable-housing projects into green “learning laboratories.”

“By 2015, BOULD will have trained more than 1,600 LEED-certified professionals, prepared to tackle the environmental challenges of today and tomorrow,” said CEO Shane Gring. “We will also have assisted in the construction of 250 green-affordable homes that will save low-income families over $50,000 in reduced utility costs over a typical mortgage.”

BOULD was among the five winners chosen by the reader of The Huffington Post and received $10,000, ongoing coaching, pro bono support and training, as well as an invitation to a three-day bootcamp in New York City led by a team of experts who will impart practical tools for long-term success and scale.

The Cream Rises to the Top

Today’s post is written by Natalie Smith, Director of Corporate Relations at Points of Light. Natalie works with companies to help them build and sustain successful employee engagement programs.

Have you ever heard that expression? As a child, my mother would always say this to me when encouraging me to do my best. I would nod my head as if I understood what she meant, even when I didn’t. Later in life I would understand exactly what she meant – the best of the best eventually rise to the top and get acknowledged for their work. This sparked a competitive edge in me and fueled my desire to reach for the top.

Recognizing this, I’m always excited to read rankings for anything. Rankings for the best schools, the best places to live and even the best burger to eat. This week, I was excited to see the results of a new list which ranks America’s most community-minded companies in The Civic 50 survey – the first comprehensive ranking of S&P 500 corporations that best use their time, talent, and resources to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business. The Civic 50 was released and it revealed a new sort of list—one that I hope many companies will strive to be a part of.

As a professional that supports companies with their employee engagement and volunteerism efforts, I was thrilled to find several of the companies that I work with on our Corporate Service Council recognized for things that I already knew about them—they are leading the way when it comes to community engagement. The Corporate Service Council is the premier national platform for advancing corporate volunteerism. I want to congratulate my colleagues at the following companies: IBM, Citi, AT&T, Morgan Stanley, General Electric, Hasbro, FedEx, Bank of America, Microsoft, Target, UnitedHealth Group, HP, Altria and Starbucks. The unique quality about these companies is that they believe in their collective power to transform communities using the core competencies of their businesses. I have the terrific opportunity to witness competitors become collaborators in addressing some of the most pressing issues facing our society.

No matter whether your company ranked as a part of The Civic 50 or if your company didn’t rank at all, I challenge each of you to continue expanding your community engagement efforts and seeking opportunities to collaborate with other companies who are making similar strides. I think competition is healthy for a thriving marketplace and I can think of no better area for businesses to compete over than vying to be the best at improving our communities.

Why IBM Is America’s Most Community-Minded Company

Today’s post is republished from Citizen IBM on Nov. 19. This blog is written by Michelle Nunn, CEO of Points of Light, the largest organization in the world dedicated to volunteer service.

You may have suspected that IBM was the nation’s most community-minded company. Now you have proof. Last week, BloombergBusinessweek published the first-ever Civic 50, a groundbreaking national initiative to identify the 50 companies having the greatest community impact. IBM was ranked No. 1.

By identifying how companies are using their time, talent, and financial resources to improve their communities, The Civic 50 sets the standard for corporate civic engagement nationwide. Working with The National Conference on Citizenship, Points of Light developed The Civic 50 to inspire companies seeking to become better partners in their communities. This year’s top five companies are:

IBM
Citi
AT&T
Aetna
Capital One Financial

These companies have a commitment to community that is deeper than simple checkbook philanthropy – they align their core businesses with social issues they seek to tackle. From employee volunteering to community nonprofit partnerships, the range of activities is broad and they are making a difference in health, education, child enrichment, poverty reduction and disaster relief. Here are just a few of the great things these companies are doing:

IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge sends teams of experts around the world to solve community problems.
Southwest Airlines’ “Adopt-A-Pilot” uses aviation-themed activities related to science, writing and other core subjects to educate 349,000 students.
Abbott’s scientists and engineers have joined forces with Partners in Health to fight the war against malnutrition in Haiti.
Target’s “Meals for Minds” program brings food to needy K-12 students and their families, recognizing the connection between hunger and school performance.
Allstate has educated 6.3 million teenagers about the importance of safe driving.
FedEx delivers emergency shipments of medicine to disaster areas.
Hasbro’s “Good Grief Camps” serve children who have lost loved ones in the military.
Capital One’s MoneyWi$e program has aided 3.5 million people with multilingual educational materials about theft, fraud and money management.

What is good for the community can also be good for the business and its shareholders. Here are a few of the rewards:

A 2010 CSR Perception Survey found 40 percent of respondents willing to take a pay cut to work at a socially responsible company, and 72 percent would sacrifice spending or salary to support corporate social responsibility initiatives.
The same survey found 75 percent of consumers say corporate responsibility is important to them, and they are more likely to purchase products or services from a company after reading its responsibility agenda.
Ninety percent of the managers at Capital One said they saw an improvement in leadership skills from employees participating in pro bono programs.
IBM’s Corporate Service Corps members say their service has bolstered their job performance, skills and desire to build their careers at IBM.

The Civic 50 is an important call to action – not only to companies already demonstrating community leadership and investment, but also to companies seeking to broaden their civic engagement. Check out the top companies at The Civic 50.

Dreams, Grit, and Trust: Foundations of a Civic Startup Accelerator

Ayesha Khanna is president of the Civic Incubator at Points of Light, the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service. She and her colleagues are about to launch the nation’s first accelerator to invest solely in civic ventures that inspire, equip or mobilize people to create positive change. Here she reflects on why.

Whenever I’m looking for inspiration or a reminder of the impact a few committed people can make, I go back to the time I spent in India after college. I was part of a small group made up of women from the villages of Dayalpur (outside New Delhi), health professionals from the United Kingdom, village elders, an innovative nonprofit and Mother Teresa’s order of nuns. Together, we worked to improve access to education and build a health center.

It was grueling work. And we challenged a lot of traditional thinking. We acted on the belief that all children deserve access to education, including disabled kids; that everyone should pay and contribute to something no matter how impoverished; that a group of women could not only build a health center, but also a new institution.

Our nonprofit partner understood local politics and was able to secure seed money. The health professionals from the UK had proven methodologies for designing and delivering services. The women from the village were creative and resourceful, enticing businesses to provide cheap, quality materials and bringing their children to be tested and enrolled. The nuns, tough and hardworking, slept at the construction site when we couldn’t afford security and walked miles to secure customers and partners.

We succeeded because we trusted and relied on each other’s strengths. We succeeded through the grit and power of people.

A lot has changed in the past 20 years, but it’s still true that social entrepreneurs often work in isolation without the networks and feedback they need or the tools and access to capital that would best help them. I wondered if we at Points of Light could change that. Could we bring entrepreneurs together to share what they know and tap into a broader network of resources and inspiration, building trust and connectivity?

We started with a focus on the dreamers and doers and a quest to find amazing people and build a support system that helps them access investments and resources to grow. And because our challenges know no boundaries, we decided our solutions shouldn’t either. We determined to support both for-profit and nonprofit enterprises.

We found a true partner to launch this joint venture in Village Capital, a global social enterprise accelerator that takes its name from village financing, where individuals pool their resources and decide themselves who is most deserving of the money. Not as a gift, but as an investment that will be paid back over and over. Surely, we thought, new, emerging civic ventures in the U.S. need similar kinds of pooled resources.

Accelerators have successfully launched for-profit technology technology and mobile companies for over a decade. We chose to use that model and had the chance to experience it first hand as participants in the Flashpoint accelerator at Georgia Tech. We also found critical supporters with innovation in their DNA in the PwC Charitable Foundation, Inc. and Starbucks Foundation.

The Civic Accelerator we will launch in a few weeks brings me back full circle to India. I am once again working with modest means, against big odds, but with smart, hard-working people who want to change our part of the world. What a gift to be able to help social entrepreneurs launch their dreams to do good – and what fun to build a larger ecosystem to help make it so.

Stay tuned for more information on the 10 ventures we’ll be supporting. And if you’re a dreamer and a doer, apply for a slot in our next program. Find more information online or email us at [email protected].

Celebrate World Fishery Day and Combat Fishery Declines with New Mobile Applications

Charles is a junior at Mill Creek High School in Hoschton, Ga. Charles founded an international movement of Earth Savers Clubs through his nonprofit, Greening Forward. Charles is a member of the 2011 PARADE All-America High School Service Team, an award recognizing outstanding young service leaders in association with Parade Magazine and in partnership with generationOn, the global youth enterprise of Points of Light. Charles invites readers to connect with Greening Forward @COrgbon or via Facebook. Charles champions the environment making him a hero for planet earth.

On Nov. 21, you might be preparing for Thanksgiving – thinking about turkeys and pies. But, you should be thinking about fish. Why? Because Nov. 21 is World Fisheries Day – a day dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of the world’s waterways and fisheries.

Today, these fisheries are under more pressure than ever before because of factors including increased fishing, the loss of essential fish habitats and increased plastics pollution in the oceans.

More fish are consumed today than any other time before. From 1950 to 1990, there was a fivefold increase in the world annual fish catch. Fish demand remains high: today, 70 percent of the planet’s marine stocks are fully exploited or overexploited, which the United Nations corroborated in a recently published study indicating that more than two-thirds of the world’s fisheries have already been overfished.

According to Save My Oceans, plastic constitutes approximately 90 percent of all trash floating on the ocean’s surface, with 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile. In some parts of the ocean, there is more plastic per square inch than living sea creatures. Often, plastic pieces are mistaken for food and are eaten by marine wildlife. Although many plastics are designed as single-use disposable items intended to last for five minutes, it takes 500 to 1,000 years for them to degrade. Even if we stopped using plastics today, they will remain with us for many generations, threatening both human and ocean health. These are alarming facts, and while things might feel dire, there are actions we can take to address the problem of plastic pollution right now.

In celebration of World Fisheries Day 2012, Lauren Aycock, a 16-year-old environmentalist, and Greening Forward, a youth-driven and youth-imagined not-for-profit, are releasing two mobile applications for Android and iPhone devices that will empower users to protect oceans by choosing sustainable fish and kicking their plastics addiction.

The mobile application Saving Seafood, provides sustainability rankings for dozens of fish varieties as, which will help consumers avoid eating fish that are caught unsustainably.

Plastics Police helps users find helpful and easy alternatives to kick their plastics addiction by reducing, reusing and recycling their plastics waste. You can download both of these apps by visiting each website homepage on your mobile device and adding the webpage to your home screen. These apps are currently unavailable in any app stores.

Innovations such as Saving Seafood and Plastics Police empower consumers to make choices that will ultimately protect endangered fish around the world and save our world’s fisheries by keeping plastics out of our waterways and oceans. I invite others to join Lauren and Greening Forward in our campaign to protect fisheries and waterways by advocating for more sustainable consumer choices.