Building NetPositive Enterprises

How can individuals, organizations, and private businesses harness the power of doing more good than harm?

Gregory Norris, Co-Director of the Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE), speaks with the Harvard Office for Sustainability about "handprints." Similar to a footprint, which measures a corporation's negative impact, a handprint measures a corporation's positive contributions to our health and our planet.

We compare a company's handprint to its footprint, and when its handprint is larger than its footprint, the company becomes a NetPositive Enterprise.

Corporations can create handprints by:

  • Shrinking the footprint within their own operations and in their supply chains
  • Helping others reduce their footprint
  • Taking restorative action—for example, by planting a tree, cleaning a beach, or building a playground.

Learn more about the value of handprints to a corporation, and about how to become a NetPositive enterprise, by watching the video and visiting the SHINE website.

Aaron Bernstein, MD, MPH

Aaron Bernstein is the Interim Director of The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, a pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital, and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics.

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