Building H #61: Social Impact by Design

We’ve long argued that to improve the public’s health, we need a product environment (i.e. the products and services that shape our everyday behaviors) that is healthy by design. And that achieving this outcome will take leadership: collective intention and collective will, in both the private and public sectors. Two stories in this edition speak to the challenges and possibilities of engaging that leadership and marshaling the resources to achieve positive social impact. Fast Company’s Adele Peters uses Tesla’s de-listing from the S&P 500 ESG Index as a starting point for an exploration of the difficulties ESG or social impact investing has had aligning with actual social impact. In effect, she shows that for ESG to gain traction in the investing community, it has been tied to financial risk associated with social impact rather than the social impact itself. In other words, does the popular perception of a company’s negative social impact create risk to the stock price (versus risk to the environment, to the public’s health, etc.). For social impact investing to have more positive social impact, we’ll need more measures that tie more directly to the impacts that companies have.

In his opinion essay, "We Need a Liberalism That Builds," Ezra Klein argues that we shouldn’t blame the market for failing to deliver the infrastructure, the resources, or the environmental impact that our nation needs, because markets don’t do that on their own – an actual industrial policy that dares opinions on what’s needed is required. Again, it’s a call for intentionality – a recognition of what it will take to achieve a healthy planet, a healthy population and a functioning, sustainable society – and then the will to pursue it with vigor.

In our little corner of this challenge, we were excited to host our first public, in-person Building H event earlier this week in San Francisco. We challenged a group of designers and tech professionals to brainstorm with us (Thomas and Steve) on a set of design principles and associated OKRs (objectives and key results) that businesses can use to create health-positive products and services. There’s more to come on this work and we’re looking to host similar events in other parts of the country over the next few months (COVID-willing, of course).

- Steve & Thomas

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