Meaningful Impact cover art

Meaningful Impact

Meaningful Impact

Written by: Michael Organ
Listen for free

About this listen

 The Meaningful Impact podcast features inspiring stories about purpose-driven leaders who overcome enormous challenges to achieve a triple win: a win for a philanthropic cause, a win for their companies, and a win for their project teams. In the narrative style of 'This American Life' and '99% Invisible', Meaningful Impact episodes reveal surprising, behind-the-scenes stories about the development of award-winning advertising, cause marketing campaigns, and corporate responsibility initiatives. Episode transcripts and related materials can be found at https://meaningfulimpact.com/episodes/© 2024 Meaningful Impact Economics Management Management & Leadership Marketing Marketing & Sales Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Sustainability's Next Frontier: Upcycling Poop

    Sustainability's Next Frontier: Upcycling Poop
    Sep 12 2025
    Sedron Technologies is creating waste-treatment plants which convert toilet sewage and cow manure into carbon-negative electricity, safe fertilizers, and sanitized water for irrigation. Benefits include: sustainable electricity produced at lower cost than convention methods, improved agriculture crop yields, healthier farm workers, safer rural communities, lower-cost organic food, and cleaner waterways for fishing and tourism. Sedron is neither a charity nor dependent on government grants. Instead, profit-oriented investors are funding the development of Sedron's Varcor technology, which processes liquid waste using "10 times less energy" than less-sustainable alternatives. That innovation yields tremendous cost savings. Stanley Janicki, Sedron's Chief Commercial Officer, describes their approach to sustainability as "capitalist environmentalism."
    Show More Show Less
    28 mins
  • How CSR Reduces Risk

    How CSR Reduces Risk
    Aug 27 2025
    Professor Wayne Visser reveals how environmental sustainability and social responsibility can reduce a company’s risk of financial loss. To evaluate which reputation risks have the most potential to damage a company, this episode describes how to conduct a Stakeholder Materiality Assessment as input for a Risk Register. Professor Visser then explains how to align a company's corporate responsibility initiatives with the highest-impact issues, to prepare and inoculate against reputation damage, in the event that a potential trigger for a PR crisis occurs.
    Show More Show Less
    25 mins
  • Making the Business Case for CSR

    Making the Business Case for CSR
    Jul 31 2025
    This special Master Class edition of Meaningful Impact features CSR pro Tiffany Payne, who shares candidly how to make the business case for CSR, using Comcast's Project UP as the real-world example. Tiffany reveals how to position social impact initiatives as ‘mission-aligned investments with a long-term strategic return’, which can yield: expansion into previously under-served markets, first-mover advantage, and products with broader appeal that lead to mainstream competitive advantage. Tiffany also offers insights on how to highlight: the skills and leadership training yielded by corporate-sponsored volunteerism, the recruiting and retention benefits of a purpose-driven corporate culture, and the dividend of strategic philanthropy. Tiffany also addresses the difference between community relations vs. community investment. She explains how community investment fosters goodwill among policymakers and how the CSR halo effect yields benefit-of-the-doubt if a PR crisis were to occur.
    Show More Show Less
    39 mins
No reviews yet