“Designing sustainable solutions enables the building of sustainable businesses that have a positive social and environmental impact.
This isn’t optional, this is essential.
This is how we build better futures for all of us.
This is our collective responsibility as businesses.
As social enterprises.”
Natasha Allden, CEO
MULTIPLY has been providing business-to-business (B2B) technology transfer services to engineers, technologists, governments, and researchers for the past 7 years. The constant through the years was the drive to build sustainable businesses that make a positive impact.
Today we are proud to announce MULTIPLY’s commitment as a social enterprise. This is our promise to our clients, to ourselves and to our communities to put purpose first. Ensuring we are positively impacting societies and the environment in all that we do.
By transitioning to a social enterprise, MULTIPLY is walking the talk. As a B2B technology transfer service company we know that pro-active B2B technology transfer can be transformative to businesses and societies around the world. This is not just a belief; it is a fact, which we can already see in action.
Learnings From NASA
The NASA Spin-off programme has been running since 1976. Since then, over 2,000 spin-offs from NASA programmes have been developed for use here on earth. By being pro-active in transferring their technologies into new applications, NASA’s impact is far-reaching; from using symbiotic bacteria to eliminate decades old contamination using trees, to cochlear implants and continued research into the use of light for medical purposes. These are just three examples – so the question we are asking here at MULTIPLY is what would happen if businesses and governments pro-actively transferred their technology into new applications? – What benefits could we be making (and are currently missing out on) to society, to the environment and to the economy?
Technology Transfer to Grow Sustainable Businesses
We know companies need the skills, access, and resources (see our 2020 study) to confidently invest in pro-active B2B technology transfer. This is what MULTIPLY provides through the design and delivery of programmes and training of teams in B2B technology transfer. We are bringing those skills in-house to our clients, we are opening our network of experts across different countries and industries. We are helping our clients generate revenue and de-risk their businesses by diversifying their product and customer portfolio. And now, as a social enterprise, we are going even further.
- Keeping our costs low, by re-investing into the business and measuring our success on more than just profit.
- Directly supporting our clients Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) frameworks, incorporating and measuring societal and environmental impacts of our projects
MULTIPLY’s Social Goals
Today we are focused on the implementation and practice of our social goals. For us, this starts with making positive choices. In all our decisions, from internal hires to which client projects we take on, we ask three guiding questions, which all need an answer of yes for us to proceed:
- Does this have a positive social impact?
- Does this have a positive environmental impact?
- Does this enable sustainable growth?
MULTIPLY’s Social Goals underpin our activity as a social enterprise and how we assess our impact:
Re-Invest to Reach: A minimum of 51% of profits are re-invested back into the business to increase reach and impact. Our mission to have a global network of MULTIPLIERS that compound the work MULTIPLY is doing by reaching more business communities creating more of an impact.
Grassroots Growth: As with MULTIPLY we’ve seen and know that one person can make a huge difference, our grassroots communities are key to enabling meaningful change in our day to day. That is why a minimum of 10% of profits are gifted to grassroots enterprises.
Clients Social and Environmental Impact: As a social enterprise we only work on projects that have a positive societal or/and environmental impact. This goes beyond a statement to being a measured KPI with our clients, showing the impact our projects make.
We are here to make a difference to the way we do business, to make a difference with what we do with our technology, to make a difference with what we build for society and the environment. To do this we are being the difference, to join us on this journey and get the latest news and research subscribe below.
Author: Natasha Allden, CEO, MULTIPLY Global Ltd