Home: Seattle
Profession: Businessman
Hero: "I don't know if I would call them heroes, but I have two people I think of as remarkable men. My dad, Charles Wes Thum, who was a doctor and a tremendous caregiver and an amazing guy, and T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, who achieved so many things that most people thought weren't possible."
Peter Thum is smack dab in the middle of a lot of hot water and he's thrilled.
While you may not know his name — and that's fine with him — he was instrumental in launching Ethos Water. If you're a Starbucks regular, you know his product.
Seven years ago, Thum traveled to Cape Town, South Africa, to conduct a study for his then boss with McKinsey & Company. He said he was struck and forever changed by what he saw — poor people, especially children, without clean water and sewage running down the streets.
His work with McKinsey & Company continued when he returned to Britain, but this time his project involved a water-bottling company. That experience would help him lead a business with a social conscience years later.
Thum decided to go into business for himself, so he asked fellow business school classmate Jonathan Greenblatt to join him. Together, they launched Ethos Water. The name was chosen for a reason. Ethos comes from a Greek word meaning "code of values." It is the root word for ethics.
In August 2003, Thum and Greenblatt convinced Howard Schultz, founder and chairman of Starbucks, of the worthiness of their venture. Starbucks bought Ethos Water in 2005, pledging $10 million in supporting the company's mission during the next five years. For every bottle sold, a nickel is donated, which may not sound like much, but in Third World countries that nickel can pay for a month's worth of water.
"Succeeding in business is never easy. I worked for 2-1⁄2 years without earning a penny and put in a lot of my own money, not including my time and effort," said Thum, who today is a vice president of Starbucks.
"Starting a business is daunting and there are tall hurdles to jump over. A social entrepreneur is a category of people. I don't call myself one. I'm just a guy with an idea who pursued it. Ethos Water is not about me. It does provide a platform that enables a collaboration of efforts to create a positive social change."
Do people buy Ethos Water because of the message or in spite of the message?
"I think the No. 1 reason why people buy it is because they're thirsty, but so are the people they are helping," he said.
Those who share Thum's belief that everyone should have access to clean water will have plenty of opportunity to help make a difference this year. Ethos Water is involved with the Pepsi distribution system, because of an agreement with Starbucks, meaning the number of outlets where you can buy a bottle has expanded greatly. For supporters of this hot water and the cause behind it, that's a really cool deal.
Lesley Swick
Home: Pomona
Profession: Graduate degree student in architecture at Cal Poly Pomona
Hero: "I should say someone like Ghandi or Martin Luther King, but it's more like my best friend who started a nonprofit to help women who are being abused.
It's more the people who are working quietly in the trenches making change and all those who haven't lost faith." Lesley Swick isn't a social entrepreneur today, but she will be tomorrow.
When she finishes her degree, the 27-year-old hopes to combine her love of building while protecting the planet. She already does the things many others do — rides her bike when possible, supports local farmers markets, brings cloth bags when grocery shopping. "It has to go beyond just recycling, though," she said.
With her educational background, Swick plans to do even more to earn a living, and to be socially aware of her community in the process.
She graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in community studies, with an emphasis on environmental sustainability. Her husband of three months, Jonah Swick, graduated from the same school with a degree in sociology.
But both felt lost. They started a successful home repair business, but didn't feel fulfilled.
"I mean, how many redwood shelves can we build for people to put their trophies on? We knew we needed to do more," she said.
With her husband, the two are committed earth stewards who talk about environmental sustainability to anyone who will listen. Swick said she discovered her social conscience in high school and has since honed it, opting to incorporate it into her professional life as well.
"My first act as an environmentalist was in high school, like with most people.
A group of us teamed up with the Surfrider Foundation and formed the Bluewater Task Force in Encinitas where once a week we would put waders on and take water samples from the ocean. We tested the levels and if there were problems we notified the county," Swick said. "It was fun, but also very serious and I felt it was valid work." Her late mother established a nonprofit organization promoting affordable housing in the Bay area. Swick watched her work and admired her accomplishments.
"Today, I have more faith in people than ever before. I'm seeing real value in businesses and individuals committing to doing better and to make differences in their communities," she said.
"Change is scary, but I think people are willing to help." Part of that help, as Americans, is the need to change how we consume natural resources. She believes strongly that sustainable architecture is one way that people can lessen their environmental footprints.
Swick was a team member on the Cal Poly P3 Project (People, Prosperity and the Planet), which won two top prizes from the Environmental Protection Agency. The team designed and tested Green Kit, a home system aimed at reducing energy use. It involves a vegetation roof and a computerized smart window that reacts to weather patterns.
She predicts change, big change, in the next five, possibly 10 years. Yet, in many cases, everything old is new again.
"Green architecture isn't new. It involves simple elements such as building orientation, the use of roof overhangs and even front porches. Everything that's being called green now is really just common sense and something that you can find in the 1921 house that I live in," she said.
Jack H. Brown
Home: San Bernardino
Profession: Chairman, president and CEO Stater Bros.
Hero: "I spent a recent weekend at a charity golf tournament and was proud to meet six men who have received the Congressional Medal of Honor. They were all mild, grateful and honorable men, who wear their medals not for themselves, but for those who didn't come home. They're my heroes. I can't describe how honored I was to be in their presence." (Brown is a naval veteran from 1956-62 when he served with the Pacific Fleet.) Melding the worlds of business and nonprofits isn't new for Jack H. Brown. It's a concept that's close to his heart.
As chairman and chief executive officer of Stater Bros. Markets, his belief in investing in the community takes the traditional approach and it reaps dividends for everyone involved.
It's a practice that dates to the early days of the company, which started in Yucaipa in 1936. Last year, Stater Bros.
contributed more than $15 million to local nonprofits.
And that's exactly the way Brown wants it — neighbors helping neighbors.
Brown was born and raised in San Bernardino. His mother almost died from tuberculosis shortly after he was born, and it took nearly two years for her to recover. During that time, Brown was raised by his father, a San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department captain. After his mother regained her health, the family reunited only to have Brown's father die.
Mother and 8-year-old son were left alone.
Five years later, Brown got his first job bagging groceries at Berk's Market Spot, on the corner of Seventh and E streets in San Bernardino.
"I learned all about the work ethic by watching my mother try to keep us together," Brown said. "She struggled, but we made it. I'm happy that our corporate headquarters today is San Bernardino and that I have been blessed to be able to help the community that took care of my mother and me." Today, Brown and his family support too many nonprofits to list, including ones that help neglected and abused children, veterans and the hungry.
The company brought $56,000 worth of food, toys and services to local food banks, military bases and charities last year as part of its annual holiday giving campaign. What's more, the company donated $5,000 toward the purchase of a police dog for the San Bernardino Police Department and another $2,500 for its training.
With the help of customers and employees, Stater Bros. has continued its charitable ways this year, presenting a $133,495 check to the City of Hope to benefit its pediatric cancer programs. Stater Bros. partnered with the American Heart Association in February by conducting the "Have a Heart, Save a Heart" campaign, marking its seventh year of helping neighbors. That effort brought in $510,000 to support research and programs concerning heart disease and stroke.
"I am extremely proud of the dedication and hard work of the Stater Bros. family of employees and the generosity of our valued customers. Stater Bros. is your ‘hometown supermarket.' We don't just do business in a community ...
we are part of the community," Brown said. "Community service is the price we pay for the space we occupy." With 165 stores and annual sales of $4 billion, Stater Bros.
has grown considerably under Brown's leadership. But he gives credit for the company's success to its employees, saying that the Stater family is more than happy to help. The company and its charitable foundation receive about 4,000 financial donation requests a year.
"You do the right thing for the right reasons," Brown said.
"That applies in business and in life."
