The Future We Choose

Elliot Hoffman, Co-Founder, CEO, REV+ALL As Co-Founder and CEO of REV+ALL and as someone who has been devoted to using business as a force for positive change for many years, I am going to take a moment to share the origin story of our company, REV+ALL, and the work we are passionate about.

Here at REV+ALL, we are offering a journey to help educate and guide small to mid-size businesses, organizations and communities along the road to the "new future" (not the "old future" of business as usual). Together, we are helping to write the next chapter of the human story as the future we choose.

REV+ALL Is a Collaboration Between REV and the Alliance for Community Development

REV+ALL is a collaboration between REV and the Alliance for Community Development (ACD). REV was launched in 2013 and enrolled over 400 organizations in our Sustainability Circles, helping businesses and communities formulate and implement custom Sustainability Action Plans. These Sustainability Action Plans resulted in significant energy and water savings, waste and greenhouse gas reductions, employee and stakeholder engagement, cost reductions and increased profits.

In addition, the impacts of these Sustainability Action Plans went deeper than the just practical results or line items on a spreadsheet. They generated desirable cultural change, and this is especially true for younger generations who are seeking more purpose and meaning in their work in balance with their life.

ACD is an Oakland/East Bay-centered not-for-profit organization with a 20-year history of assisting smaller organizations led by women and people of color. ACD has become a force contributing to the emergence of a community economy in the East Bay.

REV and ACD came together to create REV+ALL and focus on what we like to call “SMOs” – small to mid-size organizations (businesses, NGOs, schools, Houses of Worship, public agencies, and communities), assisting and guiding them on the journey to the new future by embracing and embedding sustainability and climate action into every aspect of their organizations and cultures.

In Relation to Sustainability, REV+ALL Answers Two Questions: What Can I Do? Whom Can I Turn To?

REV+ALL exists to answer two simple, yet crucial, questions regarding sustainability: What can I do? And who can I turn to? Most people and organizations understand the enormous challenges and opportunities confronting us and they want to do something. However, they just do not know what to do or to whom to turn. Sure, it is easy to change light bulbs and recycle some waste but preparing for the new future is much more challenging and rewarding.

One of the things that gives me great hope and optimism about the future is the talented team that we have already brought together at REV+ALL. We are committed to learning from and collaborating with the huge movement of people, businesses and organizations looking to create a better future for all of us.

It is all about the choices and decisions we make individually and collectively. More than many people realize, it is our behaviors that matter the most in meeting the challenges of responding to the climate crisis and building a sustainable and regenerative economy.

On a recent walk in San Francisco’s Arboretum, in Golden Gate Park, with a close friend, I asked him, “how’s your grandson, Jacob doing? (Jacob is 8-years-old). Fine, the friend said. There was a brief pause and then he blew my mind. “However, Jacob is feeling distressed about the climate crisis.” “At 8 years old”? “You’d be amazed how many 8 and 9 year-olds are already feeling climate distress”.

Too often, how we run our businesses, live our lives, and act in our communities is tremendously out of synch with improving the well-being of life and the natural world. Climate change is wreaking havoc with billions of people and all life, destroying Earth’s biodiversity, the oceans, forests, land and maybe most importantly the future! The climate emergency is already costing us hundreds of billions of dollars each year in destruction and will reach trillions of dollars by 2050 – all a result of the unsustainable ways of running our businesses, organizations and lives.

Accelerating Our Journey Toward Sustainability Together

Offering guidance in navigating these turbulent times is our calling and passion at REV+ALL. Accelerating our common journey towards the sustainable, climate resilient and flourishing future provides us with our direction. It is what our REV+ALL culture, business model and team are all about.

The pandemic, the climate emergency, the near-daily disasters around the world are sounding the alarms to rethink our actions and activities – from the big choices in our lives such as energy or transportation or financial services to the small daily things such as food and water – not just at home but in the places we work and the places we choose to purchase from. They are all essential to creating the future we want.

Cumulatively, the choices we make each day have an enormous impact on our world. Opening our minds, growing our awareness and changing our behavior in our families and workplaces, our houses of worship and our communities will help get us to a safe harbor. We must act now and invest in our common future.

We created the 8-week REV+ALL Sustainability Transformation Course to assist SMOs to engage with and accelerate this journey. It’s a great beginning, a small investment of time and money that will lead to huge gains.

However, just doing an 8-week course isn’t going to change the world. This is why we are here for the long-haul. Our goal is to engage SMOs on this journey and keep engaging with them as members of our REV+ALL community resulting in on-going meaningful relationships that embed this new thinking and action deeply into the culture of our organizations, families and communities.

We Can Do This

The tangible, practical, moral and spiritual benefits of the sustainability transformation will make us feel proud. The economic, social and environmental benefits will inspire us. The only real question today is, are we preparing for the past or are we ready to create the future we choose and can all be proud of?

We can do this. Our children and grandchildren are watching. Join us.