New England Peace Center (NEPC) is a benefit company operating to The Hummingbird Cafe. NEPC is the education and advocacy component of the business. Our personal values compel us to express our dissatisfaction with systemic injustices that hinder peace, and to work to transform our world into a place where freedom, justice, and peace prevail.
We are in the process of being certified as a public-benefit company by B Lab, a nonprofit that sets standards of transparency, accountability, sustainability, and performance, with an aim to create value for society, not just for traditional stakeholders.
According to state laws, a public-benefit company is a company with the purpose of creating a general public benefit – a material positive impact on both society and the environment, taken as a whole – as assessed against a third-party standard, through certain specific public benefits, such as (A) providing low-income or underserved individuals or communities with beneficial products or services; (B) promoting economic opportunity for individuals or communities beyond the creation of jobs in the normal course of business; (C) protecting or restoring the environment; (D) improving human health; (E) promoting the arts, sciences or advancement of knowledge; (F) increasing the flow of capital to other benefit limited liability companies, benefit corporations or similar entities whose purpose is to benefit society or the environment; and (G) conferring any other particular benefit on society or the environment.
We are in the process of amending our certificate of organization to include language expressing our commitment to creating a public benefit. Besides generating a profit, our intention is to create a material positive impact on both society and the environment by providing low-income and underserved individuals and communities with beneficial products and services, promoting economic opportunity for individuals and communities beyond the creation of jobs in the normal course of business, protecting and restoring the environment, improving human health, promoting the arts, sciences and advancement of knowledge, increasing the flow of capital to other entities whose purpose is to benefit society and the environment, and conferring other benefits on society and the environment.
We believe every company, corporation and enterprise ought to be of benefit to people whose lives they affect.
Peace is powerful, people are powerful, people are peaceable, peace is possible.