ZUG, Switzerland–Laudes Foundation launches today with the aim to address the dual crises of climate breakdown and inequality that endanger nature and jeopardize the safety and dignity of countless communities around the world.
The same human ingenuity that has brought unparalleled prosperity to many is being called on now to redefine what value is, beyond shareholder interests alone. Laudes Foundation will support brave action to inspire and challenge industry to harness its power for good.
“Today there is an enormous challenge we must face. Through Laudes Foundation we will work with businesses, shareholders and investors to create a new definition of value; with thought leaders and academics to make that definition credible; with policy-makers to make it effective; with civil society to make it plausible; with media and movement-builders to make it desirable; and with citizens to make it beneficial,” says Martijn Brenninkmeijer, Chairman of the Brenninkmeijer family enterprise.
New beginning, longstanding history
As a new part of the Brenninkmeijer family enterprise, Laudes Foundation builds on six generations of entrepreneurship and philanthropy, next to the COFRA businesses and the family’s other private philanthropic activities, including Porticus, Good Energies Foundation and Argidius Foundation.
Laudes Foundation will build on the lessons learned from other endeavours, past and present. In particular, Laudes Foundation will continue and advance the work of C&A Foundation.
“Over the past five years at C&A Foundation, we have learned so much about what it takes to change an industry. We built networks and strengthened partnerships with the aim of creating lasting and positive change in the global fashion system. And, together with our flagship initiative Fashion for Good, we demonstrated that business and philanthropy can work successfully together to change the industry status quo,” says Leslie Johnston, CEO of Laudes Foundation.
“We also learned that in order to effect change in one industry, we need to address those deeper, systemic issues of the global economic system.”
What Laudes Foundation does
Laudes Foundation is ready to work with industry and those who influence it. It combines philanthropic purpose with the scale and reach of business, drawing upon the comparative advantages of both. In this way, Laudes Foundation will work persistently and collaboratively to:
Influence capital
The global financial system has the power to redirect the flow of capital so that investment encourages good business practices. Laudes Foundation will work with financial actors to inspire change and align incentives, while fostering new economic thinking and new business models.
Transform industries
Laudes Foundation will work with industries to tackle the most pressing and systemic issues, starting with those that, through the family heritage and entrepreneurship, it knows well:
Fashion: a fast-moving consumer industry; building on the sector-changing work of C&A Foundation and moving it forward; and The built environment: an asset-based industry with the potential to transform the spaces in which we live and work.
How Laudes Foundation does it
Laudes Foundation is joining the urgent movement to accelerate a transition to a just and regenerative economy. It will work to change the economic system that determines value, together with all the actors who can frame it and advance it.
Like C&A Foundation before it, Laudes Foundation will always learn from and collaborate with peers and partners, and share the unique knowledge that it will develop with them.
“We are proud to build on the work of C&A Foundation and be part of the growing movement to reshape global markets so that they value all people and respect nature,” adds Johnston.
Laudes Foundation is an independent foundation here to support brave initiatives that will inspire and challenge industry to harness its power for good. Laudes Foundation works both to influence capital so that investment encourages good business practices, and through industry to tackle its deep and systemic challenges.
Laudes Foundation is a part of the Brenninkmeijer family enterprise, next to the COFRA businesses and the family’s other private philanthropic activities, including Porticus, Good Energies Foundation and Argidius Foundation.
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