(MintPress) – Google stepped up its activism on gay rights and launched its new “Legalize Love” campaign, with the stated intention of inspiring countries across the globe to promote safer working conditions for lesbian, gay and bisexual people around the world.
The “Legalize Love” campaign officially kicked off in Poland and Singapore on Saturday, July 7. Google has plans to expand the initiative to every country where it has an office and will focus on places where anti-gay laws exist. Despite rumors that Google was pushing to legalize same-sex marriage, the company has said that the aim of the campaign is not marriage, but human rights.
Many investors and companies are increasingly getting on board with a movement known as impact investing, where individual investors and corporations invest money into social causes, hoping to make money while making a difference, however, some wonder if the two goals are mutually exclusive.
Google gets on board with LGBT
A spokesman for the company said the “Legalize Love” initiative aims “to promote safer conditions for gay and lesbian people inside and outside the office in countries with anti-gay laws on the books,” in a statement. As part of the effort, Google will focus on developing alliances with local companies and on supporting grassroots organizing efforts. Citigroup and Ernst & Young have already signed on as partners.
“Though our business and employees are located in offices around the world, our policies on non-discrimination are universal throughout Google. We are proud to be recognised as a leader in LGBT inclusion efforts, but there is still a long way to go to achieve full equality. Legalise Love is our call to decriminalise homosexuality and eliminate homophobia around the world,” the company said on its website.
This isn’t the first time Google has been outspoken on behalf of same-sex marriage issues, as the California-based company also came out in 2008 against California’s “Proposition 8” ban on same-sex marriage.
“We see this fundamentally as an issue of equality,” Google cofounder Sergey Brin wrote on the company’s blog, denouncing the “chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees.” The ban narrowly passed, but it was later ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court.
The new measure was announced last week in the U.K., where more than 350 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) global executives, leaders and allies gathered in London to plan strategies to advance global workplace equality at the Out & Equal 2012 Global LGBT Workplace Summit.
The conference brought together global executives and leaders from more than 26 countries, representing more than 80 different corporations, organizations and government agencies, a press release from the Out & Equal stated, the world’s largest nonprofit organization specifically dedicated to creating safe and equitable workplaces for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Held in London’s posh Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel, the event featured several general sessions, two dozen workshops and a Gala dinner.
Google’s Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe outlined the initiative, stating, “We want our employees who are gay or lesbian or transgender to have the same experience outside the office as they do in the office. It is obviously a very ambitious piece of work.”
Commenting on the company’s decision to launch the initial phase in a country like Singapore, Palmer-Edgecumbe explained, “Singapore wants to be a global financial center and world leader and we can push them on the fact that being a global center and a world leader means you have to treat all people the same, irrespective of their sexual orientation.”
Impact investment movement gains a following
“[Workplace equality] is a business imperative. The more engaged your people are, and the stronger your brand, the better you’ll do in the market,” Liz Bingham, Managing Partner for People, Ernst & Young, said in a speech she delivered at the event in London.
Other speakers included London-based investment firm LGBT Capital founder, Paul Thompson who described the size and scope of the growing global LGBT market and buying power, during a luncheon sponsored by Deutsche Bank.
“Corporations are seen as the citadel, the establishment. There are lots of linkages that need to be established [between activists and corporations],” said Robert Annibale, Director of Microfinance for international financial investment banking conglomerate Citigroup.
The concept of corporations making business investments into social causes is gaining traction.
In a panel discussion held in New York City in March, sponsored by JPMorgan Chase, Lee Davis, founder Galeforce Capital and founder/CEO of the Nonprofit Enterprise and Self-sustainability Team (NESsT), spoke about the concept of impact investing. He explained that its similar to socially responsible investing, “It’s about putting capital proactively into creating social benefit as well as financial benefit.”
Impact investing is a movement catching on amongst those with deep pockets, as JPMorgan predicted that by 2020 there could be between $400 billion and $1 trillion invested this way, generating cumulative profits over ten years of between $183 billion and $667 billion, according to an article in The Economist.
“It is about having the right intentions, to improve the world as well as make money, and about taking seriously the process, especially measuring social performance,” Jed Emerson, co-author of a 2011 book on impact investing titled Impact Investing: Transforming How We Make Money While Making a Difference, was quoted in the Economist as saying.
“Impact investing has gained its foothold following an historic period of upheaval in the capital markets. In fact, the financial crisis of 2008 precipitated the largest impact investments of all time. Just like pioneering impact investors, governments around the world recognized the need and opportunity to go beyond donations in their scramble to protect jobs and social stability by shoring up private companies,” Emerson and co-author Anthony Bugg-Levine write in the book.
There are many examples of the types of projects investors seeking to be involved with this type of investing are becoming involved with. For example, one of the most well-known companies aimed at doing this is LeapFrog Investments, a global impact investing funds company, launched by former President Bill Clinton in 2008. The $135 million profit-with-purpose fund invests in financial services firms that focus primarily on low-income consumers in Africa and Asia. LeapFrog invests in companies that target under-served, low-income individuals who comprise of a vast market of people rising out of conditions of poverty. LeapFrog has drawn some big backers including philanthropists, such as George Soros, a hedge-fund manager, and Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay, in addition to banks, reinsurers and pension funds.
Davis clarified that “we’re not saying that this is a philanthropic activity, it very much has an element of philanthropy by default, because it very much is driven by creating social benefit, but it’s not about compromising financial return, in exchange for social return, but the exciting part about this whole movement is that it’s really about combining both. And within the impact investing space there’s a whole array of investors and players from philanthropic foundations and family foundations to very sophisticated financial institutions.”
Controversy over impact investing
However, as the movement draws more investors in, critics question if it is able to make real and lasting change in all situations, or if the goals of profit are inconsistent with making a difference, especially when it comes to programs which seek to alleviate poverty.
Kevin Starr, director of the Mulago Foundation and the Rainer Arnhold Fellows Program, wrote in the Stanford Social Innovation Review earlier this year that “[b]oth philanthropy and impact investing are valid ways of doing good, but applied in the wrong way, either can do harm.”
Starr says that few solutions that meet the fundamental needs of the poor will get you your money back. “Scalable rural livelihoods, basic health care, basic education solutions, clean water—with very few exceptions, you don’t make money off this stuff, sorry.”
However, some are hopeful that the model will be successful in ameliorating conditions for LGBT communities on an international scale.
Selisse Berry, Executive Founding Director of Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, said as part of concluding remarks for the recent summit in London, “It is amazing to see the work being done around the world to bring greater equality in the workplace to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”
IBM was the presenting sponsor for the 2012 Out & Equal Global LGBT Workplace Summit and was joined by fellow sponsors Accenture, British Airways, Citi, Eli Lilly and Company, The Walt Disney Company, Deutsche Bank, Ernst & Young, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and a host of other European organizations.