No More Crown…So What’s Next?

----Oil palm trees are different than regular palm trees----

As you may have read in my latest blog post (http://mattelsberry.com/its-time-to-part-ways-with-crown/), I am no longer with Crown Financial Ministries. And while my time there has been most memorable, it’s time to move on to what’s next.

I have been talking with a good friend of mine who owns a oil palm plantation in Indonesia. He has been incredibly successful in business, and is getting ready to take his private company public next month.

This may sound blase at best, but wait until you hear…the rest of the story.

Many oil palm plantations are destructive to the environment as well as to the employees they use to make a profit.

Not this one.

My friend’s company operates under a “triple bottom line”.

People. Planet. Profit.

People

When the company employs people they go well beyond the established minimums most companies are required to pay people. In fact, they build villages, complete with houses, education, health care, sanitation, clean water and a ton of other benefits for their employees and their families. Every dollar invested in the company helps more people escape the bonds of poverty through dignified work.

Planet

Instead of buying forested area and cutting down trees, this company buys existing plantations and seeks to redeem them, making sure to steward the environment that they have been entrusted. They have even joined the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, an organization that seeks to hold it’s entities accountable for the way they operate.

Profit

The goal is to accomplish all the above while making money. And the more profitable the company becomes, the more people will be able to pull themselves out of poverty while more of the environment is cared for. Also, other companies, seeing what happens, might be compelled to do more of the same.

It is with this company that I am considering employment.

I will be traveling there tomorrow for two weeks to formalize the offer and decide on employment.

More info to come.

Til then, your prayers are greatly appreciated.