News

Student business tackles neighborhood tasks

Photo by Kara Lofton

The average junior in college is better known for ridiculous behavior or pulling all-nighters to finish last-minute papers, not running a successful business that employs fellow students. Everett Brubaker, though, is into his third summer of operating “BruCrew,” a workforce of young men (and currently one woman) that takes on tasks as diverse as assembling furniture, babysitting, making airport runs and basic landscaping.

The business emerged out of a combination of two elements. After high school, Brubaker took a gap year and went on a cross-country road trip with a friend. The trip concluded a few months before the start of classes at Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Va., in the fall of 2012. Brubaker didn’t think he had enough time for a full-time job so he advertised himself as an “oddjob” man. To his surprise, requests poured in and he had to enlist a friend to help handle the workload.

That fall, Brubaker took an EMU business class called “Principles of Management,” which required developing a business model. It helped him think more formally about the business opportunity he’d discovered that summer. Brubaker

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titled the business BruCrew, and officially launched under that name the next summer.

“There has been a bit of a learning curve,” he says as he explains that he had to figure out how to get a business license, pay taxes, keep books and manage any (small) conflicts between workers and clients. Problems have been few “because the people I bring in recognize that the job is a blessing and are pretty driven.”

Full-time BruCrew work is 20 hours a week, starting at $11 per hour and rising to $12 after the first 60 hours. “I want to pay them well enough to be competitive with a fulltime, minimum-wage job so that they can volunteer, read, spend time with friends and enjoy their summers as well as working,” says Brubaker. He believes his model allows students to make enough to be able to invest in activities that are inherently valuable.

Most BruCrew members are transient, working stints to

tal sustainability major with minors in business and sociology, tries to conduct his business as simply and sustainably as possible. “We have a pretty low overhead because we use the clients’ tools,” he explains. “This allows us to bike or walk to client homes and means we don’t have to maintain and fuel a fleet of vehicles or expensive equipment.” Brubaker, who will enter his senior year at EMU this fall, doesn’t know what will happen Everett Brubaker has entered his third summer of running “BruCrew,” to the business after he dispatching fellow students to work at neighborhood odd-jobs. graduates. “I see potential for large growth,” supplement things like camp he says, “but I’m not exactly counseling jobs or to fit be- sure where I want to take it.” tween family vacations. Others He hopes the vision will gain are on call for big moving or clarity this summer as he finds furniture installation jobs. space to dream and look to Brubaker, an environmen- the future. — Kara Lofton

Staffers help credit union win magazine’s green award

Mennonite Savings and Credit The Green 30 is based on Union has been selected for how employees perceive their a green award by Maclean’s, companies’ environmental Canada’s leading news maga- efforts as indicated in the Best zine. Small and Medium Employer The Ontario firm was surveys which MSCU parchosen for Maclean’s “Green ticipates in each year. A news 30” based on how employees release from the credit union perceive their company’s envi- adds, “MSCU staff members ronmental efforts. have made their voice heard The magazine (May 26 on our efforts to practice reissue) highlighted two MSCU sponsible stewardship and care initiatives: solar panels on the for creation.” Waterloo branch rooftop which Maclean’s notes that emhave generated the equiva- ployee involvement is important lent CO2 offset of planting to environmental efforts. “Hav345 trees, and “creation care ing them driven by employees loans” to finance customers’ and incorporated into the corsolar and geothermal heating porate culture — rather than and energy-upgrade projects. continued on page 23

MEDA gets $20 million to expand impact investing

MEDA and its related company, Sarona Asset Management (SAM), have been chosen to be at the forefront of a $20 million Canadian government strategy to expand impact investing to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The announcement of this initiative, called Impact Investing in Frontier Markets (INFRONT), was made in Mexico City by cabinet minister Christian Paradis, who is in charge of Canada’s development agency — Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD).

Of the total, $15 million flows to the Sarona Frontier Markets Fund 2, LP to serve as a first loss “inducement” to leverage additional capital for frontier markets from private investors. SAM is investing this in emerging and frontier markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Green award

continued from page 22

dictated from on high in the boardroom and bolted on as an afterthought — makes green initiatives far more effective at achieving meaningful change,” it says. It quotes a Dalhousie University sustainability expert as saying, “If employees at relatively lower levels of the hierarchy see that it’s not just lip service, but real commitment on the part of the organization, there’s more of a sense they’re actually engaged in something meaningful as a collective.”

The magazine says companies benefit from green initiatives in two ways: it saves money and helps attract and retain talent. ◆

The $4.75 million MEDA portion of the public-private partnership boosts SMEs that play a pivotal role in driving economic growth in emerging economies and face challenges in accessing investment capital, adopting and implementing enlightened business practices, and measuring social impact.

This part of the project has three parts: 1. A large share will finance social innovation grants. SMEs that come up with creative ideas to improve social outcomes will receive matching grants to strengthen their performance. Examples include innovative approaches to energy efficiency, waste management, employee parental leave policies, and environmentally friendly products for farmers. 2. INFRONT is working with a subcontractor, the MaRS Center for Impact Investment, to set up a mentoring program to match senior financial executives with 20 less experienced fund managers in developing countries. 3. The project will also improve impact measurement and reporting, using case studies and other tools.

In addition, $200,000 will be used by DFATD for project monitoring and evaluation.

“In launching INFRONT, we are building on MEDA’s long experience in impact investing, which started with our investment in the Sarona Dairy in Paraguay in 1953,” says Allan Sauder, MEDA president. “Through this initiative, more than five million women and men in emerging and frontier markets will have access to products and services that will be delivered more effectively and by more socially responsive firms.”

Sauder describes this support of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as pioneering work for those outside the MEDA constituency.

“First of all, making investments that serve the poor, and expecting to get that money back to be used again and again, may be old hat to MEDA — it’s how we started 60 years ago — but to the private equity markets and many governments, the concept of impact investing is very new, and a bit scary. Our history and track record give us the credibility to be among the first to gain the confidence of governments and investors.

“Second, within the relatively small impact investment community, there is limited experience in providing the type of technical assistance that SMEs need to become wellgoverned, environmentally and socially responsible companies. And, there is work needed to understand and record this social impact in a systematic way. Through this project we can provide that.

“Third, MEDA and our partner, the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing, have access to a great deal of investment and business expertise that would go a long way toward improving the skills of the investment fund managers with whom we work around the world. We will be reaching out to our supporters for help with these mentorships.”

Katie Turner, senior project manager at MEDA, says the initiative is DFATD’s first foray into the world of private sector investing. “We can be very proud that they started with us,” she says.

Gerhard Pries, CEO of Sarona Asset Management, says SAM has for some time been urging the Canadian government to add impact investing to its range of development strategies.

“We went to the government and said, ‘We’d like you to make an investment to help prime the pump as we recruit private investors.’ And now they have.” ◆

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