Episode 110 – Christina Smith of the Redwoods Group

Taking a Stand

Introducing Christina Smith of The Redwoods Group

Sometimes the course of events in life offers you an opportunity to take a stand for what is right and just. This week’s Boiling Point guest knows all about this. Christina Smith is a consultant with the Redwoods Group and a B Corp MVP. Redwoods is a socially responsible insurance company, which works with youth serving organizations such as the YMCA and Boys and Girls Clubs to insure against and prevent things like child sexual abuse and drowning. What sets Redwoods apart is they are a B Corporation that provides amazing training and when terrible incidents occur their team really tries to help healing and prevent any future occurrences.

Christina has a real passion for B Corps, so much so that she took a leading role to see B Lab’s annual Champions Retreat come to her home state of North Carolina. She organized the socially responsible businesses in her community and their efforts paid off when the Champions retreat was scheduled to come to N.C. this year. However, after the retreat was rewarded to N.C., its government made an unfortunate decision to pass a discriminatory law. The Bathroom Bill was passed which meant that no municipality could pass laws prohibiting the discrimination in public places based on sexual orientation or gender identity. This essentially forced any transgendered individual to use the bathroom of the biological sex as listed on their birth certificate.

This decision put B Labs in a very difficult place; how could they have a gathering of socially responsible businesses in a place that just passed such a discriminatory law? Some argued that by having the event in North Carolina they could bring attention to the issue and protest against the law. Would the Selma civil rights march be as effective if it happened anywhere else? However, many in the B community didn’t feel safe entering a place that showed such hostility towards LGTBQ individuals.

Find out what happened and about the power of business for good in this episode of the Boiling Point

In this episode

• We hear how Greg and Christina met at Portland, Oregon’s B Champions Retreat.
• Christina lets us in on the great work being done by the Redwoods Group to protect children.
• We also hear how Christina got wrapped up in the B Corp movement.
• Greg discusses a potential documentary he is working on.
• Christina tells us about how she organized a movement and was rewarded by having the B Champions Retreat awarded to North Carolina.
• She also talks about the debate that raged within the B community as to what approach they should take.
• We learn about the fallout of North Carolina’s law and how businesses are fighting back by taking away their money, jobs, and events that could cost the state billions of dollars.
• Greg is inspired by how business can “flex its muscle” for justice and the ripples it can create.
• Dave is inspired by Christina’s passion and inspired to make his own company a B Corp.