Robert Servine On Balancing Business And Charity In Social Enterprise Operations

Robert Servine, General Manager at Green Connect, is a passionate advocate for social change with over 12 years of experience in the nonprofit sector.

His career has spanned a wide range of organisations, including KARI, Nepean Communities and Neighbourhood Services, and Seattle Youth Garden Works, where he has managed programs supporting youth, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and marginalised populations.

Robert’s extensive experience includes working with homeless youth, child protection services, out-of-home care, and asylum seekers. Through these roles, he has empowered hundreds of individuals to overcome adversity and achieve their full potential.

Inspired by a decade of global travel, including in-depth study of yoga and Buddhism in India, Robert brings a holistic perspective to leadership. He is dedicated to promoting sustainability, fair food production, and social inclusion through Green Connect’s mission.

Robert discusses how finding a balance of knowledge in both charity and business is key to managing a successful social enterprise, and the transformational power of protests, travel, and businesses for good.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Tom Allen] - To start off, can you please share a bit about your background and what led you to working in social impact and agriculture?

[Robert Servine] - It's been an unusual path that's led me here. In fact, if you had told me in my 20s what I was doing now, I wouldn't have believed you.

I grew up in a poor neighbourhood in South Seattle, full of gangs and drugs - the usual. I barely graduated high school, but it was because of the help of some kind people who got me out of that life. I ended up traveling the world and it completely changed my perspective and opened my eyes to so many things. I ended up traveling for nearly 10 years and I lived in India for three of those.

The real defining moment for me was on one of my return trips home. I witnessed the 1999 Battle of Seattle protests against the World Trade Organisation, and it was life changing. I learned about what the WTO was doing, how they acted in such an undemocratic way, and I couldn't believe it.

I was in denial at first, but I found out that not only was it true, they’d acted as if it was no big deal. They were helping to protest modern slavery, poor working conditions, and unfavourable trade rules.

I joined the protest. It was really intense; I got pepper sprayed, tear gassed, and shot with rubber bullets. I was nearly arrested multiple times. It was great, I loved it. That was the beginning of my career in protesting.

I was sitting on the front line, facing off with the police, and I got really into it. I figured the entire world should know about this injustice. I travelled around to do protests, and it disillusioned me with humanity in some ways. Either things weren't changing, or they weren’t changing fast enough.

I went back to traveling and back to India to study yoga and Buddhism. It freshened up my perspective on life. When I finally made it back to the U.S., I wanted to settle down. But, I also wanted to do work that wasn't harmful.

I started my own farm called Good Karma Farm and I got the opportunity to go back to university to study a degree in positive psychology. I got to run a program called Seattle Youth Garden Works at Tilth Alliance which hired homeless youth to work on an organic farm. It was the most amazing, transformational program.

I watched people who’d been living under bridges and caught in drug addiction change their lives and rejoin society. One of them is a nurse's assistant now and they've done really well. It's been beautiful to be part of that journey with them.

When I moved to Australia, I had a hard time finding work. Eventually, I got work helping asylum seekers and, through a twist of fate, I ended up working in child protection and youth homelessness.

I jumped at the opportunity to work at Green Connect because it encompassed my passion of helping both people and the planet.

What have been some of your biggest learnings from your partnership with Mirvac and how might other social enterprises tap into social procurement?

Being a social enterprise is challenging. We're not a business and we're not quite a charity; we're somewhere in the middle, and we need to operate as a blend of both. We were lucky because Green Connect does a little bit of everything. We have an eleven acre farm, do zero waste services, and have an ethical labour hire service.

It was the zero waste service that caught Mirvac’s attention. They have a goal to send zero waste to landfill by 2030 and they have a great waste manager, Kim Host. For Mirvac, it wasn’t just about making the goal, they were actually working hard to achieve it. Kim found Green Connect and how we audit waste for businesses.

We’ve been doing that for them since 2020. Every year we complete an audit to measure their progress toward their goal. It's been a fabulous partnership and Mirvac has since partnered with Social Traders to create the Supplier Development Program, which Green Connect participated in.

We spent a year working with Mirvac to improve our services to be able to partner with big companies.

My advice on partnering with companies like Mirvac or other tier one organisations is you need to have robust systems. Work health and safety, human resources policies; companies need evidence of these in order to feel comfortable employing you. Otherwise, it can be a risk for them.

The more you can assure them you're able to do the work (and you can do it safely without causing them a lot of headaches), the more likely you are to get that kind of work.

It's similar for local government. We often work with councils and you have to go through a procurement process. It’s a lot of paperwork, but it's to protect them from litigation, lawsuits, or unfavourable media and news stories.

What have you found to be the most important traits of purpose driven or impact led leaders and entrepreneurs working in the business for good space?

There are a few things. You really have to care about what you do. That passion helps with resilience and grit. It's a tough space to work in sometimes. You have to compete against other businesses while working with additional costs for supporting clientele. We have to run a tight ship without a big budget, so creativity is important.

One thing I've noticed recently which worries me a bit is that a lot of business people who originate from the for-profit sector come in with good intentions, but no real social work or charity backgrounds. Like the saying goes, the path to hell is paved with good intentions.

I'd say my background is in non-profits; I've worked in charities, with people, and my degree's in positive psychology. When it comes to designing programs for people, I'm pretty good at it. Business however, I'm not as good at. In the last couple of years of running Green Connect, I've learned a tremendous amount about business. But going in, I knew I had that shortcoming, so I worked hard to overcome that.

I worry people coming into the business for good space with strictly business backgrounds think that the charity side is easy. They don't see their own shortcomings and they don't know they need to overcome them.

If you do come from a business background, that’s great for you. it’s important, but you need to be able to identify what information you might be missing. You need to be proactive in seeking out the knowledge needed to be successful in the social enterprise sector.

Where do you see opportunities to grow more purpose driven business and what are the barriers to it becoming mainstream?

I think it's a good time to be in social enterprise. When I first started, people didn't even know what a social enterprise was. You'd need to explain it every time you’d talk to somebody. That's not the case anymore. Generally speaking, the knowledge is out there and it's growing.

Business sectors have increased their focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings, which has really grown the opportunities out there for social enterprises. We get contacted quite a bit nowadays.

Say there's a 10% social inclusion clause on a new contract. When somebody is putting in a tender, they need to demonstrate how they'll meet that social inclusion clause, so they'll partner with somebody like us.

Putting in the groundwork to be able to take those opportunities means putting in place and demonstrating the appropriate systems, policies, and procedures. There's an increasing number of social enterprises every day and it's beautiful to see.

One problem for social enterprises is the impression that the business sector has. There’s an idea that we're not as good, not as qualified, or we won’t do as good of a job. We almost have to do twice as much in order to overcome that stigma.

What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across creating a positive change?

There are so many inspiring projects out there and the number is growing every day. Having been involved with Social Traders last year through the Supplier Development Program, I know their list is impressive, but they themselves are an impressive organisation. They helped us a lot.

It’s always great to see projects that solve existing problems in an innovative way, like the Seabin project. I also have a lot of friends doing hard work really well. People like Hedayat Osyan from CommUnity Construction, Ninna Larsen from Reground, Andrea Comastri and Saraya O’Connell from Hotel Etico, and Bianca from All Good Things. They are amazing people but there's always room for more.

Everyone is welcome to join us and we want to see the movement grow. There's a quote from Mother Teresa that says, “not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” There's so much room in the world for improvement and if you're a part of that, welcome.

To finish off, what books or resources would you recommend to our audience?

I read a lot; I could go on and on about books. Recently, I was reading one book called Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie. She's a climate scientist who was very disillusioned with the state of the world. However, she realises that while things are bad, they could get a lot better, and it could actually end up being one of the best times in human history. It was nice to see a little bit of optimism there. The [2024] U.S. elections smashed some of my optimism on the head, but the book itself is definitely worth reading.

Another one is the Comfort Crisis: Embracing Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self by Michael Easter. I love that book and it's a real call to action. I think we've become a little too comfortable and complacent, but the book announces that it’s time to get up and do things.

The final book I want to recommend is called The Surrender Experiment: My Journey Into Life's Perfection by Michael A. Singer. It's an unusual business book. He was a hermit who went off to live on a spiritual retreat centre and he by chance ended up owning and operating a twenty million dollar IT company. It exemplifies a beautiful way of thinking and a good way of operating in the world.