When Morgan Berman (pictured), founder and chief executive officer of MilkCrate LLC, began conceptualizing a company designed to promote sustainability and thoughtful action four years ago, she had no idea her ideation would be catapulted from school project to startup by the Forbes Under 30 Summit. Her accelerated journey into the world of B Corps has taught her as much about running a business as it has about how necessary companies like MilkCrate are to modern businesses in every industry.

MilkCrate is a platform that measures and grows social and environmental impact for enterprise organizations through customizable game apps that engage employees through social and tangible incentives. “Business as a force for good in the world is the norm now. … That’s what’s driving people to work for a company, to stay with a company, for customers to buy a product from a company,” Berman said.

Berman spoke with Rebecca Knight (@knightrm), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing event in Orlando, Florida. They discussed MilkCrate’s journey over the past four years and why social awareness is becoming integral to the success of corporations around the world.

A new era of corporate responsibility

The incentive for today’s businesses to maintain a level of ethical involvement is simple. “Forty-five percent of Millennials would take a 15 percent cut or more in their salary to work for a company that makes a difference in the world,” Berman said.

This inclination toward an organization with values is shared by employees and potential customers alike, but maintaining sustainability is often a challenge for large companies. “A corporate social responsibility director’s top three painpoints are engaging employees, tracking and analytics, and having a scalable cost-effective program across the whole company. We realized our product could do all three of those things,” Berman said.

Though MilkCrate simplifies sustainability, it’s still up to individual employees to take the actions encouraged by the its app. Berman’s strategy is to inspire a response using intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that are tailored to the needs of each company MilkCrate serves.

“Seeing that you’re functioning the way your peers are … that’s a really important validation as a human. … Then there’s the actual rewards … tickets to sporting events, credits at a bookstore … gift certificates to local sustainable restaurants. … It depends on the client, what their goals are, what their budget is, and what motivates people,” Berman said.

After her experience at this year’s Grace Hopper Conference, Berman is invigorated in her position as a female founder and CEO to continue her pursuit of ethical corporate action and responsibility. “These are my people, and we’re doing amazing things,” Berman concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

Photo: SiliconANGLE