Oliberté Footwear: The Shoes with Soul
Posted by Jace Shoemaker-Galloway November 20th, 2009 
0 Comments
When it comes to footwear, comfort, style, durability and affordability are important aspects when picking out a pair of shoes. But there is a lot more that goes into shoes than just our feet.
Canadian-based footwear company Oliberté, is stepping up and reaching out to impoverished African communities and making a difference in a big way. In fact it is touted as the “first to market premium urban-casual footwear made in Africa.”
Power to Your Pedals: Bike Powered Cell Phone Chargers in Kenya
Posted by Carly Smolak November 19th, 2009 0 Comments
Two electrical engineering students at Nairobi University, 24 year old Jeremiah Murimi and 22 year old Pascal Katana, have developed an innovation to literally bring power to more people in Kenya. Using salvaged parts from old televisions and radios, the duo retrofitted the dynamo attached to all bikes sold in Kenya so that cyclists can charge their cell phones as they ride.
Charger
Of Kenya’s 38.5 million people, it is estimated that roughly 17.5 million own a cell phone. However, many Kenyans lack access to the necessary electrical infrastructure to charge their phones, forcing them to travel great distances and pay steep prices to juice up their phones at charging stations (around $2 a charge). This new device, which is small enough to fit in a pocket along with a mobile device, will sell for about $4.50, meaning that consumers will recover the purchase price by the third charge.
As a species, humans are living in an increasingly industrialized habitat—one crammed full of complex machines designed to perform often mundane tasks that we once accomplished with the twist of a wrist (electric can openers?) or ancient technology (plug in air fresheners?). In such an environment, it is easy to forget that our bodies can do more than consume.
John Perkins: Learning from the Economic Meltdown
Posted by Jennifer Elder November 15th, 2009 0 Comments
John Perkins, author of “Hoodwinked” and “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” says he had a hand in creating the current economic crisis. As an “Economic Hitman” his job was to promote corporate interests at the expense of anyone, anywhere; an unjust, untenable, and unsustainable practice he referred to as “Predatory Capitalism”. Speaking at the 2009 Net Impact Conference, he discussed this side of multi-national corporate behavior with a surprisingly positive outlook. According to Perkins we still have an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of predatory capitalism and turn the economy around.
Predatory Capitalism, according to Perkins, is a mutation of capitalism that comes about when the single focus of a corporation is to make profits – ie, an extreme adoption of Milton Friedman. In the predatory world, when profit making conflicts with the public interest, profit making wins no matter the cost or consequences to others. As an Economic Hitman, Perkin’s job was to find Third World countries with desirable resources. He would arrange large and seemingly attractive loans loans for infrastructure development contracted out to US corporations. These loans were much larger than needed and ultimately the country would be unable to pay back the debt. When the country could not make the required payments, the financing group would extort payment in the form of economic resources.
The Impact of Storytelling on International Development
Posted by 3p Guest Author November 13th, 2009 1 Comment
By Mary Solecki
The entrepreneurs of international development work will have a special place in history. These are entrepreneurial spirits that have risked their careers and livelihoods, not to make exorbitant profits or seek the thrill of the IPO, but instead to make life better for their fellow countrymen. These men and women are rarely recorded in history books, but have devoted all their time and talents toward the thankless job of making the world a better place.
Last summer I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to intern with a non-profit organization in Nicaragua. During my experience, I lived in rural Nicaragua, and spent a lot of time not only watching the hard efforts of a social entrepreneur, but trying to wrap my mind around the differences between my origins and the Nicaraguans. The whole summer, and most days since, I have tried to envision how not only my life, but I might be different if I was born there. After all, I did nothing to earn the opportunities I have in my life. Just as Nicaraguans were simply born there, I was simply born in the United States. A simple act of fate and geographical convenience that permanently alters the paths a life might take. It is the realization of my blind luck that drives me to appreciate and create these opportunities for others.
Expanding Loan Options in Rwanda
Posted by Smith School of Business November 11th, 2009 0 Comments
By David Abraham
Blue Financial, a South African microfinance institution, just launched its Cashxpress product in Rwanda. The service is intended to help employed, yet low-income, individuals borrow money in emergency situations. According to the Blue Financial website, Cashexpress is unique since it will disburse unsecured loans of between 100 and 5,000 Rands ($13 to $677 USD) to existing customers who are faced with difficult financial situations, an opportunity that has thus far been the domain of loan sharks in the developing world. From press and company descriptions, Blue’s product operates similarly to payday loans common in the United States, a service that is often criticized because of the high interest payments charged to borrowers.
While microcredit continues to change lives in the developing world, it is worthwhile to consider these high interest rates. The published rate on an income generating loan from the Grameen Bank is 20%. By comparison, Americans pay around 15% on credit card debt. Of course, the proposition of lending money to people without credit histories or stable incomes involves considerable risk and microfinance companies must factor this into rate calculations. However, Kiva, the popular social giving site, recognizes that transaction costs account for a significant portion of expenses that microcredit institutions incur (Kiva, like Blue, does not post actual interest rates, an issue of transparency which may be a subject of a future post). As this field grows in size and popularity, it will be important to search for more efficient ways to deliver loans that ultimately decrease costs for customers.
David Abraham is an MBA candidate at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. He is a founder of the Emerging Markets Club at Smith which seeks to build a greater understanding of free-market opportunites in frontier markets.
Is Bike-Sharing Becoming Bourgeois?
Posted by Mary Catherine O'Connor November 2nd, 2009 3 Comments
Bike-sharing programs are gaining momentum throughout Europe and even in car-loving US cities, but vandals and thieves are doing a bang-up job of chipping away at that momentum, and adding cost to the programs—especially Paris’ Velib scheme, as we’ve reported in the past.
But a recent New York Times article explores the problem with bike-sharing vandalism in Paris from another angle, saying that “resentful, angry or anarchic youth” are destroying the bikes because the bikes are “seen as an accoutrement of the ‘bobos,’ or ‘bourgeois-bohèmes,’ the trendy urban middle class,” and, as such, they “stir resentment and covetousness.”
Or at least, these are the findings of police and sociologists who are studying the trend. While some bikes are stolen and shipped abroad for profit, a great number of them are simply trashed—tossed in creek beds or dismembered and left on curbs.
C.K. Prahalad Q&A: Lessons from the Bottom of the Pyramid
Posted by Jim Witkin November 2nd, 2009 0 Comments
It’s been five years since the publication of “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits,” the seminal work by C.K. Prahalad, a professor of corporate strategy at the Ross School of Business of the University of Michigan.
The book combined a pragmatic framework with inspirational case studies to show companies how they could develop innovative business models and find new profits by serving the world’s five billion poorest people at the bottom of the economic pyramid (or BOP).
To commemorate the event, Wharton Publishing has issued a revised and updated anniversary edition that includes a new introduction by the author, as well as many new case studies.
I recently spoke with Professor Prahalad to discuss what these companies have learned as they’ve built profitable businesses in emerging markets while reducing poverty in the process. Excerpts from this discussion follow:
* * *
Triple Pundit: What are the big lessons learned over the past five years since the book was first published?
C.K. Prahalad: First, the thesis of the book that the private sector is an integral part of the poverty alleviation process is well accepted by multilaterals, aid agencies, many NGOs and large private sector firms as well. Second there is now a growing belief that the bottom of the pyramid provides an opportunity for business to “do good and do well.” Third, we recognize that the BOP is more than micro-consumers. It also represents micro producers and micro investors who can be connected to national and global markets. And the BOP can also be the source of major innovations that affect us all. These ideas were in the original book but have been confirmed and amplified.
Solar in the Developing World: Potential and Pessimism
Posted by BC Upham October 28th, 2009 0 Comments
Amongst the seminars with titles like “The Real Value of Distributed Generation,” and “Innovations in Inverters and System Controllers,” at Solar Power International, one stood out as perhaps having a little more interest to the general reader: “Solar Opportunities in the Developing World.” As anyone who has ever looked into buying a residential solar power system knows, solar panels are very expensive. So what could solar power possibly offer to the world’s poorest people?
Turns out, both a lot and, unfortunately, very little. As the seminar’s three panelists made clear, solar power could be a solution to the developing world’s patchy electric grid. Installed solar panels, coupled with batteries to store electricity for when the sun doesn’t shine, could — and do — provide steady power for corners of the globe that will likely never get it otherwise.
But as the panelists all also agreed, that solution is extremely difficult to implement on the ground.
Levi Strauss Partners with Goodwill; Knows How to Pick a Good Restaurant
Posted by Jen Boynton October 22nd, 2009 0 Comments
Ok, ok, I admit it. I’m a cheap date. Levi Strauss invited me and some other writers to an intimate dinner at Fish and Farm last night to talk about their new partnership with Goodwill. We had a wonderful and real conversation about the lifecycle of a pair of jeans and now I love Levi Strauss. It doesn’t take much to please me. PR people, please note: If you ply me with sustainable meat and biodynamic wine, I will probably say nice things about you!
All joking aside, the event was an opportunity to talk candidly about the challenges of greening a carbon intensive industry like clothing manufacture. The people at Levi Strauss were pretty upfront about what they were doing well and what they want to do better and that in itself is commendable. It is rare that a company will let you behind the reception desk to see the execs in action- trying to make the best decisions for the company that they can, wrangling with difficult trade-offs in cost, meeting consumer demand, and limitations in a global supply chain. We got to see a little bit of that last night.
Microlending: Panacea or Patchwork?
Posted by Chris Kaiser October 19th, 2009 5 Comments
Microlending has been hailed as the panacea of poverty. They theory is simple: lend the poor a small amount of money so they can start/grow their business, charge tiny interest rates (microcredit), then once business starts booming, the borrowers can easily pay the loan. Woosh! Just like that, poverty disappears. Or does it?
The Boston Globe recently had a story on microlending and two new research papers soon-to-be published by economists affiliated with MIT’s Jameel Poverty Action lab reveal that microcredit really doesn’t do all that much to provide a path out of poverty. Is microlending a patchwork solution that just temporarily solves the ills of the poor? Could it be that while microcredit can be an effective medicine against poverty, that it may just be treating the symptoms and not the disease?
Gasp!
Kiwis Planting the Seeds for Curbing Agricultural Emissions
Posted by Mary Catherine O'Connor October 15th, 2009 1 Comment
New Zealand may not jump to mind as a guiding force in mitigating climate change, but if it can lead the charge to boost agricultural efficiencies, this island nation may just emerge as an important player.
Tim Groser, New Zealand minister of trade and associate minister for climate-change issues, wrote for the Wall Street Journal last week that last month New Zealand Prime Minister John Key proposed that countries form an alliance to address the role of agriculture in climate change, in order coordinate efforts and commit more investment and political will toward research and new technologies and practices to boost agricultural efficiencies. Groser called the response to this proposal “overwhelmingly positive” and says the US, India, Australia and the Netherlands have expressed interest in joining such as effort.
Hope Floats in New Orleans with the FLOAT House
Posted by Cory Vanderpool October 8th, 2009 1 Comment
In honor of World Habitat Day, designated as October 5, 2009, we wanted to help remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat. World Habitat Day this year is celebrated under the theme Planning Our Urban Future to raise awareness of the need to improve urban settlements to deal with new major challenges of the 21st century. One of the most powerful forces is climate change. Warming events are triggering harsh natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina, which rendered large sections of New Orleans unrecognizable and claimed almost 2,000 lives. With nearly 200 million people worldwide living in high-risk coastal flooding zones and over 36 million people facing the threat of flooding in the U.S. alone, the future of coastal habitats needs to be revisited.
Lineage Wine Imports: Does Importing Sustainably Produced Goods Negate Their Green Factor?
Posted by Sarah Harper September 30th, 2009 4 Comments
Most 3p readers would agree that sustainably produced items are preferable to the alternative. And most business people (I imagine) would agree that it’s better to sell more of a product than less of it. So the question that follows is something of a doozie: does importing a sustainably crafted wine negate its green cred? I asked this question when a company called Lineage Imports was brought to my attention. According to its website, Lineage Imports seeks to provide high quality, sustainably produced wine while funding solutions for pressing social issues (for example, the economic development, natural resource conservation, and cultural preservation of rural communities in Mexico, Honduras, and several other countries). Although these goals are indeed environmentally and socially conscious, and the company is small and family-run, the nit-pick in me wonders nonetheless: why import?
Lineage Imports, which is based in California, partners with several hand-picked wineries in New Zealand, all of which (the website says) operate relatively sustainably (i.e. they use minimal-impact fertilizing, heating and cooling, insulating, watering, and harvesting techniques while maintaining or seeking CarbonZero certification). The symbiosis is simple: Lineage Imports sells the wine (at low prices, it advertizes), and the wineries donate a portion of the profit to Lineage Import’s causes.
Debt Free U – Social Responsibility, Debt Management, and the Long-Term Green Picture
Posted by Sarah Harper September 29th, 2009 0 Comments
What do being socially minded, financially wise, and sustainable – and being in college – have to do with each other? A lot, as evidenced by the work of Debt Free U, a non-profit that helps college kids understand basic finance so they don’t wind up in unmanageable debt. If kids are the future, the future generation must keep sustainable business afloat, and being financially healthy is a prerequisite to keeping anything afloat. Debt Free U’s endeavors are likely to be a crucial component in the long-term viability of green business growth.
Debt Free U is a self-described “money-management resource geared toward young adults (instead of their parents), in whose hands the future of our economy rests”. The organization seeks to give youth the financial know-how necessary to manage that economy-supporting task, and it offers a number of tools toward that end. Its “CareOne” service providers – Debt Free U’s sponsors – supply exhaustive informational and interactive resources to help college kids stay in control of their finances.
One could argue that, if efforts like Debt Free U’s are successful, they will help prevent the “poverty mentality” that can lead to subsistence living (i.e. struggling to pay off one’s debt instead of envisioning and working toward a future-minded, built-to-last sustainable infrastructure). After all, having a huge debt hanging over one’s head isn’t the best energy-garnering tool.
Sponsors
Where We’re Going
Nov 19, 09
San Jose: The Tech Awards
Dec 2, 09
Bard CEP National Climate Seminar: Hon. Ed Markey Sponsor event
Dec 16, 09
Bard CEP National Climate Seminar: Eban Goodstein, Live from Copenhagen Sponsor event
Partners
Recent Comments