Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship

Could this be the beginning of a new kind of investing, something as powerful, in its own right, as protest? As powerful as conscientious objecting? Can we call it conscientious investing?

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The meteoric rise of collaborative consumption start-ups, such as AirBnB, GoGrubly, Getaround, thredUp, and SnapGoods, to name a few, is arguably due to social media and the people-powered networks that support them. This marketplace is quickly evolving into a robust open-source business platform. Known as the access economy, it not only reduces society’s footprint by connecting people to shared resources, but increases society’s net worth.

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This post has been entered in TckTckTck’s contest to sent a blogger to cover Rio+20. If you like what you see, give it a Facebook Like and head over to TckTckTck’s Facebook page to give it a like there as well. You heard that right. Some years back, Vestergaard Frandsen, a company operating under a Humanitarian [...]

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By Jeff Klein Writing this piece is an exercise in deepening. It demands attention and raises questions, such as “What does it mean?,” “How is it relevant to business?,” and “What are some examples of deepening at work?” Deepening is a process of inquiry, exploration and discovery. If we look beneath the skin, we find [...]

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Problems that are also opportunities, like the one we are facing now with our climate, have a way of taking us places where we never thought we’d go. For example, I thought a good way of solidifying my connection with Mother Nature was to go walking in the woods, not to start wearing them. But [...]

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By Jeff Klein Short Answer: Learning, growth and development – for individuals, teams and organizations – are essential to resilience, adaptability and sustainability. Definitions There are some meaningful distinctions between the three.

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As generous as human beings are, an investment instrument will almost certainly bring more dollars than philanthropy. Can we direct this flow of capital for good? This year’s marquee sponsor for SOCAP is turning philanthropy on its head by providing impact investment options to the everyday investor. Instead of giving, users of Mircoplace can invest, [...]

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Imagine living in a low-income neighborhood, not owning a car, and the closest grocery market that sells fresh fruits and vegetables is 5 miles away.  Meanwhile fast food chains and corner stores like McDonalds, and 7-11 are walking distance.  What would your diet look like then? About 2.3 million American households live in these food [...]

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The food was great and the company was inspiring.  SOCAP 2011, a conference at the intersection of money and meaning, might have been the best party you can legitimately expense this year.  Entrepreneurs, investors, futurists, filmmakers, programmers, catalysts and you-name-it are converging to solve our planet’s most pressing issues in land management, water, climate change, [...]

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In 2006 Blake Mycoskie founded TOMS Shoes, selling shoes under the Buy One, Give One model – for every pair of shoes you buy, TOMS gives one to a child in need in a developing country. TOMS became a big success and last year gave out their one millionth pair of new shoes. Mycoskie realized [...]

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The world’s first community-owned tidal power plant is moving towards completion on the northernmost UK Shetland island of Yell. Locals are looking to the grid-connected, 30MW tidal power generator to provide an anchor to the economy, as well as a source of clean, renewable power.

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Yesterday, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff kicked off Dreamforce 2011, the largest cloud computing event of the year with over 45,000 in attendance and 35,000 joining online. Benioff took the stage at San Francisco’s Moscone Center to the pulsing sound of Metallica drawing an image of the future of social enterprise with Salesforce at the helm. [...]

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So what happens when you put together Sylvia Earle, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Richard Branson, Neil Young and Ted Turner? Apart from a really great dinner party conversation, these are the founding members of OceanElders. OceanElders is basically a group of global leaders organized to promote ocean conservation. Joining them are Jackson Browne, Rita Colwell, Graeme Kelleher, Sven [...]

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Nearly 50% of Colombia’s 46 million citizens live below the poverty line. Microfinance organizations such as Colombians Supporting Colombians (CAC) are giving budding entrepreneurs a leg up by providing micro-loans and other banking services that conventional banks are unwilling to offer. Some $3.5 billion in micro-credit was disbursed in 2010 to more than 2 million borrowers.

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Mobile is unlocking possibilities for local lifestyles that could very well redefine consumption as we know it. Location based micro-economies are emerging with increasing levels of sophistication – micro-economies operated by you and I. Now, anyone with a smartphone and something to offer can be a friendly neighbourhood retailer. Every day, mobile startups are creatively making this easier and more enjoyable in the name of collaborative consumption, the groundswell movement within which true sustainability may finally be achieved.

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This post is the first in a series of articles by Jeffrey Hollender on cooperative businesses models, specifically from Mondragón, Spain That Italian and Basque cooperatives have grown so large is somewhat a mystery since, unlike capitalist enterprises, cooperatives are not expansionist by nature… Capitalist enterprises tend towards growth because increased scale generally leads to [...]

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On a survey published earlier this year by NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, 31.3% of the respondents picked the Taxi TV as the worst thing about cab riding today. Although so many New Yorkers hate these TV sets, the commission’s reply is actually adding another channel with more shopping and cooking shows. Maybe the commission [...]

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America is searching for a path that will restore jobs, the economy and our environment. The Green Builds Business program created by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation with funding from Walmart is doing just that. As the Green Builds Business implementation-coach, I have worked this summer with business owners in Milwaukee, Irving Texas, [...]

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Some of us (ahem) have lived long enough to remember when collaboration was not all that radical a concept, in the business world and even in Congress. Alas collaboration lately has become a buzzword, something that businesses and their PR departments are eager to pay lip service to and perhaps aspire to achieve with their [...]

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Naples, a city besieged by its trash crisis and frustration for so long, may teach some of us how to cope when local governments are underfunded or non-responsive.

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There’s a disturbance among listeners of North America’s satellite radio service. Last Tuesday, without warning, monopoly satellite radio provider, Sirius XM, pulled BBC Radio 1 from its channel line-up, replacing programming with an info-loop explaining they were “making way for a new channel.” Devotees of Radio 1 were not happy. Why did Sirius XM do [...]

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The intergenerational leadership at Two Degrees Food creates a unique perspective that informs our approach to sustainability, how our respective peer groups operate (and, critically, what motivates them), how best to shape what we do as a company, and how we do it..

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By Jeff Klein “Conscious Awareness” is a powerful tool for transcending unconscious patterns. It fosters an expanded perspective and openness to new possibilities. Definition  “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” ~ Anais Nin Conscious Awareness is a process of recognizing what is going on inside and out, the [...]

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Opponents of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam system in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon are mounting a “last stand” attempt to halt development in the wake of the government awarding the contract to Norte Energia and the start of construction. Opposition groups say building what would be the world’s third-largest hydroelectric system would be a “folly” of epic proportions on economic, technical and environmental grounds.

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In the emerging Conscious Capitalism economy, making money requires more that focusing on making money.

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Rural electrification is a serious challenge all over the world. In Tanzania, 75% of the population lives in rural areas with an electrification rate so low, it’s barely worth mentioning. The Lighting Africa Project estimates it to be around 2%.

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The new model, which is embodied in the new app, simply called Shopkick, focuses on giving away free stuff and guess what? It’s far more popular than Causeworld ever was. Customers using Shopkick, now get Kickbucks instead of Karma, which they can redeem for all kinds of free merchandise, or they can still choose to donate the credits to charity.

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Last week, Zipcar, Inc, along with the City of Baltimore and the Parking Authority of Baltimore City celebrated the one-year anniversary of Zipcar’s operations in the city with the release of survey results documenting the program’s impact. Zipcar’s expansion to Baltimore was part of a plan to reduce parking demand, congestion, and emissions, while offering citizens affordable personal transportation.

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Increasingly my world is filled with overachievers who feel like underachievers. Are we the FOMO Generation? Is ‘Fear OF Missing Out’ destroying happiness. In past generations people tryied to keep up with the Joneses, their neighbors with a nicer yard, cuter kids, or a better car. But now thanks to LinkedIn and Facebook we have to keep up with the Joneses and the Shahs, Lees, Carters, Smiths, Levys and our hundreds of other acquaintances online.

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Florida’s Eco Ventures Group is building a family of businesses management says is grounded in Triple Bottom Line principles, including recovering of precious, rare earth and industry metals; producing advanced biofuels from recovered and virgin oils and animals fats; and growing tropical oilseeds using sustainable methods that protect the environment.

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