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How Dow Corning Uses Innovation to Further CSR and Business Goals
Consumers in emerging markets increasingly demand – as they should – products designed to meet their specific needs rather than ones patched together or retro-fitted from existing ones.
Fundraising for Social Marketing Campaigns?
Post ads to let Massachusetts citizens express their dismay about recent votes to gut the Clean Air Act. The importance of fundraising as an element of any social marketing campaign is a consideration that should not be overlooked. Many social marketing campaigns are developed by nonprofits and governmental organizations that recognize the value of the [...]
The Power of Social Entrepreneurship to Create a Sustainable World
How can we successfully rise to these challenges? In theory, development that is sustainable and not damaging to the planet is doable. In reality, there are challenges at every step, and so far our record on moving towards sustainability in a collective manner, with a common framework, appears to have been quite feeble.
Spring Back Recycling Builds Up Lives While Breaking Down Mattresses
Getting rid of mattresses is difficult. Most landfills don’t want them as they are bulky and the springs in them damage the crushing equipment. This is where Spring Back, the mattress recycling initiative comes in. Nashville-based Spring Back Recycling is a non-profit organization that works to break down mattresses and build up the lives of formerly incarcerated [...]
Pay-As-You-Go Solar Could Provide Clean Electricity to 1 Billion People
Eight19 announced Kickstart, a program that funds pay-as-you go solar energy in poor dual areas, this week at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.
North Carolina Takes Reins For Green Future
The sustainability movement is making waves in North Carolina, at least that’s the impression one might have gotten from the budding enthusiasm at yesterday’s GreenNC: Building for a Sustainable Future in Durham, North Carolina. Mayor Bill Bell opened up the conference by bragging about his Bull City, which has become a hub for social and [...]
Forbes’ Top 30 Social Entrepreneurs List Lacks Social Entrepreneurs
Last week Forbes added a new list to its famous collection. It wasn’t about the richest people in Asia, the most powerful women in America or the best companies worldwide, but about the top social entrepreneurs. For the first time in its 94-year history, Forbes assembled the Impact 30: a list of the world’s leading [...]
Yellow Leaf Hammocks: A Powerful Example of Social Enterprise Done Well
While yellow leaves to most of us signify the changing of the seasons, to the Mlabri hill tribe of Thailand they mean a complete change in their lives. Yellow Leaf Hammocks are a vehicle to change their health, environment, and financial independence. These resilient people were able to create their own livelihood via these high [...]
Saleforce’s Benioff on the Future ‘Corporate Spring’
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. [...]
In Naples, a Trash Crisis Spurs a Social Innovation Laboratory
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.
Sustainability Bridges the Generation Gap
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..
Creating Hybrid Value Chains with the Ashoka Foundation
The Ashoka Foundation is the largest association of leading social entrepreneurs in the world. They work on three simple levels: By supporting individual social entrepreneurs throughout their life cycle, they bring communities together. These communities then help leverage their impact, scale their ideas and capture and disseminate their best practices. Then they help to build the [...]
SOCAP in Amsterdam: Social Missions Meet Financial Markets
By Matt Evans At the beginning of this month, SOCAP Europe was hosted in the same area of Amsterdam where the very first capital markets were built over 400 years ago. Created to invest in the dangerous voyages of sea captains to the Far East to bring back spices, silk, and other revolutionary products, those [...]
eBay Partners With Ashoka’s Changemakers to Fund Social Entrepreneurs
Ashoka’s Changemakers has partnered with the eBay Foundation to help five aspiring social entrepreneurs with $50,000 in startup capital. The initiative, called “Powering Economic Opportunity: Create a World that Works” seeks to fund innovative market-based solutions that create employment opportunities for vulnerable populations. And in this case, the early bird really does get the worm! [...]
How a Social Entrepreneur Builds a Future out of Beirut’s Past
Benedicte de Blavous Moubarak founded 2B Design in 2004, with the idea that she could bring together people who may practice different religions, but were marginalized, often because of disabilities, and could not find gainful work. The result are pieces that reflect Beirut’s glorious past.
Social Entrepreneurship in Bosnia: A Brilliant Mozaik
Zoran Pulijic started Mozaik in 2000 with the belief that Bosnians know the best way how to build opportunity in their towns and villages. Pulijic and his colleagues developed what they describe as its Community Driven Development (CDD) methodology, which works to achieve maximum participation with community members on local development projects.
Fair Trade Arrives in Bulgaria
Fair trade is one window through which Bulgarian can participate as a buyer and seller of niche products. Consumers here are getting a taste of fair trade coffee through Starbucks’ opening of several new stores through its capital, Sofia, in the last year.
Can A Life Be Saved By a Solar Powered Suitcase? If it’s LifeGivingForce, Yes
It seems these days there are an increasing number of natural (and unnatural) disasters happening. You see images of stranded people, injured animals, and devastated environments. What about concrete solutions with life and usefulness after the cameras have gone home? LifeGivingForce is one of those. What it does is simple, yet incredibly important for so [...]
What’s Next Interview with Mike Del Ponte: Building the Silicon Valley of Social Entrepreneurship
As part of our partnership with the Social Capital Markets Conference 2010, we are featuring a series of interviews with key conference participants. Don’t forget to get your 30% discount by using the code “3P30″ when you register! I sat down with Mike Del Ponte, Founder and CEO of Sparkseed. Most recently Sparkseed ran the most adventurous, [...]
The Need for Industry Leadership in Land Development
These are indeed challenging times in our industry. As has been chronicled in these articles, the public doesn’t trust that the industry is serving their interests, and opposition to land development projects because of social and environmental concerns is running at an all-time high. To make matters worse, industry professionals don’t trust each other to [...]
Capital Markets for Social Good Soon to Launch in Asia
Social entrepreneurship has taken off in these regions, but enterprises tackling challenges from health care to microfinance struggle because they do not have the access to capital to expand their operations. The Impact Investment Exchange (IIX), based in Singapore, will try to change that, offering a hand up, not a hand out, to organizations who need funding.
Peace Dividend Trust Leads International Aid Improvement in Afghanistan
The Peace Dividend Trust (PDT), Scott Gilmore’s brainchild, strives to make humanitarian aid more effective, efficient, and equitable, allowing foreign aid missions to achieve their goals faster. Working to cut out the middlemen while permitting the funds to flow from international procurement officers to local vendors, PDT encourages local resources to rebuild their economies rather than relying on expensive international aid workers and supplies. The Peace Dividend Marketplace is one result of the PDT.
UNICEF’s Dirty Water Vending Machines Raises Awareness in Manhattan
Last Friday, the United Nations agency installed a vending machine in Manhattan’s Union Square in raising awareness about the issue. Pedestrians who passed through 14th Street and Park Avenue were confronted with a vividly colored machine that offered dirty water in several varieties, including, typhoid, cholera, dysentery, and dengue.
(VIDEO) Adam Green On Boats That Build Kids
This article originally appeared on Dowser.org. Dowser Audio Slideshow: Adam Green, Rocking the Boat from Dowser on Vimeo. Adam Green believes in teaching 21st century job and life skills through old fashioned wooden boat building.
Samasource and the Business of Alleviating Poverty
We’ve covered the inspiring work of Samasource before. But we felt we’d be remiss for wrapping up our series on the social side of sustainability without including another look at this innovative effort. Though it is a non-profit, Samasource works as a bridge between profit-based, socially-responsible companies, and marginalized people in countries such as Africa and throughout [...]
Reinventing Growth: Locally-Focused Businesses Scaling Deep, Not Wide
By Vale Jokisch at BALLE conference 2010 Many folks in the local economy movement believe that small businesses can compete effectively. But what happens when a community-based business wants or feels the pressure to grow? Is it possible for a small, local business to grow without compromising its commitment to sustainability, people, and community? Are [...]
Can Small, Local Businesses Compete in a Globalized Market?
By Vale Jokisch at BALLE conference 2010 According to Michael Shuman, author of The Small-Mart Revolution, the answer to that question is a resounding yes. Despite the growing presence of big box chain stores in the US and abroad, Shuman has witnessed a growing number of small businesses using entrepreneurial strategies to gain a competitive [...]
“Gateway Drugs” to the Green Economy
In high school, we were warned against using marijuana, not necessarily because marijuana itself was that bad for you, it was the fact that the use of marijuana would lead to other, more unhealthy drugs. It was referred to as a “gateway drug.” The concept is equally applicable to many other aspects of life. Running [...]
Measuring Sustainability for Small and Medium Businesses: Is a Single, National Standard Possible?
By Vale Jokisch at BALLE conference 2010 Product certifications are everywhere. Walk into Whole Foods and you’ll see packages labeled Fair Trade Certified, USDA Organic, Rainforest Alliance Certified – the list goes on and on. It can be challenging for consumers to understand exactly what these certifications mean for the products they choose to buy. [...]
Job and Wealth Creation at the Grassroots Level – A Working Model In Cleveland
By Vale Jokisch at BALLE conference 2010 It’s hard to turn on the news these days without hearing an update on jobs and unemployment. The federal government has invested millions in new projects to help create jobs across the US. For the city of Cleveland, waiting for federal assistance just isn’t enough. That is where [...]
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Have your event listed here.
Webinar: Feb 17Greening Stonyfield Farm: As a consultant with Stonyfield Farm for the past 12 years, Switzer Fellow Tim Greiner will discuss efforts to broaden and deepen sustainability within the company. He will discuss the company's efforts to track its environmental impacts, barriers the company had to overcome.
Webinar: Feb 29Product Scorecards for Sustainability: Product scorecards that detail and evaluate environmental and sustainability aspects of products are increasingly adopted by leading companies. This webinar covers the best practices in this area and a case study by Seventh Generation.
NY: Mar 19-20Wall Street Green: The longest running and most comprehensive environmental market event in the industry. The Wall Street Green Summit covers cutting edge content, industry developments and features the practitioners and the leaders of tomorrow.
Bay Area: Mar 22-23GRI Certified Training: Demand for sustainability experts is growing rapidly as companies look for proven professionals. For companies, GRI trained employees mean faster implementations and better use of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework. Join our partner ISOS group for this two day session. Early bird discounts apply!
SF: Mar 26-28Cleantech Forum San Francisco: The 2012 Cleantech Forum San Francisco will mark the 10th anniversary of Cleantech Forums, the annual gathering of the global clean technology innovation community. Our theme this year is “The Power of Global Partnerships,” an exploration of how strategic relationships are playing an ever more important role in the future of clean technology. For a $300 Discount use code "VIPofTriplePundit " More Info.
SF: April 10-12 Navigating the American Carbon World: The must-attend event for professionals in the carbon landscape. Over the past decade, NACW has consistently provided informative content, thoughtful discussions and outstanding opportunities for collaboration.
Have your event listed here.
Webinar: Feb 17Greening Stonyfield Farm: As a consultant with Stonyfield Farm for the past 12 years, Switzer Fellow Tim Greiner will discuss efforts to broaden and deepen sustainability within the company. He will discuss the company's efforts to track its environmental impacts, barriers the company had to overcome.Webinar: Feb 29Product Scorecards for Sustainability: Product scorecards that detail and evaluate environmental and sustainability aspects of products are increasingly adopted by leading companies. This webinar covers the best practices in this area and a case study by Seventh Generation.NY: Mar 19-20Wall Street Green: The longest running and most comprehensive environmental market event in the industry. The Wall Street Green Summit covers cutting edge content, industry developments and features the practitioners and the leaders of tomorrow. Bay Area: Mar 22-23GRI Certified Training: Demand for sustainability experts is growing rapidly as companies look for proven professionals. For companies, GRI trained employees mean faster implementations and better use of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework. Join our partner ISOS group for this two day session. Early bird discounts apply!SF: Mar 26-28Cleantech Forum San Francisco: The 2012 Cleantech Forum San Francisco will mark the 10th anniversary of Cleantech Forums, the annual gathering of the global clean technology innovation community. Our theme this year is “The Power of Global Partnerships,” an exploration of how strategic relationships are playing an ever more important role in the future of clean technology. For a $300 Discount use code "VIPofTriplePundit " More Info.SF: April 10-12 Navigating the American Carbon World: The must-attend event for professionals in the carbon landscape. Over the past decade, NACW has consistently provided informative content, thoughtful discussions and outstanding opportunities for collaboration.Have your event listed here.
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