By Rebecca Busse A large spider crawled up the side of the solar charge controller while Enrique explained how the solar panel system worked.  Unaffected, Enrique continued to explain wattage, switches and the maintenance of the panels to the assembled group of MBA students, extended family members and the occasional chicken or dog that would [...]

Read On »

There are a few conferences every year that we get really excited about here at 3p. Microfinance USA, coming up in May, is one we’ve had our eye on for a while. Why? Entrepreneurship plays an incredibly important role in building a more sustainable future. This fact is especially magnified in parts of the world [...]

Read On »

Microfinance is feel-good. It’s win-win-win for investors without demanding return requirements. It’s low risk. It helps the poor and empowers an escape from subsistence living. Microfinance is finance we can live with, far from Wall Street’s psychotic derivatives and Madoff-styled sociopaths. Microfinance is lending and investing that’s so ideal that it’s almost cutesy. However, it’s [...]

Read On »

By Eric Weaver, CEO, Opportunity Fund Last month, Opportunity Fund helped truckers beat a February deadline to retrofit their truck engines as new EPA emissions standards in California went into effect. Truckers told Opportunity Fund that without loans to cover the retrofitting costs, they would have had to give up trucking or move their business [...]

Read On »

Microfinance, something now fairly common and even mainstream in 2010, was a novel concept when we first wrote about Kiva in 2005. At that time, you could only lend to people in Uganda. Now you can lend to people around the world, and in a clear sign microfinance has moved beyond being only about helping [...]

Read On »

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest op-ed by Eric Weaver, Opportunity Fund, and Matt Lonner, Chevron. Periodically we are approached by companies wishing to publish op-ed material and other content, sometimes we accept it, sometimes not. We were recently approached by Chevron to do this. While the oil industry is a controversial one on [...]

Read On »

West Coast Village Capital (WCVC) is a social venture program that brings together entrepreneurs to learn from and support each other’s social enterprises. Over the course of 12 weeks, beginning in January 2010, up to 30 social entrepreneurs will work together in groups of five to share their knowledge, strengthen their models, and build their [...]

Read On »

Nobel Laureate and former Vice President Al Gore received the 2009 James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award last Thursday evening for his successful efforts to raise awareness about climate change. The award was inspired by Applied Materials Chairman Emeritus James Morgan’s belief that technology can be a tool to turn ideas into solutions for a [...]

Read On »

Here’s the deal. 1 billion people lack access to clean water. 2.5 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation. Every year 3 to 5 million people die from water-related diseases. Water will surely be the biggest issue of our time, globally. So, what are the strategies being used to bring clean water and sanitation to [...]

Read On »

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 [...]

Read On »

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 [...]

Read On »

By: Scott Shuffield The global warming debate is over.  Now the argument moves to solving the crisis of climate change.  Though often referred to in the context of “global warming,” the issues of climate change don’t just involve “warming” around the world but rather a general instability that could lead to innumerable negative externalities.   During [...]

Read On »

How can sustainability improve the lives of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa? Through the simple realization of good ideas and global collaboration – the founding principles of startup Africa Rural Connect (ARC). ARC seeks to change lives by engaging “anyone who cares about Africa” (including past and present Peace Corps Volunteers, the African Diaspora, development practitioners, [...]

Read On »

On Monday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy addressed the French national statistics agency on the adequacy of GDP in measuring a country’s economic well-being. He requested that the agency give greater consideration to factors such as quality of life and the environment (versus solely relying on GDP’s reporting of goods and services produced) in determining the [...]

Read On »

Manna Energy, a Houston, Texas-based water technology startup, is seeking to put carbon offsets to an innovative and life-saving use: providing water – sustainably – for Rwandan communities. In addition to addressing the country’s interrelated problems of water shortage, climate change, and non-sustainable development, Manna Energy is making the case for sustainable growth in developing [...]

Read On »

The UNDP’s Growing Inclusive Markets Initiative Seeks to Build Viable Markets, Alleviate Poverty and Protect the Environment “About 2.6 billion people in the world living on less than $2 a day are trapped outside of the global economy, looking in with minimal access to formal markets,” according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Living [...]

Read On »

I am worried that our reliance on finding large scale technological solutions can potentially stunt the growth of sustainable development. To me, Sustainable Development is the result of integrating Sustainability in our lives, while Sustainability is a set of actions which ensure that living and non-living systems can thrive in perpetuity. Taking this article as [...]

Read On »

As the world strives to comprehend and adjust to a plunging economy, a debate with a positive spin is emerging around the framework of socially responsible development models. From the World Social Forum (WSF) last month, attended by both Presidents and the penniless, a strong movement has materialized to recognize today’s global economic crisis as [...]

Read On »

I recently completed a quiz at EcoFoot.org, one of several websites designed to give users an idea of their environmental footprint. Long story short, even though I’m greener than your average American, if all my fellow humans lived my lifestyle, it would require 3.5 planet earth’s to maintain. Sobering. A recent post in ScientificBlogging.com discuses [...]

Read On »