New Ventures to Promote Clean Energy
Photo: Curt Carnemark / World Bank More than 12 million low-income people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America will gain access to clean energy following four companies’ commitments made today to the Business Call to Action, a global leadership initiative that promotes sustainable economic and social development. The companies also expect to create approximately 42,000 […]
Four Companies Announce New Ventures to Promote Clean Energy
Photo: Curt Carnemark / World Bank More than 12 million low-income people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America will gain access to clean energy following four companies’ commitments made today to the Business Call to Action, a global leadership initiative that promotes sustainable economic and social development. The companies also expect to create approximately 42,000 […]
BBC World Challenge 2011
This week sees the end of this year’s BBC World Challenge. There are just a few days left for you to vote for your favourite sustainable business and project: the 12 Finalists are profiled below. Vote before midnight (GMT) 11th November. TRASH TO CASH Hand in Hand – biogas energy, India Food waste from restaurants […]
Smallholders Critical to Reigniting Rural Development in Asia
Rural poverty has declined throughout Asia and the overall economic performance has increased. Agricultural development has played a major role in these improvements with smallholder farmers in the lead. Around the world they already feed almost a third of the world’s population and produce 80 per ent of the food consumed in the developing world. […]
Zidisha.org Facilitates $100,000 in P2P Microloans, “Turns Microfinance On Its Head”
While conducting fieldwork for a microfinance organization in West Africa in 2006, Zidisha.org founder Julia Kurnia noticed something startling. Loans that were funded at zero interest by well-meaning participants in the popular microlending website Kiva.org were costing the impoverished beneficiaries more than 35% on average in interest and fees. The exorbitant rates were charged by […]
Sustained Renewable Energy for Africa
I am pleased to have the opportunity to say a few words on a matter of great importance for us in Africa. It is particularly appropriate that for some weeks now I have been talking about renewable energy resources in Africa. It is common knowledge that Africa is very well endowed with a rich variety […]
Electricity Generation from Renewable Energy
Will Africa have the power it needs in the future? Will Africa have the technology it needs to supply adequate power? Will reliable electricity become an unaffordable luxury for low-income Africans? In the last few years, utility bills have risen many times in most African countries. The rising cost of fuel combined with the rising […]
SABMiller launches first ever cassava lager in Mozambique
SABMiller plc, one of the world’s largest brewers, today announced the launch of the first ever commercial-scale cassava-based beer. The beer, ‘Impala’, will be brewed in Mozambique by SABMiller’s local subsidiary, Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM). The launch marks the latest step in SABMiller’s ambition to create a portfolio of high-quality, affordable beers made using locally-sourced […]
Doing good by doing well: Shaping a sustainable future
Public pressure to tackle social issues isn’t just a threat to success–it’s also an opportunity for companies that know how to pick issues that are ripest for their leadership. Several trends are creating a new set of challenges for corporations. For example, even as a global company facing resource scarcity must create more efficient products […]
Hiring a Corporate Volunteering Consultant? Here’s what to expect.
Your consultant should be intelligent, experienced, and competent. Here are a few pointers to help you choose the corporate volunteering consultant who can meet your company’s needs. Most of our readers work in the field of Corporate Citizenship, CSR, Corporate Community Investment and Corporate Volunteering. The majority are directly responsible for their company’s employee volunteering […]
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves
Exposure to smoke from traditional cookstoves and open fires – the primary means of cooking and heating for nearly three billion people in the developing world – causes 1.9 million premature deaths annually. According to the World Health Organisation, almost all of these deaths are linked to lung health issues, with slightly more than half […]
Supply Chain Risk and Sustainability: Potential for Partnership
Markets and Value Chains, Private Sector and Markets Programme, Overseas Development Institute Uncertainty abounds. The global climate is changing – catastrophic … cropping up with alarming frequency. Weather patterns are increasingly unpredictable; rains fail or floods destroy whole settlements. Commodity prices are rising; energy and fuel costs are increasing, (oil-based) fertiliser is increasingly expensive and […]
Stephen Farrant and Shivvy Jervis: We Need a Green ‘Innovation Revolution’ for Business to be Truly Sustainable
It’s a straightforward premise really – in the longer run, all business has to be environmentally sustainable or the laws of science will take over. We believe there is a clear and compelling business case for energy-intensive businesses to put environmental responsibility and resource efficiency on their core agenda now. And with the operating environment […]
Moving Minds, Moving Money: SOCAP/Europe in Amsterdam
On Monday, I attended the launch of SOCAP Europe in Amsterdam. Founded in 2008, as a “multi-platform organization dedicated to the flow of capital towards social good”, SOCAP has already established itself as one of the leading events on the impact investment calendar in the US, but this is the first time the event has […]
The GIM Initiative Releases 60 New Case Studies of Inclusive Business Models
The “Growing Inclusive Markets” (GIM) Initiative, a UNDP-led global multi-stakeholder research and advocacy initiative on inclusive business models (i.e. financially sustainable models that include the poor on the demand side as clients and customers, and on the supply side as employees, producers and business owners along the value chain), has recently released 60 new case […]
Why the latest Coca-Cola/SABMiller report helps us all move forward
Tracking what happens up and down a company’s value chain, where and how poor people engage, can be massively revealing. So I welcome the new report, ‘Exploring the Links between International Business and Poverty Redu…; The Coca-Cola/SAB Miller value chain impacts in Zambia and El Salvador.’ It’s not earth shattering, but that is precisely why […]
Joe Phelan: Rolling up Sleeves for Development
In the world’s top corporate boardrooms, its lecture theatres and in the planning sessions of think tanks and development agencies such as my own, much is made of uncovering new business solutions for development challenges. Inclusive innovation is the current buzz. This is important work. Today, in rural Maharastra, India, I was reminded of another […]
Acumen Fund and AECF: Innovative Approaches to Financing Pro-Poor Business
An increasing number of businesses find that investing in pro-poor business approaches yields not only bottom line rewards, but also poverty alleviation. However, employing these inclusive business models to produce such results can be challenging when short-term time horizons exist for capital investments and barriers to financial access persist for small and medium-sized enterprises. During […]
Stephen Farrant: Responsible Business Goes Mainstream
As responsible tourism goes mainstream, the issues of environmental and social responsibility have been placed firmly on the agendas of global company boards. But the myth remains that it is only small specialist companies that have adopted a responsible tourism strategy. This is however, not the case and major global travel and tourism companies have […]
Graham Baxter: Voluntary Coalitions – in Crisis or Just Growing Up?
Voluntary coalitions set up by business, government and civil society groups to address ethical challenges risk losing their potency when they become detached from the leadership agenda. Once leadership of the agenda for tackling specific corporate responsibility challenges moves from the CEO’s office to the operational areas, there is a natural shift to focusing more […]