A recipe for job creation in India's poor neighbourhoods - by Khozem Merchant http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/financialtimes123002.cfm http://www.lijjat.com/network.htm This December 2002 article from the Financial Times details the origins and operations of the cooperative organization Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad and of Jashwantiben Popat who won India's top business award for her work in helping rural women gain economic enfranchisement through democratic participation, application of life skills, knowledge of the Indian market place and distribution channels, and market-driven lending practices. Contact Information: Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad 3, Kamal Apartments 149/150 S.V.Road Bandra (West) Mumbai 400050, Maharashtra India Telephone: 022. 6427282   Fax: 022. 6441903 Email: enquiry@lijjat.com Below the Bottom Line - An Invisible Market Opportunity By C.K. Prahalad http://consumerresearchcenter.org/articles/atb_article.cfm?id=58&pg=4 Today, there are more than 4 billion people who make less than $1,500 a year. Most of them live in rural villages and urban slums and shantytowns. Over the next 40 years, this group could swell to 6 billion or more, since the bulk of the world's population growth is expected to come from this segment. The basic needs of these people are served by unorganized sectors such as the local moneylenders. The markets are local, and hard to reach in terms of distribution, credit, or communications. Not entirely surprising, then, that they have been largely invisible to the corporate sector... The poor can be a very profitable market-if multinationals are willing to change their business models and realize the game is about volume and capital efficiency. Margins are likely to be very low by current norms, but unit sales can be extremely high. Managers who focus on gross margins will miss the opportunity; managers who innovate and focus on economic profit will be rewarded. Contact Information: Email: cprahalad@aol.com Bridging the Water Divide - Gerard Mestrallet http://www.wbcsd.org/projects/water/truce-eng.pdf http://www.suez.com/ This 32-page report from the firm SUEZ addresses the challenges and opportunities in ensuring that water is available to all as a fundamental human right. For many of the world's populations, the last century was one of important progress that brought great improvements to the quality of life. For many more, however, it was an age of economic continental drift that deepened the gulf between rich and poor countries, perpetuating unacceptable living conditions and diminishing hopes for change. It is high time to close this chasm, not only to provide hope for millions of people and to foster economic development around the world, but also to improve global understanding. Access to water is a fundamental issue that must be resolved in order to make this happen. Contact Information: Gerard Mestrallet 16, rue de la Ville l'Eveque 75383 Paris Cedex 08 France Telephone: 33 1 40 06 66 46   Email: bridgingthewaterdivide@suez.com Cultivating a New Image - Firms Give Away Data, Patent Rights on Crops - by Justin Gillis http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/washpost032302.cfm This May 2002 article from The Washington Post details how and why the world's largest agricultural biotechnology companies are setting up charitable foundations, backing aid for subsistence farmers, and donating valuable data and patents as part of a broad push to win acceptance of genetically altered foods from skeptical consumers. Land and Eco-Assets for Sale - by Katherine Ellison http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/washpost012502.cfm This Washington Post article reports on what may be an unprecedented effort to showcase a new approach to conservation. In early 2002 Allegheny Energy Inc. is planning to sell roughly 12,000 acres of Canaan Valley land to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. What makes the plan remarkable is how the power company calculated the property's value for tax purposes. By including the worth of the land's ecosystems, it came up with a figure that more than doubled traditional estimates. "This really is the future," said Rick Herd, the Allegheny water resources manager who worked on the project for nearly five years. "There is no doubt in my mind that we're heading toward a market-based system for conservation." Radical plans for waste could herald a big clean-up - by Joanna Collins http://shopping.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,4462435-105909,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/ This July 2002 Guardian article profiles national, local, and multinational corporate initiatives to effect zero-waste and other innovative policies aimed at stemming the urgent (and growing) problem of household waste. The thrust of the new approaches is to regard waste as an engine of local development, job creation, small business opportunity, and overall economic benefit. Rediscovering Inner-City Markets http://www.federalreserve.gov/dcca/newsletter/2001/fall01/innercity.htm http://www.federalreserve.gov/dcca/newsletter/2001/fall01/resources.htm The search for new, untapped markets has led private industries back to the urban core of metropolitan areas—the inner city. Once seen as densely populated areas plagued by blight, crime, and other ills, inner cities and their surrounding communities are experiencing an economic rebirth. The market potential of urban communities is often miscalculated. The transformation of an inner city from a neglected and underinvested area of town into a robust center of housing development and commercial activity requires a radically different approach to economic development. In light of this, the Community Affairs Offices have engaged in efforts to support the development of new economic indicators that portray central cities as sources for new market opportunities. Research on the value of inner city revitalization conducted by Harvard Business Professor Michael Porter, the nonprofit group Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, and the business leaders coalition Social Compact has revealed that untapped business opportunities exist in urban neighborhoods. Using such studies as a springboard, the Federal Reserve has developed research and resources that promote the benefits of doing business in urban markets. Notable Feature(s): Additional resources and contact information. The Business of Ideas - by Mary Ann Stover, Suzanne Cole, Michael Burton and Page Snow http://www.pewtrusts.org/pubs/pubs_item.cfm?image=img5&content_item_id=579&content_type_id=17&page=p2 This Pew Trusts-produced report examines the best practices of corporate culture and their "venture investement" applicability to generating and developing new ideas for the social sector. Contact Information: The Pew Charitable Trusts 2005 Market Street, Suite 1700 Philadelphia, PA   19103-7077 USA Telephone: 215.575.9050   Fax: 215.575.4939 Email: info@pewtrusts.com The World Bank's Innovation Market - by Robert Chapman Wood, San Jose State University and Gary Hamel, London Business School http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/hbrdevelopment%20marketplace.cfm http://www.developmentmarketplace.org/ This November 2002 Harvard Business Review "best practices" article tells the story of the Development Marketplace that is reframing the aims of many aid and other development programs around the world. Here is an excerpt: The atrium at the World Bank's headquarters soars 12 stories above H Street NW in downtown Washington, DC. Ordinarily, a walker's footsteps echo through it, and the sheer vastness of the hall can be overwhelming. But on February 9, 2000, the entire area crackled with excitement. Crowding in and around 270 cramped booths were more than 700 people, each intent on pitching an idea for alleviating poverty. This polyglot assembly was united in its passion for improving the lot of the billions of people in this world who live in poverty. And the World Bank--the epitome to many of a slow, cumbersome bureaucracy--was eager to listen. What's more, the Bank was ready to fund genuinely new approaches to solving one of the world's most intractable problems. The event was, many felt, nothing short of a miracle.... In short, the Development Marketplace has laid to rest the broadly held suspicion that large organizations are incapable of dramatic, grassroots innovation. Not only did the program lead to the funding of many radically new ways to combat poverty--for instance, vaccines for tropical diseases and insurance for postdisaster construction--but it also taught the World Bank how to unleash the remarkable potential of its people and its clients. Contact Information: Development Marketplace Team Mail Stop MC8-802 The World Bank 1818 H Street NW Washington, DC   20433 USA Fax: 202.522.2042 Email: DMINFO@worldbank.org Where Money Meets Mission: Breaking Down the Firewall Between Foundation Investments and Programming - by Jed Emerson http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/ssir/Summer2003/EMERSON.pdf In the summer 2003 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Jed Emerson discusses the "firewall" that traditionally exists between fund management and grantmaking, a clear separation that is consistent with the way most foundations operate. Historically, foundations have maintained an impermeable wall between investing and programming with the idea being that what's business is business, and what's social is social. Investment managers who buy particular stocks may have found them attractive investments for the near-term, but from the standpoint of environmental or social good or the long-term viability of a business model with such negative impacts, such investments may represent poor choices in conflict with a foundation's stated mission. Emerson makes the case that the goal for all foundations should be to bridge this gap, creating the largest set of overall returns possible—financial, social, and environmental—to maximize total value and total returns on investments. Contact Information: Stanford Social Innovation Review Stanford Graduate School of Business 518 Memorial Way Stanford, CA   94305-5015 USA Telephone: 650.725.5399   Fax: 650.723.0516 Email: info@ssireview.com Why Running a Nonprofit is the Hardest Job in Business - by Carla Tishler http://hbswk.hbs.edu/pubitem.jhtml?id=2265&t=nonprofit&sid=2276&pid=0 An interview with Jed Emerson, author of Enterprising Nonprofits - A Toolkit for Social Entrepreneurs (Wiley, 2001). Brazil's Banks Adjust View of Their Market - by Todd Benson http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/nytimes04905.htm This April 2005 New York Times article reports on developments in Brazil that are leading bankers there to focus on poor communities as potential areas for growth and achieving the broader goal of full economic citizenship for all. Breakthrough Ideas for Tomorrow's Business Agenda http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/hbr0403.cfm This April 2003 article from the Harvard Business Review discusses business practices likely to enhance global confidence and performance in the business sector, and stability and well-being in society more generally. Improving emotional intelligence and the capacity for empathy are cited among the factors that can be particularly valuable in effecting positive change. Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2001: Catherine Muther http://www.3gf.org/news_e&y.html When Cate Muther retired at age 46 as a marketing VP for Cisco, she wanted to do what many who leave the senior levels of corporate management do: start a new venture. But for Muther, that enterprise would have to reflect her passion for influencing social change and draw from diverse sectors of her multifaceted career. Muther graduated from Stanford's MBA program in 1978, at a time when women had not yet achieved large-scale entry into the management suites of Corporate America. Since there was no defined career path in business for women, Muther created her own, forging a successful marketing career at Arthur Little & Co., Bridge Communications, 3Com, and Cisco. Over the years she built relationships and acquired business and technology experience. Creating a foundation seemed like the natural avenue to apply her knowledge and resources to give back to the community. With an initial investment of $2 million in personal Cisco stock, Muther created the Three Guineas Fund, one of the first foundations in Silicon Valley founded by a woman. Ethical Corporation http://www.ethicalcorp.com/ Ethical Corporation magazine is an independent business information provider and events producer on the issues in and around corporate social, financial, and environmental responsibility. The organization Ethical Corporation actively seeks to move the agenda forward in corporate responsibility by discussing practical solutions and management strategies at its events, on its Web site and in the magazine. EC believes the best way to do this is through focused learning events and debate of the key issues facing companies in this area. Its events are designed to be independent forums, where companies, civil society, and government representatives can debate the issues in corporate responsibility management and societal expectations of corporations. Notable Feature(s): Case studies; a broad array of useful resources, tools, analysis, and reports. Contact Information: Ethical Corporation 7/9 Fashion Street London E1 6PX U.K. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 73 75 756   Email: editor@ethicalcorp.com For the Poor, Help from MBAs - By Francesca DiMeglio http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/bw081705mbapoor.cfm "BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID" described one of many strategies and opportunities MBA students and recent graduates are creating to help give purchasing power to people in Third World countries. In the process, the MBAs are also establishing a whole new set of consumers. Instead of offering aid or charity, these students and alumni are helping some of the world's 4 billion poor people, who are sometimes referred to as those at the "bottom of the pyramid" (BOP), to stand on their own two feet. Several educators like C.K. Prahalad, a professor of corporate strategy at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, and Stuart L. Hart, a professor of management at the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, are writing about these practices and sharing their ideas with students. How Marketing Can Reduce Worldwide Poverty - by Martha Lagace http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=2702&t=marketing&sid=0&pid=0 http://dor.hbs.edu/fi_redirect.jhtml?facInfo=bio&facEmId=vrangan Harvard Business School professor V. Kasturi "Kash" Rangan and research associate Arthur McCaffrey are studying ways in which the marketing profession can play a major role in solving some of the world's most entrenched problems. Here's the scenario: You care about benefiting society as a whole. You want to help people stuck in grinding poverty. You want to know what villagers think about a dam proposal for their valley. Or that loan to spur agriculture. Or the supermarket going up in the inner city. What can a marketing background say to you when your goal is not to sell Coca-Cola, but to offer a better existence to people on the edge? That's the puzzle facing Rangan and McCaffrey that they are determined to solve. As they write in a new working paper that they're preparing for an academic journal, there are more than three billion people in the world who may be classified as poor. What does the marketing profession have to say to them? Rangan, head of the HBS faculty marketing unit, has been wrestling with the limits of social marketing for a decade. McCaffrey was so impressed by a talk Rangan gave several years ago on "marketing to the poorest customers" that he campaigned to work alongside him. They readily admit that they're no pioneers. James D. Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, for example, has advocated a variation of social marketing, and it's a common—though they believe often ill-applied—topic in development. But together the two are pushing the envelope of what social marketing can do about world poverty. They want to move social marketing beyond mere sales and promotion. They insist that eliminating poverty requires all the complex skills the marketing profession can bring to bear. Contact Information: V. Kasturi Rangan Email: vrangan@hbs.edu Partners With a Strings Theory of Giving - by Shannon Henry http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A43416-2001Jan24?language=printer http://venturephilanthropypartners.org/ Children's learning and development will be the focus of a new $31 million nonprofit fund created by 28 business leaders in the Washington, D.C., area, reports The Washington Post in a January 25, 2001 story. The new organization, Venture Philanthropy Partners, departs from mainstream philanthropy and reflects the new "venture philanthropy" that borrows strategies of business investors and treats its donations as investments. Donations don't generate financial returns for partners but are tied to management advice and connections to business leaders. Members of the group will take active roles, including board seats, in nonprofits that receive capital and will expect results from their investments. Radicals for Responsibility - by Ryan Underwood http://www.fastcompany.com/feature/02/haas.html http://www.fastcompany.com/homepage/ Social responsibility has captured the attention of a new generation of MBA students. At a time when trust and benevolence are scarce, these students aim higher....Social-impact columns may not appear on corporate ledgers any time soon, but the idea of quantifying business responsibility is starting to take hold. Why? Partially because companies now face more pressure than ever -- from shareholders, employees, and beyond -- to come clean about the results they deliver and the impact of those results on society. Notable Feature(s): Sidebar of additional stories, programs, and corporate socially just initiatives. Contact Information: Ryan Underwood Fast Company 77 North Washington Street Boston, MA   02114-1927 USA Telephone: 617.973.0300   Fax: 617.973.0373 Email: runderwood@fastcompany.com Self-Adjusted Glasses Could Be Boon to Africa - by Nicholas Thompson, Markle Fellow, New America Foundation http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=article&pubID=1062 http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=home The percentage of people in Ghana with vision problems roughly equals the percentage in the United States, according to John Randall, an American-trained optometrist who teaches at the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. But in Ghana, as in other developing countries, poor vision is far more likely to be caused by poor nutrition or by illnesses like trachoma, a bacterial disease that slowly causes blindness. In developed countries like the United States, it is relatively easy to find an eye doctor and good glasses. In Ghana, there are about 50 optometrists for a population of nearly 20 million, and the per capita income is less than a dollar a day. Getting glasses can take a week's travel and several months' wages. Now an Oxford University physicist has developed a novel remedy and is trying it out in Ghana on the advice of the World Health Organization: eyeglasses that allow wearers to correct their own vision with no need for an optometrist. Contact Information: THE NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION 1630 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. 7th Floor Washington, D.C.   20009 USA Telephone: 202.986.2700   Fax: 202.986.3696 Email: webmaster@newamerica.net Serving the World's Poor, Profitably - by Dr. C.K. Prahalad and Dr. Allen Hammond http://newsroom.wri.org/newsrelease_text.cfm?NewsReleaseID=128 http://www.wri.org/wri/ In an article in the September 2002 issue of the Harvard Business Review, noted business scholar Dr. C.K. Prahalad and Dr. Allen Hammond, the World Resources Institute's (WRI) vice president for innovation, argue that poor communities in developing countries represent fundamental new sources of growth for multinational corporations. They said that improving the lives of billions of the world's people could also bring about a more stable, less dangerous world. The article, “Serving the World's Poor, Profitably,” outlines the opportunity of reaching the four billion-person market at the bottom of the world's economic pyramid. The authors said that companies can turn a fair profit while improving the quality—and often, lowering the costs—of goods and services that poor communities receive. Contact Information: Adlai Amor, Director of Media Relations World Resources Institute Telephone: 202.729.7736   Email: aamor@wri.org Social Entrepreneurship in Developing Nations - by Sara Foryt http://unepfi.net/venture/svcdn.pdf http://unepfi.net/venture/background.php This February 2002 independent study report provides an excellent and detailed examination of strategies and programs aimed at selling needed products to the world's poor. Notable Feature(s): The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) UNEP Financial Inventives - innovative financing for sustainability. Contact Information: UNEP Finance Initiatives International Environment House 15 Chemin Des Anemones CH-1219 Chatelaine Geneva Switzerland Social Entrepreneurship: Beyond Theory - by Tamara Backer http://www.onphilanthropy.com/tren_comm/tc2004-01-30.html http://www.onphilanthropy.com/ Social entrepreneurship, a term that can be used in myriad ways, is characterized by Gary McPherson, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, as the quest "to combine the heart of business with the heart of the community through the creativity of the individual." According to Gregory Dees at the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, social entrepreneurs create social value through constant innovation and an unrelenting pursuit of new opportunities, with a disregard for limited resources and a heightened accountability to serve their constituencies and achieve outcomes. Notable Feature(s): This article comes from onPhilanthropy, a global resource center for nonprofit professionals and those tracking developments and seeking information in the field about trends in grantmaking, foundation practices, giving patterns; e-mail newsletter; onPhilanthropy's publisher, Changing Our World, Inc., is a leading philanthropic services company, offering tailored fundraising and philanthropy services that combine innovation with sound fundamentals. Contact Information: Susan Carey Dempsey, Editor-in-Chief Changing Our World 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 2320 New York, NY   10170 USA Telephone: 212.499.0866   Email: tbacker@changingourworld.com: sdempsey@changingourworld.com Taking Off: Angell Center for Entrepreneurship Making a Name for Itself - by Worth Civils http://www.localtechwire.com/printstory.cfm?u=6923 http://www.mba.wfu.edu/ace/ This article talks about the program in entreneurship at Wake Forest University, which garnered national recognition in April 2003 when the Angell Center was ranked No. 1 in the nation according to a poll of faculty by Entrepreneurship magazine. The center also was ranked in the top tier among the nation's best entrepreneurship programs. In January, the Angell Center took first place in the 2003 U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship's National Model MBA Program. Two relatively new programs helped the center achieve this recognition: the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, which partners with local nonprofit agencies to form relationships in the Winston-Salem community, and the Babcock Demon Incubator. Notable Feature(s): Angell Center for Entrepreneurship; links directory; Angell Center programs. Contact Information: Stan Mandel, director, Angell Center for Entrepreneurship Babcock Graduate School of Management Wake Forest University - P.O. Box 7659 Winston-Salem, NC   27109-7659 USA Telephone: 336.758.3689   Fax: 336.758.4514 Email: stan.mandel@mba.wfu.edu Technology Companies Take Hope in Charity - by Susan E. Reed http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/nytimes032303hp.cfm This March 2003 New York Times article profiles Hewlett-Packard as one of the many high tech companies that have adopted philanthropic activities that simultaneously attempt to bridge the digital divide and develop new consumer markets around the world. Technology with Social Skills - by Jane Black http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/printer/31398/ For 30 years, civil war has raged on the island of Mindanao at the southern tip of the Philippines. Muslim separatists want an independent Islamic nation, while the Philippine government strives to preserve its nation's territorial integrity. Caught in the crossfire are Mindanao's 18 million people. Over the past three decades, more than 120,000 have lost their lives in sectarian raids, extrajudicial killings, and kidnappings. Today, thanks to technology, Mindanao's troubles have a new witness: Martus, a software program that helps watchdog groups compile, analyze, and securely transmit data on human-rights abuses. Named after the Greek word for witness, Martus allows staffers of groups such as Human Rights Watch and Mindanao Tulong Bakwet (Mindanao Help For Evacuees) to enter key data -- a victim's name, plus the date and description of an alleged abuse -- into an e-mail-style format and securely transmit it to a database. Martus, creaded by Jim Fruchterman's nonprofit group Benetech, is emblematic of the kinds of technology being employed around the world to tackle sticky social problems -- from eliminating poverty and disease to aiding in conflict resolution and creating transparent views of suspect governments' actions. Today, the focus is on technologies with few bells and whistles that cater to the limited computer capabilities of human-rights workers in the jungle or in capital-poor but labor-rich developing countries. Perhaps the greatest leap forward, however, has to do with innovative ways to target and distribute technology. Across the globe, so-called social entrepreneurs are finding ways to bring technology to disadvantaged groups that otherwise might be left behind, including the poor, the sick, and the disabled. Featured here are the activities of Project Impact, an enterprise dedicated to makaing medical technology available and affordable to the world's poor, and those of OneWorld Health (OWH) committed to finding cures to the infectious diseases that plague the world but that do not present themselves as profitable targets to major drug companies. The Forest Bank: A Market-Based Tool for Protecting Our Working Forestland - by Kent Gilges http://www.wri.org/wri/incentives/gilges.html In 1995, the Nature Conservancy created a special operating unit called the Center for Compatible Economic Development (CCED) to develop and implement new businesses, land uses, and products that would help achieve conservation goals. CCED grew from the realization that to achieve conservation success, we must positively engage people and communities where we work. Rural communities, however, usually value economic well-being and job creation above conservation. Long-term conservation success, therefore, must promote economic development and improvement in the quality of life for target rural communities while maintaining or enhancing the environment in surrounding landscapes. One of the promising business concepts developed by CCED is The Forest Bank. This paper presents its approach and successes. Contact Information: World Resources Institute 10 G Street, NE (Suite 800) Washington, DC   20002 USA Telephone: 202.729.7600   Fax: 202.729.7610 Email: donnaw@wri.org. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid - by C.K. Prahalad and Stuart L. Hart http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/fortunepyramid.cfm Originally from Strategy + Business magazine, this article posits that it is time for multinational corporations (MNCs) to look at globalization strategies through a new lens of inclusive capitalism. For companies with the resources and persistence to compete at the bottom of the world economic pyramid, the prospective rewards include growth, profits, and incalculable contributions to humankind. Countries that still don't have the modern infrastructure or products to meet basic human needs are an ideal testing ground for developing environmentally sustainable technologies and products for the entire world.... MNC investment at “the bottom of the pyramid” means lifting billions of people out of poverty and desperation, averting the social decay, political chaos, terrorism, and environmental meltdown that is certain to continue if the gap between rich and poor countries continues to widen. The Payoff for Investing in Poor Countries - by C.K. Prahalad and Allen Hammond http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=3180&t=nonprofit Multinationals can do plenty to help the world's poor—and in the process help themselves. Start with this fact: the aggregate buying power of poor communities is actually quite large. For example, while the rural poor are naturally harder to reach than the urban poor, they also represent a large untapped opportunity for companies. Indeed, 60 percent of India's GDP is generated in rural areas. The critical barrier to doing business in rural regions is distribution access, not a lack of buying power. But new information technology and communications infrastructures—especially wireless—promise to become an inexpensive way to establish marketing and distribution channels in these communities. In this excerpt from the Harvard Business Review, C. K. Prahalad and Allen Hammond dispel common myths and suggest creative ways to tap an overlooked market. The Promise of Principled Design: Reflections on the Hannover Principles - by Teresa Heinz http://www.mbdc.com/features/feature_apr2003.htm http://www.mbdc.com/ Teresa Heinz provides a firsthand look at "green" design's promise: I first became aware of William McDonough's work in 1984, when he redesigned the national headquarters of the Environmental Defense Fund. The redesign of the EDF office was a watershed event. Not only was it the first "green" office in New York City, it also laid the foundation for a new design philosophy: a commercially productive, socially beneficial and ecologically intelligent approach to the making of things that Bill and his colleague Michael Braungart would come to call eco-effectiveness. The approach underlies all the work of MBDC. MBDC is articulating and putting into practice a new design paradigm; what Time calls "a unified philosophy that—in demonstrable and practical ways—is changing the design of the world." Instead of designing cradle-to-grave products, dumped in landfills at the end of their 'life,' MBDC transforms industry by creating products for cradle-to-cradle cycles, whose materials are perpetually circulated in closed loops. Maintaining materials in closed loops maximizes material value without damaging ecosystems. Notable Feature(s): Eco-Effectiveness: Nature's Design Patterns. Contact Information: McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, LLC 401 East Market St., Suite 201 Charlottesville, VA   22902 USA Telephone: 434.295.1111   Fax: 434.295.1500 Email: info@mbdc.com Tomorrow's Markets - Global Trends and Their Implications for Business - Preface by Michael Porter, Harvard Business School http://www.wbcsd.org/newscenter/reports/2002/tomorrows-market/tm_cover.pdf http://www.wbcsd.org/newscenter/releases/3march02.htm An examination of the dynamics and issues underlying the relationship between corporate strategy and social imperatives for better health, education, the environment, and international development. The report reflects the rising interest in using market solutions to address some of the world's most pressing problems such as population, wealth, nutrition, health, education, consumption, energy, emissions, efficiency, ecosystems, agriculture, freshwater, urbanization, mobility, communications, labor, democracy, accountability and privatization. The global trend for each topic is presented in a concise, lively format that can be easily adapted for business use. Contact Information: World Resources Institute (WRI) 10 G Street, NE (Suite 800) Washington, DC   20002 USA Telephone: 202.729.7600   Email: aamor@wri.org Using Big Business to Fight Poverty - by George C. Lodge http://hbswk.hbs.edu/tools/print_item.jhtml?id=3050&t=nonprofit In recent months, world leaders—including President George W. Bush and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan—have proclaimed their determination to reduce global poverty. Such promises, however, have been made before, and past efforts to follow through on them have been disappointing. Success this time will require a new institution that can harness the capabilities of global corporations and, helped by loans from development agencies, directly attack the root causes of poverty. ... The World Bank has argued that the best way to combat these scourges is for rich countries to double their foreign aid budgets, and Gordon Brown, the United Kingdom's chancellor of the exchequer, has called for a new Marshall Plan to fight poverty. Both initiatives are misguided, however. Unless a new means is found to ensure that foreign aid does what it is intended to—that is, reduce poverty by attacking its causes—such efforts would only make matters worse. ... Contact Information: George C. Lodge, Professor Harvard Business School Soldiers Field Boston, MA   02163 USA Telephone: 617.495.6000   Email: glodge@hbs.edu Where Small Businesses Can't Grow, Countries Can't Develop - by Haider Rizvi http://www.undp.org/dpa/choices/2004/june/overview.html http://www.undp.org/cpsd/fullreport.pdf The United Nations Commission on the Private Sector and Development, while releasing its 2004 report Unleashing Entrepreneurship: Making Business Work for the Poor, stressed that developing countries must remove the excessive restraints on smaller businesses, which, they say, could lead to economic growth and contribute to the efforts for poverty reduction. This article in the UNDP's June 2004 issue of CHOICES reports on opportunities and challenges to effect such change. Notable Feature(s): CHOICES, the quarterly magazine published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Contact Information: UNDP One United Nations Plaza New York, N.Y.   10017 USA Telephone: 212.906.5325   Fax: 212.906.5364 Email: choices@undp.org Winds of change: The future looks bright for one source of renewable energy - by Crispin Aubrey http://society.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4507618,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/ This October 2002 Guardian Weekly article reports that the wind energy industry has entered a new phase in which the seeds of technological maturity are bearing fruit in economies of scale...One reason why the wind industry has been able to embark on larger projects is that it is now trusted by the banks, whose loans are crucial to its progress. European investment analysts have issued glowing reports over the past year or so, praising the technology's potential. This has brought in a new wave of investors keen to share the clean power dividend. Most dramatically, these include oil giant Shell, which recently bought up two large wind farms in the US, and multinational General Electric, which snapped up Enron Wind after its fortunes got entangled with those of its bankrupt parent. This shift has even brought a smile to the face of Greenpeace, keen to see oil companies in particular moving into renewable energy. What wind energy has proved is that it is possible to move from the marginal into the mainstream with clear financial incentives and technology innovation, cutting both costs and emissions in the process. A new report from Greenpeace and the European Wind Energy Association projects that wind could be supplying 12% of the world's electricity by 2020... Amory Lovins http://www.rmi.org/ The Rocky Mountain Institute is an entrepreneurial nonprofit organization that fosters the efficient and restorative use of resources to make the world secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining. RMI does this by inspiring business, civil society, and government to design integrative solutions that create true wealth. RMI was established in 1982 by resource analysts L. Hunter Lovins and Amory B. Lovins. What began as a small group of colleagues focusing on energy policy has since grown into a broad-based institution with approximately forty full-time staff and a global reach. RMI brings a unique perspective to resource issues, guided by the following core principles: Notable Feature(s): Greening a Giant—RMI and its client Wal-Mart; Business Links. Contact Information: Amory Lovins Rocky Mountain Institute 1739 Snowmass Creek Road Snowmass, Colorado   81654-9199 U.S.A. Telephone: 970.927.3851   Aravind Eye Hospitals http://www.aravind.org Aravind Eye Hospitals are the expression of a vision quest, a response to the silent call of thousands who have lost their sight. Under the leadership of Dr. G. Venkataswamy, Aravind Eye Hospital was founded in Madurai in 1978 with the mission to eradicate needless blindness in Tamilnadu. Now in its 25th year, Aravind's innovative eye care delivery system is recognised as a model for other developing countries. Much importance is given to ensuring that all patients are accorded the same care and high quality service, regardless of their economic status. As a result of a unique fee system and effective management, Aravind is able to provide free eye care to two-thirds of its patients from the revenue generated from the other third off its paying patients. Aravind follows the principle that large volume, high quality service result in low cost and self-sustainability. Aravind's network of hospitals has the distinction of being the most productive eye care organisation in the world, in terms of surgical volume and the number of patients treated. With less than one percent of the country's ophthalmic manpower, Aravind performs about five percent of all cataract surgeries in India. Notable Feature(s): Fast Company magazine article on Dr. V, the founder of the Aravind Hospital; background information on Aurolab, the manufacturing division of Aravind Eye Care System, founded with help from David Greeen with the mission of supplying high quality ophthalmic consumables at prices affordable to the common person in the developing countries. Since its inception in 1992, as a nonprofit charitable trust, Aurolab has set up manufacturing facilities to produce intraocular lenses (IOLs), suture needles, pharmaceuticals and spectacle lenses. The international organisations that actively participated in developing the various activities in Aurolab include Seva Foundation, USA, Sight Savers International, UK, Combat Blindness Foundation, USA, Seva Service Society, Canada, CBM International, Germany, CIDA, Canada, Al-Noor Foundation, Saudi Arabia. Aurolab products are primarily supplied to nonprofit eye care programmes at affordable prices. Contact Information: Aravind Eye Hospital 1, Anna Nagar Madurai - 625 020, Tamilnadu India Telephone: (0452) 532653   Fax: 91-452-530984 Email: aravind@aravind.org Artisanal Products and Cultural Industries http://www.intracen.org/mds/sectors/artisanal/main.htm http://www.intracen.org/mds/welcome.htm The following definition, broad enough so that it may be applied to the wide range of world's crafts, was adopted by 44 countries' representatives participating in the UNESCO/ITC International Symposium on "Crafts and the International Market: Trade & Customs Codification" (Manila, 1997): Artisanal products are those produced by artisans, either completely by hand, or with the help of hand-tools or even mechanical means, as long as the direct manual contribution of the artisan remains the most substantial component of the finished product. These are produced without restriction in terms of quantity and using raw materials from sustainable resources. The special nature of artisanal products derives from their distinctive features, which can be utilitarian, aesthetic, artistic, creative, culturally attached, decorative, functional, traditional, religiously and socially symbolic and significant. Artisans can be basically defined as persons who carry out a manual work on their own account, often helped by family members, friends or apprentices, even workers, with whom they constantly keep personal contacts, which generate a community of intellect and attachment to the craft. Notable Feature(s): International Trade Forum magazine. Contact Information: Market Development Section Division of Product and Market Development International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO, Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland Telephone: +41-22 7300226   Fax: +41-22 7300446 Email: sala@intracen.org Aspen Institute http://www.aspeninstitute.org/index.asp The Aspen Institute is a global forum for leveraging the power of leaders to improve the human condition. Through its seminar and policy programs, the institute fosters enlightened, morally responsible leadership and convenes leaders and policy makers to address the foremost challenges of the new century. Founded in 1950, the Aspen Institute is a nonprofit organization with principal offices in Aspen, Colorado; Chicago, Illinois; Washington, D.C., and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The Aspen Institute operates internationally through a network of partners in Europe and Asia. Notable Feature(s): Aspen Peaks, monthly, online newsletter; Beyond Grey Pinstripes, a program to evaluate business schools and business leadership leading to the 2001 report on preparing MBAs for social and environmental stewardship. Contact Information: The Aspen Institute One Dupont Circle, N.W Suite 700 Washington, DC   20036 USA Telephone: 202.736.5800   Fax: 202.467.0790 Email: info@aspeninstitute.org B-REED http://www.b-reed.org/ The Brazil Rural Energy Enterprise Development (B-REED) program in Brazil, with funding from the United Nations Foundation, seeks to develop energy enterprises that use clean, efficient and sustainable energy technologies to meet the energy needs of under-served populations, thereby reducing the environmental and health consequences of existing energy use patterns and stimulating local economic growth. B-REED will initially focus in Brazil's Northeast, specifically in Bahia and Alagoas. The B-REED approach will offer sustainable energy entrepreneurs and existing companies a combination of enterprise development services and early stage financing, including seed capital in the form of debt or equity. For entrepreneurs, this might include assistance to transform their business plans into established companies capable of accessing mainstream financing. For existing companies, the early-stage financing might allow them to expand or enter the sustainable energy business. B-REED will also work closely with financial institutions, NGOs and government entities in order to facilitate the successful integration of these energy technologies into local markets and communities. Notable Feature(s): Extensive information, trainimg materials, and business models to apply to renewable energy development in Brazil; links to groups working around the world. Contact Information: David de Mendonça Cerqueira Rua Prof. Sinval Gama Filho, 14 Gruta de Lourdes Maceió - AL Brazil CEP 57.052-630 Telephone: +82.338.3644   Fax: +82.338.3841 Email: David@ecoengenho.org.br Best Practices for Benchmarking - by David Stauffer http://hbswk.hbs.edu/pubitem.jhtml?id=3746&t=operations Benchmarking, a systematic comparison of the processes and practices of two or more companies or two or more units of a company, gauges the performance of an organization or unit relative to a peer. When executed well, benchmarking prominently reveals gaps between the performance of the benchmarker and the performance of a benchmarked "best practices" leader, and often suggests the means by which the benchmarker might close those gaps. Benchmarkers must be careful, though, to analyze the best practices of others in light of their own culture and circumstances, or they may find that their efforts do more harm than good. They also must precisely determine at the outset of any benchmarking exercise what they are seeking to learn about, why they want to learn it, and what they'll do with the information to make their own processes work better. Insufficient preparation is roughly equivalent to heading out on an auto tour of historic sites without deciding what to see, where to go, or why you're going. Contact Information: David Stauffer, business writer , Montana USA Email: MUOpinion@hbsp.harvard.edu Beyond Grey Pinstripes http://www.beyondgreypinstripes.org/ Beyond Grey Pinstripes, a biennial survey and ranking of business schools, spotlights innovative full-time MBA programs and faculty that lead the way in integrating issues of social and environmental stewardship into business school curricula and research. These programs and pioneering faculty are preparing students for the reality of tomorrow's markets, equipping them with an understanding of the social, environmental, and economic perspectives required for business success in a competitive global economy. Bridgespan Group http://www.bridgespangroup.org/ The Bridgespan Group is a not-for-profit strategic consulting firm focused exclusively on the nonprofit sector. It brings leading-edge strategies and tools from the private sector to address the challenges and opportunities facing nonprofit organizations and foundations. Bridgespan Group's mission is to enhance the capability of nonprofit organizations to achieve breakthrough results in their vital work of addressing society's most important challenges and opportunities. Notable Feature(s): Bridgespan case studies of practical knowledge gained through work with clients. Contact Information: The Bridgespan Group 131 Clarendon St. 7th Fl. Boston, MA   02116 USA Telephone: 617.572.2833   Email: contact@bridgespangroup.org BRINQ - New Worlds at Play http://www.brinq.com/ BRINQ is exploring the creation of peer networks for local innovators in the Base of the Pyramid, particularly for innovation in toys and all things related to play. RINQ is currently focused on cultivating and capturing innovation in toy design in Latin America, with an initial focus on Brazil. Specific regions in Brazil are being determined, but will likely focus on favelas in Salvador or Rio. Much of our current work however is taking us to other parts of the world as we explore innovation, play, and new business relationships in different communities. BRINQ is from the Portuguese word "BRINQUEDO" which means toy, and it's pronounced like the English word "BRINK" which signifies the verge or frontier of something, as for example: "The Brink of Innovation" or "The Brink of the World." BRINQ is involved in the development and testing of the "Base of the Pyramid Protocol," with work in Kenya and Brazil as well as potential projects in India. Notable Feature(s): BRINQ Forums on toys, innovations, the world's poor and more; Toys found in communities living at the "Base of the Pyramid"; Base of the Pyramid Protocol and the table of contents for the BoPP work. Contact Information: Patrick Donohue BRINQ 125 Duke Ellington Blvd /W. 106th Street #2A New York, New York   10025-3769 U.S.A. Business & Human Rights Resource Centre http://www.business-humanrights.org/index.html This site is sponsored by an independent, nonprofit organisation promoting greater awareness of business and human rights issues in a collaborative partnership with Amnesty International Business Groups and leading academic institutions. Notable Feature(s): Water companies; useful sectors directory of news and developments in many manufacturing fields, jobs, and professions; Business and Human Rights in a Time of Change. Contact Information: Christopher L. Avery 361 Lauderdale Tower Barbican London EC2Y 8NA UK Telephone: 44 (20) 7628-0312   Email: avery@business-humanrights.org Business Action for Sustainable Development http://www.basd-action.net/ http://www.wbcsd.org/ Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD) will be the first time the world's major business organizations have come together under one banner in the interests of sustainable development. A joint intiative of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) - Business Action for Sustainable Development has been formed to ensure business rallies its collective forces for the second UN Earth Summit in Johannesburg in 2002. Notable Feature(s): Documents; articles. Contact Information: Eric Beynon BASD 38 Cours Albert 1er 75008 Paris France Telephone: +33 1 49 53 30 65   Fax: +33 1 49 53 28 59 Email: eric@basd-action.net Business as Agent of World Benefit (BAWB) http://www.bawbbrasil.com.br/ingles/home_ing.htm http://www.weatherhead.cwru.edu/bawb/ BAWB was created on February 1, 2002, as a result of a pilot study organized by the faculty of the Weatherhead School of Management of the CASE Western Reserve University in the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001. The issue prompting its creation was the transformation of an international conference on Appreciative Inquiry into a conference whose main topic was the role of businesses as agents of world benefit. Since then, BAWB has been growing and evolving. In Brazil, the conference is scheduled to take place in October, in Curitiba, and it will be the first nationwide public conference on this topic with the participation of teachers, educators, consultants and participants from abroad, where they will be able to talk about the creation of an ethical cooperation effort on the part of businesses as agents of world benefit. In the past few years, a trend has been picking up momentum and is becoming consolidated all over the world: profitable companies are using their capabilities not only to maintain their business, but also to play a role in major social, environmental, and community issues faced by society. These are businesses that have found out that there are ways of increasing profitability while at the same time generating benefits for life. Notable Feature(s): An initiative that grows out of work on appreciative inquiry (AI) and its application; AI is the organizational change process created by David Cooperrider, business school professor at the Weatherhead School of Management. Contact Information: David Cooperrider CASE Western Reserve University/Weatherhead School of Mngmt Appreciative Inquiry Commons 10900 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, Ohio   44106-7166 USA Telephone: 216.368.2215   Email: David.Cooperrider@weatherhead.cwru.edu David.Cooperrider@case.edu Business Case Studies http://www.digitaldividend.org/case/case.htm The World Resource Institute's business case studies go deeper into some of the most promising projects represented in the Digital Dividend Clearinghouse, providing detailed description and analysis of each business model, the market segment in which it operates, its successes and challenges, potential replicability and scalability. If possible, the study also documents the social impact of the venture. Digital Dividends contracts teams of MBA students, under supervision of business school faculty, to research and write our business case studies, as they are uniquely suited to provide unbiased, professional assessments of the business models at low cost. Using MBA students has the added advantage of helping to interest a generation of future business leaders in microenterprise and global development issues. Notable Feature(s): Digital Dividend Digest of Clearinghouse projects, What Works studies, special opportunities and more; invitation to submit case studies; email alert subscription. Contact Information: Email: dividends@wri.org Canopus Foundation http://www.canopusfund.org/index.html The mission of Canopus is to promote the implementation of sustainable development, a concept outlined in AGENDA 21, the final document of the EARTH SUMMIT in Rio de Janeiro, 1992. The enterprise's range of activities is exclusively international and its funding policy focuses on the following three thematic areas: Promotion and support of poverty reduction strategies, particularly through the use of sustainable and appropriate technologies; Sustainable energy use, particularly applications of renewable energies; Research and education on urban sustainable development, including the promotion of youth organisations, networks and projects related to sustainable development. Notable Feature(s): The Quiron Project on rural solar renewable energy; more information: Fabio Rosa, President IDEAAS Rua Leopoldo Fróes 23 – Floresta Porto Alegre, RS 90220-090 Brazil +55 51 3346 8166 e-mail - ideaas@plug-in.com.br Contact Information: Sandra Makinson Canopus Foundation Grünwälder Straße 10 - 14 79098 Freiburg Germany Telephone: +49 761 20 20 172   Email: makinson@canopusfund.org CEMEX Innovation: Developing and Launching an Innovation in the Do-It-Yourself Market for Construction Materials http://www.marketexpansionpartners.com/page359878.htm http://www.marketexpansionpartners.com/page359879.htm In 1998, CEMEX, the world's third largest cement producer, sought to strengthen its position as a leader in its home territory and establish a sustainable competitive advantage in the do-it-yourself cement market....To transform the industry, product category, and capture a strong market share through true differentiation, CEMEX had to create a new market in the do-it-yourself construction segment by resolving value-conflicts that customers had yet to articulate. ... Through its research, Market Expansion Partners discovered that the values of maintaining status in the community through participating in festive communal practices were in conflict with getting ahead and improving the living conditions of ones family. Notable Feature(s): Extensive materials about the social change/listening methodologies developed by Market Expansion Partners to respect values and improve business-social performance. Contact Information: Market Expansion Partners 700 Illinoise Street #201 San Francisco, CA   94107 USA Telephone: 510.220.3334   Email: mfletelier@marketexpansionpartners.com Center for Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/fuqua/case8.html http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/fuqua/case8.html DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University's Fuqua School of Business has created the Center for Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE), a research and education center dedicated to promoting entrepreneurial leadership in the social sector. CASE is being financed by a $2.5 million grant over five years from The Atlantic Philanthropies, which will be matched over 10 years by $2.5 million from Fuqua's budget and money raised by the school. Atlantic is an international foundation that has supported social programs worldwide. Fuqua Dean Douglas T. Breeden said CASE is indicative of the school's commitment to educating thoughtful business leaders worldwide. He said it also provides a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary cooperation among Duke's business school, law school, divinity school, Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, and Office of Community Affairs. Heading CASE as faculty director is J. Gregory Dees, Ph.D., an adjunct professor of social entrepreneurship and non-profit management at Fuqua. Dees came to Duke from Stanford University, where he co-founded its Center for Social Innovation. In the mid-1990s, he was recognized as an academic pioneer in the field of social entrepreneurship because of his similar work at Harvard Business School. Notable Feature(s): Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Contact Information: J. Gregory Dees The Fuqua School of Business Duke University Box 90120 Durham, NC   27708-0120 USA Telephone: 919.660.1937   Email: gdees@duke.edu Center for Business Innovation (CBI) http://www.cbi.cgey.com/about/index.html The Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation is a source of new knowledge and insights for management. It exists to discover and develop innovations in strategy, organization, and technology that deliver high value to business. Its work, performed in collaboration with leading thinkers in business, academe, and other research organizations, fuels Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's development of new strategic consulting services, and is communicated broadly to general business audiences. Notable Feature(s): Wide array of reports and news of business innovation around the world, including CONNECTIVITY REINVENTS THE RULES OF INNOVATION, a research report by Rudy Ruggles on the factors technological and nontechnological that affect innovation, idea generation, development, and spread. Contact Information: Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation One Cambridge Center Floor 2 Cambridge, MA   02142 USA Telephone: 617.494.5600   Fax: 617.494.5601 Email: info-cbi@cgey.com Center for Social Innovation (CSI) http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/csi/ Stanford University's Center for Social Innovation promotes innovative, effective, and efficient solutions to social problems in the United States and around the world through research, teaching, and outreach. CSI pursues this mission in a number of ways: adapting business knowledge, experience, and skills to the challenges facing managers and organizations working to improve social conditions; bringing academic rigor to the generation of new knowledge that enhances our collective understanding of the social sector; and supporting and facilitating inquiry that illuminates the fundamental nature of important social problems. Notable Feature(s): New in 2003 Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), a quarterly journal published by the business school presenting novel ideas at the intersection of the private and social sectors in nonprofit management, philanthropy, and corporate citizenship; SSIR's mission: To provide the best in research and practice-based knowledge to help the people who do the important work of improvind society do it even better. For more information write info@ssireview.com . Contact Information: The Center for Social Innovation Stanford Graduate School of Business Stanford University Stanford, CA   94305-5015 USA Telephone: 650-725-5399   Fax: 650.723.0516 Email: CSI_Info@gsb.stanford.edu China Venture News http://www.chinaventurenews.com/ ChinaVentureNews is edited by James Borton, a serial media entrepreneur with an extensive international writing and financial publishing background. Contact Information: James Borton Email: james@creative-weblogging.com Conservation International: Business & Environment http://www.conservation.org/xp/CIWEB/programs/CELB/business_environment.xml http://www.celb.org/ From Conservation International comes the resources of this site. The private sector emerged as a global force in the 20th century, helping to meet the needs of a rapidly expanding human population. A century of economic progress, however, has extracted a steep price from the natural world. Plant and animal species are disappearing at an alarming rate; forests, wetlands, coral reefs and other vital ecosystems are in critical condition. Pollution, wasteful uses of natural resources, and climate change threaten natural habitats and human livelihoods. To help address these threats, Conservation International and Ford Motor Company have created the Center for Environmental Leadership in Business. This program aims to engage the private sector worldwide in creating solutions to critical environmental problems. The Center for Environmental Leadership in Business engages the private sector worldwide in creating solutions to critical global environmental problems in which industry plays a defining role. The Center engages industries that have the greatest impact on the world's critical ecosystems and those with the greatest potential to promote positive environmental change. These industries include agriculture, fisheries, forestry, energy, mining, travel and leisure, transportation, manufacturing, and financial services. Contact Information: The Center for Environmental Leadership in Business Conservation International 1919 M Street, NW Suite 600 Washington, DC   20036 USA Telephone: 202-912-1000   Fax: 202-912-1047 Email: info@celb.org Corporate Voices for Working Families http://www.cvworkingfamilies.org/index.html Corporate Voices for Working Families is a nonpartisan, nonprofit corporate membership organization created to bring the private sector voice into the public dialogue on issues affecting working families. Its mission is to bring business leaders, corporate perspectives and working-family expertise to the table with policymakers and activists to develop, share and achieve solutions. The organization believes that the business case is clear but has not been clearly articulated in federal or state policy discussions and that Corporate Voices will add a much-needed dimension to such discussions. Notable Feature(s): Issues & Answers - examples of corporate leadership and innovation in linking work and family; Innovations. Contact Information: Donna Klein, President & CEO Corporate Voices for Working Families 1899 L Street, NW Suite 250 Washington, D.C.   20036 USA Telephone: 202.429.0573   Email: DKlein@CVWorkingFamilies.org Digital Dividend Project http://www.digitaldividend.org/ The project's goal is to identify and promote sustainable solutions for bridging the global digital divide, catalyzing large-scale use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to create social and economic "dividends" in poor communities throughout the developing world. It provides information services, including Clearinghouse project data and analysis, full-length business case studies, news alerts, and strategy consulting to help Companies provide critical information, tools, and services to poor communities throughout the developing world--profitably; Development agencies implement bottom-up strategies for improving the effectiveness of their services, and for providing services more sustainably; Grassroots NGOs and entrepreneurs identify and refine promising business models as well as locate sources of funding and other support they need to go to scale. Notable Feature(s): Digital Divide Project Clearinghouse, an online platform tracking social enterprises that use ICTs to deliver critical tools and services to underserved communities in developing countries. Contact Information: Digital Dividend Project World Resources Institute 10 G Street NE Washington, DC   20002 USA Telephone: 202.729.7600   Email: dividends@wri.org Digital Partners Youth http://www.digitalpartners.org/dpyouth.html http://www.digitalpartners.org Digital Partners Youth is a joint effort of Digital Partners and the Youth Employment Summit to serve young people all over the world--especially in poor communities--to effectively use information and communication technology for entrepreneurship and education. This initiative is an effort to mobilize young entrepreneurs from all over the world with the goal of assisting 500 million young adults, especially those facing poverty, to develop productive and sustainable livelihoods by 2012. The program is one of Digital Partners, which is a Seattle-based nonprofit organization with offices in New Delhi, New York, and Silicon Valley that brings technology to bear on issues the education and economic empowerment of the poor around the world. Among other things, Digital Partners supports the South Asia Initiative designed to tap technological and entrepreneurial expertise to achieve breakthroughs in the reduction of poverty in South Asia. The objective is to link the expertise of IT entrepreneurs and executives involved in technology-based market-building efforts with their philanthropic aims. The South Asia Initiative is the first in a global effort that is being adapted to Africa, China, and Latin America. Current activities include activating a brain trust of expatriate entrepreneurs and their IT colleagues, social entrepreneurs, highly placed government officials, business leaders, and others that are committed to technology inspired poverty reduction. Notable Feature(s): Social Enterprise Laboratory; Global Classmates Initiative, which creates cross-cultural and contextual learning experiences for students in Washington State with fellow students in developing countries. The project takes advantage of the opportunities that new information technologies provide to build bridges between cultures, to develop new curricula for the education of global citizens, and to create new ways of learning and teaching that can effectively serve more of the world's children. Contact Information: Akhtar Badshah, Digital Partners Institute World Trade Center 2200 Alaskan Way Suite 455 Seattle, WA   98121 USA Telephone: 206.770.9355   Email: info@digitalpartners.org EMPRESA - Corporate Social Responsibility in the Americas http://www.empresa.org/english/index.cfm Forum EMPRESA is a hemispheric alliance of CSR-based business organizations and affiliated companies whose shared mission is to promote corporate social responsibility throughout the Americas. EMPRESA was created in 1997, when 150 leaders stemming from various regions of the Americas met in a congress in the United States. Their aim was to share ideas and discuss ways in which the private sector could assume a role richer in social responsibility within the borders of the countries it operates in. Forum EMPRESA provides support to existing CSR-based business organizations and their member companies and assistance to create new CSR-based business organizations active in the Americas. EMPRESA works on a case-by-case basis with other types of organizations with the specific focus to promote corporate social responsibility in a specific country or regionally. Notable Feature(s): News and program information; Spanish and Portuguese versions of the site; link to BSR Resources from one of EMPRESA's founding members, the Business for Social Responsibility organization headquartered in San Francisco. BSR is the global partner for responsible business leaders with more than 1,400 member and affiliated companies worldwide. Contact Information: EMPRESA Rua Francisco Leitão, 469 - Conj. 1407 CEP: 05414-020 São Paul SP - Brasil Telephone: (55 11) 3061 5894   Fax: (55 11) 3068-8539 Email: info@empresa.org Engineers Without Borders http://www.ewb-isf.org/ Engineers Without Borders is a growing registered charity dedicated to international development. Specifically, it seeks to have a significant impact on improving the quality of life in developing communities. It does so by focusing on the role of technology in fundamental areas: water, food availability, health, energy and communications. In short, EWB undertakes development-driven technical innovation and technical capacity building. Notable Feature(s): An article from the Globe on EWB, its origins and development; various information technology (IT) and other project descriptions, including this one for water: Water Desalination in the Aral Sea. Having been approached by doctors working on a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team in the Aral Sea to examine water desalination, EWB will begin phase one of a project to bring potable water to residents. In 2003, there are plans to work with local partners to construct two water purification units for MSF hospitals, while simultaneously undertaking a capacity assessment to determine local manufacturing opportunities and partners for large scale rollout of a community potable water solution. Contact Information: Engineers Without Borders (Canada) 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 207 Toronto, ON M2M 4G3 Canada Telephone: 416-481-3696   Fax: 416-222-0166 Email: parker@ewb.ca ForeignAid.com http://www.foreignaid.com/ ForeignAid.com hosts an up-to-the-minute collection of news accounts and reports from around the world that are of use to development professionals, NGO leaders, and social entrepreneurs working in myriad fields of interest. The organization also supports a certification program. Its Foreign Aid Certification and Network is the foremost social-value evaluation agency for nonprofits, companies, and governments worldwide. Its aim is a world where private aid exceeds official development assistance, and social value in non-governmental organizations (NGOs), businesses, governments, and academia is recognized and rewarded. Notable Feature(s): E-newsletter. Contact Information: ForeignAid Rating and Certification Program c/o Development International 32 Sunset Road Suite 600 Demarest, NJ   07627 U.S.A. Telephone: 201.993.8727   Fax: 201.750.9114 Email: ratings@foreignaid.com Global Envision http://www.globalenvision.org/ http://www.mercycorps.org/ Global Envision believes that the more that we understand about the free market system, how it affects us and our neighbors all over the globe, and how it can benefit us all, the better our chances that the global economy will thrive for the prosperity of all. By featuring educational resources, articles, stories and opinions about how economic policy and development can be made more inclusive, Global Envision provides models of how free markets can be a positive force in creating a more fair, just, and stable future. The genesis of the organization began with William Early, Global Envision founder, who conceived the Global Envision partnership with Mercy Corps during a September 2001 meeting with Ells Culver, Co-Founder of Mercy Corps, in which they were planning a visit to Mercy Corps' micro-lending programs in China. The idea for the creation of Global Envision sparked an excitement in Culver and his associates that resulted in Mercy Corps and Early joining enterprises. Notable Feature(s): Library of resources, articles on alleviating poverty through new capitalism, how property rights dictate freedom, globalization, carbon trading and community forestry, and much more. Contact Information: Amy English, Managing Editor Global Envision c/o Mercy Corps 3015 SW 1st Avenue Portland, OR   97201 USA Telephone: 503.796.6836   Fax: 503.796.6844 Email: contact@globalenvision.org Global Giving Matters http://www.synergos.org/globalgivingmatters/ http://www.synergos.org/philanthropistscircle/ Global Giving Matters is a newsletter on best practices and innovations in philanthropy and social investment. It is produced jointly by Synergos and the World Economic Forum for members of WEF and the Global Philanthropists Circle. Synergos and its partners mobilize resources and bridge social and economic divides to reduce poverty and increase equity around the world. Notable Feature(s): Valuable news and reports on initiatives around the world aimed at solving entrenched social problems; Q & A with Stephen Schmidheiny, founder and president of the AVINA Foundation , which cooperates with Latin American business and civil society in promoting corporate social responsibility; Global Philanthropists Circle's GPC Web Parlor for reflection, discussions and actions to reduce global poverty. Contact Information: The Synergos Institute 9 East 69th Street New York, NY   10021 USA Telephone: 212.517.4900   Fax: 212.517.4815 Email: synergos@synergos.org Green@Work http://www.greenatworkmag.com/ green@work magazine is a compelling, contemporary publication dedicated to telling the stories of ecological pioneers, products and systems that are driving an important change in corporate and bureaucratic America. A magazine that unifies many different public and private sector forces with a common cause: green initiatives. A magazine whose audience targets 25,000 of the most powerful decision-makers and agents of change who are painting the economic landscape green. The focus of green@work is pro-business and positive. Its goal is to reinforce sustainable initiatives by sharing success stories and profiling the individuals who are making it happen. green@work explores the social, ideological, economic and political issues that advance green design strategies, as well as the intellectual and charismatic expressions of the visionaries who are fostering mainstream acceptance of ecological advocacy. Contact Information: Karrie Laughlin, publisher Telephone: 417.625.1555   Email: klaughlin@lcclark.com Hazel Henderson http://www.hazelhenderson.com/ http://www.ethicalmarkets.com/ Hazel Henderson, founder, Ethical Markets Media, LLC and Series Creator and Co-Executive Producer of its TV series—Dr. Hazel Henderson is a world renowned futurist, evolutionary economist, a worldwide syndicated columnist, consultant on sustainable development, and author of Beyond Globalization, and seven other books. She and the Calvert Group developed the Calvert-Henderson Indicators, indexes for quality of life that go beyond traditional macroeconomics, examining aspects like education, employment, energy, environment, health, human rights, income, infra structure, national security, public safety, entertainment and shelter. Notable Feature(s): FORESIGHT article 21ST CENTURY STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINABILITY; interview: The New Global Currency; Legacy magazine interview. Contact Information: Hazel Henderson P.O. Box 5190 St. Augustine, Florida   32085 U.S.A. Telephone: 904.826.1381   Fax: 904.826.0325 Email: admin@hazelhenderson.com http://www.msb.edu/faculty/homak/HomaHelpSite/WebHelp/Hunt_for_Globalization_that_Works_Fortune_10-28-02.htm The Hunt for Globalization That Works- by Cait Murphy This October 2002 Fortune article presents early (and ongoing) examples of businesses demonstrating corporate innovation and enterprise to create a robust market among poor people who want to buy many of the same things for their families and themselves as their wealthier counterparts. Incubator Hatches New Businesses in Economically Depressed Areas in Bulgaria - by Clive Leviev-Sawyer http://www.undp.org/dpa/choices/2003/june/bulgaria.html The JOBS Programme, supported by Bulgaria's Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Belgium, Norway and UNDP, was launched two years ago with the goals of job creation and poverty alleviation. Implemented by UNDP, the project provides a range of instruments to establish and strengthen micro and small enterprises to the point where they can promote sustainable job creation in economically depressed regions. Institute for OneWorld Health http://www.oneworldhealth.org/ The Institute for OneWorld Health advances global health by developing new medicines for infectious diseases that disproportionately affect the developing world. Launched in 2000, the Institute for OneWorld Health is the first nonprofit pharmaceutical company formed in the United States to bridge the gap between medical science and its application to the urgent health needs of the developing world and the poor. Using an entrepreneurial business model, OneWorld Health fuses the rigors of pharmaceutical science with the dedication of a social mission. Alone, no single group has the resources to carry basic scientific research forward through product development for infectious diseases in the developing world. OneWorld Health partners strategically with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, universities, government agencies, and global health advocates to develop and deliver new medicines for the developing world. Notable Feature(s): Global Health resources; OneWorld Health programs around the world; useful geographical overview maps with target disease information for the specific locations; OneWorld Health in news about different drugs, business enterprises and initiatives, cure progress, funding activity and more; press release reporting on the Schwab Foundation's 2004 "outstanding social entrepreneur" award to Victoria Hale, OneWorld Health founder. Contact Information: Victoria Hale, Founder and CEO The Institute for OneWorld Health 580 California Street Suite 900 San Francisco, CA   94104 USA Telephone: 415.421.4700   Fax: 415.421.4747 Email: info@oneworldhealth.org Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness (ISC) http://www.isc.hbs.edu/ http://www.isc.hbs.edu/society.htm Based at the Harvard Business School, the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness (ISC) is dedicated to the study of competition and its implications for company strategy; the competitiveness of nations, regions, and cities; and the relationship between competition and society. The Institute seeks to develop new theory, assemble bodies of data to test and apply the theory, and disseminate its ideas widely to scholars and practitioners in business, government, and non-governmental organizations such as universities, economic development organizations, and foundations. Notable Feature(s): Profile of Michael Porter; links to organizations affiliated with the Institute including the Center for International Development; the Center for Middle East Competitive Strategy; the Council on Competitiveness; the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University; the Institute for International Business at Stockholm School of Economics; the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City; and the Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development; collection of research and other materials on competition and society, social enterprise and innovation, progress, and philanthropy and the environment; Harvard Business School research on the inner city. Contact Information: Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness Ludcke House Harvard Business School Soldiers Field Road Boston, MA   02163 USA Fax: 617.547.8543 Email: isc@hbs.edu International Business Leaders Forum http://www.iblf.org/csr/csrwebassist.nsf/content/f1.html Notable Feature(s): Useful collection of links to UK and other organizations and programs promoting social, environmental, health, human rights, education, and economic development. Contact Information: The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum 15-16 Cornwall Terrace Regent's Park London NW1 4QP UK Telephone: +44 (0)20 7467 3600   Fax: +44 (0)20 7467 3610 Email: info@iblf.org International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) http://www.iblf.org The International Business Leaders Forum promotes responsible business practices internationally that benefit business and society. Its aim is to achieve social, economic and environmentally sustainable development, particularly in new and emerging market economies. Notable Feature(s): Breaking news; events; comprehensive selection of publications; key players; corporate social responsiblity roadmap. Contact Information: The International Business Leaders Forum 15-16 Cornwall Terrace Regent's Park London NW1 4QP UK Telephone: +44 (207) 467 3600   Fax: +44 (207) 467 3610 Email: info@iblf.org International Network for SMEs - (INSME) INSME is an international initiative that aims to increase the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by providing innovation services and technology transfer. The initiative is part of the "Bologna Process," a framework derived from the first OECD Ministerial Conference on SMEs and Globalization in June 2000. INSME believes that access to innovation, in particular to technological innovation is a key factor for SMEs. For this reason, this international initiative is focused only on innovation services and technology transfer for SMEs through intermediaries and their networks. Notable Feature(s): Valuable collection of links to international organizations and NGOs around the world; technology transfer programs and other business support services; International Right to Know: Empowering CommunitiesThrough Corporate Transparency http://www.amnestyusa.org/justearth/irtk.pdf http://www.irtk.org/ In the wake of the Bhopal disaster in 1984, public demand in the U.S. grew for better domestic standards. Communities worried: could something similar happen here? Concerned citizens mobilized to support their “right to know” what chemicals were being used at local facilities. In 1986, the U.S. Congress responded by passing the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA). This law, the cornerstone of U.S. right-to-know laws, requires companies to disclose information about the chemicals they use, store, and release from their facilities. The U.S. government provides this information in a publicly accessible database known as the Toxic Release Inventory. These disclosures help to safeguard communities in the United States, giving people better tools to monitor companies, protect themselves, and promote strong health and safety standards. Ironically, domestic right-to-know laws drafted partly in response to Bhopal do nothing to prevent another Bhopal outside the United States. U.S. companies operating abroad are not required to disclose information that they are required to disclose when they operate in the U.S. The lack of disclosure has resulted in environmental, labor, and human rights abuses, which have given rise to public distrust of the U.S. among communities around the world. Put simply, International Right to Know (IRTK) is an effort to close the right-to-know loophole by requiring companies based in the U.S. or traded on U.S. stock exchanges and their foreign subsidiaries and major contractors to disclose information on overseas operations along the lines of domestic disclosure standards. IRTK would apply to facilities like Union Carbide's former pesticide plant in Bhopal, giving the local residents the same rights as Americans to obtain well-organized information about toxic chemicals in their communities. IRTK goes beyond environmental disclosures and includes information relating to labor and human rights practices. Notable Feature(s): Case studies on the human rights and environmental impact of U.S. corporations working and expanding globally; related links. Contact Information: International Right to Know (IRTK) John Cheverie EarthRights International 1612 K St. NW, Suite 401 Washington, DC   20006 USA Telephone: 202.466.5188   Email: john@earthrights.org Jiva Institute http://www.jiva.org Jiva Institute is a research and development institute that designs and deploys innovative products, services, technologies, and models that foster sustainable development. Founded in 1992, the institute works to promote sustainability in four areas: Education, Health, Culture, and Outreach. Jiva has offices in India and the United States. For example, Jiva Culture, which operates from Vrindavan (UP, India), is committed to researching the traditional Indian knowledge systems and finding ways for applying these in modern social settings for cultural enrichment and meeting the goals of sustainability. To this end, scholars from around the world are engaged in distilling the wisdom of ancient and rare Sanskrit works at the Vrindaban-based Jiva Institute of Vedic Science and Culture. And Jiva Enterprise works toward sustainable development of underserved communities in urban and rural India. It carries out projects that provide technology and information access to the rural residents of the country, and which generates opportunities for education, employment, and entrepreneurship. Notable Feature(s): Newsletters on Jiva's principal program areas: education, ayurveda health practices, culture; articles; links to community learning IT centers in India; sustainable development educational materials; courses offered by Jiva for nonprofits moving from NGO to social enterprise, tackling technology, youth in action, rural digital ecology, surviving through innovation, and more. Contact Information: Steve Rudolph Jiva Institute Jiva Marg, Sector-21B Faridabad- HY   121001 India Telephone: 91-129-2429640   Fax: 91-129-5295547 Email: info@jiva.org KickStart (formerly ApproTEC) http://kickstart.org/e_index.html KickStart is a nonprofit organization that develops and markets new technologies in Africa. These low-cost technologies are bought by local entrepreneurs and used to establish highly profitable new small businesses. They create new jobs and new wealth and allow the poor to climb out of their poverty forever. KickStart’s mission is to promote sustainable economic growth and employment creation in Kenya and other countries by developing and promoting technologies that can be used by dynamic entrepreneurs to establish and run profitable small scale enterprises. KickStart believes that self-motivated private entrepreneurs managing small-scale enterprises are the most effective agents for developing emergent economies. Notable Feature(s): The KickStart technologies. Contact Information: ApproTEC-USA 2435 Polk Street San Francisco, CA   94109 USA Telephone: 415.346.4820   Fax: 415.346.4818 Email: approtec-usa@approtec.org approtec@approtec.org info@kickstart.org Knowledge Management Tools and Resources http://hbswk.hbs.edu/websites.jhtml?t=knowledge Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge Web site has compiled a comprehensive selection of links to reports, analyses, and commentary on knowledge management and what different companies have done and learned about information systems and how to evaluate and implement them. Contact Information: HBS Working Knowledge Harvard Business School Baker 100E Soldiers Field Road Boston, MA   02163 USA Email: workingknowledge@hbs.edu Marpa Center for Business and Economics http://www.naropa.edu/marpa/ The mission of the Marpa Center is to educate, empower, and transform the leadership and the environment of business and commerce by creating and sustaining an education, training, research, and consulting center within an accredited university that employs the teaching and learning methodologies of reflection, dialogue, engagement, integration, and assessment. “The Marpa Center intends to bring Naropa's contemplative educational approach into the world of business and economics.” said John Cobb, President of Naropa. This kind of learning is infused with the experience of awareness and insight, and participants deepen their knowledge of themselves and their place in the world. “To ‘Know thyself' is not new to human culture, but the scientific revolution has focused so exclusively, and seemingly successfully, on what's ‘out there,' that it has left us with little in the way of incentive and methodologies to investigate our inner world,” said Mark Wilding, Director of the Marpa Center. The new leadership must be grounded in fundamentally new understandings of how the world works. The sixteenth-century Newtonian mechanical view of the universe, which still guides our thinking, has become increasingly dysfunctional in these times of interdependence and change. The critical shifts required to guarantee a healthy world for our children and our children's children will not be achieved by doing more of the same. ‘The world we have created is a product of our way of thinking,' said Einstein. Nothing will change in the future without fundamentally new ways of thinking. This is the real work of leadership. — Peter Senge Contact Information: Marpa Center for Business and Economics Naropa University 909 14th Street Boulder, Colorado   80302 USA Telephone: 303.245.4800   Fax: 303.245.4819 Email: extend@naropa.edu MicroAid http://www.microaid.net Founded by Richard Beresford out of a United Nations Development Project in Indonesia with a small team of dedicated professionals, MicroAid has been working with poor families and their local community organisations since 1998. Based in the UK, MicroAid builds on over 25 years of experience of poverty eradication using small-scale enterprise, microfinance, and family development as the tools of self-help for poor families. The "micro-aid" development model is brand new, not a development program per se, but actual micro-projects implemented by poor families. Before providing families with a micro-credit loan MicroAid suggests that development organisations provide a risk-free grant first ('micro-aid') that allows the families to develop a profitable enterprise. From this firmer foundation they can then go on to micro-credit. Without that first step families end up paying back loans while struggling with their existing unprofitable enterprises thus potentially sending them deeper into poverty. MicroAid provides integrated managed services for poverty eradication online. The network currently reaches 14,000 poor families in Indonesia and can scale to reach many thousands more. MicroAid uses a simple home enterprise process that families can learn in the village. Local community organisations facilitate ideas for poor family enterprise improvement online. MicroAid's Internet system allows funds to be sent directly to poor family bank accounts for their ideas. MicroAid measures success by the new, profitable relationships and networks created by poor families. Notable Feature(s): Reports on programs underway or in development around the world; MicroAid's Monthly News; see MicroAid's innovative development model in action through the micro-projects of poor families along with the individual budgets down to the last cent. Contact Information: Toby Beresford Managing Director, MicroAid Shakespeare House 168 Lavender Hill Battersea SW11 5TF UK Telephone: +44 (0) 207 801 6344   Fax: +44 (0) 207 801 6345 Email: directors@microaid.net National Center for Nonprofit Boards (NCNB) http://www.boardsource.org/main.htm BoardSource, formerly the National Center for Nonprofit Boards, is the premier resource for practical information, tools and best practices, training, and leadership development for board members of nonprofit organizations worldwide. Through our highly acclaimed programs and services, BoardSource enables organizations to fulfill their missions by helping build strong and effective nonprofit boards. Contact Information: BoardSource 1828 L Street, NW Suite 900 Washington, DC   20036-5104 USA Telephone: 202.452.6262   Fax: 202.452.6299 Email: mail@boardsource.org Off the Books! - a documentary film on corporate responsibility, the environment, and human rights http://www.offthebooks.org/ "Off the Books! Environment & Human Rights" is a 30-minute film by attorney Sanford Lewis that describes the potential and limits of an enforceable, disclosure-based strategy for corporate accountability. Picking up on public attention generated by the Enron scandal, the documentary film provokes discussion of broad issues regarding corporate disclosure of public health, social and environmental issues. It calls for better enforcement and clearer reporting standards from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Contact Information: Sanford Lewis, Attorney Strategic Counsel on Corporate Accountability PO Box 79225 Waverly, MA   02479 USA Email: gnproject@earthlink.net One Million Jobs Created By New Enterprise Law in Viet Nam - by Clare Arthurs http://www.undp.org/dpa/choices/2003/june/vietnam.html According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Enterprise Law in Viet Nam has prompted a boom in private business since it was enacted in 2000. In just three years, about 55,000 new businesses have been registered, increasing the number of total private businesses to an estimated 70,000. It is seen by many as one of the most significant reforms in more than a decade in the country's development, including the recent decision of the Communist Party to recognize the right of Party members to also run private businesses. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) http://www.oecd.org/ http://www.oecdobserver.org/ The OECD is an international organisation helping governments tackle the economic, social, and governance challenges of the globalised economy. The OECD groups 30 member countries sharing a commitment to democratic government and the market economy. With active relationships with some 70 other countries, NGOs and civil society, it has a global reach. Best known for its publications and its statistics, its work covers economic and social issues from macroeconomics, to trade, education, development and science and innovation. Notable Feature(s): Extensive resources on every economic and social sector issue; the OECD Observer magazine; offices around the world, including Washington, D.C.. Contact Information: OECD Washington Center 2001 L Street, N.W., Suite 650 Washington, DC   20036-4922 USA Telephone: 202.785.6323   Fax: 202.785.0350 Email: washington.contact@oecd.org Paul Hawken - Natural Capital Institute http://www.paulhawken.com http://www.naturalcapital.org/ Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and author. Starting at age 20, he dedicated his life to sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. His practice has included starting and running ecological businesses, writing and teaching about the impact of commerce on living systems, and consulting with governments and corporations on economic development, industrial ecology, and environmental policy. His book Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (Little, Brown. September 1999) co-authored with Amory Lovins is published in 14 languages and has been read and referred to by several heads of state including President Bill Clinton who has called it one of the five most important books in the world today. Hawken's books have been published in over 50 countries in 27 languages and have sold over 2 million copies. Notable Feature(s): Natural Capital Institute; Sustainable Civil Society Database. Contact Information: Paul Hawken c/o Natural Capital Institute 3 Gate Five Road, Suite B Sausalito, California   94965 U.S.A. Telephone: 415.331.6241   Fax: 415.331.6242 Email: info@paulhawken.com Places to Intervene in a System - by Donella Meadows http://www.sustainalaska.org/pdf/WholeEarthRev.pdf Folks who do systems analysis have a great belief in "leverage points." These are places within a complex system (a corporation, an economy, a living body, a city, an ecosystem) where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything. The systems community has a lot of lore about leverage points. Those of us who were trained by the great Jay Forrester at MIT have absorbed one of his favorite stories. "People know intuitively where leverage points are. Time after time I've done an analysis of a company, and I've figured out a leverage point. Then I've gone to the company and discovered that everyone is pushing it in the wrong direction!" This paper distills decades of systems analysis and learning into useful principles of intervention and change. Notable Feature(s): Dancing with Systems: What to do when systems resist change, an excerpt from Meadows' book at the time of her death: People who are raised in the industrial world and who get enthused about systems thinking are likely to make a terrible mistake. They are likely to assume that here, in systems analysis, in interconnection and complication, in the power of the computer, here at last, is the key to prediction and control. This mistake is likely because the mindset of the industrial world assumes that there is a key to prediction and control.... But self-organizing, nonlinear, feedback systems are inherently unpredictable. They are not controllable. They are understandable only in the most general way. The goal of foreseeing the future exactly and preparing for it perfectly is unrealizable. The idea of making a complex system do just what you want it to do can be achieved only temporarily, at best. We can never fully understand our world, not in the way our reductionistic science has led us to expect. Our science itself, from quantum theory to the mathematics of chaos, leads us into irreducible uncertainty. For any objective other than the most trivial, we can't optimize; we don't even know what to optimize. We can't keep track of everything. We can't find a proper, sustainable relationship to nature, each other, or the institutions we create, if we try to do it from the role of omniscient conqueror. PlaNet Finance http://www.planetfinance.org/ http://www.planetfinance.org/en/library/library.htm PlaNet Finance is a new international non-governmental institution that aims at using the potential of the Internet to develop microcredit. PlaNet Finance supports organisations offering financial services to people who do not have access to formal financing. PlaNet Finance's direct clients are the microfinance institutions and the other organisations banking with the poorest. PlaNet Finance will not compete with commercial banks. On the contrary, it will help them develop this new sector of their activity in the most efficient way. Facilitating the access to new information technologies in the poor countries is regarded by PlaNet Finance as a priority. This is why PlaNet Finance offers its support to the actors of micro-finance by providing them with hardware and offering them access to the Internet, training, etc. Notable Feature(s): Library of more than 2,000 microenterprise organizations; documents, research, training on microfinance; English , French and Spanish versions. Contact Information: Jacques ATTALI PlaNet Finance 76, Rue de Faubourg Saint-Denis 75010 Paris France Telephone: + 33 1 53 24 31 31   Fax: +33 1 53 24 11 57 Email: contact@planetfinance.org Resource Centre for the Social Dimensions of Business Practice (RC) http://www.rc-sdbp.org/ Established in May 1999 by a consortium of nine UK-based organisations that between them have a wide range of leading edge experience in the social dimensions of business practice, as well as operational activities and networks throughout the world. the Resource Centre (RC) for the Social Dimensions of Business Practice is a one-stop shop that generates ideas as well as provides access to information, knowledge, contacts, tools and expertise. Its focus is on business activity in countries where poverty is a major issue. The Resource Centre is based in the London offices of, and managed by, The International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF). Notable Feature(s): Quarterly newsletter on-line full of valuable resources, links, events, and more; project descriptions of RC work around the world. Contact Information: Information Officer, the Resource Centre for the Social Dimensions of Business Practice 15-16 Cornwall Terrace Regent's Park London NWI 4QP UK Telephone: +44 207 467 3616   Fax: +44 207 467 3615 Email: rc.sdbp@pwblf.org Resource Use in Community Development - Lessons Learned from the Hitachi Foundation http://www.hitachi.org/news/reports/resource_use.html http://www.hitachi.org/index.html Resource Use in Community Development explored two questions that continue to grow in importance as the gap between hard-pressed, isolated communities and the nation as a whole grows ever larger: How can poor communities build from their strengths - particularly their indigenous social, financial, and natural assets? And, how can nonprofit organizations foster community and business success that is sustainable? Launched in 1998, this grant-making initiative invested in 11 mostly rural projects spread across the country. These programs assessed and built upon traditionally undervalued assets - often natural resources such as forests, fertile lands, and scenic spaces - as they sought the elusive formula that would yield sustainable communities. Notable Feature(s): More reports from the Hitachi Foundation, including ones on global corporate citizenship, creating economic opportunities for young people, and the state of corporate citizenship in the United States: 2003. Contact Information: Hitachi Foundation 1509 22nd Street, NW Washington, D.C.   20037-1073 USA Telephone: 202.457.0588   Fax: 202.296.1098 Social Enterprise Knowledge Network (SEKN) http://www.sekn.org/ SEKN is a collaboration formed to address the need for generating social enterprise intellectual capital developed in Latin America through the participation of a group of leading business schools and the Harvard Business School in partnership with the AVINA Foundation. Notable Feature(s): Case studies and contact information for SEKN principals in the region, HBS, and AVINA. Social Venture Network (SVN) http://www.svn.org/index.cfm Founded in 1987 by some of the nation's most visionary leaders in socially responsible entrepreneurship and investment, Social Venture Network (SVN) is a nonprofit network committed to building a just and sustainable world through business. SVN promotes new models and leadership for socially and environmentally sustainable business in the 21st century. SVN champions this effort through initiatives, information services and forums that strengthen community and empower members to work together on behalf of their shared vision. Notable Feature(s): SVN members' initiatives include the Social Venture Institute (SVI) , which, since 1996, has offered the leaders of socially responsible businesses and innovative nonprofits a forum in which to air their business problems and receive expert advice and mentoring by leading members of Social Venture Network. Founded by Gary Hirshberg, President and CEO of Stonyfield Farm, SVI was designed to provide an interactive and affordable way for socially conscious business ventures to explore ways to succeed. Contact Information: Social Venture Network P.O. Box 29221 San Francisco, CA   94129-0221 USA Telephone: 415.561.6501   Fax: 415.561.6435 Email: svn@svn.org Sohodojo Sohodojo is a nonprofit, independent, applied research and development laboratory supporting entrepreneurial free agents and de-jobbed small businesses – the building blocks of Small is Good Microenterprise Networks. Its domain of social action is helping solo entrepreneurs and working families in rural and distressed urban communities seeking sustainable participation in the so-called Network Economy. The organization serves its constituents through the development of business models and associated Open Source software technologies consistent with Small is Good organizing principles. Sohodojo's most elementary constituency is the nanocorp, that is, the solo entrepreneurial free agent or entrepreneurial "working family." Notable Feature(s): Newsletter archives and subscription service; links and numerous other articles of interest. Contact Information: Jim Salmons and Timlynn Babitsky Sohodojo P.O. Box 902 Havre, MT   59501 USA Telephone: 406.265.6354   Email: info@sohodojo.com SolvePoverty.com http://www.solvepoverty.com The SolvePoverty.com program provides an effective way to equip young students to break out of poverty. It brings the opportunities provided by free-enterprise and modern technology to those who need them most. The impact is only limited by the number of individuals and businesses around the world willing to join forces to collectively take up this challenge. Opportunity International's work with SolvePoverty.com over the last 2 years has been a great success with over AU$200,000 being raised creating more than 1300 jobs, providing more than 1500 weeks of distance learning and helping to build the pilot GLOW Learning Centre. SolvePoverty has helped assist more than a dozen Technology Learning Centres around the world with their education programs and curriculum and was recently profiled in the prestigious Harvard Business Review in an article entitled 'Serving the World's Poor, Profitably' in reference to its successful 'Remote Services' employment programs. Notable Feature(s): Useful collection of like-minded organizations and partners around the world; program news. Contact Information: Simon Healy SolvePoverty.com Pty Ltd and OrphanIT.com Remote Services 2/4 Francis St Bondi 2026 Sydney Australia Telephone: 02 9365 5559   Fax: 02 9130 1410 Email: info@solvepoverty.com Southern Business Challenge (SBC) http://www.csmworld.org/sbc/ The Southern Business Challenge (SBC) is a new international network of progressive companies and entrepreneurs from developing countries seeking to advance action towards sustainability and social justice at major international policy fora. The SBC launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in August 2002 in South Africa. The network has been initiated by the India and UK-based Centre for Social Markets to bring the energy and perspectives of progressive economic constituencies from developing countries into international policymaking. All SBC Members are committed to the triple-bottom line approach - people, planet and profit - and the four principles of sustainable development, social justice, personal ethics and corporate integrity. Notable Feature(s): Profiles of SBC members; Contact information in India: Ms Aditi Ghosh Dastidar / Centre for Social Markets / 39 Hindusthan Park / Kolkata - 700 029 / India / Tel. +91-33-465 5898/5711-13 / aditi@csmworld.org . Contact Information: Mr Jonathan Glennie Centre for Social Markets 38 Decima Street London SE1 4QQ UK Telephone: +44-20-7407 7625   Fax: +44-20-7407 7082 Email: jonathan@csmworld.org Stanford University Social Entrepreneurship Startup: Business Plan and Recommendations http://ses.stanford.edu/reports/global.pdf http://www.lutw.org/ An estimated 2 billion people do not have access to even the most inefficient electric lighting systems. The majority of these people are still using fuel-based lighting in the form of kerosene or propane lamps, candles, or wood. These fuel-based systems are over 500 times less energy efficient than emerging electrical lighting systems (based on useful light output per $) and have a wide range of adverse social and environmental impacts ranging from cancer-inducing smoke inhalation to deaths from accidental fires. Traditional incandescent lighting systems have had limited success in replacing fuel-based lighting because of the lack of consistent access to the electrical grid, reliability issues and other factors. Current electrical lighting solutions therefore have relied on battery-powered systems that are much more expensive to purchase compared to fuel-based alternatives. This 2003 report looks at Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) that offer efficient lighting at relatively low power, thereby reducing battery powered operating costs to a level that is competitive with current fuel based lighting. LED lighting is fast becoming a most efficient technology able to provide sufficient illumination for common tasks such as reading with less than 1 Watt of electrical power. This ‘global' business plan primarily focuses on the opportunity presented by LED lighting and the role that Light up the World (LUTW) foundation and other entrepreneurs could play in making LED lighting a widespread reality. Detailed strategies and implementation plans are presented in three individual, stand-alone business plans for China, India and Mexico. Notable Feature(s): Technical Research and Design Report; China Business Plan and Recommendations; India Business Plan; Mexico Business Plan. Contact Information: Ken Robertson, Executive Director Light Up the World Foundation Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Univ. Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW Calgary, Alberta   T2N 1N4 Canada Telephone: 403.220.4230   Fax: 403.282.6855 Email: info@lutw.org STRIVE - Support and Training Result in Valuable Employees http://www.strivenewyork.org/strive.html Among STRIVE's principal activities is the intensive four-week , attitudinal training program emphasizing the development of soft skills necessary to obtain and retain jobs. Through a simulated work environment, participants learn how to dress and speak appropriately for the workplace, how to follow instructions, accept criticism, and functin as team members. STRIVE exists in the real world where there are rarely one-to-one correlations between events and outcomes. When the economy is prosperous, STRIVE faces challenges of recruiting participants and filling higher skilled jobs. When the economy weakens, more people come for sTRIVE services, and placements for even lowskill positions become consequently more challenging... Regardless of the economic landscape, there is a need for what STRIVE offers program participants and employers. Contact Information: STRIVE New York 240 East 123rd Street 3rd Floor New York, NT USA Telephone: 212.360.1100   Fax: 212.360.5634 Email: info@StriveNewYork.org Technology Innovations at the Edge - by Al Hammond and John Paul http://www.nextbillion.net/files/Technology%20Innovations%20at%20the%20Edge.pdf "Bottom of the pyramid" (BOP) markets of the world's poorest people used to be regarded, if they were regarded by large corporations at all, mostly as a place to unload excess or obsolete product. As this October 2005 report illustrates, that has changed. Low-income, predominantly rural communities located at the edge of the telecom network, the edge of the electrical grid, and the edge of existing commercial markets are becoming a key driver of technology innovation, in large part because their sheer scale warrants such attention. BOP markets are beginning to be targeted with technologies designed specifically for the needs of low-income communities, and R&D and commercialization investment in such technologies is increasing. These technologies range from the prosaic but important, like low tech pedal-driven water pumps, to advanced hi tech inventions aimed at improving health and cultivating economic growth. Notable Feature(s): Development through Enterprise, a World Resources Institute Project that identifies, documents, disseminates innovative ways of meeting the needs of poor communities through private sector strategies and seeks to catalyze investment/adoption by engaging companies and development agencies. Contact Information: World Resources Institute 10 G Street, NE (Suite 800) Washington, DC   20002 U.S.A. Telephone: 202.729.7600   Fax: 202.729.7610 Email: allen@wri.org rkatz@wri.org The Growing Role of Public-Private Partnerships http://www.weforum.org/pdf/un_final_report.pdf This World Economic Forum report (September 2005) calls governments to recognize the key role that partnerships with business can play in delivering education, health, and water sanitation services in poor regions of the world. The report examines the status and future promise of public-private partnerships, which are formed when a private company joins with a government, international agency or nonprofit group to work on a specific project. Contact Information: World Economic Forum 91-93 route de la Capite CH-1223 Cologny/Geneva Switzerland Telephone: +41 (0)22 869 1212   Fax: +41 (0)22 786 2744 Email: contact@weforum.org The Hard Numbers on Social Investments - by Manda Salls http://hbswk.hbs.edu/pubitem.jhtml?id=3774&t=nonprofit In what is believed to be the largest study of its kind, MBA students at Harvard Business School recently analyzed the financial returns generated by 110 early-stage companies backed by Investors' Circle, a national network dedicated to early-stage investments in companies that "deliver commercial solutions to social and environmental problems." The conventional wisdom is that capital providers should expect some trade-off between financial returns and social returns, a willingness to accept a social discount to financial returns. However, some in the social investing community believe that this is simply untrue. Because of the increased risk associated with investing in early-stage social ventures, and their ability to dramatically alter conventional approaches to social problems through market solutions, the rate of return on these deals should be at least as high as traditional early stage investments. Contact Information: Email: refquest@hbs.edu The State of Entrepreneurship Education in the United States: A Nationwide Survey and Analysis - by George T. Solomon, Susan Duffy and Ayman Tarabishy http://www.senatehall.com/downloads/sSolomon.fm.pdf Using Business Skills in the Service of Social Entrepreneurship http://ventures.yale.edu/ The Goldman Sachs Foundation Partnership on Nonprofit Ventures is a major initiative at the Yale School of Management focusing on social entrepreneurship in the nonprofit sector. The Partnership was created to respond to a growing interest in income generation among nonprofit organizations. Many of these organizations seek to supplement their philanthropic activity with business income, but need assistance to do so. With major funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Goldman Sachs Foundation, the Partnership educates nonprofits about nonprofit enterprise, serves as a mechanism for capitalizing promising profit-making ventures with financial support, and provides intellectual capital to build the practice of social entrepreneurship in the nonprofit sector at-large. It provides educational and financial support for nonprofit enterprise. The Partnership offers business planning assistance, cash awards, and access to the investment community through its National Business Plan Competition for Nonprofit Organizations. Information and guidance on launching nonprofit ventures are available through an online resource center. Nonprofit organizations receive networking and training opportunities at the Annual Conference and Awards Ceremony. Notable Feature(s): Details about the national business plan competition for nonprofit organizations; Resource Center. Contact Information: Yale School of Management - The Goldman Sachs Foundation Partnership on Nonprofit Ventures 560 Sylvan Avenue Englewood Cliffs, NJ   07632 USA Telephone: 201.894.8950   Fax: 201.894.8610 Email: venturesinfo@yale.edu Whole Foods Market and Its Solar Energy Initiative http://www.wholefoods.com/cgi-bin/print10pt.cgi?url=/company/pr_BRKsolar.html Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market, Inc., the world's largest natural and organic supermarket, and PowerLight Corporation, the leading manufacturer of commercial-scale solar electric products teamed up with Nextek Power Systems to create an integrated on-site solar electric power and lighting system. Under the management of Princeton Energy Systems, the system was installed in March 2002, at the Whole Foods Market store in Berkeley, California, making it the nation's first major food retailer to introduce solar energy as its primary lighting power source. Contact Information: Whole Foods Market, Inc. 601 N. ,Suite 300 Austin, TX   78703 USA Telephone: 512.477.4455   Working for Change (WFC) http://www.workingforchange.com/ http://www.workingassets.com/ WorkingForChange offers opinion, news, and action opportunities for people with progressive values. Anyone with Internet access (members and non-members alike) can speak out on urgent issues, read informative columns, and e-mail online comics to friends. WorkingForChange is a wholly owned subsidiary of Working Assets, a socially responsible "for profit" corporation. Contact Information: Working Assets 101 Market St., Suite 700 San Francisco, CA   94105 USA Telephone: 877.255.9253   Fax: 415.371.1046 World Bank "soul searching" on privatization http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/topic/privatesector/p3302private.html In February, the World Bank's Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) department's Finance, Private Sector and Infrastructure section staged a seminar called 'Rethinking Privatization: A soul searching exercise'. The seminar provided an opportunity for three critics of public services privatisation in Latin America to explain their concerns to sixty Bank officials....Focusing mainly on water, electricity and railways, they pointed to the economic and social impact of privatisations, such as on access to services by the poor, jobs and terms of employment, and small and medium-sized enterprise development. Regulatory arrangements, even when designed to improve and expand services, were proving incapable of doing so effectively. Increasingly, tensions between the interests of transnational service providers and poor people were forcing, as the seminar demonstrated, a rethink. Contact Information: Bretton Woods Project c/o Action Aid Hamlyn House Macdonald Road N19 5PG London UK Telephone: +44 (0)20 7561 7610   Fax: +44 (0)20 7272 0899 Email: info@brettonwoodsproject.org World Development Corporation (WDC) http://www.worlddevelopmentcorporation.org/ The World Development Corporation is to be led by the world's most competent and reputed companies and chartered by the United Nations. The World Development Corporation's activities will alleviate poverty and improve livelihoods in developing countries around the world by initiating and supporting commercially viable business projects. The World Development Corporation will succeed in reducing poverty where others have failed because it will harness the skills and resources of many of the world's largest and most capable companies and couple this with support from international organizations and rich governments. The need for corporate involvement in the fight against poverty stems from several factors. To begin with, many of the world's poor live in countries where governments lack either the will or the ability to raise living standards on their own. A Steering Committee made up of representatives of the world's largest companies is currently being formed to facilitate establishment of the World Development Corporation, with a view to commencement of operations in 2003. Initially, the World Development Corporation is receiving assistance from the founders and associates of Delta Pearl an organization that possesses a unique mix of international business experience. Drawing on its expertise in the fields of business strategy, international economic policy, public relations, organisational psychology, governance, security, corporate responsibility, development and diplomacy, Delta Pearl helps multinational firms become the best possible foreign direct investors. Delta Pearl is the world's first consulting firm to specialise in helping multinational firms respond to the challenge of making foreign direct investment produce better results for everyone. Notable Feature(s): The Corporate Key: Using Big Business to Fight Global Poverty - by George C. Lodge, Harvard Business School, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2002. Contact Information: World Development Corporation c/o Delta Pearl Ltd, 76 St George's Square London SW1V 3QX U.K. Telephone: 44 (0) 20 7828 6598   Email: mail@deltapearl.com World Economic Forum (WEF) http://www.weforum.org/ Incorporated in 1971 as a foundation, the World Economic Forum is impartial and not-for-profit, and is tied to no political, partisan or national interests. In 1995 the Forum was awarded NGO consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The World Economic Forum serves as a platform for discussion, debate and action on the key issues on the global agenda. Supported by 1,000 of the foremost international companies, the Forum engages business and society in partnership to improve the state of the world. The Forum sponsors various economic summits around the world. Beginning as a simple gathering in the Swiss Alps, the Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos has become the premiere gathering of world leaders in business, government and civil society to address the issues and challenges confronting humanity. The Forum acts in the spirit of entrepreneurship in the global public interest to further economic growth and social progress. The Forum serves its members and society by creating partnerships between and among business, political, intellectual and other leaders of society to define, discuss and advance key issues on the global agenda. Notable Feature(s): Numerous publications and reports, including WorldLink, the magazine of the World Economic Forum in its online version; program initiatives on health, women's issues, corporate governance, pension reform, environmental sustainability, agricultural trade, democracy, and more. Contact Information: World Economic Forum 91-93 route de la Capite CH - 1223 Cologny/Geneva Switzerland Telephone: (41 22) 869 1212   Fax: (41 22) 786 2744 ZeroMillion.com http://www.zeromillion.com The mission of Zeromillion.com is to encourage and support entrepreneurial endeavors internationally; to be a top resource for all levels of businessmen, businesswomen, entrepreneurs, and marketers and; to facilitate discussion, communication, networking, and peer assistance though an online community of businessmen, businesswomen, entrepreneurs, and marketers at all levels of knowledge. Notable Feature(s): The Entrepreneurs' Chronicle, a monthly newsletter on entrepreneurship and marketing; resources to inspire young entrepreneurs; information on writing a business plan, financing a startup, managing personnel, marketing, and more; Business & Entrepreneurship Directory. Contact Information: Ryan P. Allis, founder Telephone: 941.794.6361   Email: press@zeromillion.com