Investing Responsibly

I want to expand on one subject I mentioned in my previous post about the Social Stock Exchange (SSE).  Although Social Stock Exchanges are in their experimentation phases and the money represented in the Sao Paolo Stock Exchange is only a drop in the bucket, the larger point is the philosophy that the SSE represents.  And that is investing responsibly. 

The idea behind the Social Stock Exchange is to bridge the gap between traditional business and the tackling of the world’s problems.  Businesses exist to make money.  Companies go public and list on the world’s stock exchanges in order to raise capital, which allows them to grow, expand, develop new technology, and invest.  If their efforts happen to have a positive effect on society, all the better.  But, that’s not why they are in the game; that’s not their responsibility.  Solving social ills and caring for the underprivileged is the responsibility of governments, charities, non-profits, and social workers.  Of course, there is plenty of overlap, but generally speaking, social work and business are two very different entities.  They have different missions, different philosophies, different structures, different resources, different markets, and of course, different sources of financing.  To be sure, many large corporations have a Corporate Social Responsibility Department (CSR) that involves the company in various charitable events and community efforts, but by and large, these activities are minor and these departments often exist for good PR. 

As long as social responsibility and business remain separated, social entrepreneurs will continue to fight un uphill battle to get their missions off the ground.  But, if we can begin to see social responsibility and business as inevitably intertwined, social entrepreneurship will take off.  If the average investor considers ethics with the same weight he or she considers profits, then the field of social entrepreneurship will explode.  With the laundry-list of world-ending problems staring us down (climate change, disease, poverty, overpopulation, food scarcity), many people are calling for action.  Government regulation is needed.  But we can’t regulate ourselves out of these problems.  So regulation is needed to create the proper environment for businesses to begin attacking these impossible problems.  For example, the right combination of tax incentives, tax burdens, and carbon regulation will force businesses to “go green”. 

Which brings me to my point.  Investing responsibly can change the world.  By investing in companies whose products and services benefit society, you are supporting progress.  By not investing in companies that degrade the environment, use harmful chemicals in our food supply, and exacerbate poverty, you are punishing bad behavior.  Everyday you make choices with your money.  Your money is your vote. 

There are now tons of mutual funds out there that only invest their money in ethical businesses.  Here’s a great example of ethical investing.   Tridos is the leading ethical bank in Europe.  Here is there mission statement: “Triodos Bank finances companies, institutions and projects that add cultural value and benefit people and the environment, with the support of depositors and investors who want to encourage corporate social responsibility and a sustainable society.”  Triodos invests in renewable energy, organic food, fair trade, clean technologies, culture, and health.  Their investments have produced huge social returns and have rewarded businesses that contribute to society. 

While a Social Stock Exchange may not exist in your country, you can still put your money to work for good causes.  Invest responsibly.

Social Stock Exchange

In previous posts, I discussed the virtues of conducting your business in a socially responsible way, and examples of people all over the world doing so.  So, naturally, with all the financial upsides of doing good, it must be easy to reorganize and/or start your own business for social benefit, right?  No, of course it’s not.  In fact, even though there are tons of people out there trying to contribute to the world, it’s extremely difficult to start a sustainable business that also has a social mission.  Why?  It’s not because of a lack of ideas or motivation.  No, the single biggest obstacle preventing social businesses from getting off the ground is financing. 

Social entrepreneurs may have great ideas and great missions, but they often lack the capital to start their business, or to expand their business on a grand scale.  A big reason for this is the gray area in which social entrepreneurs operate.  All too often these businesses are seen as too business-oriented for donations from large philanthropic organizations, but too charitable for the average investor looking for a 9% return on his or her investment.  So, the result is that many of these social business ideas struggle, fail, or never even get off the ground. 

Raising capital for a business with a social mission can be incredibly hard.  Historically, their has been no shortage of venture capitalists that a startup can tap for easy liquidity.  But, if your main focus is not financial, it may be difficult convincing investors why it’s a good idea to invest in your cause.  Non-profits and semi-profits have historically had great difficulty rasing money for their objectives.  Not only are the fund raising processes very limited in the amount of money they can raise, but they are also incredibly inefficient.  How much time and resources are lost when day-in and day-out the head of a non-profit has to criss-cross all over the country seeking donations?  Or when a CEO of a for-profit social business has to reassure investors that their money is going to a good cause? Or a new startup needs financing?

Well, at the risk of sounding like an ardent capitalist, there is no place that is more efficient at raising large sums of money than private capital markets.  When a company goes public, on a listed stock exchange, they can rapidly raise very large amounts of capital, allowing them to grow and expand. 

One really intriguing development in the world of social entrepreneurship is the idea of a social stock exchange.  As Sarah discussed in her blog, the first social stock exchange was launched in 2003 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  The ideas, according to its creator, Celso Grecco, is to make a “social profit”.  Any business that wants to be included in the social stock exchange submits their ideas to a board of experts, and if approved, it gets included into a portfolio of other like-minded initiatives, and sold to investors.  This allows investors to put their money in a stock exchange that supports good causes and also allows these investors to turn a profit.  It also provides the much-needed financial capital for social entrepreneurs to launch their businesses.   As Sarah noted, more than $5.5 million have been contributed to more than 71 philanthropic enterprises. 

Grecco’s idea is spreading.  South Africa opened a social stock exchange in 2006.  England and Germany are planning to open their versions this year, and more are in the works in India, New Zealand, Portugal, and Thailand. 

Connecting social entrepreneurs to  investors will be a major step forward in fostering the growth of socially responsible business ventures. 

*photo and article from Newsweek.  It can be found here.

Business Profile: La Fageda

In last week’s business profile we analyzed Barefoot College, the Indian non-profit that trains the rural poor on sustainable economic development.  In this week’s profile, we take a look at La Fageda, a for-profit business employing the mentally ill.

La Fageda is a dairy farm that was founded in Girona, Spain (near Barcelona) by a man named Cristobal Colon (Spanish for Christopher Columbus).  He worked at a mental hospital, helping the patients with useless tasks, making crafts and ashtrays.  He realized that these people could be employed to produce marketable goods instead of just wasting their time.  He started a dairy farm, employing the mentally ill patients he was working with.  La Fageda has grown successfully in Spain and its yogurt and milk products are widely popular in the region.  With over 30 million units of  yogurt sold per year, they now only trail Danone and Nestle in yogurt sales. 

La Fageda employs 210 people, over half of which are mentally or pyschologically ill.  It partners with mental hospitals and pyschiatric wards, taking in the patients, providing job training and employment.  The workers are paid a good wage, and have the option of living on the property or on their own.  If and when it becomes possible, the employees are reincorporated into general society.  On-site mental treatment is available to all workers.  The wonderful thing about La Fageda is that the employees not only receive mental health treatment, but they are given a purpose in life. 

La Fageda Employees

Make no mistake, La Fageda is a for-profit business.  It’s yogurt and milk products are sold because of their high quality, not out of the charity of shoppers.  Most people don’t even know that their delicious yogurt comes from a company employing the mentally ill.  This dairy farm would not survive if it was not profitable.  However, Cristobal Colon is not in this business solely for profit, which is what makes him different than the traditional entrepreneur.  He is as much interested in social change as he is in the bottom line (the double bottom line theory).  Providing employment, income, mental health, and dignity to the mentally ill is Colon’s first priority.  Turning a profit is the vehicle that allows La Fageda to achieve these positive results. 

Colon believes that focusing on his potential employees first, before starting the business, was intricate to success.  “La Fageda is a company that was constructed in reverse.  Its first asset was the workers, a group that needed to be employed…Subsequently the company was created.  La Fageda demonstrates that a company that starts with people, putting people before profits, can grow to be a strong organization.”  Reinvesting its profits into not just expanding but also mental health services for its employees is what separates Colon from the standard businessman.  Building the business around the people is not the traditional way of structuring a business.  But then again, focusing on societal benefits before profits is not the traditional way of running a business. 

*The Quote of Cristobal Colon, as well as more information on La Fageda, can be found in The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, a book by John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan. 

Brian Ellison and Death’s Door Spirits

Talking about social entrepreneurship is great.  But talking with social entrepreneurs and hearing their thoughts directly is better.  In a new segment on this blog, I will be contacting and interviewing social entrepreneurs to get insight into their businesse models, risks, successes, failures, dreams, and beliefs. 

Below is a short interview with Brian Ellison, founder of Death’s Door Spirits.  He founded this company in Wisconsin, named after the water passage between mainland Wisconsin and Washington Island (in Lake Michigan).  Death’s Door produces Gin and Vodka, proving that social entrepreneurship does not have to be dull, and also that any business (not only charity) can take certain steps to positively affect their community.  He takes pride in using local ingredients and he explains how that decision affects his business. 

-Why did you choose to use local wheat for your spirits?

We didn’t choose the wheat for the spirits, we chose the spirits for the wheat!  We had been working with two farmers on Washington Island, WI to grow wheat for use at a local hotel on the island (www.thewashingtonhotel.com) and it became evident that:

1.       the farmers could grow really good wheat

2.       the farmers could grow more wheat than the hotel could use

3.       there is no money in wheat flour or bread loaves

So, we started a search to find products that we could develop that could tell the story of the island and the farmers, while bringing a strong return back to the players involved.  Beer was a natural fit, being Wisconsin, so I went and met with a local brewery and they began producing beer (www.islandwheat.com). It was so popular that the brewery ended up having to do a $1.3m addition to the brewery just to keep up with demand.  From there, it was a couple years of research, studying, experimenting and finally deciding to bite the bullet to come out with Death’s Door Vodka, named after the passage of water between Washington Island and the Wisconsin mainland (www.deathsdoorspirits.com).

 

-What are the benefits or drawbacks of using local ingredients?

 The benefits of using local ingredients is the satisfaction of taking a product from ground to glass.  We know everything that happens to it along the way and can answer any questions to anyone about how it was handled.  Local ingredients, or I should say specific sourced ingredients, give us the integrity of our product that is necessary to differentiate what we are doing from others in the marketplace.  It helps to have your ingredients coming from not only a local source, but a source that is rich in history and deep in story. Anyone else trying to do something like this should understand that a product sourced from a described political boundary is far less sexy than a product sourced from a defined geographic region.

The drawbacks to using local ingredients is simply the time and energy spent in actually getting the raw material in a usable form.  It often feels like 80% of our effort is taking the wheat from the field to the distillery, and only 20% of the effort is actually distilling and selling the finished goods.  This may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it is enviable at times to see products made from catalogue ordered raw materials- it just seems so easy.  But, at least for me, that’s exactly why I love doing what I do- if it was just taking commodity grain and making commodity products, it wouldn’t be much fun, and there certainly wouldn’t be the same level of passion.   

 

-What are your thoughts on the role of business owners to their community?

As a business owner, I think our roles are multi-faceted.  For one, we need to recognize the impact our decisions have on those around us. The outsourcing jobs that a small business provides to a community are critical to the overall health of a local economy.  Its not enough that I have a few employees, but also that I use local legal counsel, a local bookkeeper, etcetera.  Obviously, by the nature of our business, we need to be very conscious of our role in the community, as sometimes the alcohol industry is looked at as evil.   By focusing our efforts with a triple bottom focus of environmental protection and restoration, community support and interaction, and economy vitality, we try to remember that we are stewards on multiple fronts.  Never more than now, as the economy crumbles around us, do this approach seem important, as neighbors try to help each other out in tough times.  By being good citizens, good neighbors and good people, we maintain our sales because we have personified our business and given it mission beyond clamoring for the almighty dollar. 

 

-Do you consider yourself a social entrepreneur? If so, how?

I guess I am a social entrepreneur, I mean, it is critical to our success that we have an exceptional product made from local grain, a strong story that connects the consumer to the farmer, and a focus on bringing money back to the community we work in, so it can continue to survive and thrive.  I don’t know if the first person that ever crafted the term “social entrepreneur” ever intended it to include a booze company, so if it offends anyone to think of us as social entrepreneurs, I certainly won’t argue with them.  Our plans are to keep expanding our company to include more products and more stories in our portfolio- working with other farmers and producers to create truly exceptional products that have a tangible social and environmental benefit.

 

Brian shows that even a “booze company” can be a blessing for a community by crafting a responsible business model sensitive to its effects on a community.  Anyone for a drink?

 

Business Profile: Barefoot College

A new segment that will become a regular feature on this blog will be the Business Profile.  I will take an in depth look at an example of a social business – it’s structure, its financing, its goals, how it works, how it helps the community, etc.  This feature will appear each week.

 

Back in the first post on this blog I discussed Barefoot College.  This is a non-profit that was started in India by a man named Bunker Roy.  India is a land of many hierarchies; where it is not possible for certain people to receive advanced degrees from prestigious universities.  Bunker Roy setup this non-profit to bypass the necessity of degrees and certificates for achieving success.  Barefoot College believes that ordinary people can be self-reliant and can solve complex problems on their own.  It believes in the power of local communities and villages. 

 

Therefore Barefoot College teaches the poor how to develop their own communities, their own way.  All too often, large aid organizations drop in on desperate communities and dictate how to develop a community without taking into consideration local tradition or local knowledge.  Bunker Roy and Barefoot (with obvious resentment towards the elite telling people what to do) believe that “professionals” exist within communities, and highly educated urban professionals are not needed to develop communities.  The rural poor are able to learn how to solve complex problems without needing to be educated, or even literate.

 

The most important factor in successful development, Barefoot argues, is meeting basic needs: clean water, health, education, and work.  Not only are these issues solved by the poor themselves, but they are taught to tackle even tougher problems to increase their quality of life.  Often illiterate and lacking formal education, these villagers are audaciously trained to be solar engineers, local doctors, teachers, and architects.  There is even a children’s parliament in their school.  As the only non-profit that operates for the rural poor and also maintained by the rural poor, students of Barefoot College are responsible for:

 

• Providing solar electricity for over 870 schools across India
• Transforming over 500 hectares of wasteland into usable farmland
• Establishing over 200 health centers in rural India
• Building over 200 homes
• Creating handicraft jobs for over 300 women

 

Picture from Barefoot College website 

 

As a traditional non-profit, Barefoot College gets most of its funding from international aid organizations and the grants from the Indian government.  But they develop with their own local strategies, from the ground up.  Large aid organizations and the government do not have a say in how to develop these communities.  In an effort to promote transparency in India, Barefoot College is also one of the few community organizations that conducts an entirely open audit of its finances for the public to see. 

 

Bunker Roy takes pride in action instead of talk, in results instead of theories.  On the Barefoot College website, it says rather bluntly that there are certain people that should not participate in Barefoot College – “those who hold paper degrees and call themselves experts.  Those who hide behind those degrees and qualifications and are unable to work with their hands.”  And as for the people that should participate?  “Those who are drop outs, cop outs, wash outs and rejected by society because they cannot pass an exam and show a degree next to their name.  Those who have no possibility of getting the lowest of the low government job. They have no choice but to stay and the investment in the training is not wasted. They will earn the respect of the communities they serve because of the service they will provide.” 

 

Redefining traditional theories on international development, Barefoot College is making incredible progress for the rural poor in India. 

Investing in Your Community is Good for Business

In the last post I wrote about how it is possible to embark on business ventures that benefit society.  I also tried to underscore the idea that you don’t need to wait until your business is financially successful to take on social problems.  Social entrepreneurs invest money in certain business designs because they are sustainable; they aren’t just giving money away to never see it again.

Well, I’d like to take this idea one step further.  A social entrepreneur doesn’t start a buisness, pursuing a financial goal, that happens to have the convenient side effects of benefitting society.  They also don’t orient their business model to help society simply because they think it’s the right thing to do (although this is true in some cases).  Social entrepreneurs invest in the improvement of society because it’s just plain good buisness.  In the previous post I talked about how it was possible to couple buiness with social justice.  In this post I’d like to highlight the fact that it is in the interest of businesses (where possible) to tackle the problems of society.  While focusing time and energy on society’s problems may not seem like the best use of precious resources, a healthy society is an essential prerequisite for the success of a business venture.  By lifting people out of poverty a company can create a healthier society that is more likely to be interested in your service or product.  Stephan Schmidheiny is the founder of Avina, a trust that collaborates with businesses and philanthropic organizations for sustainable economic development in Latin America.  I think he summed it up best when he said, “there is no such thing as a successful company operating in a failed society.”  If a community does not have adequate education, economic, or housing opportunities, it won’t exactly be a breeding ground for successful business.

The old tenants of business entrepreneurship say that the only interests of a company are to make money.  That a company is not a caretaker; it’s not the company’s responsibility to solve all of society’s problems.  Leaving aside the philosophical debate over a company’s moral obligations to its society, I’m arguing that it is in the best interest of the company to invest in their potential clients. 

GM executives proudly proclaimed once in a US Senate hearing, “What’s good for GM is good for America.”  The assumption being prosperity for corporations leads to prosperity for society.  I think the reverse could also be true.  I think, what’s good for society is good for business.   

Let’s take a look at an example.  KickStart is a non-profit attempting to lift tens of thousands of Africans out of poverty by giving them the tools to start their own businesses.  They develop low-cost technologies that help these businesses get off their feet.  For example, their “MoneyMaker Hip Pump”, is a low-cost irrigation pump (it looks like an air pump you would use to inflate a tire) allows farmers to irrigate their land faster and easier, and it allows them to grow crops on land at times of the year that previously were impossible.  Thousands of Africans have been able to start their own farms and sell extra food.  KickStart boasts that as of January 31st, 2009, they have helped 80,000 new businesses get started.  Their motto says it all, “A poor person’s top need is a way to make money.”

 Now, let me get to my point.  John Deere, the most well known manufacturer of high-cost farm equipment, has partnered with KickStart.  John Deere has pledged $3 million to KickStart to help expand its operations.  On the face of it, it might seem John Deere is just donating to a good cause.  But, I think John Deere is looking at the purchasers of the low-cost MoneyMaker Hip Pump this year, and they are seeing the John Deere clients 5 years down the road.   As their businesses expand, the farmers will need to buy heavier farm machinery.  By investing in people, John Deere is trying to create new customers.  By investing in people and the community, companies can create a healthy new market for their products.

Pictures from KickStart website

Getting a Social Return on Your Investment – The Double Bottom Line

 

As I wrote in the previous blog, social entrepreneurs are different than the average business man because they seek more than just a profit.  Social entrepreneurs invest money to produce societal benefits that are (hopefully) sustainable and replicable.

 

Social entrepreneurs use business models and market solutions to succeed in producing such societal benefits.  They believe your business can be successful because you are helping society, not despite it. 

 

Andrew Carnegie is one of the most famous philanthropists of all time.  He built U.S. Steel and made hundreds of millions of dollars and then when he was finished he decided to give it all away.  He is left with an impressive legacy of philanthropy and charitable donations.  While his generous giving is to be applauded, some believe that Carnegie was assuaging his conscience; after a lifetime of ruthless business he wanted to makeup for past actions.  In a way, he wanted to buy indulgences before his death.  According to a biographer of Carnegie, “maybe with the giving away of his money, he would justify what he had done to get that money.” 

 

Some might say that is a cynical outlook.  Traditional business entrepreneurs would say you simply need to make money before you can dive into charitable donations or philanthropy. 

 

Nonsense.  The idea that you need money before you can affect positive change is false.

 

Which brings me to the concept of a double bottom line.  A double bottom line is a way of measuring the success of an organization’s activities on more than just a financial basis.  For example, a company can measure the amount of carbon emissions they have reduced, or how many sick people they have helped, or how much they have increased the literacy rate in a specific community.  There are endless ways to measure your positive impact along with your conventional (financial) bottom line.

 

One great example is the collection of companies started by Rick Aubry called Rubicon Programs.  He started a traditional non-profit to train the poor and disabled in certain job skills.  The organization was doing very well for itself but he realized that it would always be dependent on donor funding.  He decided to start Rubicon Bakery and Rubicon Landscape Services, which employ people who deal with poverty, homelessness, and mental illness.  Each business makes millions of dollars a year because of its high quality products and services; it provides jobs to the disadvantaged; and the profits are reinvested to support its original efforts to provide affordable housing, job training, and mental health to those in need.

 

Rick Aubry doesn’t measure success through profits.  He doesn’t look at one bottom line.  He looks at a double bottom line (or multiple bottom lines).  He measures success by the number jobs he can supply for people; by the number of people he can find housing for; by the number of people who can receive quality mental healthcare. 

 

And with over $15 million in revenues for 2007, his original bottom line is still looking strong.  Now, that is what I call a successful businessman. 

Can You Do the Right Thing and Also Make Money?

Milton Friedman once said that the only responsibility of an entrepreneur is to “make as much money as possible.”  If corporations were forced to take responsibility for their negative effects on society, civil rights, or the environment it would be an infringement of that corporation’s freedom.  That belief would probably strike most people as ridiculous, especially in the aftermath of the current financial crisis, which is the result of unfettered capitalism.  So, not only do I find that theory outdated, but I also believe Friedman is missing the point. 

 

Making money and working for the greater good do not have to be mutually exclusive.  It is not a zero-sum game.  Certain people do not have to lose out in order for others to gain.  That is, there don’t have to be winners precisely because there are losers.  In fact, many people are beginning to realize that social entrepreneurial businesses not only make money, but have many other side benefits.  A preventative healthcare facility can make money, prevent the spread of disease, and send people back to work, thereby contributing to long-term prosperity.  “Green” technology companies can make your business energy efficient, and save money as well as lower your carbon emissions.   

 

For too long people have viewed the environment as an unwanted “cost” for businesses.  That cleaning up after yourself was undesirable, unprofitable, and annoying.  But, Milton Friedman failed to realize that issues like the environment are not “costs” but rather “opportunities.”  The “green” industry is the next big boom in business.  With the U.S. paying in the ballpark of $450 billion a year in oil (based on the price of $60 per barrel), entrepreneurs see alternative energy and energy efficiency as the future. 

 

Social Entrepreneurs seek a social return on their investment.  They act in areas where government has failed to provide for the most vulnerable.  As I said in the previous post, social entrepreneurs provide market-based ideas to attack problems at their source. Governments all too often act to alleviate the effects of problems instead of preventing them.  The desire to see a return on their investment (not always financial) motivates these social entrepreneurs to take risks to solve problems.  According to Muhammad Yunus, probably the most famous social entrepreneur, “the future of the world lies in the hands of market-based social entrepreneurs…We can create a powerful alternative to the orthodoxy of capitalism – a social-consciousness-driven private sector, created by social entrepreneurs.”  (click here for the article). 

 

That is not to say that business ventures are inherently good; you can scroll down the list of the most profitable enterprises and easily rattle off a long list of bad deeds committed by these corporations.  However, that is to say that you can conduct your business in a socially responsible way and it doesn’t have to negatively affect your bottom line.  Indeed, you may even find out that there’s a lot of money in doing the right thing. 

What is a Social Entrepreneur?

What is a Social Entrepreneur? According to Ashoka International, social entrepreneurs are “individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing problems.” They may come in the form of non-profits, for-profit companies, and venture capitalists, as well as any mixture of the three. Contrary to most social outreach efforts, social entrepreneurs don’t approach a problem by dispensing welfare or providing temporary relief from the problem. Instead they seek to solve the problem where it starts, at its roots. For example, instead of giving out checks to the unemployed, a social entrepreneur would seek to solve the problems creating unemployment. Through sustainable, long-term business models, social entrepreneurs can:

• Address gaps in healthcare systems.
  • Aravind Eye Clinic charges patients based on their income, allowing them to make a profit while also treating low-income patients.
• Lift people from poverty and welfare dependence through job training.
  • DC Central Kitchen, a food pantry and a meal program for the city’s homeless, provides on-site job training and future employment in the food service industry for many of the homeless they feed.
• Taylor the education institutions to fit the needs of the community.
  • Barefoot College, a non-profit in India, trains the rural poor to more efficiently develop their basic necessities, such as drinking water, sanitation, and electricity. Trainees are not formally educated and are often illiterate. Problems are solved locally, without the help of urban professionals because these trained “para-professionals” already exist within the community, making these communities self-sufficient.
• Making “green-fueled” business cost-effective and competitive.
  • Vestas, the world’s leading wind turbine manufacturer, has installed over 35,000 wind turbines in more than 63 countries, while reducing CO2 emissions by over 40 million tons per year. (This company is doing a lot of good while pulling in 291 million euros in 2007. Not bad.)
• Training the next generation of social entrepreneurs.
  • InnerCity Entrepreneurs works with its urban partnerships to provide business education, networking channels, and research to the people of these communities, people that were previously denied easy access from such resources.

The idea of social entrepreneurship is that by investing in people, you can improve the lives of millions. Whether the social entrepreneur works for profit or not, each one seeks a social return on their investment. This idea dismantles the often accepted notion that governments are responsible for the disadvantaged while private companies are responsible for profit. Social entrepreneurs teach us that responsible market-based solutions can be implemented to alleviate social problems as well as turning a profit. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is for-profit companies helping slow climate change while making money at the same time.

This blog is dedicated to the idea that many of society’s ills can be solved through entrepreneurship. By using innovative ideas, sustainable business models can be implemented and replicated across the world. Each post will give examples of how this is done.