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My walk through a Delhi slum comes immediately to mind. While there I visited Operation Asha, a 2011 India Development Marketplace winner that is working to arrest the spread of tuberculosis (TB). India is one of the only countries in the world where the rate of infection is growing despite the falling incidence of the disease globally. The previous day, I sat with colleagues from Microsoft Research in Bangalore who explained the simple but critical advances they had made in writing open-source software to verify the identity of patients visiting clinics, aggregating data on missed doses, and using text messages to increase compliance.

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With the opening of the Alamosa Solar generating facility, Colorado is now home to the world’s largest concentrating photovoltaic electric power plant in the world.

Located in…

Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm started in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Since 2004, the firm has invested close to $300 million in both non-profit and for profit ventures, all of which have a stated mission to catalyze social, economic, and political change.

TriplePundit has written about many of the companies that Omidyar has helped start over the years - Ashoka, Mango, Kiva.org, CouchSurfing, and D.light just to name a few. Last week Nick Aster had the pleasure of attending the Omidyar Network's annual executive forum in Redwood City, CA. It's an event designed to bring all of the Omidyar Network's grantees and investments together under one roof for 3 days of brainstorming, inspiration, and learning.

This year, the vast majority of Omidyar's 100+ companies had at least one representative present, some having traveled from as far as Zamiba. The network's areas of investment are concentrated in two main areas: Access to Capital (focusing on microfinance, property rights & entrepreneurship) and Media, Markets & Transparency (focusing on technology and government/corruption). 

Determining which of the world's problems can be solved with profit generating entrepreneurial ideas and which are more suited for traditional non-profits is a difficult decision. It's one that Omidyar grapples with every day. Nick sat down with Matt Bannick, Managing Partner for Omidyar Network to look for some perspective:

This article was reprinted with permission from TriplePundit.

If you are an entrepreneur searching for the best business ideas that will contribute to your community you have found the right article. There are a wide variety of best business ideas that can contribute to your community such as a lawn care company, tree removal company, general landscaping company, or any business that creates more jobs. If you can run one of these businesses successfully, you will increase the …

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Women in Sierra Leone are gaining business acumen and entrepreneurial skills. Photo: UNIFEM.

In Sierra Leone, an NGO sponsors a business plan contest that strives to change the gender makeup of the country’s entrepreneurs.

The African Foundation for Development in Sierra Leone (AFFORD-SL) creates jobs for underrepresented individuals and offers coaching and mentoring services. Despite Parliament's current review of a 30 percent quota for women to assume positions in government and leadership roles, women are largely marginalized in society. Most rural women don’t work outside the home unless it’s in agriculture, and those that do are subject to the largesse of their husbands and other males.

But AFFORD-SL, along with the Sierra Leone Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Department for International Development, seeks to improve their status through a competition called Business Bomba.

Entrants from four regions in Sierra Leone—Freetown, Makeni, Bo and Kanema—pitch business plans to NGO representatives and independent business advisors. The rigorous four-phase competition includes workshops, training and mentoring. Twenty-two finalists are selected with 12 winners representing five categories, one of which is open only to women. Each finalist must pitch a business plan to the panel of judges—a daunting task to many, as a large percentage of the population isn’t college-educated. The top winners in each category receive $23,000 to help jumpstart his or her business. Former winner Eva Roberts developed Morvigor Tea, a homegrown variety that is now available throughout the capital, Freetown.

AFFORD's contests are a low-cost way to shine light on those innovative, effective small business ideas, one Eva Roberts at a time.

The rollout of smart meters around the world continues to encounter various objections. Some people view the meters as an invasion of privacy, or worry about the potential for hackers…

Environmental responsibility is an important part of any good business – and contact centers, many located in countries with emerging economies, can have a tremendous impact on creating new generations of environmentally and socially aware citizens. In fact, the contact center industry is helping to create a new middle-class in developing countries, offering highly sought-after jobs with good pay and benefits.  Knowing that you can care for your family opens up an entirely new world of possibilities, allowing you to devote time and energy towards caring for other issues that matter, like environmental action.   

This is exactly what is happening in countries like the Philippines, Guatemala and El Salvador, where the majority of TELUS International’s contact center outsourcing locations are based, by creating a new generation of environmentally aware citizens.   

Our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) event coordinator in Central America commented, “Here, the environment is not as big of a deal as poverty, security or education, but it is starting to gain importance as new generations see the impact of illegal dumpsters, carbon dioxide emissions, wasted electricity, and natural resource abuse on the health and welfare of the people.” 

There’s also a huge benefit in numbers when you consider that call center companies often have thousands, if not tens of thousands, of agents that can be mobilized around a cause.  Call centers can make a big difference in these emerging economies. 

At TELUS International, we’ve mobilized our team members in a number of ways. We have:

• Created an internal social network (called T-Life), which features a ride sharing, or carpooling, program. This program not only reduces carbon footprint, but also creates opportunity for people to partner with others to get to work, which can be challenging in emerging countries that have poor transportation systems. 
• Started local “Green Teams” and ran events like Let’s Green our Country; installing white boards in call centers to reduce paper use; using energy efficient light bulbs, partnering with local producers and raising awareness of green events, such as World Environmental Day (June 5).
• Encouraged recycling by holding internal contests to raise awareness among employees. At the end of 2011, this initiative resulted in 800 pounds of recycled paper equivalent to saving more than 30 trees (again, in a country where recycling is not the norm).

[pagebreak]Collectively, these initiatives continue to make a big impact.

Last year also marked the fifth annual TELUS Day of Giving in the Philippines where some 2,000 team members participated.  Since 2007, TELUS International team members have volunteered more than 35,000 hours in Filipino communities, dedicating their time towards nation building and community service.  

Through this project, TELUS International continues to organize activities focused on improving the environment and building homes for deserving families in Manila.  For five years in a row, our TELUS International team members have cleaned the Pasig River, cleared land for homes and playgrounds away from contaminated riverbeds and building homes. In the TELUS-GK Village, the team has built 71 homes and a three-story multi-purpose hall and they have started to build a second TELUS-GK Village with another 125 homes already on the way.  

This initiative continues to expand globally: in 2011, the TELUS Day of Giving took place in six different countries around the world.  Activities included house construction and painting, school construction, medical missions, clean-up drives, tree planting, children’s activities, lectures on healthy living, environmental awareness and livelihood sessions.  

Environmental and social responsibility is a fundamental part of our culture at TELUS International. In fact, it ties directly into our brand – ‘the future is friendly.’ We believe a friendly future and healthy environment go hand-in-hand. This is why we continue to develop programs to help foster a corporate culture of giving by creating opportunities that help make positive differences in the communities where we live, work and serve.  

While we are proud of the programs we have in place, we acknowledge that there is much more work that can, and must, be done. As a global leader, we are committed to keeping environmental and social responsibility at the forefront of our decision-making and will continue to make it a priority.

------------------------- 

About TELUS International

Jeffrey Puritt is president of TELUS International – a provider of BPO and contact center solutions to global clients. TELUS International is the global arm of TELUS, a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $10.4 billion of annual revenue and 12.7 million customer connections. For more information, visit: www.telusinternational.com.

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About the Author: Nell Edgington is President of Social Velocity (www.socialvelocity.net), a management consulting firm leading nonprofits to greater social impact and financial sustainability. Social Velocity helps nonprofits grow their programs, bring more money in the door, and use resources more effectively. For more information, check out Social Velocity consulting services and clients.

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For those of you who would like to know more about how we got here John Elkington reflects on the past quarter century in his latest blog.

Here’s to driving the change that’s needed in the next 25 years!

This article originally appeared on Ethical Corporation website.

At the end of this year the first commitment period of the Kyoto protocol expires. Not because it has succeeded in tackling climate change. Far from it. While there were many positive effects resulting from the protocol, getting carbon reductions down to a safe level has not been one of them.

The climate challenge looms larger than ever, and the governments of the world still don’t have a plan to address it. What should be done as Kyoto expires, and what will it take to make real progress?

Recently, SustainAbility and GlobeScan surveyed more than 800 sustainability experts and practitioners located in more than 70 countries, this time to ask about their views on climate change policy.

Tools ranked

We asked our respondents to rank the effectiveness of various tools to address climate change. Notably, the tools garnering the most support – economic instruments, regulatory approaches and technology development – are those that will change the cost of emitting greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), and consequently change the economics of energy.

Fig 1 – Most effective approaches in terms of their likely effectiveness in providing global solutions to climate change post-Kyoto

It seems that this group of experts (see Fig 1) recognises that changing behaviours won’t happen based only on a better understanding of the effects of global warming. The environmental community has been trying that for about two decades.

Real, lasting and widespread change requires a shift in how carbon is priced. And that will occur most effectively through the use of economic instruments, regulatory approaches and technology advancement.

Economic instruments

Even corporate respondents, who unsurprisingly favour technological solutions on climate change more than any other sector, also see comparative value in regulatory approaches and economic instruments.

Among economic instruments, the one seen as potentially most effective in providing global solutions to climate change, by a wide margin, is tax on greenhouse gas emissions (see Fig 2).

Fig 2 – Rating of economic instruments in terms of likely effectiveness in reducing climate change after 2012, if implemented

Surprisingly, emissions trading schemes are seen as the least effective economic instrument (this compared to its second place ranking in a similar 2006 survey). This result may be influenced by the evident shortcomings of the European Union emissions trading scheme, which has so far resulted in neither the intended reductions in CO2 emissions, nor a stable and substantial price on carbon.

Europeans, however, tend to still have some faith in regulatory approaches and are less convinced by technology than respondents from other regions (see Fig 3).

Fig 3 – Most effective approaches in terms of their likely effectiveness in providing global solutions to climate change post Kyoto, by region. *Includes Asia, Africa / Middle East, and Latin America / Caribbean.

But overall results show a strikingly low level of confidence that international agreements, such as a successor to the Kyoto protocol, will result in adequate solutions. This is reflected in the relatively low expectations of the Rio +20 Conference on Sustainable Development coming this June, as well as the quiet surrounding COP-17 in Durban in December 2011.

Cost focus

So our experts seem pretty clear in their view on what must be done to address climate change in the post-Kyoto protocol era: change the cost of GHG emissions, change the economics of energy.

Make it more expensive to emit more, and less expensive to emit less. That is what will really drive behaviour change, at the institutional and the individual level. We don’t need a complex scheme of capping and trading. Instead governments should utilise taxes, tax credits and rebates, and support technology development.

Does this mean that companies and individuals should sit back and wait for governments to act? Certainly not.

We know what great influence business has in shaping public policy in many countries throughout the world. The voices opposing action on climate change are at present loud enough to stymie progress. What is required is for those companies who understand the implications of climate change – to their business and to the broad economy – to make their voice more prominent.

It is not enough to “not oppose” policies and actions that move us toward a low-carbon economy. Policy-makers need to know that business supports action on climate change because it is essential for long-term business success.

For the full results of the Climate Change Policy Options: Beyond Kyoto
A GlobeScan / SustainAbility Survey, click here.

The End Polluter Welfare Act would end fossil fuel subsidies, and save over $10 billion a year and more than $110 billion over 10 years.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Keith Ellison announced they would introduce the bill to Congress during a press conference with 350.org. The bill would specifically end tax breaks for fossil fuel companies, plus eliminate special financing, end taxpayer funded R&D, and set fair royalties policies.

Bernie Sanders describes the End Polluter Welfare Act in an op-ed piece for Reader Supported News, as the "most comprehensive ever introduced on this subject." Sanders added that the Act "ends all the tax breaks, the special financing arrangements, and the federal research and development funding."

A fact sheet by 350.org lists the money that would be saved by eliminating fossil fuel subsidies:

• $14 billion saved by eliminating the intangible drilling deduction
• $12 billion saved by repealing a 2004 law that allows fossil fuel corporations to take deductions aimed at helping American manufacturers by claiming they are manufacturers
• $6.8 billion saved by closing the loophole that allows corporations like BP to deduct money they spend cleaning up their own oil spills and paying damages
• $2.4 billion saved by stopping fossil fuel companies from investing through Master Limited Partnerships, an option not available to clean energy businesses
• $3.7 billion saved by shutting the federal Office of Fossil Energy
• $10.6 billion saved by recouping lost royalties for offshore drilling in public waters

The fossil fuel sector definitely gets the proverbial lion's share of subsidies compared to the renewable industry. Fossil fuels are subsidized at almost six times the rate of renewable energy. From 2002 to 2008, the federal government gave the fossil fuel industry over $72 billion in subsidies while the renewable industry only received $12.2 billion.

The majority of Americans favor ending fossil fuel subsidies. The Yale Project on Climate Change's November 2011 survey found that 70 percent of Americans opposed federal subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, including 67 percent of registered Republicans. As Senator Sanders put it, "People are sick and tired of seeing the same folks who want to cut nutrition programs for hungry children fight tooth and nail to preserve federal tax breaks that go to ExxonMobil - one of the most profitable corporations in history."

Senator Sanders is enlisting the help of citizens to garner support for the bill by asking them to sign a petition. Perhaps the petition will help the bill have a fighting chance of survival. However, past bills trying to end fossil fuel subsidies were defeated, and this particular bill is the most ambitious of them all by seeking to effectively end subsidies to fossil fuel companies. But if anyone can pull it off, it's the independent Senator from Vermont.

Photo: Skytruth via Flickr cc (some rights reserved)

Social services provided by aid agencies at refugee camps just outside the Myanmar border should not be ended too swiftly, or returning populations won't be ready to access new opportunities that may await them. Photo: Jacqueline M. Koch for Mercy Corps

Reforms and investment are opening new doors and promising growth for Myanmar. But what’s exciting for some Burmese and the West brings a downside for many refugees.

The country, also known as Burma, has made headlines recently for its rapid political reforms and promotion of economic opportunity. These days in Yangon, “foreign businessmen in well-tailored suits are driven down potholed streets and past crumbling colonial buildings to meet potential partners...[and] hotel owners, whose businesses suffered during [recent] years are raising prices for what few rooms they have available,” reported the New York Times last month. But as the West eases longtime sanctions against Myanmar and begins to invest, the changes could further shut out an already suffering group: refugees from the country’s six decades of internal strife.

Large numbers of Burmese continue to live outside their country in refugee camps. Most hope to return and find work in their homeland someday. But if they lose access to education and other social services now, they also lose the chance to gain from market access down the road.

Last month, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it was easing restrictions on financial transactions of private groups involved with development and humanitarian assistance work in what has become Southeast Asia’s poorest country, according to the Huffington Post. The relaxed restrictions come as a response to civilian elections in the military-dominated country, which brought parliamentary seats to the opposition party of long-time human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi. Other western countries quickly followed suit, as the European Union and Japan also loosened sanctions, according to The Development Newswire.

But amid growing foreign investment and glimpses of promising market-based growth, rapid internal changes also bring challenges for the refugee population.

Close to 150,000 refugees who fled conflict currently live in tent camps on the Thai side of the Thai-Myanmar border. Most are from the Karen state, a region ensnared in turmoil for decades. Unable or afraid to return home, and not permitted to work in Thailand, they depend on international aid for survival and livelihood. But between global economic pressures on aid groups and the exploding need for aid within Myanmar, outside support to border camps is drying up fast.

“Before, we were in a very difficult position, but at least we had the food that we needed," Saw Eh So, a refugee living on the border, told The Christian Science Monitor. "Now we have to find ways to find the food ourselves."

Social service money is running low, too. The Karen Refugee Committee - Education Entity, which oversees education in the camps, reports that it has lost much of its funding. While cuts in aid began before the easing of sanctions and are heavily influenced by global economic and political pressures, rapid changes in Myanmar’s relations with the West are expediting the process.

Many NGO workers on the border are “concerned that the funding is being withdrawn too quickly, without proper withdrawal plans, and before the refugees are ready to go back,” according to the Christian Science Monitor. But some see exciting new opportunities within Myanmar and believe that refugees will quickly seek to return home as reforms continue.

The return of Burmese refugees to their homeland is clearly desirable. But it won’t happen overnight, and refugees need to return to a safe and stable home with promise of economic opportunity. Market growth is slower than one election, and the home region of most refugees is still far from being a peaceful land of economic promise.

Saw La Plan, a Karen leader in Umpiem refugee camp, says he's not going back yet, because his home state has a long way to go despite broader reforms in the country. “There is still fighting, no development, and landmines everywhere," he told the Christian Science Monitor. "We have to stay here.”

But when refugees do eventually return, they’ll need education and skills to compete in the growing market-based economy that has the West so excited about Myanmar.

European Union officials respond to the easing of sanctions against Myanmar in this video from Agence France Presse.

Millennium Development Goal 5 sets out to “Improve Maternal Health” by 2015. To track progress on this target, researchers rely on maternal mortality ratios and rates of skilled birth attendance as indicators.

While these are important proxy measurements, maternal health is not the same as maternal survival. Indeed for every woman who dies from pregnancy-related causes, approximately 20 women develop maternal morbidities—illnesses and injuries that have a significant impact on their own health and that of their families and communities. Moreover, skilled birth attendance is not a panacea for achieving maternal health. One study in Bangladesh found that 40% of women who had facility births experienced postpartum complications, and 7% suffered a severe obstetric complication. Clinical terms like ‘morbidity’ and ‘fistula’ are another way of saying ‘a lifetime marred by suffering and stigma’ in the case of postpartum depression, psychosis or obstetric fistula.

Maternal morbidities can be acute or chronic and include mental health issues, infertility, anemia, fistula, infections, uterine rupture and scarring, and genital or uterine prolapse. Clinical terms like ‘morbidity’ and ‘fistula’ are another way of saying ‘a lifetime marred by suffering and stigma’ in the case of postpartum depression, psychosis or obstetric fistula. These conditions frequently stem from obstructed labor and they impact a woman’s ability to care for herself and her family. Often, maternal morbidities also result in financial hardship, stigma, social isolation, divorce and domestic abuse. And because women play a key role in care giving, food production and other economic activities, it is estimated that maternal morbidity costs the global economy $6.8 billion annually.

Last year, the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted an event on maternal morbidity in the developing world, and the resulting report was published in March 2012. The authors conclude that to truly improve maternal health, maternal morbidity must be recognized as a critical component of safe motherhood, and researchers must prioritize data collection that tracks morbidity outcomes. Furthermore, they argue that access to affordable and acceptable health care before, during and after pregnancy is essential for preventing and successfully treating pregnancy-related injuries and illnesses. The solutions are the same: better, faster transport, more education on the danger signs of complications, drugs and training at the community level, removal of user fees, better training of midwives, a steady supply of key commodities.

In cooperation with the Rio+20 Secretariat, the UN System and the Global Compact Local Network Brazil, the UN Global Compact will host the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum: Innovation & Collaboration for the Future We Want from 15-18 June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro.

Mark Lee, Executive Director, SustainAbility will be moderating the Opening Panel on The Business Case for the Green Economy on 17th June with the following panellists:

• Achim Steiner, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
• Jochen Zeitz, CEO, Sport & Lifestyle Group, Chief Sustainability Officer PPR, Chairman of the Board of PUMA
• Barbara Krumsiek, CEO, Calvert Investments; Co-Chair, UNEP Finance Initiative
• Barbara Kux, Member of the Managing Board and Chief Sustainability Officer, Siemens AG
• Secretary Lucille Sering, Vice-Chair Climate Change Commission, Philippines

This session will be underpinned by UNEP’s publication: The Business Case for a Green Economy

VERGE London – hosted by GreenBiz and SustainAbility – will this Thursday, 17th May bring together senior executives, business leaders as well as thought leaders from government and think tanks to look at how the convergence of energy, information, building and vehicle technologies can further accelerate innovation and the creation of new business models in pursuit of a more sustainable world.

Add your insight to the conversation by joining VERGE Virtual, which offers live streaming of select sessions, opportunities to meet other online attendees and engage with speakers in online only chat sessions.

Join VERGE Virtual here.

Congratulations to Susannah, who receives an iPad and a copy of John Elkington’s new book, The Zeronauts.

Cause Related Marketing Videogame on YouTube For HopeLab Foundation

In a cause related marketing videogame on YouTube for the HopeLab Foundation called Re-Mission, Roxxi the nanobot battles cancer in the body of a fictional cancer patient. Videos can be part of marketing within your business management structure. Her mission is to destroy a colony of replicating lymphomic cluster cells. The game was designed with young cancer patients in mind by …

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