From the Sustainable Enterprise Quarterly – Winter 2011 Issue By Ken Allinson (MBA 2011) As the VP of curriculum and admissions for the UNC MBA Net Impact chapter, I recently had the opportunity to work with my fellow Net Impact leader, Michael Chasnow, VP of marketing and communications to bring to UNC Kenan-Flagler a microfinance simulcast course sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. The class, Introduction to Microfinance, was webcast over seven week-night sessions during Mod II. The speaker series explored “why and how microfinance organizations have grown to provide financial services to poor and low-income communities on a sustainable basis.” Michael and I worked closely with the Center for Sustainable Enterprise (CSE) and the Carolina Microfinance Initiative Read More
Monthly Archives: February 2011
Case Brief: Jamii Bora and Kaputei Town, Affordable and Sustainable Housing for Urban Slum-Dwellers
From the Winter 2011 Issue of UNC Sustainable Enterprise Quarterly By Lisa Jones Christensen and Jessica Thomas In late 1999, Ingrid Munro founded a microloan organization in Nairobi, Kenya, with 50 women who had previously been desperate street beggars. The organization, “Jamii Bora” (which means “good families” in Kiswahili), is based on the premise that very poor people can lift themselves from poverty through saving and business development. It grew rapidly, in part, because it employs only its own members and is able to quickly and appropriately innovate to respond to members’ needs. Almost 80 percent of the loans are less than 10,000 Kenyan Shillings (approximately US$125), and many of them are starter loans that could be as small as Read More
The Prospects of Solar Technology
The following is a guest blog post by Justin Crawford (MBA ’12) Over the last several decades the commonly-held perception of solar power as a viable energy source has evolved from uneconomical and unproven to inevitable. Within three to seven years, unsubsidized solar power could cost no more to some customers than electricity generated by fossil fuels. Accessibility, costliness, and regulation, however, are a few of the barriers impeding a more rapid integration of the technology. John Morrison, COO at Strata Solar, who spoke in my Strategies in Sustainable Enterprise class, believes that cost reduction and continued government subsidization are critical for the solar industry’s effort to popularize the triple bottom line benefits of solar power. The burden of encouraging Read More
Sustainability at Cisco Systems
The following is a guest post from April Chen (MBA ’12). This week, I had the opportunity to hear from two employees at Cisco who are involved with very exciting work in sustainability in the technology industry. Kirsten Weeks, Community Relations Manager, shared Cisco’s overarching sustainability strategy; Rob Aldrich, Principle Architect, discussed innovations in energy management at Cisco. I believe that one of the biggest obstacles for companies to successfully incorporate sustainability in their products and operations is convincing shareholders of the business case for companies to adopt such initiatives. As pointed out in Porter and Kramer’s article, “The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy” (Harvard Business Review. December 2002.), companies often fail to develop successful philanthropy programs because they do Read More