By Jessie Robinson, BS Environmental Science ’16 Who knew that an insurance company could be financially sustainable and effect positive social change? Well that is what the Undergraduate Net Impact Career Fellows, a group of select UNC students, discovered when Kevin Trapani, CEO of The Redwoods Group, and Dan Baum, the Executive Director of The Redwoods Group Foundation, spoke on March 26 as part of the Net Impact Career Series. The Redwoods Group is a social enterprise whose mission is to love, serve, and transform, in that order. A certified B corporation that aims to satisfy stakeholders, not just shareholders, the company mainly insures YMCAs across the country as well as other nonprofit and for-benefit camps. Trapani and Baum stressed Read More
Tag Archives: Social Entrepreneurship
Turning Waste into Opportunity
By Corey Barnes (MBA ’14) Can entrepreneurship save the world? During UNC’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Center for Sustainable Enterprise sponsored an event where Tom Szaky, Founder of Terracycle, and several other entrepreneurs discussed how their companies have emerged to solve world problems, both on a local and international scale. Waste into Opportunity Waste is uniquely human. There is no waste in the rest of nature, but somehow we’ve created the notion that there are certain items we export to landfills to reside in perpetuity. But what happens when we turn this idea on its head and begin to look at garbage, not as waste, but as an opportunity? Tom Szaky has capitalized on the opportunity of waste to Read More
CSE Welcomes 5 Outstanding New CSE Leadership Fellows
The Center for Sustainable Enterprise is pleased to welcome five new CSE Leadership Fellows: Corey Barnes (MBA ’14), Matt Crook (MBA ’14), Nidhi Sharma (MBA ’14), Tyler Bench (BSBA ’13) and Meredith Magjuka (BSBA ’14). These five exceptional MBA and undergraduate leaders will work collaboratively with the CSE team and the current CSE Leadership Fellows, Blakely Blackford (MBA ’13), Maura Farver (MBA ’13), and Sid Padgaonkar (MBA ’13), to advance the Center’s strategic priorities, strengthen the critical bonds between CSE and UNC Kenan-Flagler students, and incorporate student interests into CSE programs and activities. Learn more about the new CSE Leadership Fellows below. Corey Barnes (MBA ’14) After graduation from the University of Virginia, with a double major in Architecture and Psychology, Read More
Impact At Scale: An Interview with Joseph Joel Sherman and Sam Imende
A conversation between Sam Imende (MBA ’12) and Joseph Joel Sherman. Sam Imende was a 2007 Fellow at KIVA Microfund. Joseph Joel Sherman leads North Carolina for Acumen Fund, a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to fight poverty. Joseph Joel: What are you doing at the KIVA Microfund? Sam: We have a Kiva team for the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School that was set up in 2008. I have been promoting our team to get more people to join and using it as a platform to get students, faculty and staff more directly engaged in Social Enterprise and Base of the Pyramid markets. We just kicked off our Kiva Speakers Series with Ashok’s presentation on Belaku Eye Hospitals Read More
Business Solutions Complement Legislative Solutions
This week, UNC Pubic Policy major Betty Royster shares her belief that business solutions can complement legislation as means to advancing sustainability goals. The following is her statement of belief: I believe that business is better equipped than civil society or a governmental entity to forge a sustainable future. As a public policy major, I enrolled in Kenan-Flagler’s Sustainable Enterprise course believing that full-fledged governmental legislation would be the first and most important step to curb carbon emissions and improve America’s environmental outlook. Although I beleive it is still vital, legislation tends to be highly contentious and slow to pass. As President Bjorn Stigson from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development stated “[Governments] will not solve climate change without Read More
Meeting my Generation’s Challenge
In this week’s “This I Believe” installment, recent Carolina graduate Daniel Kennedy reflects on the critical importance of businesses and governments “going green.” The following is his essay:
In conversation with Dr. Al Hammond of Ashoka
On October 13th 2010 two students from UNC Kenan-Flagler’s full-time MBA program, Ashok Jayaram and Mario Prohasky, had the unique opportunity to meet Dr. Al Hammond, one of the leading global practitioners and scholars of social entrepreneurship. He provided tremendous insights into some of his current work within Ashoka, his current venture – Healthpoint Services Global, Inc, and also shared his vision for the development of the social enterprise field in general along with some of the challenges that social entrepreneurs will continue to face in the future. Social Enterprises – Challenges and Getting to scale Looking at the current state of social enterprises across the world, Dr. Hammond identified a number of key challenges that will need to be Read More