Tuesday, July 5, 2005

Micro-credit. Macro-impact. We're watching the profile of Grameen Bank on PBS's 'New Heros' series. Grameen, guided by founder Muhammed Yunus, has brought 'micro-credit' to millions of the poorest of the poor, required no collateral, experienced an infinitessimal default rate, and has had a profound impact on the lives of communities across Bangladesh, at a scale and depth large international institutions can only imagine. Deeply moving. One of the great innovations of the 20th Century. And no doubt a key trigger of the bottom of the pyramid phenomenon. PS: There are now more than two dozen organizations within the Grameen family of enterprises. These include the replication and research activities of Grameen Trust, handloom enterprises of Grameen Uddog and fisheries pond management by Grameen Motsho or the Fisheries Foundation. (Get involved at Grameen Foundation.) 10:11:04 PM    comment []  trackback []

'stunning carbon reductions, booming economically' [Nicholas Kristof, NY Times]: 'Kyoto would have wrecked our economy,' Mr. Bush told a Danish interviewer recently, referring to the accord to curb carbon emissions. Maybe that was a plausible argument a few years ago, but now the city of Portland is proving it flat wrong. Newly released data show that Portland, America's environmental laboratory, has achieved stunning reductions in carbon emissions. It has reduced emissions below the levels of 1990, the benchmark for the Kyoto accord, while booming economically. What's more, officials in Portland insist that the campaign to cut carbon emissions has entailed no significant economic price, and on the contrary has brought the city huge benefits: less tax money spent on energy, more convenient transportation, a greener city, and expertise in energy efficiency that is helping local businesses win contracts worldwide. Kristof is surprised, but I'm not. This has been the secret hiding in plain sight. As I observed in a recent speech to the Commonwealth Club (soon to appear in Corporate Strategy Today): Change is made more difficult by deep and pervasive errors in thinking -- the assumption that we can't afford it, and the belief that our economic well-being is separate and autonomous from the living systems that sustain us -- and by a serious and unrecognized gap in management methodology. The assumption that 'we can't afford it' is held in common by business people, environmentalists and government -- people who disagree on so much, yet find common ground in this fallacy. Business people say 'we can't afford to be environmentally responsible, because it will hurt profits.' Environmentalists say 'You should sacrifice some profit for the good of the planet.[per thou] Government officials say 'Let's use taxpayer dollars to persuade business to do the right thing,' assuming that they won[base ']t do it otherwise. Fortunately, these views are being replaced -- outcompeted. I'm committed to demolishing the 'can't afford it' assumption, and replacing it with profitable good sense. It's examples like this that make it possible. 'Portland's efforts refute the thesis that you can't make progress without huge economic harm,' says Erik Sten, a city commissioner. 'It actually goes all the other way - to the extent Portland has been successful, the things that we were doing that happened to reduce emissions were the things that made our city livable and hence desirable.' 9:50:10 PM    comment []  trackback []