Archive for July, 2010

A new group of dining spots doing good have surfaced. Whether its employing the once unemployable, or serving the homeless alongside a paying customer, these enterprises have built eateries about more than just food. This week, we bring you five social enterprises building community from the kitchen.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Phoudidaeg Organic Farm

Laos; For-Profit

The restaurant at Phoudidaeg Organic Farm is a bit off the Teva sandle-beaten path in backpacker-friendly Vang Vieng, sitting 3 km north of the city. But that hasn’t stopped foreigners and locals alike from traveling north to drink and eat delicious meals fresh picked from the organic farm. The farm’s main export is mulberries, along with silk, bananas, papayas, and other native crops. Both the farm and restaurant are run by Thanongsi Solangkoun, a native Laotian dedicated to regenerating the Laotian landscape. Before he opened his farm eight years ago, the plot was a wasteland lost to the “slash and burn” agriculture so prominent in the area. Solangkoun donates 20% of his profits to organic agriculture education, hosting seminars and allowing any interested parties to stay on his farm free of charge. “My idea is not only to make money but I would like to show the people that organic is better,” Solangkoun,or “Mr. T” as most know him said in an interview with the Rodale Institute. “Mr.T.” hopes his farm will become an example of sustainability for other local farmers.

photo credit: http://hubpages.com/hub/Vang-Vieng

The TEDGlobal Fellows program recently announced their fellows for 2010 – 23 individuals from 20 countries and sectors as diverse as dance, agriculture, technology and biochemistry. They came together at the 2010 TED Global Conference this week in Oxford, to share “the good news just below the surface of today’s troubling headlines,” and their big ideas for the future. Beyond Profit brings you exclusive interviews with select TEDGlobal fellows, for insight on how they are using innovative ways to create sustainable change. Stay tuned over the next five weeks for our Ted Talks to Beyond Profit series.

TEDGlobal Fellows profile: Guido Núñez-Mujica

The lava lamp is an icon of 70s kitsch and Dazed and Confused culture. But for Venezuelan biologist Guido Nunez-Mujica, it’s the model for a new device that could diagnose some of the world’s most neglected diseases. Dubbed the LavaAmp, this low-cost and portable machine enables DNA diagnosis. The machine gets its name from a lava lamp, as it uses the same physics of the colored blobs rising and falling as they heat and cool. Less than a fourth of the size of regular DNA machines, it makes early disease detection possible for rural, low-income communities.

» Continue reading “TED Talks to Beyond Profit: Guido Núñez-Mujica”

A new group of dining spots doing good have surfaced. Whether its employing the once unemployable, or serving the homeless alongside a paying customer, these enterprises have built eateries about more than just food. This week, we bring you five social enterprises building community from the kitchen.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Seva Café

India; Non-Profit

Seva Café is an Indian follower of the “pay what you can” phenomenon. Seva views visitors as family members rather than customers. “At Seva Café, we’re experimenting in bringing the family model of exchange—or  love-based giving—into the context of a typically non-family environment, in this case, a restaurant,” the website reads. Meals at Seva do not have a price, as it is believed that the donations of those that came before have paid for your meal. Seva hopes that diners will pay it forward, and also pay for future customers to enjoy their wholesome, vegetarian meals. Seva means service. The creators behind the non-profit want to build connection through selfless volunteerism. It’s staffed mainly by volunteers, as well as a few paid employees from the Manav Sadhna youth empowerment program. The model allows those willing to pay, and those unable to, to come together around good food.

For any city dweller or urban commuter, traffic is a daily battle. Whether you’re stuck in the back of a rickshaw or behind the wheel of your car, the hours spent amid the honking masses can seem like an eternity. And in the city of Dhaka, the problem is even worse: traffic wastes 8.15 million hours of residents’ time, according to a recent study by the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI).

But those lost hours mean more than pulled hair. With the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, they found that 40% of that time is business hours. Those 3.2 million lost work hours mean an annual loss of TK 20 billion (roughly US$288 million) to the Bangladeshi economy.

» Continue reading “The Cost of Congestion”

A new group of dining spots doing good have surfaced. Whether its employing the once unemployable, or serving the homeless alongside a paying customer, these enterprises have built eateries about more than just food. This week, we bring you five social enterprises building community from the kitchen.

Wednesdsay, July 29, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Charcoal Lane

Australia; For-Profit

Charcoal Lane believes in “reconciliation through dining.” Through their uniquely Australian menu and carefully selected décor, they try to preserve oft-forgotten aspects of the Aboriginal culture.  And more importantly, they provide hospitality training and employment to disadvantaged, Aboriginal youth. The achievement and opportunity gap between indigenous and non-indigenous youth is a huge issue in Australia. In 2007, only 36% of indigenous youth graduated high school, compared with 74% of non-indigenous Australians. Charcoal Lane, as part of Mission Australia, hopes to narrow that gap, one dinner at a time.

Now in its 20th year, few would question the validity of the work Teach for America (TFA) does in the United States. Its alumni have founded successful charter schools like the Knowledge is Power Program schools, revolutionized inner-city school districts like Michelle Rhee in Washington, D.C., and changed the trajectory of their students’ lives.

But when a program that has achieved so much expands to other countries, how should the goals and operations change, if at all? Teach for All was created three years ago to advise programs wanting to adopt the TFA model in other countries. Currently, 13 countries operate programs in countries such as China, Estonia, Israel, Lebanon and India. A program in Pakistan is planned. » Continue reading “Teach For India: Creating a New Trajectory”

Beyond Profit “On the Spot” with Greenlight Planet from Beyond Profit on Vimeo.

Greenlight Planet, a new and innovative social enterprise that combines cutting-edge technology with innovative distribution networks to commercialize low-power LED lanterns, has had an amazing few months. From being awarded the First Prize at the Solar for All Design Contest, which won them an investment of $250,000 from the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, to receiving two Lighting Africa 2010 Outstanding Product Awards, they are certainly on a roll. Beyond Profit had a chance to sit down with Mayank Sekhsaria and Anish Thakkar, two of the Co-Founders of Greenlight Planet, for a quick chat. In this “On the Spot” interview, we learn more about the value they are adding to the solar landscape and how they are improving the lives of the rural poor.

Learn more at GreenlightPlanet.com

In most parts of the world, graffiti is treated as an illegal form of vandalism and a punishable social problem. The people and government of Rio de Janeiro, however, are different. Here, graffiti is not seen as the problem, but part of the solution. Instead of wasting time and energy on arrests and re-painting, the city has worked to engage graffiti artists to turn Rio into a vibrant canvas for positive social messaging and artistic expression. You can see the colorful results in the photo above—this ordinary brick wall has been transformed into an animated message encouraging the city’s residents to recycle.

» Continue reading “Photo of the Week: The Writing on the Wall”

In today’s globalized economy, there’s a common solution to most problems: if you don’t have it, import it. And now, Houston-based company S2C Global Systems and True Alaska Bottling have applied that model to the global water crisis. On July 7th, they announced plans to open their first “World Water Hub” south of Mumbai. The port will be able to sell freshwater shipped from Sitka, Alaska to water-starved areas in India and the Middle East. For S2C Global Systems, a basic human requirement will become a potentially lucrative commodity.

The project could bring in up to US$90 million a year in revenues. The redistribution of resources is not a new idea. Bulk water shipments have been discussed for decades, but until now, shelved due to logistics and available nearby resources. S2C’s World Water Hub would mark the first large-volume export of water by tanker. The vessel would transport 41 million gallons of water at a time, for a total of 2.9 billion gallons in the first year. The company will be able to sell bulk fresh water to nearby Indian consumers, as well as to smaller ships that can deliver to shallower ports in the Middle East.

» Continue reading “India’s Long-Distance Watershed”

A new group of dining spots doing good have surfaced. Whether its employing the once unemployable, or serving the homeless alongside a paying customer, these enterprises have built eateries about more than just food. This week, we bring you five social enterprises building community from the kitchen.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Cabbages and Condoms

Thailand; For-Profit

The name isn’t the only strange thing about this innovative Bangkok restaurant. Cabbages and Condoms is an unlikely combination of high-quality Thai cuisine and safe sex promotion. It was founded by the Population and Community Development Association, an NGO promoting family planning in rural and urban Thailand. Cabbages and Condoms is just one project that funds their other programs. Visitors to the popular eatery will find condom décor, and an accompanying gift shop. And Cabbages and Condoms promotes their safe sex message until the very end of the meal. In lieu of mints, each receipt is presented with two condoms, and the message, “our food is guaranteed not to cause pregnancy.”