Showing posts with label humanity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humanity. Show all posts

Wednesday, 3 April 2013

Global Commons Trust

For several centuries, modern industrial societies have been living off the common capital of the planet. During this period, the world’s natural and social resources have been drastically underpriced and we have amassed huge debts to the environment, the poor and future generations. It has become increasingly clear that the businesses and governments which created these imbalances are also incapable of correcting them through their present policies.
Our global economic system is now in grave crisis, threatening the entire planet, its institutions and species.
A new kind of common wealth is needed to protect the assets of Earth, resolve our private and public debts, and create a global society of justice, sharing and sustainability for everyone.
Private Goods, Public Goods and Common Goods
Our commons are the collective heritage of humanity — the shared resources of nature and society that we inherit, create and use. People across the world are now rediscovering these common goods and choosing to protect them for future generations.
Whether our commons are traditional (rivers, forests, indigenous cultures) or emerging (solar energy, intellectual property, internet), communities are managing them through unique forms of self-governance, collaboration and collective action. And in working together to preserve these resources, we are generating new standards of responsibility, mutual aid and sustenance for all beings.
Global Commons Trust promotes the creation of trusteeships, where the rights to our commons may be realized for the benefit of all. This promises a very different world than the ownership society of exploitation and aggression so prevalent today. When people claim the sovereign right to manage and revalue their common goods, civilization is transformed.
Imagine a world where
• commons trusts preserve and regenerate the assets of a commons
• private industry prospers from the surplus resources which it rents from these trusts
• governments provide citizens with an income generated through the use of these commons
Global Commons Trust opens a window into this rising global trusteeship society — a world where everyone benefits from the preservation and use of their common resources, and the cooperative human spirit is lifted through new energetic patterns of sustainability, wealth and power.
Find out more and become a trustee of the global commons.

http://globalcommonstrust.org/

Wednesday, 2 January 2013

Building Social Business

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  • Book: Muhammad Yunus. Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs.

Review

"Awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for economics for his work micro-credit to end poverty in Bangladesh, Yusuf tackles head-on the question, “Why can’t an organisation do well financially and also do good socially?” This book outlines the important contribution ‘social businesses’ (which Yusuf defines as a ‘for profit, zero dividend’ company) can make in addressing many of social challenges often unsolvable via traditional means. For example, Grameen Bank (Grameen means “rural” or “village” in Bangla language) provides finance to the world’s poorest people in Bangladesh a banks responsible to ‘shareholders’ deem the risk too great. Similarly, Graamen Danone (a joint venture with Danone in France) provides nutritious yogurt to families in Bangladesh at risk of significant health issues due to poor diet. Finally, Graamen Adidas provides low-cost shoes (a pair of Adidas shoes for just 1-euro!) to people of Bangladesh to address illnesses caused through parasitic disease attack from inadequate footwear.
And this is where the concept of ‘social business’ gets interesting. A social business is not a not-for-profit entity. Nor does it simply provide the product or service either free of charge or subsidised to a person in need. Yusuf argues that the ‘not-for-profit’ model of business is limited in addressing the concerns of the world poorest people because it fails to break the cycle of ‘dependency’; whereby, the recipient of the product/service is dependent on the not-for-profit entity to survive just as the not-for-profit of the product/service is dependent upon a good-will of others for its survival too. And as the GFC demonstrated, this dynamic is untenable during more volatile market conditions.
Conversely, a social business operates within a competitive ‘capitalist’ market (with other ‘for profit’ organisations) and must therefore provide a competitive product or service that is at least comparable to its competitors. It must also compete for staff and other resources within this same competitive market, which means that a ‘social business’ pays market rates for its resources (i.e., staff, etc). In this way, an individual can get paid well whilst also knowing that they are also doing good for those who need it most.
Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs is a ‘how to’ book that covers how to launch a social business, legal and financial frameworks underpinning a social business, creating the infrastructure for successful growth within a social business, and some of the ‘growing pains’ of establishing and scaling a social business. Yusuf also outlines how easy it is to commence a social business anywhere in the world (i.e., the concept has relevance beyond simply addressing the needs of the world’s poorest people). Yusuf argues that the best time to start a social business is now, the best place to start is where you are, and the best focus for your social business is what you are passionate about." (http://tsii.com.au/2011/05/27/book-review-building-social-business-by-muhammad-yusuf/)