1. The Journey of a ‘Green’
Micro-Enterprise –
The Green Planet
Aditya Andika Esau Mandang - 12865820
Rishabh Bhatia- 12895093
2. 9 July 1990 → Newton, Massachusetts
Mid 1990s → Started supplying retail chain
2001 → Supply large number of store in Boston
2002 → Focus on her own store
2003 → Change the main products
2010 → Well know with green quality
and community engagement
The Green Planet
6. Planet – Environmental
Indicator
Indicator The Green Planet
Waste Considering how plastic product can be
recycle
Natural
resources
• Use natural ingredient (Natural wood,
organic cotton, natural fiber, etc)
• 80% of her stock has some association with
a ‘green’ or ethical attribute
Environmental
quality
• Produce green science products
• Using recycled material
7. People – Social Indicator
Indicator The Green Planet
Individual
Health
• Sell product with environmental friendly and
safety material
• Held Free lead-testing
Community • Held various free events
• Allowed products from other stores to be
tested
Social Network Let community rent the space on the store to
hold various activity
Employee Make regulation that protect and make sure
company’s employees are respected
Customer Staff are told and train to serve customer fully
8. Profit – Economic Indicator
Indicator The Green Planet
Productivity, • Have 7500 different stocking codes
• Produce various ‘green’ toys only, less
differentiation on productions
Skill Experienced, understood and lead in green
products
Competition • Survive for 20 years in business
• Trusted by customer
• Produce innovative product
• Social and Environment aspect increase
awareness of the company,
9. The Trade-off
• Market trend VS Company continuity
• High cost material VS Quality
• High profit VS Community engagement
10.
11. • Lack of Financial knowledge
• Lack of access to microfinance or
microcredit
12. Vicenta learn about recycling
from training she got in the
school she used to teach not
Fundación Paraguaya
13. Lack of access to technology
+
Lack of access to resources
↓
Lack of Innovations
http://www.commercialdiplomacy.org/ma_projects/jahnke.htm
Increasing in trend from 1991-1999
Even 20 years later:
Trend still high
Demand still high
Why the company success:
The triple bottom line refers to an extension of the criteria used to measure organisational success. Traditionally, business success (or failure) is measured in terms of its economic performance. A business is considered to be successful if it has generated a sufficient financial return from its investments, financing activities and operating activities. The triple bottom line takes into account three criteria for assessing organisational performance; economic, social and environmental.
Environmental performance is concerned with a business' total impact on the natural environment. Triple bottom line organisations aim to improve the environment where feasible, or at the very least, reduce and limit their negative impact on the environment. Organisations need to look at more than just obvious environmental issues (like pollution) and should consider the total lifecycle impact of their products and services.
The social performance of an organization is somewhat more difficult to define and measure. The social criterion of the triple bottom line takes into account the impact that a business has on people within the business (employees) and people outside of the business (the community). A business applying the triple bottom line principles will act in a way that benefits the community and will ensure that people are not being exploited or endangered by the operation of the business. Social factors that should be considered include labor utilization and wages, working conditions and contribution to community living standards.
The financial or economic performance of an organisation is the easiest of the three criteria to measure accurately. Traditional accounting methods take into account the inflow and outflow of resources from the business, generally including cash and finances, assets, liabilities and other easily definable business resources. The economic criteria can then be used to determine how much an organisation generates in monetary value. It can also be used to determine the net worth of the business at a given point in time.
Following market demand: clothes
Toy: high cost and quality. Avoid plastic for baby
Testing material
Comparison:
reason why green micro-enterprise from 1990s failed and what can we do to solve it.
Basically come from home base business, so most of owners don’t understand basic financial principles such as Budgeting, debt management, bookkeeping, etc. Financing institution usually asking for financial report before lending the fund.
To solve this problem, the owner can borrow from microfinance or microcredit programs. These programs not a new things, but not popular until around 1999. the famous example of microfinance institution and program is grameen bank.
Muhammad Yunus: Grameen bank founder not only lend the fund for micro-enterprise but teach them how to make their business sustainable.
Story from: http://accionambassadorsblog.com/2012/08/04/the-necessity-of-being-green-part-1-a-microentrepreneurs-perspective/
Fundacion Paraguay History:
February of 1985, a group of national business leaders founded the Fundación Paraguaya to address the problems of unemployment and underemployment in Paraguay. While the Fundación's initial charge was to provide business training to entrepreneurs, soon it became evident that those same entrepreneurs also lacked access to financial services and capital. Thus, Fundación Paraguaya enlisted Accion's technical assistance services to launch a microfinance program. A resident advisor from Accion, who worked with Fundación Paraguaya in 2002-2003, focused on the development of a pilot in rural finance. (http://www.accion.org/our-impact/fundacion-paraguaya)
Most of companies problem is lack of access, hardly find resources and material will increase production cost, so the green products hard to compete with big retail-chain products. High production cost will restrain company from innovating because research and development cost will increase selling price even higher. In fact, most of micro-enterprise who survived until now, beat their retail competitor with innovations. Without innovations they will left behind.
These problem from 1990s reduced by various programs in developing rural area by government and nonprofit organizations. One of the example is program by “global Partnership”. This nonprofit organization provide affordable access to sustainable sources of energy involves assessing market failures (such as lack of product awareness and product distribution to rural areas) and local needs, and researching social enterprises, technologies, and business models that can bridge the energy access gap. With this support, green micro-enterprise can innovate and compete with their competitors. (http://www.globalpartnerships.org/about-gp/about-us/)
Voices for Global Change is an internationally focused 501c(3) not-for-profit that was founded on the belief that when people who have had no voice speak, they change their world. Our work supports and gives guidance to women, youth and any group that has been marginalized from full participation in the economic, political and social life of their communities and countries. Our "Paper to Pearls" initiative supports the refugees in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps of Northern Uganda. This program make accessories from pearl made by paper. (http://www.change.org/organizations/papertopearls)
