Podcast: Randall Krantz, Climate Initiatives at the World Economic Forum

Article PhotoIn this episode, the third of six from Luminous Green, I talked to Randall Krantz about the global challenge of climate change. Randall, who runs the Climate Change initiatives at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, brings the voice of the business community into multi-stakeholder partnerships, particularly through dialogue with governments and civil society. On climate issues, he focuses on future long-term policy, smarter investment, and practical actions towards changing behaviors of business and consumers. Before joining the WEF’s environment team in 2005, Randall worked as a field engineer for GE Power Systems, helped the commercialization efforts of a London-based fuel cell initiative, and pursued an MBA in Barcelona. He is interested in exploring how public-private partnerships can offer entrepreneurial solutions to global environmental issues, and how well-designed and innovative business strategies can spur positive change in consumer and business choices.

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(Posted by Jennifer Leonard in Media at 12:34 PM)

Measurable Donations

Article Photoby Adrian Muller Generally speaking, information about the impact of our charity money — specifically who that money ends up helping — almost always remains opaque to us. Donors around the world are increasingly demanding proof of outcomes, a phenomenon referred in the non-profit world as the “accountability crisis,” and these days accountability is a requisite that every non-profit organization must meet if it aspires to attract funding. An interesting way to approach this issue is by establishing direct links between donors and recipients, so that individuals can track their contributions. Child sponsorship has been using this model for some time now, linking a child in the developing world to a sponsor in the Global North. Now, Family-to-Family (F-2-F), an American non-profit hunger relief program, is following a similar model, but at the family level. Instead of linking individual donors with a specific recipient, F-2-F connects wealthy and middle-class families to less privileged families. Currently F-2-F is limiting its services to American families as they remind us that despite being one of the world’s wealthiest countries, there are 36 million people in the U.S. living below the poverty level. The program focuses in helping profoundly poor and hungry rural American… (more)

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Philanthropy at 12:20 PM)

Picnic Green Challenge: Half a Million Euros to Win

Contributed by Bruno Giussani: If you have an idea for an innovative, executable consumer product or service that can “contribute to an eco-friendly lifestyle,” help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and which “scores high on convenience, quality and design,”then get ready to jot down descriptions, prepare blueprints, and fill in participation forms: it could be worth 500,000 Euros (or nearly $670,000 USD). That’s the scope and the reward of the Picnic Green Challenge, which was just launched by Picnic, the Amsterdam annual conference and week-long idea festival that will take place this year from September 22-29 (full disclosure: I’m a member of their advisory board). The best ideas will win 500,000 Euros in capital to execute the winning plans, with some extra add-ons such as free coaching and door openers. The prize money is being provided by a sponsor, the Postcode Lottery, the largest Dutch charitable lottery (“charitable” meaning that half of the price of the tickets they sell is redistributed to non-profit organizations). There could be a single winner, or a few that will have to share the money, depending on the jury’s decision about the quality of the submissions. The deadline to submit entries is August 15, 2007, and… (more)

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Sustainable Design at 12:14 PM)