Link: https://sustain.wisconsin.

edu/sustainability/triple-bottom-line/

The Triple Bottom Line

All businesses must make money. But triple bottom line companies realize that they can do  more. This idea has
only recently gained traction in the corporate world, but now that it has, the triple bottom line is driving the decision-
making of the world’s top brands.

What Is the Triple Bottom Line? Traditionally, business leaders concerned themselves with their bottom lines—or, the
monetary profits their businesses made. Today, more leaders have begun to think sustainably. The triple bottom line
theory expands the traditional accounting framework to include two other performance areas: the social and
environmental impacts of their company. These three bottom lines are often referred to as the three P’s: people, planet,
and profit.

Here is each “P” in more detail.

People “People” considers employees, the labor involved in a corporation’s work, and the wider community where a
corporation does business. Another way to look at “people” is, how much does a company benefit society? A triple
bottom line company pays fair wages and takes steps to ensure humane working conditions at supplier factories.

Triple bottom line companies make an effort to “give back” to the community. For example, 3M partners with United
Way to fund STEM education across the world. This initiative is an example of “enlightened self-interest”—acting to
further the interests of others, ultimately, to serve one’s own self-interest. The community benefits, and 3M provides
itself a well-educated source of scientists and innovators for generations to come.

Planet A 2016 Gallup poll revealed that 64 percent of Americans are worried about global warming. Public opinion has
dictated that enterprises that harm the environment should also bear the cost, and you can bet businesses are taking
notice. The “planet” piece of the triple bottom line indicates that an organization tries to reduce its ecological footprint
as much as possible. These efforts can include reducing waste, investing in renewable energy, managing natural
resources more efficiently, and improving logistics.For example, Apple has invested heavily in environmental
sustainability. Its massive U.S. data centers are LEED certified. In 2016, the company announced that 93 percent of its
energy comes from renewables. These actions have nudged other tech giants like Facebook and Google toward using
more renewable energy sources to power facilities.

Profit While every business pursues financial profitability, triple bottom line businesses see it as one part of a business
plan. Sustainable organizations also recognize that “profit” isn’t diametrically opposed to “people” or “planet.” Swedish
furniture giant IKEA reported sales of $37.6 billion in 2016. The same year, the company turned a profit by recycling
waste into some of its best-selling products. Before, this waste had cost the company more than $1 million per year. And
the company is well on its way to “zero waste to landfill” worldwide. According to Joanna Yarrow, IKEA’s head of
sustainability for the UK, “We don’t do this because we’re tree huggers, we do this because it’s very cost effective.”

Benefits of the Triple Bottom Line

Though the triple bottom line has been around for decades, events such as the 2008 financial crisis, the BP oil
spill, and climate change cast an almost constant spotlight on corporate ethics and  corporate social responsibility.
“Business as usual” now has a very different meaning. For global companies, changing operations to minimize risk and
fight climate change, for example, requires a lot of time and money. But an upfront investment in corporate
sustainability can pay off. An MIT study found that companies that treated sustainability seriously—by making a business
case for it and setting concrete goals—were the ones that profited from sustainable activities. The success and
profitability of corporate sustainability initiatives really depend on one thing: a talented employee who knows how to
take the triple bottom line from theory to reality. This employee must have specialized knowledge of environmental
science, accounting, and economics as well as leadership skills and the ability to use systems thinking to make strategic
business decisions.

Sustainability is the future. And with this unique mix of experience and skills,  sustainable
management professionals can build some of the most prosperous triple bottom line companies in the world.
Link: https://hbr.org/2018/06/25-years-ago-i-coined-the-phrase-triple-bottom-line-heres-why-im-giving-up-on-it

25 Years Ago I Coined the Phrase “Triple Bottom Line.” Here’s Why It’s Time to Rethink It.

John Elkington

How often are management concepts subjected to recalls by the people who invented them? It is hard to think of
a single case.

If an industrial product like a car fails the manufacturer pulls it back, tests it and, if necessary, re-equips it. In case
manufacturers grow careless, governments run periodic road safety tests. Management concepts, by contrast, operate in
poorly regulated environments where failures are often brushed under boardroom or faculty carpets. Yet poor
management systems can jeopardize lives in the air, at sea, on roads or in hospitals. They can also put entire businesses and
sectors at risk.

With this in mind, I’m volunteering to carry out a management concept recall: with 2019 marking the 25th
anniversary of the “triple bottom line,” a term I coined in 1994, I propose a strategic recall to do some fine tuning.

For those not familiar with it, the triple bottom line is a sustainability framework that examines a company’s social,
environment, and economic impact. So why recall it now? After all, since the 1990s, the sustainability sector has grown
rapidly, though at around $1 billion in annual revenues globally it is no giant. Still, market research suggests that future
markets for its products and services could be huge — with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals forecast to generate
market opportunities of over $12 trillion a year by 2030 (and that’s considered a conservative estimate).

But success or failure on sustainability goals cannot be measured only in terms of profit and loss. It must also be
measured in terms of the wellbeing of billions of people and the health of our planet, and the sustainability sector’s record
in moving the needle on those goals has been decidedly mixed. While there have been successes, our climate, water
resources, oceans, forests, soils and biodiversity are all increasingly threatened. It is time to either step up — or to get out of
the way.

To this end, if we reverse engineer today’s sustainability agenda, it is clear that a powerful element of its genetic
code has been the Triple Bottom Line (variously rendered as TBL or 3BL).

A decade ago, The Economist was already signaling that the term had become part of the business lexicon. As the
magazine explained, the approach, “aims to measure the financial, social and environmental performance of the
corporation over a period of time. Only a company that produces a TBL is taking account of the full cost involved in doing
business.”

Well yes… but the original idea was wider still, encouraging businesses to track and manage economic (not just
financial), social, and environmental value added — or destroyed. This idea infused platforms like the Global Reporting
Initiative (GRI) and Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI), influencing corporate accounting, stakeholder engagement and,
increasingly, strategy. But the TBL wasn’t designed to be just an accounting tool. It was supposed to provoke deeper
thinking about capitalism and its future, but many early adopters understood the concept as a balancing act, adopting a
trade-off mentality.

Changing the System

The concept surfaced exactly 500 years after Luca Paccioli published the world’s first treatise on double-entry
bookkeeping, the cornerstone for single bottom line thinking. Looking back, it is clear that the advent of the TBL proved to
be a branching point. It was followed rapidly by Double and Quadruple Bottom Lines, Social Return on Investment (SROI),
multiple capital models, Full Cost Accounting, ESG (a framework focusing investors and financial analysts on Environmental,
Social and Governance factors), the Environmental Profit & Loss approach pioneered by Trucost, Puma, and Kering, Net
Positive, Blended and Shared Value, Integrated Reporting, Impact Investment and, most recently, BCG’s Total Societal
Impact framework. And that’s even before we get into next generation concepts like Carbon Productivity, the Sharing and
Circular Economies, or Biomimicry.

Such experimentation is clearly vital — and typically sparks a proliferation of potential solutions. But the
bewildering range of options now on offer can provide business with an alibi for inaction. Worse, we have conspicuously
failed to benchmark progress across these options, on the basis of their real-world impact and performance.

Together with its subsequent variants, the TBL concept has been captured and diluted by accountants and
reporting consultants. Thousands of TBL reports are now produced annually, though it is far from clear that the resulting
data are being aggregated and analyzed in ways that genuinely help decision-takers and policy-makers to track, understand,
and manage the systemic effects of human activity.

Fundamentally, we have a hard-wired cultural problem in business, finance and markets. Whereas CEOs, CFOs,
and other corporate leaders move heaven and earth to ensure that they hit their profit targets, the same is very rarely true
of their people and planet targets. Clearly, the Triple Bottom Line has failed to bury the single bottom line paradigm.

Sustainability’s First Recall

Critically, too, TBL’s stated goal from the outset was system change  — pushing toward the transformation of
capitalism. It was never supposed to be just an accounting system. It was originally intended as a genetic code, a triple helix
of change for tomorrow’s capitalism, with a focus was on breakthrough change, disruption, asymmetric growth (with
unsustainable sectors actively sidelined), and the scaling of next-generation market solutions.

To be fair, some companies did move in this direction, among them Denmark’s Novo Nordisk (which rechartered
itself around the TBL in 2004), Anglo-Dutch Unilever, and Germany’s Covestro. The latter company’s recently retired CEO,
Patrick Thomas, has stressed that the proper use of the TBL involves, at minimum, progress on two dimensions while the
third remains unaffected. It is time for this interpretation to become the default setting not just for a handful of leading
businesses, but for all business leaders.

I see a bright ray of hope coming from the high-energy world of B Corporations. There’s a lot of momentum there;
around 2,500 businesses worldwide are now certified as B Corps. All are configured around the TBL — dedicated to be not
just “best in the world,” but “best for the world.” Major companies like Brazil’s Natura and Danone’s North American
operation are now B Corps, with other multinational corporations considering how to follow suit.

To truly shift the needle, however, we need a new wave of TBL innovation and deployment. But even though my
company, Volans, consults with companies on TBL implementation, frankly, I’m not sure it’s going to be enough.
Indeed, none of these sustainability frameworks will be enough, as long as they lack the suitable pace and scale — the
necessary radical intent — needed to stop us all overshooting our planetary boundaries.

Hence the need for a “recall.” I hope that in another 25 years we can look back and point to this as the moment
started working toward a triple helix for value creation, a genetic code for tomorrow’s capitalism, spurring the regeneration
of our economies, societies, and biosphere.

Executive Summary

About 25 years ago, John Elkington coined the term “triple bottom line” as a challenge for business leaders to rethink
capitalism. It was supposed to offer a radical new way forward, as businesses learned to stop focusing solely on profits
and expand their focus to include improving the lives people and the health of the planet. But 25 years later, this radical
goal has been largely forgotten, and “triple bottom line” thinking has been reduced to a mere accounting tool, a way of
balancing tradeoffs instead of actually doing things differently. Today, we continue to outstrip our planetary boundaries
with no sign of slowing down. And so Elkington offers a management concept “recall.” Because when it comes to
sustainability, the time has come to either step up, or to get out of the way.
Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeroenkraaijenbrink/2019/12/10/what-the-3ps-of-the-triple-bottom-line-really-
mean/#4d4446ab5143

What The 3Ps Of The Triple Bottom Line Really Mean - Jeroen Kraaijenbrink

This year it is 25 years ago that John Elkington coined the “Triple Bottom Line” of People, Planet and Profit (also
known as the 3Ps, TBL or 3BL). Up to today it is still gaining popularity and it has become part of everyday business
language. All reason to be satisfied, one would think. However, despite its increasing popularity, Elkington has “recalled”
the 3BL last year in a short article in Harvard Business Review .  The reason, so we can extract from his comments, is the
rhetorical misuse of the framework as an accounting and reporting tool, while profit still remains center stage.

Elkington’s Recall

In the article, Elkington wants to “recall” the 3BL framework in the same way as products are sometimes
recalled when something is wrong with them so that they could harm people. He doesn’t recall the 3BL because he
thinks that focusing on social, environmental and economic impact is not important anymore. On the contrary, it is
exactly because these are so important that he suggests the recall. The main problem Elkington sees is that the 3BL has
been reduced to an accounting and reporting tool, smartly used by business to show how great they are. As he explains,
“Together with its subsequent variants, the TBL concept has been captured and diluted by accountants and reporting
consultants.”

He also doesn’t recall the 3BL because it has not made an impact. Again on the contrary, it is exactly because of
the large impact it has that Elkington does the recall. As Elkington remarks, “if we reverse engineer today’s sustainability
agenda, it is clear that a powerful element of its genetic code has been the Triple Bottom Line.” And indeed we can
observe that the 3BL has been a source of inspiration for many accounting and reporting frameworks including, for
example, Social Return on Investment (SROI), ESG (a framework focusing investors and financial analysts on
Environmental, Social and Governance factors) and the Trucost approach.

But, as Elkington further explains, “the TBL wasn’t designed to be just an accounting tool. It was supposed to
provoke deeper thinking about capitalism and its future, but many early adopters understood the concept as a balancing
act, adopting a trade-off mentality.” Its goal was “system change—pushing toward the transformation of capitalism. It
was never supposed to be just an accounting system. It was originally intended as a genetic code, a triple helix of change
for tomorrow’s capitalism, with a focus was on breakthrough change, disruption, asymmetric growth (with unsustainable
sectors actively sidelined), and the scaling of next-generation market solutions.”

And since that is far from how the 3BL is being used today, Elkington “recalls” it because, “It is time to either
step up—or to get out of the way” and time “to do some finetuning.”

What the 3Ps Really Mean

As Elkington explains, “the triple bottom line is a sustainability framework that examines a company’s social,
environment, and economic impact.” “The original idea was (...) encouraging businesses to track and
manage economic (not just financial), social, and environmental value added—or destroyed.” This brief explanation
makes it clear what the 3Ps stand for: social, environmental and economic impact. In some more detail, they entail the
following:

 People: the positive and negative impact an organization has on its most important stakeholders. These include
employees, families, customers, suppliers, communities, and any other person influencing or being affected by
the organization.
  Planet: the positive and negative impact an organization has on its natural environment. This includes reducing
its carbon footprint, usage of natural resources, toxic materials and so on, but also the active removal of waste,
reforestation and restoration of natural harm done.

 Profit: the positive and negative impact an organization has on the local, national and international economy.
This includes creating employment, generating innovation, paying taxes, wealth creation and any other
economic impact an organization has.

In the interpretation of these three, there is clearly most confusion about the third: profit. Mostly this is interpreted
in the traditional sense, meaning the financial profit a company makes. But this interpretation is too limited and wrong
for two reasons. First, it focuses on the financial aspect only. As the quotes above clearly illustrate, though, economic
impact is a much wider idea than just financial impact. Second, it focuses on profit for the organization only. The original
focus, though was on societal impact—and thus societal profit.

This widespread interpretation of the 3BL suggests that organizations are doing well if they generate large profits
and limit their harm to people and the planet. This ignores the very fact that one of the most important impacts of an
organization is its economic impact. Organizations, for example, add much value to society by creating employment, by
generating innovation—and by paying taxes. That is what the third P of profit really stands for.

Where to Go from Here

Elkington suggested a recall “to do some finetuning.” Even though he doesn’t tell us what kind of finetuning, we can
find ideas elsewhere. A notable example is the 2015 OECD Forum, where the theme was “Investing in the future: People,
planet, prosperity.”

While it was not explicitly introduced as a finetuning of the 3BL framework, this theme suggests how the
terminology can be changed to more accurately reflect the original meaning of the 3BL—while still keeping the attractive
simplicity of having 3Ps. The term “prosperity” reflects very close what Elkington originally had in mind with economic
impact. It is through economic impacts such as the creation of employment, innovation and paying taxes that prosperity
is realized.

Another advantage of replacing “profit” by “prosperity” is that it draws the attention away from profit being a
legitimate goal at all. Of course, some profit is needed to keep organizations alive. But it is always a means, not a goal in
itself. Improving our impact on people, planet and prosperity though, are goals in and of themselves. And by drawing our
attention to those three, we might get a little closer to Elkington’s original intentions with the 3BL: minimizing our
negative impacts and maximizing our positive impacts on all three.

Link: https://philippines.makesense.org/2019/05/27/what-does-social-innovation-mean-for-the-philippines/

What does social innovation mean for the Philippines?

I had the chance to discover social entrepreneurship while I was a student in France and I got very passionate
about it. So when makesense offered me the opportunity to develop the makesense community of social entrepreneurs
and volunteers in South East Asia, I didn’t doubt for a minute! I felt the need to discover social entrepreneurship means
over there and I had specific questions in mind; what is a social innovation in Asia? How could we engage citizens with
local beautiful projects? How could I also contribute? And I found myself arriving in the Philippines for the first time in
January of 2015.To start this exploration, the Philippines seemed to be the perfect playground: the existence of a
dynamic youth, existing social enterprises, many students, and so much more! Like many French people who arrive in
the Philippines, my first connection with the local social entrepreneurship sector was through Gawad Kalinga. Tony
Meloto, its founder, knew makesense very well, as one of our co-founders (Leila Hoballah) was one of their very first
international volunteers in Gawad Kalinga many years ago. He invited us to develop the makesense community in the
Philippines so makesense could contribute to his mission of creating 500,000 social enterprises in the country by 2025.
 Almost 4 years later, I see how the sector is growing and the potential of development is rising. Indeed, the
Philippines is a very young country (half of its population is under 24) and the youth is engaged more than ever to shape
a new society. Yet despite a strong motivation and passion for their country, the local youth don’t always know where to
start, where to volunteer, what to do, etc… to tackle local issues. And this is totally understandable, as some of the
questions and challenges they face are tremendous:

 How to ensure food security for a country composed of 110 million inhabitants that keep growing every year
by 1.72%, and where farmers are the poorest people?
 How to offer long-life opportunities to his youth when half of the population is under 24 years old?
 How to build infrastructures based, on the assets of an archipelago of 7107 islands, to better preserve the
population from natural disasters?
Hopefully, beautiful organizations exist and act every day to shape the future of the country. 

THE PHILIPPINES A PIONEER OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ACTIONS

If we go back in time, the Philippines was a real pioneer in term of development projects.

“NGOs in the Philippines have benefited from government administrations that, since the mid-1980s, have been
generally supportive of civil society. This has resulted in one of the most well-developed and institutionalized civil society
sectors in the developing world” says the  Asian Development Bank.

This contribution from the past governments in the 80’s and 90’s attracted many NGOs in the country but also
multilateral funds that contributed a lot to the funding of development and infrastructure projects in the country.

Unfortunately, the situation is changing nowadays: the development sector is really big (around 500 000 NGOs)
but most of the organizations within it stay small, struggle with funds and have poor resources. Moreover, the advent of
digital and new technologies has resulted in the emerging of new social and environmental challenges that evolve very
fast; and the reality today is many organizations have difficulties to adapt their structures to these new contexts.

This is where the movement of social enterprises started and can bring an interesting answer in the Philippines.

The Social enterprises concept is starting to become famous to the general public thanks to very nice success
stories that reinvent the way we do businesses in the Philippines: Rag2riches, Human Nature, Bambike, Hapinoy, Plush &
Play etc…

What is a social enterprise in the Philippines?

For me, a social enterprise is an organization whose objective is to solve a specific social or environmental challenge
thanks to an agile, scalable, & sustainable business model.In the Philippines, what surprised me the most at first is that I
felt like most social enterprises are mainly fair-trade product-related. I guess this is linked to the definition we give to
social enterprises in the Philippines: enterprises that impact positively the poor. If I compare, and I can only compare
with what I know, which is France:)In France the sector of social enterprises is quite larger: it goes from open-community
of local traders offering free services to homeless people to mobile apps enabling deaf people to make phone calls. The
definition of social enterprises is quite larger as it concerns any solutions answering social or environmental challenges:
handicap, sustainable agriculture, waste management, etc… Personally, I think it’s very linked to the social and
environmental challenges of a country and the stage of the sector; today one of the biggest challenges of the Philippines
is poverty; a lot of entrepreneurs are trying to offer economic opportunities to the poorest of the country, by building a
product-based business. Also, the social enterprises sector is still young; but new models of SEs are broadening the
sector such as Citihub, Urban Greens or Blood Hero; and it’s very exciting!

SOCIAL INNOVATION – AN INTEGRATED ECOSYSTEM OF SOLUTIONS BUILDING A MORE INCLUSIVE & SUSTAINABLE
SOCIETY
 When these impact-driven enterprises are integrated into a strong ecosystem engaged for the same purpose,
we have the capacity to make a drastic change; and that’s exactly what a social innovation is.

Teach for the Philippines (TFP) is an amazing example of social innovation; the founders developed an
incredible model that contribute to poverty reduction and access to education for all. What do they do? Enlist the
country’s young leaders to teach for 2 years in public schools. The model is easy, TFP offers a 2-year employment
contract to young graduates or professionals to teach in a public school and contribute to the development of the nation
through education.

It’s very interesting because in less than 10 years we see that the way we consume, the way we address
challenges, the ways we collaborate with the bottom of the pyramid are evolving.
For the moment we are only at the beginning of the movement but I believe that with more multi-actors collaborations
we will be able to actually build a more inclusive and fair model for the Filipino society.
TFP built a very innovative community model as they impact and engage all the players of the society:

 Government & public schools (TFP developed a solution answering the lack of teachers for a population that
keeps growing and partner with local schools & DOE)
 Civil society (by paying their volunteer-teachers, TFP democratizes and enables anyone to positively contribute
to the nation)
 Companies (who partner with TFP to scale the program nationally)
 Local communities as education play an important role in reducing poverty and improving the lives of
individuals and their families.

Link: http://www.socialinnovationacademy.eu/8-social-innovations-that-went-viral/

8 social innovations that went viral

The main aim of many social innovators is to change the world, even though many are having a hard time
scaling their promising idea and achieving lasting impact. This refers to their idea reaching a large percentage of their
target audience and their product or service having a positive and transformative effect or preventing a negative effect
on even the poorest parts of society.  
The true skill of a social innovation startup lies not just in choosing the right idea, but in finding, using and working with
the right partners, aligning with priorities and funding, and continuously delivering and communicating impact along the
way.In this article we will introduce eight remarkable projects relating to social innovations that went viral.
 
Earth Hour Day 
On a day at the end of March every year, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. in people’s local time, the earth turns dark for
just one hour. This is to mark Earth Hour, which is a campaign that asks people and companies around the world to turn
off all their non-essential electric lights at the same time as a symbol of support for actions to tackle climate
change. However, taking part isn’t just about saving electricity during that hour – it is symbolic  of being careful with what
we use. Loads of important buildings around the world take part in the event, including Big Ben, Harrods and the
Gherkin in London, the Eiffel Tower, Sydney Opera House and the Bangkok Grand Palace. Earth Hour is organised by the
World Wildlife Fund and members of the public are also encouraged to take part in their homes.

Poverty is Sexist 
‘ONE, co-founded by Bono of U2, is an international advocacy organisation of more than seven million
members taking action to end extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.’
‘In recent years, ONE’s members have played an important role in persuading governments to support effective
programs and policies that are making a measurable difference in fighting extreme poverty and disease. Women and
girls around the world are impoverished at disproportionate rates for a variety of reasons. Girls may be forced into
marriage at an early age and prevented from attending school, for example, or they may be prevented from owning the
land they maintain because of their gender.’ In 2015, ONE launched its “Poverty is Sexist” campaign to spread these
messages—and curated social content played a key role in the campaign. ONE asked people around the world to post a
#Strengthie of themselves posing like Rosie the Riveter. They also asked participants to tag the women in their life whose
strength they admire and use hashtag #WithStrongGirls.’ ‘Stackla provided the technology that allowed ONE to
aggregate all the posts using its hashtags. A curated stream of these photos was displayed in a social hub on  ONE’s
website. The organization has aggregated more than 5,700 photos since the start of the campaign—including posts from
celebrity supporters Malala Yousafzai, Shonda Rhimes, and Mary J. Blige.’

Thankyou 
It started with a bottle of water that exists to help end the World Water Crisis. That idea has now grown to over
55 products, from personal care products to nappies and baby care. Thankyou is a social enterprise that commits 100%
of their profit to end global poverty. They can be found in over 5,500 outlets in Australia, including all major
supermarkets. ‘The Thankyou consumer movement has raised millions of dollars to get safe water, toilets and child and
maternal health programs to hundreds and thousands of people in need.’How did it start? For 5 years, the major
supermarkets in Australia had said no to Thankyou. Then one day they launched a video and thousands of people began
petitioning the supermarkets. Two helicopter pilots donated their time to fly signs above the head offices of those two
supermarkets and in record-breaking time, both said yes. Products hit the shelves, including their  hand wash that has
since become number one in the category.
.
Bookshare 
Bookshare is the world’s largest accessible online library for people with reading difficulties who find it
problematic or impossible to read printed text. This includes the visually impaired and those with dyslexia or a language-
based learning disability. More than 425,000 people in 70 countries have access to Bookshare’s
collection of 637,064 titles.  More than 820 U.S. and international publishers contribute to their social mission by
donating their digital files, making it possible for Bookshare to serve users around the world and ensure  that content is
available to people with reading difficulties at the same time as their peers.
 
Invisible Children (Kony 2012) 
Invisible Children have helped thousands of central African families become safer through innovative community-based
protection initiatives.   ‘They got their start by showing a short film called “The Rough Cut” at high schools and
community centers around the United States. ‘The goal was to raise awareness of Joseph Kony, a war criminal
responsible for a decades-long civil war in Uganda and surrounding countries, and most maligned for his kidnapping and
use of children as sex slaves and soldiers.’ ‘The group flipped Kony 2012, a 30-minute YouTube video, to public on March
5, 2012. It was not their first or their last video but it was their loudest. In six days, it garnered more than 100 million
views becoming (for the moment) the fastest growing viral video of all time.
 
#GivingTuesday 
#GivingTuesday was founded in 2012 by a team at New York City’s 92nd Street Y in partnership with the United
Nations Foundation. Together with a team of influencers and founding partners, they launched a global movement that
has engaged thousands of organisations worldwide. ‘#GivingTuesday harnesses the potential of social media and the
generosity of people around the world to bring about real change in their communities; it provides a platform for them
to encourage the donation of time, resources and talents to address local challenges. It also brings together the
collective power of a unique blend of partners—nonprofits, civic organizations, businesses and corporations, as well as
families and individuals—to encourage and amplify small acts of kindness.’ As a global movement, #GivingTuesday unites
countries around the world by sharing their capacity to care for and empower one another.vii  

Wings for Life World Run 

‘Wings for Life is an international not-for-profit foundation with one mission only – to help scientists find a cure for spinal
cord injury. 100% of your entry fee and donations go directly to cutting-edge research projects worldwide.’ The Wings for
Life World Run is a global running event where everybody starts simultaneously and the finish line chases them. 
How does it work? The charity explains: ‘On one day each year, the Wings for Life World Run takes place at event
locations across the planet. Everybody starts at exactly the same moment, 11 am UTC. Whether it’s day or night, bright
sun or pouring rain at your location – you’re running together with the world and sharing an amazing experience. Your
name shows up on a Global Result List, too!’ In excess of half a million people have participated in the Wings for Life
World Run over the past 5 years. 
 
Movember 
‘The Movember Foundation is the only global charity focused solely on men’s health. The Foundation raises
funds to deliver innovative, breakthrough research and support programs that enable men to live happier, healthier, and
longer lives. Awareness and fundraising activities are run year-round by the Foundation, with the annual Movember
campaign being globally recognized for its fun, disruptive approach to fundraising and getting men to take action for
their health.’ ‘During Movember, men are challenged to grow a moustache, and men and women can be physically
active and move or host a fundraising event. Not only do these commitments raise vital funds, they also
generate powerful and often life-changing conversations.’‘Millions have joined the movement to disrupt the status quo,
raising $769M and funding over 1,200 projects focused on prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide
prevention.’

Social innovation
Social innovations are new social practices that aim to meet social needs in a better way than the existing
solutions, resulting from - for example - working conditions, education, community development or health. These ideas
are created with the goal of extending and strengthening civil society. Social innovation includes the social processes of
innovation, such as open source methods and techniques and also the innovations which have a social purpose—
like activism, virtual volunteering, microcredit, or distance learning. There are many definitions of social innovation,
however, they usually include the broad criteria about social objectives, social interaction between actors or actor
diversity, social outputs, and innovativeness (The innovation should be atleast ”new” to the beneficiaries it targets, but it
does not have to be new to the world).
Focus and application
Social Innovation has an inter-sectoral approach and is universally applicable. Social Innovations are launched
by a variety of actors, including research institutions, companies and independent organizations, which tend to use their
respective definitions of Social Innovation. Therefore, it is worth discussing what distinguishes it from other forms of
social work or innovation. Social Innovation focuses on the process of innovation, how innovation and change take
shape. It likewise centers on new work and new forms of cooperation (business models), especially on those that work
towards the attainment of a sustainable society.
Social innovation can take place within government; the for-profit sector, the nonprofit sector. Higher
education institutions, such as the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation, Cambridge Judge Business School, University
of Cambridge, leverage the power of research to support this aim. Research has focused on the types of platforms
needed to facilitate such cross-sector collaborative social innovation. Historical studies suggest that transforming any
system may take many years, and requires not only the capacity for multiple partnerships, but also for engaging policy,
legal and economic institutions.
Social entrepreneurship, like social enterprise, is typically in the nonprofit sector excluding both for-profit and
public organizations. Both social entrepreneurship and social enterprise are important contributions to social innovation
by creating social value and introducing new ways of achieving goals. Social entrepreneurship brings "new patterns and
possibilities for innovation" and are willing to do things that existing organizations are not willing to do.
Social innovation is often an effort of mental creativity which involves fluency and flexibility from a wide range
of disciplines. The act of social innovation in a sector is mostly connected with diverse disciplines within the society. The
social innovation theory of 'connected difference' emphasizes three key dimensions to social innovation.  First,
innovations are usually new combinations or hybrids of existing elements, rather than completely new. Second, their
practice involves cutting across organizational or disciplinary boundaries. Lastly, they leave behind compelling new
relationships between previously separate individuals and groups. Social innovation is also gaining visibility within
academia.
Since 2014, a subdomain of social innovation has been defined in relation to the introduction of digital
technologies. The subdomain is called digital social innovation and refers to "a type of social and collaborative innovation
in which innovators, users and communities collaborate using digital technologies to co-create knowledge and solutions
for a wide range of social needs and at a scale and speed that was unimaginable before the rise of the Internet"

Link: https://www.youngsocialinnovators.ie/about/why-social-innovation/

What is Social Innovation?

 We define social innovation as “the practice of using creativity to develop solutions which improve the well-
being of people and society”. This practice promotes collaborative action, creative thinking and innovative action to
address social need.  It uses the experience and insight of those impacted and those concerned to come up with new
solutions and approaches.

Social innovation is a way of making change

How you make that change is as important as what change you want to bring about. Successful social
innovation is informed and characterised by the values of empowerment, fairness, inclusion and well-being. In fact, the
purpose of social innovation we believe is to bring about a fairer, more equal world! Social innovation can help to
address local, national and global challenges in our world. Inequality, poverty, climate change, racism, unemployment,
suicide, mass migration, integration, loneliness, malnutrition are challenges to us all. 
Social Innovation Education
We need, more than ever, to understand how to bring about real and lasting change. We need more than ever,
to harness people’s passion and desire to create a fairer, more equal world.  Our belief is that by learning social
innovation - how to innovate for social good - we give people the tools to bring about the change that is needed.

Introduction
Social enterprise offers the perfect business model for those that aspire to do some good and make that work
sustainable. Social Enterprise has seen a huge growth in the past number of years; more and more social enterprises are
taking shape and more companies are becoming aware of its valuable role.  A growing number of not-for-profit
organisations are seeking opportunities to start or expand ventures that fulfil their mission and provide earned revenue.
A social enterprise is an organisation that achieves both. Social enterprises face some unique challenges. For example, in
a social enterprise you don’t just have to be concerned about keeping the customer satisfied. You have to satisfy your
social ambitions too – whether that involves serving a community, protecting the environment or solving a social
problem. This toolkit is intended to help you understand the challenges and provide you with the skills to achieve your
ambitions.
I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.
-Thomas Jefferson
 
Is this Toolkit for me?
 
This Social Enterprise Toolkit is for communities and individuals thinking of setting up a social enterprise in
Ireland. In short, this guide is aimed at communities and individuals with an idea who want to make the world a better
place. Setting up a social enterprise, or transforming an organisation from a charity, public sector or private business into
a successful social enterprise can be a daunting, challenging yet exhilarating experience. You can sometimes feel isolated
on the journey and that’s why it’s vital to learn from the experiences of those who have gone before you. That’s why we
embarked on writing this plan to help you understand how to overcome such challenges. There’s a lot of information
available for start-ups, and this guide takes you through the essentials. But we focus on the skills that are most important
in a social enterprise. When you are setting up a social enterprise you normally write a business plan, undertake the task
of establishing the enterprise and commence operations. Embracing this toolkit will certainly help you get there. With a
social enterprise, there are a few additional skills you need to learn when setting up the organisation.

What is Social Enterprise?

There is a definition that we will use for social enterprise: A social enterprise is a profit seeking organisation
with a defined social and/or environmental mission but there are many definitions. In a Forfás report in 2013, the
following definition is given: Social Enterprises are business models set up to tackle social, economic or environmental
issues. While they are driven primarily by social and/or environmental motives, they engage in trading or commercial
activities to pursue these objectives and produce social and community gain.
 
What does that mean?
 
Well, these are organisations that sell products or services for a profit. With this profit, they can have some
social impact. By way of example, let’s take an organisation that makes coffee. The organisation sells that coffee for a
profit and, with that profit, they can help people who are homeless. So, the more coffees that they sell, the more profit
they have, the more money they have available to help tackle the homeless crisis. Social enterprises also, more likely
than not, employ people who are socially excluded or marginalised or who perhaps might not have had a job otherwise.
Have you got any examples?
 
Oh yes, we do. Throughout this guide, there are case studies of trading social enterprises that are creating an
impact in our society. Examples like Recreate, the Green Kitchen, Rediscovery Centre and more.
 
What a social enterprise is and is not

Social Enterprises, Private Sector and Charities

 
Not all things are simple. ‘Social enterprise’ is not a legal term and, as a result, there are many ways to set up a
social enterprise in Ireland. Social enterprises are found on a spectrum, with organisations willing to undertake activities
which benefit other people, even if it results in disadvantage to themselves (altruism); relying primarily on grants at one
end and 100% self-financing, socially driven businesses at the other. There are some legal ways that are more common
than others, but the following might be able to shed some more light:

 Charities & Voluntary Organisations:  These are organisations set up purely to help those in need and do so
often by fundraising
 Charities with a trading arm:  These are most recognised as charities that sell products and services through a
store, e.g. charity shops
 Social Enterprise:  An organisation that trades for profit and has a measured social impact
 Commercial businesses have a social imperative:  These businesses are often set up to make money but have
strong values
 Private Sector:  These are pure businesses that trade to maximise shareholder value. They are profit seeking
and focus on making money.
 
How Social Enterprises Can Differ
 
You can break up your understanding of charities and businesses and social enterprises too under two
headings, priorities and funding.

What makes it a social enterprise?

 
Social enterprise is not a legal term. It refers to businesses that exist for a social purpose. In Ireland, you can’t
register your business legally as a social enterprise. There are various legal forms that are used to incorporate social
enterprises. Ultimately, being a social enterprise is about adopting a set of principles. These include:
 Impact:  Having a clear social and/or environmental mission (set out in your governing documents) and
reinvesting the majority of your profits to further the social mission.
 Finance/ Profits:  Generating the majority of your income through trade.
 Ownership:  Having a democratic and inclusive view of decision making in the organisation, including having
strong governance, community involvement and a positive stakeholder engagement
This is regardless of what form the organisation takes. So, if you have these in place – you are acting as a social
enterprise.
 
A social enterprise can do many things:
 
  Selling products:  This can be everything from metal work to coffee and from festive cards to bottled water.
 Selling services:  Social enterprises can deliver anything from consulting services, recycling, or property
management to training, courier services, lawn maintenance, running cafes or restaurants.
 Income Generation:  A social enterprise can generate profits from any of its services and can sell such services
to members of the general public or specific companies or government agencies.
 Outcomes:  The range  of outcomes that social enterprises can deliver range from employing people with
learning difficulties, providing affordable psychology services to low income families or assist in helping young
people find work.
The list is endless. There are plenty of examples of social enterprises and the impact that they can have.
 

Why Social Enterprise?

 
Social enterprises contribute to vibrant economies. In addition to creating new jobs and enabling non-profits
organisations to sustain their services, there are many areas where social enterprises are positively impacting on healthy
and sustainable communities. This can include:
 
 Stimulating community economies: In some communities, social enterprise can employ people who otherwise
may to migrate or endure long commuting times. Communities that embrace social enterprises are supporting
jobs and helping to build enduring local economies
 Environment & biodiversity: Upcycling, recycling, food production, composting, eco-tourism, nature wildlife
and preservation sanctuaries can all be set up to tackle climate change and social impact.
 Inclusivity:  In many communities, social enterprise can help bridge the gaps between young and old, or settled
and Travelling communities, or new immigrants into smaller towns and villages.
 Overcoming social exclusion:  Social enterprises can work with those more vulnerable or overlooked in society
by providing apprenticeships, training, skills, resources and related opportunities for a living wage; offer
affordable housing and offer the support needed to assist those in difficulty.
 Community and Business:  Social enterprises can often play a vital role in bridging businesses with communities
and offering companies the chance to invest or purchase in a more socially responsible manner.
 What is a social entrepreneur?
When you hear of social enterprise you may also be thinking of the term social entrepreneur. Social enterprise
can be looked upon as a subset of social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship is the art of using all that you have
on hand to take advantage of marketplace opportunities to achieve sustainable social change. Social entrepreneurship
captures a lot of different company types. It includes socially responsible investors, corporate social responsibility, social
innovators and others. These types of entities are not considered social enterprises unless they directly address social
needs through their products or services or the numbers of disadvantaged people they employ. The real test for an
entrepreneur is what they see for the future of the business. In a private business, the owner can look at a return on
their hard work in growing and building the organisation, particularly if the business is sold. A social enterprise takes as
much hard work to set up and run but, should it cease to trade, it either has to wind up or merge with a similar not –for-
profit company. The directors cannot sell their successful business for personal profit. The asset lock ensures that the
assets – money, equipment, building, etc. – are passed over to another social enterprise or charity to continue its social
purpose.
Therefore, an entrepreneur is creating a business that they don’t own. They can work and earn a living out of it and, if
they decide to move on in the future, they will have created a sustainable organisation that has a succession plan. Their
satisfaction will be in leaving a legacy business that can continue to deliver for the public good.

Case Study – ReCreate

ReCreate, started in 2013, is an award winning social enterprise making art materials and educational supplies
affordable and accessible to every sector of the community for all kinds of creative purposes. This is achieved by
salvaging clean, reusable materials from businesses and distributing them to members in unlimited quantities. The
project is based around the concept known as Creative Reuse which encourages the public to reuse materials on an
industrial scale that would normally be sent to landfill or for recycling, for all manner of creative and inventive purposes.
The business model is that members pay a nominal annual subscription fee and in turn have unlimited access to the
materials stored in ReCreate’s Warehouse Of Wonders (WOW) and its facilities, which include a workshop and member’s
area. ReCreates space, known as the ‘’Warehouse of Wonders’’, has had close to 15,000 visitors in 2017 to date, and
showcases what can be done with the materials through display and workshops as well as storing the materials to allow
easy access by the public to take away for reuse. ReCreate are creating a welcome space for the whole community, and
in 2016 published “Heads Up”, their first publication on the positive benefits of using reuse materials in inclusive
classrooms, in conjunction with Trinity College. ReCreate has over 1,200 members, mainly comprised from the early
childhood, education, special needs, community and arts sectors as well as families and individuals too.   There are also
now over 250 suppliers on the Recreate database.  These include the likes of: Smurfit Kappa; Avoca; Bewleys; IKEA;
Dundrum Town Centre, Universal Records; Ricoh (printing) and TileStyle, to name just a few. Each year we divert over
200 tons of materials from landfill.
 
Case Study – Walk Green Kitchen D12
 
The Green Kitchen Café & Garden Centre is a Social Enterprise that generates traded income and achieves good
by reusing future profits to further their social inclusion work. The activities of the enterprise cater for a social need in
the community, promote training and work experience opportunities for people while being self-sustaining. The
organisation was set up by WALK, a charity that supports people with intellectual disabilities. WALK aims to create and
sustain a social enterprise that fulfils a social need within the community while creating employment opportunities for
people disabilities and other persons distanced from the labour market. The first Green Kitchen café opened in 2014 in
Walkinstown Green, Dublin 12. The cafe was set up to provide great food and an opportunity to employ people who are
socially excluded or marginalised and who might not otherwise source a job or find meaningful employment. The cafe
purposely does not display brands or markings on the wall or overtly claim that it is a social enterprise. To most
customers, the café is similar to any traditional café and gives no indication that it is trading as a social enterprise. This is
a deliberate policy as the Green Kitchen wanted to show that they were focused on the quality of the food and the
experience that customers gained from dining there. Also, for the people who gain training and work experience in The
Green Kitchen, their CV shows time working in a busy, commercial operation. Adjacent to the café is the Green Garden
Centre. The new shop provides access to an oasis of calm and colour with vast range of quality garden products. They
provide advice on gardening and have horticultural experts who will give tips to customers. There are many freshly
grown items on sale there, too. Most importantly, their garden centre offers excellent opportunities for the people they
support to become involved in this fantastic community initiative while learning a new skill. Green Kitchen opened up
two further franchises in 2017: Ballymun Rediscovery Centre and the Richmond Barracks in Inchicore.
 
Case Study – Rediscovery Centre
 
Since it was founded in 2004, The Rediscovery Centre has expanded its operations to become a national leader
in resource efficiency and waste prevention. One of the platforms for this expansion has been the Rediscovery Centre’s 4
key social enterprises: Rediscover Furniture, Rediscover Fashion, Rediscover Cycling and Rediscover Paint. Each of these
social enterprises take waste materials and reimagine them as high-quality, sustainable products for sale with revenue
generated reinvested in the programmes. The Rediscovery Centre’s social enterprises lie at the heart of its mission to
support circular economy principles for low carbon living and the support green economy. They participate heavily in
community employment and training schemes, whereby the long-term unemployed or educationally disadvantaged are
offered work in the centre and trained in new skills. In 2017, the Rediscovery Centre embarked upon a new venture and
opened a dedicated centre of excellence in education for sustainable development. Key to the centre is a collaborative
Ecostore, supporting enterprise development and providing a ‘bricks and mortar’ space for eco-designers throughout
Ireland. The store has also enabled the Rediscovery Centre’s enterprises to add to its product lines, take on more
trainees and extend the centre’s influence in the community and with the wider public. As a creative space connecting
people, ideas and resources for the circular economy, the Rediscovery Centre has become a hub for social enterprise
innovation which supports and fosters collaborative action.
Social business 
Social business was defined by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and is described in his
books. In these books, Yunus defined a social business as a business:
 Created and designed to address a social problem
 A non-loss, non-dividend company, i.e.

1. It is financially self-sustainable and

 2. Profits realized by the business are reinvested in the business itself (or used to start other social businesses),
with the aim of increasing social impact, for example expanding the company’s reach, improving the products
or services or in other ways subsidizing the social mission.

Unlike a profit-maximizing business, the prime aim of a social business is not to maximize profits (although
generating profits is desired). Furthermore, business owners are not receiving any dividend out of the business profits, if
any. On the other hand, unlike a non-profit, a social business is not dependent on donations or on private or public
grants to survive and to operate, because, as any other business, it is self-sustainable. Furthermore, unlike a non-profit,
where funds are spent only once on the field, funds in a social business are invested to increase and improve the
business' operations on the field on an indefinite basis. Per Yunus' quote: "A charity dollar has only one life; a social
business dollar can be invested over and over again." Philosophically, social business is based on what Yunus identifies as
the two basic motives of human beings, selfishness and selflessness. Selfishly, people do seek profit through business;
however, social business is also based on the latter motive people by performing philanthropic services, like establishing
churches, mosques, synagogues, art museums, public parks, health clinics or community centers. For Yunus, the profits
made through a social business's operations are less important than the beneficial effects it has on society.  Muhammad
Yunus has more recently founded Yunus Social Business (YSB) to study, support, and invest in young social businesses.

Seven principles of social business

These were developed by Professor Muhammad Yunus and Hans Reitz, the co-founder of Grameen Creative Lab:

1. Business objective will be to overcome poverty, or one or more problems (such as education, health,
technology access, and environment) which threaten people and society; not profit maximization.
2. Financial and economic sustainability
3. Investors get back their investment amount only. No dividend is given beyond investment money
4. When investment amount is paid back, company profit stays with the company for expansion and improvement
5. Gender sensitive and environmentally conscious
6. Workforce gets market wage with better working conditions
7. ...Do it with joy

1. What is Social Innovation?

Social Innovation is the practice of using creativity to develop solutions which improve the well-being
of people and society”. This practice promotes collaborative action, creative thinking and innovative action to
address social need.  

2. Why is it important?
Many of the social challenges that the world is facing nowadays require social innovation to be
applied in current technologies in the correct way to bring fairer, more equal world! Social innovation can help
address local, national and global challenges in our world such as inequality, poverty, climate change, racism,
unemployment, suicide, mass migration, integration, loneliness, malnutrition are challenges to us all.

3. How is the TEE Subject related to Social Innovation?

The TEE subject teach us how to be responsible enough towards the environment, and help us
solve social and environmental problems by creating social innovations.

1. How are the following different from traditional profit-driven businesses?

A. Triple Bottom Line
 The triple bottom line theory expands the traditional accounting framework to include two other performance
areas: the social and environmental impacts of their company. These three bottom lines are often referred to as the
three P’s: people, planet, and profit. People “People” considers employees, the labor involved in a corporation’s work,
and the wider community where a corporation does business. Another way to look at “people” is, how much does a
company benefit society? A triple bottom line company pays fair wages and takes steps to ensure humane working
conditions at supplier factories. Planet The “planet” piece of the triple bottom line indicates that an organization tries to
reduce its ecological footprint as much as possible. These efforts can include reducing waste, investing in renewable
energy, managing natural resources more efficiently, and improving logistics. Profit While every business pursues
financial profitability, triple bottom line businesses see it as one part of a business plan.

B. Social Enterprise

Social Enterprises are business models set up to tackle social, economic or environmental issues. While they are
driven primarily by social and/or environmental motives, they engage in trading or commercial activities to pursue these
objectives and produce social and community gain. Well, these are organisations that sell products or services for a
profit. With this profit, they can have some social impact.

C. Social Business

Unlike a profit-maximizing business, the prime aim of a social business is not to maximize. Furthermore, business
owners are not receiving any dividend out of the business profits, if any. A social business is not dependent on donations
or on private or public grants to survive and to operate, because, as any other business, it is self-sustainable.
Furthermore, unlike a non-profit, where funds are spent only once on the field, funds in a social business are invested to
increase and improve the business' operations on the field on an indefinite basis.

1. Who is professor Muhammad Yunus?

Muhammad Yunus (born 28 June 1940) is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist, and civil
society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the
concepts of microcredit and microfinance.  These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for
traditional bank loans. In 2006, Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for
their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below". The Norwegian
Nobel Committee said that "lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which
to break out of poverty" and that "across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that
even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development". Yunus has received several
other national and international honours. He received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009
and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010. In 2008, he was rated number 2 in Foreign Policy magazine's list of
the 'Top 100 Global Thinkers'.
In February 2011, Yunus together with Saskia Bruysten, Sophie Eisenmann and Hans Reitz co-founded  Yunus
Social Business – Global Initiatives (YSB). YSB creates and empowers social businesses to address and solve
social problems around the world. As the international implementation arm for Yunus' vision of a new, humane
capitalism, YSB manages incubator funds for social businesses in developing countries and provides advisory
services to companies, governments, foundations and NGOs.
In 2012, he became Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland, a position he held until
2018. Previously, he was a professor of economics at Chittagong University in Bangladesh.  He published several
books related to his finance work. He is a founding board member of  Grameen America and Grameen
Foundation, which support microcredit.
Yunus also serves on the board of directors of the United Nations Foundation, a public charity created in 1998
by American philanthropist Ted Turner's $1 billion gift to support UN causes.
In March 2011, the Bangladesh government fired Yunus from his position at Grameen Bank, citing legal
violations and an age limit on his position
 A. Create a sample Facebook Profile according to what you read about him (be creative 😃). There is no
need to make an actual FB profile. Make use of templates.
B. What is the Grameen Bank?
Grameen Bank is a microfinance organisation and community development bank founded in
Bangladesh. It makes small loans (known as microcredit or "grameencredit") to the impoverished without
requiring collateral. Grameen Bank originated in 1976, in the work of Professor Muhammad Yunus at
University of Chittagong, who launched a research project to study how to design a credit delivery system
to provide banking services to the rural poor. In October 1983 the Grameen Bank was authorised by
national legislation to operate as an independent bank. The bank grew significantly between 2003 and
2007. As of January 2011, the total borrowers of the bank number 8.4 million, and 97% of those are
women. In 1998 the Bank's "Low-cost Housing Program" won a World Habitat Award. In 2006, the bank and
its founder, Muhammad Yunus, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace
PrizeGrameen Bank Center is an organization which is made by few groups consisting of landless
people. This bank open the door to provide the financial service to the poorest people where other banks
thought they're not creditworthy. They lend money to few people in that village without any collateral,
without any guarantee, without any lawyers involved, no repayment plans either. All they got is trust.
Grameen Bank gives them education loans they go for higher education were thousands and thousands of
students are now becoming doctors, engineers and other professionals out of these illiterate. Grameen
Bank is owned by the borrowers.

C. Describe Microfinance using one paragraph.

Microfinance, also called microcredit, is a type of banking service provided to unemployed or low-
income individuals or groups who otherwise would have no other access to financial services.While
institutions participating in the area of microfinance most often provide lending—microloans can range
from as small as $100 to as large as $25,000—many banks offer additional services such as checking and
savings accounts as well as micro-insurance products, and some even provide financial and business
education. The goal of microfinance is to ultimately give impoverished people an opportunity to become
self-sufficient. Microfinance services are provided to unemployed or low-income individuals because most
of those trapped in poverty, or who have limited financial resources, do not have enough income to do
business with traditional financial institutions. Despite being excluded from banking services, however,
those who live on as little as $2 a day do attempt to save, borrow, acquire credit or insurance, and they do
make payments on their debt. Thus, many poor people typically look to family, friends, and even loan
sharks (who often charge exorbitant interest rates) for help. Microfinance allows people to take on
reasonable small business loans safely, and in a manner that is consistent with ethical lending practices.
Although they exist all around the world, the majority of microfinancing operations occur in developing
nations, such as Uganda, Indonesia, Serbia, and Honduras. Many microfinance institutions focus on helping
women in particular.
2. Provide three examples of a Social Enterprise and describe their specific traits based on the material I
gave you.
Case Study – ReCreate
ReCreate, started in 2013, is an award winning social enterprise making art materials and educational
supplies affordable and accessible to every sector of the community for all kinds of creative purposes. This is
achieved by salvaging clean, reusable materials from businesses and distributing them to members in unlimited
quantities. The project is based around the concept known as Creative Reuse which encourages the public to
reuse materials on an industrial scale that would normally be sent to landfill or for recycling, for all manner of
creative and inventive purposes. The business model is that members pay a nominal annual subscription fee
and in turn have unlimited access to the materials stored in ReCreate’s Warehouse Of Wonders (WOW) and its
facilities, which include a workshop and member’s area. ReCreates space, known as the ‘’Warehouse of
Wonders’’, has had close to 15,000 visitors in 2017 to date, and showcases what can be done with the materials
through display and workshops as well as storing the materials to allow easy access by the public to take away
for reuse. ReCreate are creating a welcome space for the whole community, and in 2016 published “Heads Up”,
their first publication on the positive benefits of using reuse materials in inclusive classrooms, in conjunction
 with Trinity College. ReCreate has over 1,200 members, mainly comprised from the early childhood, education,
special needs, community and arts sectors as well as families and individuals too.  There are also now over 250
suppliers on the Recreate database.  These include the likes of: Smurfit Kappa; Avoca; Bewleys; IKEA; Dundrum
Town Centre, Universal Records; Ricoh (printing) and TileStyle, to name just a few. Each year we divert over 200
tons of materials from landfill.
 
Case Study – Walk Green Kitchen D12
 
The Green Kitchen Café & Garden Centre is a Social Enterprise that generates traded income and
achieves good by reusing future profits to further their social inclusion work. The activities of the enterprise
cater for a social need in the community, promote training and work experience opportunities for people while
being self-sustaining. The organisation was set up by WALK, a charity that supports people with intellectual
disabilities. WALK aims to create and sustain a social enterprise that fulfils a social need within the community
while creating employment opportunities for people disabilities and other persons distanced from the labour
market. The first Green Kitchen café opened in 2014 in Walkinstown Green, Dublin 12. The cafe was set up to
provide great food and an opportunity to employ people who are socially excluded or marginalised and who
might not otherwise source a job or find meaningful employment. The cafe purposely does not display brands
or markings on the wall or overtly claim that it is a social enterprise. To most customers, the café is similar to
any traditional café and gives no indication that it is trading as a social enterprise. This is a deliberate policy as
the Green Kitchen wanted to show that they were focused on the quality of the food and the experience that
customers gained from dining there. Also, for the people who gain training and work experience in The Green
Kitchen, their CV shows time working in a busy, commercial operation. Adjacent to the café is the Green
Garden Centre. The new shop provides access to an oasis of calm and colour with vast range of quality garden
products. They provide advice on gardening and have horticultural experts who will give tips to customers.
There are many freshly grown items on sale there, too. Most importantly, their garden centre offers excellent
opportunities for the people they support to become involved in this fantastic community initiative while
learning a new skill. Green Kitchen opened up two further franchises in 2017: Ballymun Rediscovery Centre and
the Richmond Barracks in Inchicore.
 
Case Study – Rediscovery Centre
  Since it was founded in 2004, The Rediscovery Centre has expanded its operations to become a national leader
in resource efficiency and waste prevention. One of the platforms for this expansion has been the Rediscovery Centre’s 4
key social enterprises: Rediscover Furniture, Rediscover Fashion, Rediscover Cycling and Rediscover Paint. Each of these
social enterprises take waste materials and reimagine them as high-quality, sustainable products for sale with revenue
generated reinvested in the programmes. The Rediscovery Centre’s social enterprises lie at the heart of its mission to
support circular economy principles for low carbon living and the support green economy. They participate heavily in
community employment and training schemes, whereby the long-term unemployed or educationally disadvantaged are
offered work in the centre and trained in new skills. In 2017, the Rediscovery Centre embarked upon a new venture and
opened a dedicated centre of excellence in education for sustainable development. Key to the centre is a collaborative
Ecostore, supporting enterprise development and providing a ‘bricks and mortar’ space for eco-designers throughout
Ireland. The store has also enabled the Rediscovery Centre’s enterprises to add to its product lines, take on more
trainees and extend the centre’s influence in the community and with the wider public. As a creative space connecting
people, ideas and resources for the circular economy, the Rediscovery Centre has become a hub for social enterprise
innovation which supports and fosters collaborative action.

3. Provide two examples of Social Businesses. Highlight its projects and accomplishments

what's the difference between a social business and traditional business like a charity a social business works to
solve a social problem but like a business it's also financially sustainable because all profits are reinvested to help the
business grow and benefit society what is the difference between a social investor and a traditional investor a traditional
investor investsfor his own benefit a social investor invests to benefit others at unis social business we help connect
social investors with social businesses for a very special purpose to address the world's most pressing problems such as
nutrition energy environment education and health we do this through social business incubator funds our local
incubator teams search for and create social business opportunities to help communities in need by developing a social
business plan providing real-world business training and opening doors to useful networks when these businesses
become successful the social business pays back the initial investment so the same dollar can be recycled to help more
social businesses same dollar new social business in Haiti we've invested in a bakery that produces fortified bread for the
local community suffering from malnutrition this bakery has created a social impact at every stage of the value chain by
generating demand for the local farmers creating local employment and most importantly producing affordable nutrients
so that even the poorest citizens can live healthier lives