Harnessing the Power of Play

As I face the last stages of my Master's programme on Sustainable Development and CSR here in Madrid, I have been extremely occupied in these past few weeks with my group's final project and preparation of our final presentation. The theme for the topic of our project is centered on social innovation. Perhaps some day I will give you a sneak peek of what our project is about, but for today, I would like to highlight what I learned about a social enterprise from one of the courses we attended on social entrepreneurship.

First of all, some of you may be wondering what a social entrepreneur is. Well, there are many definitions out there and different people have a different understanding of what this term means since the use of the term became more popular in recent times. For now, we will refer to the definition provided by Ashoka:

"Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change. Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps. Social entrepreneurs often seem to be possessed by their ideas, committing their lives to changing the direction of their field. They are both visionaries and ultimate realists, concerned with the practical implementation of their vision above all else."

A mission to innovate, play and empower

With the 2012 Eurocup Finals looming around the corner, I thought I would post here an example of a social enterprise, Unchartered Play, that was co-founded by Jessica O. Matthews and Julia Silverman. What started off as one of their class projects at Harvard College developed into an innovative product named SOCCKET that holds the potential to address social and, to some extent, environmental issues as well. 

According to the company's website, Soccket is a soccer ball (or football) that generates energy as it is kicked around. The clean electricity is produced through kinetic energy and stored in the battery of the ball. It has a little socket that allows for small electronic devices such as lamps, water purifier, and cellphone chargers to be plugged in and powered. This is how Soccket functions as a toy and as the first portable generator that comes in the form of a soccer ball. Thirty minutes of play would be able to power an LED lamp for three hours. It may not seem like much but it makes a world of difference for people who live in areas where energy infrastructure is poor or not available. At the moment, Soccket weighs four ounces more than conventional soccer balls, but the developers are hoping to reduce its weight with the use of lightweight materials. 

Through their innovative thinking and design, the enterprise was able to successfully combine the function of play and the need to address a pressing issue faced by more than 1 billion people in the world, who rely on kerosene lamps to light up their homes after dark.

The enterprise seems to make efforts in trying to meet the needs of the end-user, and its team has begun developing several other products with early engagement to understand the people’s needs. They also immersed themselves in the environments that their users live in to appreciate and comprehend their daily lives and routines. Matthews, who is CEO of Uncharted Play, states that 3,000 of these balls will be distributed this year to Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Haiti, and South Africa.

They have also begun collaborating with partners across the globe. One in particular is linked to Huecco, who is a Spanish singer that established an organization called Fundación Dame Vida. This foundation functions to distribute Soccket to energy-impoverished areas. The plan is to donate royalties from the record sales of Huecco’s album entitled "Dame Vida" for manufacturing and distributing these balls that are referred to in Spanish as “el balón con luz” (the ball with light) or “el balón verde” (the green ball). The foundation is working to distribute Dame Vida Soccket balls so that one family will get one ball. The singer’s celebrity status has successfully managed to attract football stars and other sports stars to participate in promoting the cause of his foundation and through the sales of his album, 500 balls have been manufactured thus far. 

Matthews stated that she and her team are working to become the “Apple” of social enterprises. Unchartered Play is only one year old and although it has managed to receive a lot of media exposure, praises from well-known public figures, and funding from other organizations, it is still a startup business that is continuously looking for funding and investors. Since the production and distribution of Soccket, the enterprise is still in the process of monitoring the impacts of the balls on the communities that received them.

However, there could be some challenges faced with distributing Soccket in such poor, impoverished communities. One would be with regard to what would happen after the product wears out or exceeds its battery life. Some questions that came up in my mind as I was researching on this enterprise and their breakthrough product are: After the ball "expires", what happens then to the beneficiaries who have been relying on it as their portable generator? Would more balls be sent over to these poor communities? Is there some way for the old batteries to be replaced with new ones? If yes, how would the poor communities go about doing it? If not, how would they dispose of these portable generators in the safest way, with the least impact on their health and environment? I ask these questions because Matthews mentioned at the Clinton Global Initiative that the latest version of Soccket has been built to last up to 3 years. Thus, although I like their innovative product and the ideas behind it, I hope Unchartered Play has kept those issues in mind and are finding ways to address them. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to the development of the enterprise's project involving this product and would like to see if there has been any notable improvements or benefits gained in the communities where Soccket has been introduced. 

Click below to watch the promotional video of SOCCKET:

And the official music video of “Dame Vida” by Huecco:

Fostering Collaboration through Open Innovation

When discussing the elements and processes involved in sustainable development, recent times have seen much emphasis placed on the need for innovative solutions. There are many methods of innovation used to produce products or services that help serve the needs of society, reduce human impact on the environment, and provide businesses with streams of revenue and market opportunities.

Here, I would like to share some of the content I posted for a blog assignment in one class I attended on Innovation. The assignment originated from one of our class activities in which we were instructed to contribute our ideas on how to make EOI more sustainable. We were given passwords that enabled us to log on to an online platform where we could state our ideas and elaborate on the vision we had in mind. The ideas we uploaded were then shared with students from our class and with those from other Masters programmes at EOI. We commented and added on the ideas proposed by our colleagues, which resulted in a sort of online brainstorming where we were able to exchange thoughts and recommendations on the proposed ideas.

Through participating in this activity, I learned about the concept of “Open Innovation”. The term was coined by Chesbrough in his book “Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology” (2003). It derives from the notion that companies have begun shifting from “closed innovation” processes towards a more open approach to innovation due to several factors. These factors include the increase of mobility and availability of highly-educated people, significant increase in availability of venture capital, and also the important roles of other companies in the supply chain. This new model of innovation differs from the traditional model, which placed more emphasis on research and development laboratories. The process of the traditional model involved trimming down large numbers of ideas and concepts and selecting a few that was considered to best meet the requirements of the company. According to openinnovation.eu, Open Innovation functions differently as it works on “combining internal and external ideas as well as internal and external paths to market to advance the development of new technologies.”

Closed Innovation

Open Innovation

There are, in fact, many companies out there that have been and still are actively using open innovation in their business models. According to a Forbes article by Raul Chao, there are many modes of open innovation used in delivering new products, services, and processes. He states that perhaps an expanded interpretation of open innovation may include user-innovation and lead user methodologies, innovation ecosystems and platform innovation models, co-development and short-term non-equity alliances, innovation contests and tournaments, and crowd-sourcing or "the wisdom of crowds".  

This concept of collaborating and innovating together to produce a product or service that improves customers’ experience and satisfies their expectations is a very interesting approach that a company could adopt. It shows how businesses could benefit by sharing ideas and collaborating through open innovation to not only gain profit, but also add value and make a difference in the lives of their customers through their innovative products.

Click below to watch a video of Mr. Chesbrough himself explaining the concept and processes of "Open Innovation":

 

The Politicization of Climate Change

Earlier this week, I attended an open conference at EOI on U.S. Climate Change Policies. Our guest speaker of the day is currently attached to the United States Embassy in Madrid. With his background and expertise on environment and climate change, Mr. Ari Nathan gave us a one-and-a-half-hour talk on the evolution of climate talks in the international arena and the latest scenario of climate change politics that has taken place in the U.S. between Democrats and Republicans.

The overall theme of the talk was centered on the reasons why the U.S. has not been able to truly establish climate change policies. The answer, he says, is China. The story goes that the U.S., as the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the world, has refused to commit to international agreements on emissions reduction as long as there are no equal levels of commitment from emerging economies such as China. Under the Kyoto Protocol, economic powerhouses China and India (which have signed and ratified the treaty) are not obligated to reduce GHG emissions as they are considered developing nations. Although then President Bill Clinton had signed the treaty in 1997, the Senate voted against ratifying it, citing that it could bring damage to the U.S economy.

Mr. Nathan also explained that another barrier in forming climate change policies in the U.S. is due to the fact that approximately two-thirds of Republicans think that climate change does not exist, while Democrats argue otherwise. Hence, the topic of climate change has become a partisan issue that is resulting in the polarization of climate change debates and perceptions. The general view is that if a political representative is a Republican, he/she would be expected to think of climate change as a myth; on the other hand, if one is a Democrat, he/she would be expected to see climate change as an issue affecting the world that needs to be addressed. This scenario, of course, directly influences public opinion as people begin choosing sides and associating themselves strongly with the stance of their preferred party, oftentimes without sufficient knowledge or understanding of the complex science behind climate change and the diverse findings of scientific research in this field of study.

Our speaker stated that the abovementioned factors are a few reasons why, in the last two years, the U.S President's State of the Union has shied away from mentioning climate change or global warming. Instead, President Barack Obama has opted to speak more on job opportunities in the green economy, building sources of clean energy, promoting innovation, and increasing energy efficiency in order to compete against Europe and China.

 

The speaker also talked briefly about how recent international climate negotiations are making efforts to engage developing nations and especially emerging economies through an "energy-efficiency" approach on the issue - the idea that climate change agreements need not necessarily mean that a country would be forced to stop developing or slow down its economy to lower emissions, but that it could be advantageous to the country's economy and to the development of the region. The Durban Platform for Enhanced Action has succeeded in getting the U.S., India, and China on board to agreeing on reducing GHG emissions. However, India & China's stance to allow for a more loose treaty clashed with the EU's insistance on introducing a legal instrument that would force all countries to comply with emissions reduction. At the end, the negotiations resulted in a compromise on an “agreed outcome with legal force”, which is considered to be a vague and uncertain phrase in the Durban Platform.

Overall, the talk with our expert speaker was engaging but it felt brief because the juicy parts of the debate, which could have had potential to spark stimulating discussions arrived towards the end of the presentation - just as Mr. Nathan was beginning to get into the politicization of climate change in the U.S. 

The takeaway from the conference is that while the U.S. may not seem to have implemented proper climate change policies, it has expressed commitment in reducing its emissions. The Obama administration is claiming to take actions to fully support the strategy of moving towards a green economy that has potential to generate employment and contribute to growth and development. 

As for the upcoming Presidential elections, it is obvious that the debate on climate change is still expressed as a partisan issue, which is why Mitt Romney's flip-flopping stance on the topic holds political risks that analysts say may result in loss of trust amongst voters.  

Click below to watch an excerpt from President Obama's 2012 State of the Union:

Beyond the MDGs

Hello everyone!

I would like to begin my new blog by introducing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) because I noticed during my time in class that we often refer back to these goals when discussing about issues regarding Sustainable Development. I believe that's it's important to keep them in mind when planning the next strategic step towards sustainability.

What are the MDGs?

At the beginning of the new millennium, world leaders agreed to the UN Millennium Declaration, which set the foundation for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are eight development goals with 21 targets that are set to be achieved by member states by the year 2015. 

These goals serve as a blueprint for measuring the progress of global development.  On the “Day of 7 Billion”, the United Nations’ Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, stated:

“Our world is one of terrible contradictions. Plenty of food but one billion people go hungry. Lavish lifestyles for a few, but poverty for too many others. Huge advances in medicine while mothers die everyday in childbirth, and children die every day from drinking dirty water. Billions spent on weapons to kill people instead of keeping them safe.”

For this reason, the MDG is crucial in keeping track of countries’ progress as it holds them accountable and pushes leaders to set global and national priorities, as well as measures to follow up on their countries’ goals for development. According to the recent MDG report, economic growth has increased in some developing countries and international funding has resulted in expansion of programmes that delivers services and resources to those most in need. As we move closer to the due date, skeptics are beginning to question whether countries are going to be able to achieve the MDGs, especially in the midst of the current economic downturn. There is still much work to be done and many issues concerning implementation barriers that need to be resolved.

The Call for SDGs

The Rio+20 Earth Summit plays a role in continuing the efforts achieved through the MDGs as there have been growing support for suggestions on introducing a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Building on the lessons learned from the MDGs, the SDGs could be the new basis for redefining the MDGs and to pick up where it will leave off.

According to a Rio 2012 Issues Briefs, there are currently no internationally agreed sustainable development indicators that would help to monitor the progress of SDGs as there is no single, universally accepted definition or assessment metrics for sustainable development. This will pose as one of the challenges for member states to agree upon the best indicators that could be used to measure SDGs.

Below is the tentative blueprint for the scope of SDGs, which was extracted from IGES Rio+20 Issue Brief Vol. 1 by Ikuho Miyazawa:  

Although the Millennium Declaration will still be relevant in the post-2015 development agenda, much thought and consideration need to be given to the linkages between SDGs and MDGs. There must also be agreement on how to develop a possible set of indicators to measure progress of the SDGs. Together with the proposals from member states and the tentative blueprint, I think that through collective efforts and collaboration, there is great potential for the SDGs to help advance development in the developing countries and also bring benefits to the developed world. Additionally, as the world begins to embrace the concept of Green Economy, I believe that new market opportunities will present itself for the upcoming generation of green talents and social entrepreneurs. 

Click below to watch a video on the MDGs: