First of all kudos to the Stern SEA team for arranging such a fun trip to Net Impact 2009. As a first time attendee I was amazed to see so many professionals at the intersection of business, engineering and non-profit come together to solve our most daunting social challenges.  My favorite sessions were on microfinance, designing for affordability, the Walmart Pitch Competition and the two keynotes. The designing for affordability panel really demonstrated that with a good idea and the right team we can design solutions that have a profound impact on people across the world.

I had my own aha moment after speaking to Seth Goldman from Honest Tea and chugging my fifth cup of Starbucks. Thanks to my fellow Sternie for motivating me to pursue my own business idea and to SEA for providing the platform so I can actually experiment next year at the Social Venture Competition.

-Nikhil

Not everyone has the ear of the leader of the free world. General Electric’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt, a self-professed Republican, is one such person. Instead of distilling advice to President Obama, Immelt shared his views with the 2,400 attendees at Net Impact’s 2009 conference on the future of clean energy as the opening keynote speaker on clean-energy and the government.

“About 10 million clean-energy jobs will be created in the next 10 years, and the only question is where they will be created.” - Jeffrey Immelt

He describes a mix of excitement and uncertainty with the future. When hearing “10 million new jobs,” I think about how the United States could potentially replace the lost manufacturing and finance jobs with these new clean energy jobs. However the uncertainty arrives from thinking back to a NY Times article by Thomas Friedman on clean energy. There are no guarantees about how many of the 10 million jobs will be in the United States. According to Friedman, China is surpassing the United States in clean energy, much like the USSR did when it launched the first space satellite Sputnik.

What can the United States do now to increase the number of potential new clean energy jobs in the United States? One suggestion Immelt made was to address cheap oil through public policy. Renewable energy investments are impractical if the price of oil is $10 a barrel, like it was in the late 1990s. I inferred that the public policy Immelt suggested was establish a price floor for oil. Companies would know the minimum substitute price point and would increase their renewable energy investments as more would have the potential to become profitable.

-Mike

Jay Stone beatboxes on the bus as NYU Stern’s Social Enterprise Association heads to Net Impact

At Net Impact 2009, hundreds of students, professional, and educational practitioners gathered at Ithaca, New York to discuss emerging concepts in sustainable and socially responsible business.  I personally got the most out of the smaller break out sessions, like the “Opportunities in Opportunity Financing” session which showcased three business leaders showcasing their experience with CDFI’s (community development financial institutions).  We examined the fascinating concepts of how a bank can finance initiatives that will not only yield returns but will also provide a positive social impact.  

I also gained a lot about the job expo which featured sustainable and socially responsible businesses from around the country discussing their internship and full-time job opportunities with interested candidates.  Since social enterprise is not as large and structured an industry as, say, Banking or CPG (consumer packaged goods), it’s been difficult to learn about opportunities with a lack of corporate presentations and on-campus recruiting.  Hence, it was extremely beneficial to have all of the companies/organizations in one place to chat with, get a business card or two, and hopefully land an internship/job in one’s field of interest.  

Overall, it was a jam-packed weekend with a great deal of idea sharing that served to further entice to pursue a career in the realm of social enterprise.

-Jay

NYU Stern students enjoy Net Impact’s Farmers Market - featuring local and organic food - while listening to a Bluegrass band, “Mark Silver and the Stonethrowers.”

Net Impact Speaker: Supriya Banavalikar, Director of Communications and Fundraising for The Hunger Project

“If you want prosperity for one year, grow grain.  If you want prosperity for ten years, grow trees.  If you want prosperity for 100 years, grow people.”

This is the proverb with which Supriya began her presentation.  Her organization impacts 35 million people across 13 countries using a $12 M budget.  With all of the ways this money could be spent or this issue could be addressed, The Hunger Project has decided to invest in empowering women.  These Women’s Leadership Workshops are a 3-day opportunity for the women to gather and learn the multitude of ways that they can have a positive impact on their community.  After the workshop, a “Vision, Commitment, and Action Workshop” is held so that the women can determine the greatest needs for their specific community and choose which projects they would like to tackle. 

An interesting visual that Supriya shared with us was a story about an exercise they do with all the women participants.  They are asked to draw how they see their village.  Everything is drawn in its entirety, including homes, land, children, and men.  However, the women place dots on their papers to represent themselves, admitting a feeling of insignificance in the community.

Some shocking statistics for me really drove home the need for such immediate and dramatic social change, especially in India:

• 70% of Indian women are anemic
• 50% of Indian babies are born malnourished
• In 2008, there were 252 million malnourished people in India

This information takes my breath away, but there is one consolation: there are 35,000 NGOs in India (versus 11,000 in the US), and these organizations are fighting daily to put a dent in the societal inequalities that foster these hunger issues.

Go to http://www.thp.org/ for more information on the situation and the current initiatives.

-Liz

A packed house was in attendance to discuss how we change the world. A panel I attended discussed strategies for those working in a large corporation. Let’s review their advice:

Championing change requires identifying and persuading key players to either support or advocate your position.  A key player does not need to be a senior manager, rather he or she can be a very influential or respected employee. Utilizing the same vocabulary as the key players is important, such as how the change will have a positive financial impact.

Potential ideas that promote a positive work environment, reduced carbon emissions AND a financial savings include:

1.    “Hotelling” / cube sharing (for example, only having real estate for 60% of employees who rotate in and out throughout the day)
2.    Telecommuting for employees
3.    Reducing the number of onsite consultant visits

In order to push such programs forward, one panelist found an advocate in the finance department – who in fact, did not care about the program’s impact on employees lives.  He did however, care about the bottom line.  It turns out happier employees lead to higher rates of talent retention and reduce the percent of time that a consultant needs to travel in order to interface with the client – both of which lead to a significant reduction in costs.  Figure out who your advocates can be and win them over by showing them how their values align with your vision.

-Amanda

It all started last week at NYU Stern’s Luxury and Retail conference “Luxury Lab.”  I heard a phenomenal speaker, Scott Harrison from Charity Water, discuss the lack of clean water for many African communities.  His key takeaway was that water is actually a luxury good for 1/6 of the world’s population, or over one billion people!

Today, the first Net Impact breakout I attended was a panel on Creating Access to Clean Water: a Top Down vs. Bottom Up Approach.  The panelists included:

• Gemma Bulos, founder of A Single Drop
• Kevin McGovern, founder of The Water Initiative
• Bjorn von Euler, director Corporate Philanthropy at ITT

For those of you who couldn’t join us at this panel, I’ll share a few of the most interesting tidbits from their conversation.

• Consumer research shows that people in Mexico who had water cisterns on their rooftops actually preferred to have the cisterns installed in the middle of their kitchens and living rooms — owning this water technology was considered a mark of luxury that gave families a sense of pride.
• The current #1 U.S. priority is removing arsenic from the water.  (As surface water decreases and we are forced to drill deeper into the bedrock, arsenic levels rise.)
• Despite its developed world status, the U.S. has 296,000 water main outbreaks annually, resulting in a massive waste of water.
• One of the major challenges faced by these social enterprises is finding ways to monetize their business to continually generate revenues and avoid project abandonment.

Check out a book that was recommended by the panelists: When the Rivers Run Dry by Fred Pearce.

More to come…

-Liz

Welcome to NYU Stern’s Social Enterprise Association blog - “It’s Just Good Business.”  We are on our way to Ithaca, New York for the Net Impact Conference 2009 hosted by Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.  We had to charter not one, but TWO buses (and a few cars following) to accommodate the demand from our NYU Net Impact chapter — made up of our socially aware Sternies - 56 full-time and part-time MBA students, accompanied by 18 of our fellow NYU classmates from the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.  So, what was the bus ride like you ask? Let’s just say that it involved buzzing conversation, libations, and a 2x4 box of chocolate.  We all know Stern MBA students are talented, but nobody saw this coming: a spontaneous live beatbox performance by Stern’s one and only Jay Stone [check back for video soon].  We have had so much fun, and we are not even at the conference yet. We are looking forward to hearing tomorrow’s keynote speaker, GE’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt.  Stay tuned… more posts from Net Impact to come.