This book presents many innovative approaches to reducing poverty through business commitment involvement, and leadership. Some of these approaches may look promising now at their current level of success but will turn out to be limited in their scalability or in their ability to sustain themselves and endure over time. However, all of them offer fruitful grounds for inquiry and learning. It is our intention that sharing the learning from these projects and initiatives from around the world will be useful to others committed to assisting the poor in escaping from poverty - especially by bringing the poor into productive business activities. It is also our intention that these experiences stimulate ideas for new directions that build upon and go beyond the rich variety of projects and successes described by the authors in this book. The book supports C K. Prahalad's work made available in a number of ways including his very influential book The Fortune at the Bottom ofthe Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits (Wharton, 2004). Prahalad's work has called attention to creative ways to think about the question ofpoverty and how it might be reduced and eventually eliminated.He suggests ways. ofthinking and acting that break many ofthe traditional rigidities that occur in how we think about markets and business practices. Although one theme ofPrahalad's work relates to the benefits of marketing to the poor by supplying products better fitting the needs of low income individuals and groups, his work also emphasizes ways in which the poor can produce innovatively conceived and designed products for themselves and for others. This emphasis on enabling the poor to become productive is also presented forcefhuly in Craig and Peter Wilson' s, Make Poverty Business: IncreaSe Profits and Reduce Risks by Engaging with the Poor Greenleaf 2OQ6. Like Drucker, they see the real challenge to be helping the poor find work that is productive and sustainable. One of their contributions is their emphasis on the importance of creating access to credit and insurance as an important part of enabling people to achieve productive livelihoods.

The journey towards a sustainable world is our greatest challenge. This book includes reports, analysis, and discussion of cutting-edge approaches to incorporating sustainability importantly in the mix of organizational strategic elements. It includes examples of ""zero-footprint"" production facilities, leveraging environmental and social opportunities by projects, examining theories of excellence in sustainability through appreciative inquiry, social entrepreneurship, closed-loop supply chain management including reverse flows of products returned by end users, using triple bottom-line measures of success implemented in various societal and political contexts, implementing environmentally positive green technologies, new visions for making sustainability sustainable, and innovations in diffusing learning throughout an organization's web of stakeholders and admirers. Examples and cases are drawn from business, government, and not-for-profit sectors and intraand inter-sectoral partnerships in the US, Canada, Australia, the Philippines, and Spain.Notable focal cases include the airline industry, with its emerging space-rich aerotropolises as potentially sustainable communities and higher education. These are at times supported by interviews that bring into focus positive learning experiences and high-point stories.

This text is a concrete, action-based look at the ways businesses can become sustainable as moving towards a sustainable world becomes more and more important.

This text is a concrete, action-based look at the ways businesses can become sustainable as moving towards a sustainable world becomes more and more important.

A concrete, action-based look at the ways businesses can become sustainable as moving towards a sustainable world becomes more and more important.

The journey towards a sustainable world is our greatest challenge. This book includes reports, analysis, and discussion of cutting-edge approaches to incorporating sustainability importantly in the mix of organizational strategic elements. It includes examples of ""zero-footprint"" production facilities, leveraging environmental and social opportunities by projects, examining theories of excellence in sustainability through appreciative inquiry, social entrepreneurship, closed-loop supply chain management including reverse flows of products returned by end users, using triple bottom-line measures of success implemented in various societal and political contexts, implementing environmentally positive green technologies, new visions for making sustainability sustainable, and innovations in diffusing learning throughout an organization's web of stakeholders and admirers. Examples and cases are drawn from business, government, and not-for-profit sectors and intraand inter-sectoral partnerships in the US, Canada, Australia, the Philippines, and Spain.Notable focal cases include the airline industry, with its emerging space-rich aerotropolises as potentially sustainable communities and higher education. These are at times supported by interviews that bring into focus positive learning experiences and high-point stories.

This book presents many innovative approaches to reducing poverty through business commitment involvement, and leadership. Some of these approaches may look promising now at their current level of success but will turn out to be limited in their scalability or in their ability to sustain themselves and endure over time. However, all of them offer fruitful grounds for inquiry and learning. It is our intention that sharing the learning from these projects and initiatives from around the world will be useful to others committed to assisting the poor in escaping from poverty - especially by bringing the poor into productive business activities. It is also our intention that these experiences stimulate ideas for new directions that build upon and go beyond the rich variety of projects and successes described by the authors in this book. The book supports C K. Prahalad's work made available in a number of ways including his very influential book The Fortune at the Bottom ofthe Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits (Wharton, 2004). Prahalad's work has called attention to creative ways to think about the question ofpoverty and how it might be reduced and eventually eliminated.He suggests ways. ofthinking and acting that break many ofthe traditional rigidities that occur in how we think about markets and business practices. Although one theme ofPrahalad's work relates to the benefits of marketing to the poor by supplying products better fitting the needs of low income individuals and groups, his work also emphasizes ways in which the poor can produce innovatively conceived and designed products for themselves and for others. This emphasis on enabling the poor to become productive is also presented forcefhuly in Craig and Peter Wilson' s, Make Poverty Business: Increase Profits and Reduce Risks by Engaging with the Poor Greenleaf 2006. Like Drucker, they see the real challenge to be helping the poor find work that is productive and sustainable. One of their contributions is their emphasis on the importance of creating access to credit and insurance as an important part of enabling people to achieve productive livelihoods.