ZURICH, Switzerland – “How do you flesh out an editorial pipeline about the topic of urban mobility in one of the richest and democratic countries, like Switzerland?” we asked ourselves during a February weekend session at Impact Hub Zürich, a social startup co-working space.
A forward-looking company is radically changing the rules of the game in the financial industry. This is the view advanced by Lenddo, a social enterprise started in 2011 with the goal of economically empowering the middle class in developing countries. Founded by Jeff Stewart and Richard Eldridge, two businessmen who formerly worked in the financial and technology industries, Lenddo is based in Hong Kong and has a data science team in New York City. Despite a small staff of only 66, the company has grown to more than 380,000 members in the Philippines, Colombia and Mexico in the past two years. This extraordinary success is due to the company’s innovative online model.
Digital entertainment giant Sony and the non-profit World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) put one simple question onto the web in September 2010: “How can today’s technology help us to make the most of our planet’s resources?” It was the kick-off for their initiative called Open Planet Ideas (OPI). Participants from nearly 200 countries joined the journey to find an answer. In doing so, they identified more than 300 challenges our world faces at the moment. For instance, how do we turn our behaviours less resource-intensive? And how to turn waste into something useful?
World Resources Forum 2013 – Davos. In a 3-day agenda captured by politicians, scientific researchers and academics, Solitaire Townsend’s talk “The Naked Environmentalist: How Sex Will Save Us” stood out like blood on white sheets.
The fifth largest UK company by revenue, Viridor, started a new era of a waste management industry while actively using social media. A month later, the third largest company, Sita UK, followed this example and also established their account. Is tweeting about garbage a new trend?
The Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC) takes place this week in the coastal city of Dalian, China.
It’s easy to notice the city gearing up for 1,600 guests (not to mention the 300+ participants from the press) traveling from around the world to meet for the WEF’s second most important meeting of the year.
The lack of clear direction and conclusion at the Open Forum session on New Models for NGOs in the 21st Century perhaps represents the main crux of the problems facing NGOs today – an outdated focus on old structures that should be replaced by visioning for new models.
At the World Water Forum 6, Student Reporter Eva Papadimas and I were interviewed by Suez Environment’s Water Blog. It was a rare case of reversing roles: the previous day Student Reporter Maria-Tzina Leria had interviewed Jean Marc Jahn, CEO for a Suez-affiliated company in Algeria. For the reverse interview, Suez staffers asked us about the Student Reporter program, our backgrounds and what we hope that the Forum achieves. To view the write-up and video, please click here for the Suez Water Blog. You can also view the video below: