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Adversary to Ally: Why My Social Enterprise Joined Forces with a Competitor
"Collaboration" is a popular buzzword in the social impact sector, but many energy access firms ventures invariably find themselves vying with one another for customers and resources. Anya Cherneff, founder of Empower Generation, chose a different direction to grow her business' mission of empowering rural female entrepreneurs: She joined forces with Pollinate Energy – a key competitor. Cherneff discusses the decision – and its ongoing impact on both companies – in this insightful post.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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It’s Time to Measure the Effectiveness of Investing in Global Goals
Climate change is a defining issue of our time, and the global financial community has responded with a series of investing frameworks, stock exchanges and other activities to encourage private investment in climate change-focused initiatives. Despite these efforts, evidence suggests we are still off track to hit global targets. William Burckart and Steve Lydenberg of The Investment Integration Project discuss their new report, which advocates a new paradigm for measuring the effectiveness of investing in SDGs – and uses climate change investment to illustrate how this approach could work.
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- Energy, Environment, Impact Assessment, Investing
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‘Eye-opening’ Impact Assessment: How Benchmarks Can Boost Social and Business Outcomes
For the last ten years, Acumen has been investing in off-grid energy companies in the developing world. In its new Energy Impact Report, the impact investing nonprofit talked directly to thousands of customers about their experiences - good and bad - with these companies’ energy products. Acumen's Kat Harrison discusses the survey's revealing results.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment, Investing
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Solar + Housing = Impact: Why Investors Should Boost Renewable Energy in Affordable Housing
When it comes to off-grid solar energy, we tend to think of market extremes such as rural poor people in developing countries without any electricity or well-off people in developed countries looking to charge up their Teslas. But Lori Chatman of Enterprise Community Loan Fund and Ismael Guerrero of the Denver Housing Authority detail a project to bring green power to public housing residents in the Mile High City. The project could serve as a model for impact investors looking to improve health, expand green jobs and earn a return.
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The Danger of Subsidized Solar: How Government and Donors Unwittingly Hobbled Our Business
After entering Myanmar as the country's first pay-as-you go solar power provider in 2015, Brighterlite recently ceased operations there, losing the nearly US $2 million invested in the startup. Jørund Buen, co-founder of the firm that owns Brighterlite, explains what went wrong – and the role that government and donors played in the failure.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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Announcing the Most Influential NextBillion Posts of 2017
As we welcome 2018, we'd like to pay a final tribute to the top posts of 2017. In their own way, each of these insightful pieces introduced a novel concept, approach or argument that captured our readers' attention – and in some cases, provoked their ire. Here are the winners of 2017's Most Influential Post Contest.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Finance, Investing
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Making it Rain: Solar-Powered Irrigation and the ‘Household Productivity Ladder’
Solar energy can be put to many constructive uses in emerging market households, but SunCulture focuses on helping smallholder farmers move water. Why? Because it has the greatest impact on a key area: household productivity. Their CEO Samir Ibrahim shares the story of a SunCulture customer, whose experiences highlight the value of solar-powered irrigation to 2.5 billion farmers living on less than $2 a day.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Are Financial Returns Starting to Compete with Social Goals? An Impact Investor Assesses its Involvement in Off-Grid Solar
In the second of two posts, Oikocredit's Laura de Bresser assesses the social and environmental value of its off-grid solar investments: Is achieving financial returns starting to compete with social impact? Here's what the investment firm discovered about whether it's really helping people and the planet – and whether it should continue investing in this market.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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