Sanergy: Sustainable Sanitation

Abstract

The global sanitation crisis attracted the attention of several regional, national, and international organizations which tried to address the issue in their own way. Still about 2.6 billion people lacked access to decent sanitation facilities across the globe.

Kenya had become a hub of slums with more than 8 million living in the urban slums in the country. Since there were no affordable toilets in these slums, people in these areas relieved themselves either by using pit latrines or by defecating in plastic bags. The result was environment pollution. The communal toilets that existed were often the scenes of crime. The pit latrines were a source of danger to children. To address the sanitation crisis in Kenya, three MIT graduates developed a business which had a non-profit wing to address the issue of inadequate sanitation and a for-profit arm to generate revenues. The company, Sanergy, picked two slums of Nairobi, Kibera and Mukuru, to start with and applied its business model, which included a vertically integrated waste management system – build, franchise, collect, convert, and transfer. The company manufactured toilets which were franchised to the local entrepreneurs of the slums. It then collected the waste from all the toilets to convert it into fertilizers and electricity. The company earned profits by selling the pay-per-use toilets to local entrepreneurs, and then by selling the collected waste after converting it into fertilizers and renewable energy. The local micro-entrepreneurs collected money from the local people for use of the toilets.

These toilets improved hygiene in the slums while providing employment to several local people. People’s health improved and so did the quality of life among slum dwellers. For the founders a few challenges remained – The model needed to be scaled up and expanded to other countries to address the global sanitation crisis.

AuthorsIndu Perepu and Geeta Singh
InstitutionIBS Hyderabad, IFHE University, India
Competition Year2016
PlaceThird Prize
TrackSocial Entrepreneurship
Key WordsSocial Entrepreneurship, Sustainability, Sustainable Sanitation
CoursesCSR, Sustainability
Target AudienceMBA
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posted June 27, 2016

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Friends of the Children: Strategies for Scaling Impact

Abstract

Friends of the Children, a nonprofit organization in Portland, Oregon, was founded in 1993 by retired entrepreneur Duncan Campbell to serve youth at the highest risk of teen parenting, incarceration, or dropping out of school. Each youth client was matched with a paid mentor from first grade through the end of high school. The costs of this intervention were high, but the outcomes were extremely impressive in each of the three risk areas. The total benefits to society of Friends of the Children’s intervention was estimated at $7 for every $1 spent on the program.

In the United States alone, 2.25 million children under the age of five lived in extreme poverty, one of the key markers of Friends of the Children’s target clients. The organization had written an award-winning business plan to scale their impact nationwide, but needed $25 million to fully fund the new strategy. Key elements of the plan included launching new chapters, hiring more development staff, separating the roles of local chapters from that of the national organization, engaging with additional affiliate partners, and more effectively sharing their model and impact with other organizations, policymakers, and the public.

As Friends of the Children embarked on this ambitious funding campaign and scaling strategy, national President Terri Sorensen faced a series of challenges and potential tradeoffs unique to leading a rapidly-growing nonprofit with social enterprise characteristics. In this case, students are tasked with analyzing a scaling strategy and contrasting the effectiveness of alternative approaches, evaluating the suitability of different funding models (including social impact bonds) for the selected strategy, and performing a simple social return on investment analysis to measure impact.

AuthorsJacen Greene, Nicki Yechin Lee and Eric Nelsen
InstitutionPortland State University, US
Competition Year2016
PlaceSecond Prize
TrackSocial Entrepreneurship
Key WordsImpact measurement, social entrepreneurship, nonprofit strategy, SROI, social impact bond, pay for success, business plan, scaling strategy, funding strategy
CoursesNonprofit management, social enterprise strategy, impact investing, impact measurement, development and fundraising
Target AudienceMBAs, MPAs, advanced undergrads
Permission rightsThis case is part of the oikos free case collection. Download a free online copy below. If you are a faculty member and you are interested in teaching this case, you can request a free teaching note by sending us an email to freecase@oikos-international.org.
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posted June 27, 2016

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Polarstern Energy – Sustainable Change Led by Innovative Entrepreneurs

Abstract

In 2011 three young entrepreneurs, Jakob Assmann, Florian Henle and Simon Stadler, set out to revolutionize the energy market by offering a radical solution for customers to switch from non-renewable fossil fuels to renewable energies. Through their start-up Polarstern, they aimed to offer the first comprehensive sustainable energy package, derived from 100% renewable resources and at competitive price points to compete with the handful of large companies, which dominated this industry. The added global social dimension of their service provided a clear point of differentiation but communicating their innovative service to customers proved to be very challenging. The founders had to be entrepreneurial in their marketing approach to gain the trust of potential customers and to encourage their switching from their existing energy providers.

AuthorsJulia K. Binder
InstitutionTUM School of Management at Technical University of Munich, Germany
Competition Year2016
PlaceFirst Prize
TrackSocial Entrepreneurship
Key WordsSustainable entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, sustainable marketing, entrepreneurial marketing, energy industry
CoursesSustainable/ Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainable/ Social Marketing, Entrepreneurial Marketing, Business and Society, CSR
Target AudienceAdvanced undergraduate students, graduate students
Permission rightsThis case is part of the oikos free case collection. Download a free online copy below. If you are a faculty member and you are interested in teaching this case, you can request a free teaching note by sending us an email to freecase@oikos-international.org.
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posted June 27, 2016

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Alibaba.com between Economic Success and Corporate Responsibility

Abstract

The Alibaba Group was one of the biggest and fastest growing businesses in China for about ten years. Among many other companies under the holding’s umbrella, Alibaba.com had become the world’s most frequented market place in the Business to Business segment. The company provided an internet platform for especially small and medium sized companies, where western demands meet Asian supply.

Although the platform opened the door for many firms to the international markets, there was room for improvement. Due to the increasing access to information through the World Wide Web, customers had become more and more sensitive to what is known as corporate responsibility. Sustainable business models and fair working conditions were more than ever of huge importance for the customer. In order to respond to this trend, companies on the demand side had to make sure that their suppliers fulfill not only European standards.

This trend of corporate responsibility recently caused many complaints about the listing and transparency of the Alibaba platform. On the supply side, suppliers missed a tool for signaling their working and quality standards to their customers. There was hardly a way to differentiate from competitors on the webpage. On the demand side companies suffered the same problem vice versa. There was barely a way for small western companies to control and check quality and labor issues for their supply chain without long lasting selection and arrangement processes.

But not only direct users of Alibaba.com drew the attention to the Alibaba system. Years ago many NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) claimed for more transparency and social standards on the Alibaba.com homepage.

Jack Ma, the CEO of Alibaba, knew about these problems. However, he also knew that many firms that once started with poor standards were nowadays great companies with well-known products all over the world. With a higher entry barrier, these corporations would not have had the chance to enter the market at all. Developing from a small company with low standards to a firm with high standards was often a long and time-consuming process.

Triggered by the recent complaints Ma was challenged by several self-imposed questions. Ma knew that the listing and policy on his platform were deeply connected with those questions and that there would be no easy solution. Whatever he decided should be the best answer for all parties: The Company, the customers and society.

AuthorsKannika Leelapanyalert, David Beschorner, Kim Nadine Reckmann and Marie Aslanian
InstitutionCollege of Management, Mahidol University, Thailand
Competition Year2016
PlaceRunner up
TrackCorporate Sustainability
Key WordsAlibaba, corporate sustainability, supplier, NGO, B2B
CoursesInternational marketing
Target AudienceMBAs
Permission rightsThis case is part of the oikos free case collection. Download a free online copy below. If you are a faculty member and you are interested in teaching this case, you can request a free teaching note by sending us an email to freecase@oikos-international.org.
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posted June 27, 2016

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KTDAL – Building Sustainability through Inclusion

Abstract

Kenya Tea Development Agency Limited (KTDAL) follows a unique model under which small tea farmers are shareholders. By the end of 2013, it had around 560,000 such shareholders. The farmers not only get money for the tea leaves they produce but also receive a share in the profits, which means they receive a higher price per kg of tea leaves than tea farmers anywhere else in the world. KTDAL’s inclusive model has empowered the farmers to control and own the entire tea industry value chain. KTDAL’s market driven sustainable model has managed to get the market closer to the small tea farmer and make Mombasa one of the world’s top tea auction centres.

KTDAL promotes sustainable agricultural practices among its small farmers through its Farmer Field Schools and, apart from achieving economies; the business model reduces costs by collective bargaining. It improves efficiencies and quality by leveraging on modern agricultural and processing techniques. KTDAL’s benefits go beyond commercial viability with the social, environmental, and economic lives of 4 million people being impacted, directly or indirectly.

The KTDAL business model, which has made small farming viable, can be replicated to address some of the basic issues and challenges facing the developing world, which has millions of small farmers. However, the model has been facing tough challenges of late. The KTDAL small farmers are facing price fluctuations, rising production costs in the form of increasing labour costs, environmental concerns, and unfavourable climatic conditions.

Amidst this uncertainty, some farmers have called for abandoning KTDAL and going back to the old Parastatal system in which the government of Kenya provided aid and relief to small farmers in case of natural disasters like floods and famine and also purchased the produce at a minimum support price. This facility is not available to the KTDAL small farmers as KTDAL is registered as a private company. It remains to be seen how KTDAL will address this rebellion within and whether it will emerge stronger.

AuthorsD. Satish and Nagendra Kumar M. V.
InstitutionIBS Hyderabad, IFHE University, India
Competition Year2016
PlaceThird Prize
TrackCorporate Sustainability
Key WordsSustainable Business, Inclusive Business Model, Social Vision, Corporate Social Responsibility, Parastatal system, Human Development Impact, Environmental Impact, Sustainable Farming, Sustainable Reporting, Two Leaves and a Bud, , Mombasa Tea Auction Center, Farmer Field Schools
CoursesStrategic Management, Sustainable Business Management
Target AudienceMBA, Undergrads, PhD
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posted June 27, 2016

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The Rise of a New Industry: Business Model Innovation at the Intersection of Energy and Mobility

Abstract

Cofely, a large international technical services provider, is observing important changes at the fringes of its industry. Two industries that have experienced pressure towards being more environmentally responsive in the past, the automotive industry and the energy industry, are converging due to the emergence of electric cars. The Dutch subsidiary of Cofely is therefore searching for new business models at the intersection of energy and e-mobility. In the Netherlands, a front runner of sustainable mobility, firms and other stakeholders are increasingly identifying the essential role electric vehicles can have for a balanced and sustainable energy system in the future. This new industry at the intersection of energy and e-mobility is developing at a fast rate, with innovative start-ups as well as existing firms establishing themselves across a new, not yet clearly defined, value chain. This value chain is highly integrated via ICT and stretches from energy production on the one end of the spectrum to mobility services on the other. Cofely wants to become pioneer in this new industry and particularly see how it can position itself with a new business model building on its core competences.

AuthorsRené Bohnsack and Pico van Heemstra
InstitutionCatólica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, Portugal, and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands
Competition Year2016
PlaceSecond Prize
TrackCorporate Sustainability
Key WordsSustainable business models, e-mobility, utilities, smart grid
CoursesStrategic management, innovation management
Target AudienceMBAs, MSc students
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posted June 27, 2016

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Guayakí: Securing Supplies, Strengthening the Mission

Abstract

The case reviews the rise of Guayakí, a company that sells energy drinks produced with leaves from Yerba Mate trees, and a significant decision it now faces.  Guayakí’s drinks offer a natural alternative in the energy drink industry, which is dominated by large players selling products mainly made from water and chemicals.  The company started very small, had several “near-death” experiences, but eventually thrived, reaching $27 million in sales in 2014.  Its products are highly differentiated in the energy drink industry.

From the beginning, Guayakí has had a commitment to social justice and environmental restoration in South America.  Mate is grown best under the canopies of rainforests.  Difficult to cultivate, it is found natively in a region where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet.  Guayakí has engaged with several local communities that live in or near rainforests, to try to create a downstream market for mate that they harvest.  The company’s goal is to create 1000 jobs in this region, and to restore 200,000 acres of rainforest by 2020.

The case provides information that can be used to analyze the energy drink industry, and to appreciate the depth of Guayakí’s commitment to social and environmental goals.  The key focus, however, is on the company’s supply chain.  As Guayakí has grown and begun to require increasing amounts of mate, its model of social engagement with communities is coming under pressure.  How can it acquire enough mate to fuel its growth and yet still retain its social and environmental programs?  The case identifies and provides significant information on three options open to the company: continuing as now and scaling up via organic growth; purchasing land to secure its supply of mate, which might require restoration prior to the growing of mate; and collaborating with a land owner that shares its view of social and environmental stewardship.

AuthorsMichael Russo and Michael Crooke
InstitutionUniversity of Oregon, US
Competition Year2016
PlaceFirst Prize
TrackCorporate Sustainability
Key WordsCorporate sustainability, Entrepreneurship, Supply Chain, Energy Drink Industry
CoursesStrategic Management, Entrepreneurship, Supply Chain Management
Target AudienceMBA
Permission rightsThis case is part of the oikos free case collection. Download a free online copy below. If you are a faculty member and you are interested in teaching this case, you can request a free teaching note by sending us an email to freecase@oikos-international.org.
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posted June 27, 2016

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oikos Alumn Ralph reflects on a cycling and environmental project journey through South America

Do you sometimes have itchy feet and wish you could explore, learn and share about environmental and sustainable energy projects on the ground? This happened to us. We had both worked several years (and are now again), me as a sustainable energy consultant for E4tech, developing for example strategic bioenergy plans and evaluating its sustainability impacts. Sara as environmental economist for the Environment Department in London, analysing the costs and benefits of different policy options. Exciting projects that often looked at the big picture. But we didn’t know many of the on the ground realities, difficulties and solutions of sustainable energy or environmental projects in a development context. We were curious to discover what makes them successful in the long-term. On a bicycle. A one-year trip along the Andes of South America. I got inspired for such a trip many years before, when I met former oikos PhD fellow Tim Lehmann back at the oikos spring meeting in Reims in 2009. He told me about their trip “Expedition Welt” meeting numerous social entrepreneurs around the world, I read their book and it stayed with me for a while. oikos inspired me and motivated me to contribute actively. I was a member of oikos Reims in 2007, then co-founded oikos Budapest and was part of the Executive Board in 2010.

We set off to the largest city on earth with no road access, Iquitos in the Peruvian Amazon, to support Peruvian-British charity Plant your Future to implement a smartphone-based monitoring system to improve and inform expansion in their agroforestry schemes. With temperatures above 30C, high humidity and no roads, it was not the obvious place to start a one-year bike trip. But it was an ideal place to get properly involved in on-the-ground project work. Six weeks later we had set up the monitoring system, trained local staff to use it, learned about the importance of farmers’ monetary involvement for well managed agroforestry schemes, had all the Spanish agroforestry vocab ready to use and were motivated to get pedalling. After a boat on the Amazon for three days, we arrived at the first road where we could get our wheels on the ground. Roads, gravel paths and dirt tracks would lead us slowly south towards Patagonia before heading back up north to Ecuador and Colombia. On route, often with large diversions, we visited around twenty environmental and sustainable energy projects. We tended to organise project visits a few weeks before passing through an area by either reaching out to people in my network (international Mespom MSc, the IIIEE, oikos etc.), directly contacting NGOs or development organisation, or through chance encounters with interesting people on the way.

Screen Shot 2016-06-27 at 10.00.24

So, what did we learn about what makes a project or programme successful in the long-term? Our trip was far from academic research, rather an ad hoc collection of views of those who have initiated, or managed, or benefitted from certain schemes. Our blog will soon include our extended version, but for now, three examples to share:

  • How to increase incomes (and reduce deforestation)? Think about the market before you start: We were faced with a number of farmers in Peru who, based on advice and specific credit from a Government scheme, dedicated their land to growing a the latest ‘trendy’, higher value crop, such as Sacha Inchi, or Palm Oil. They realised a few years later, with the mature crop loaded up, that there were no local buyers and that three day shipping along the Amazon to the closest processing facility was too expensive. Rather than improved livelihoods, these farmers were often left with monoculture, less food for their own families and debt to be repaid. In contrast, Amazónicos por la Amazonia (AMPA) in Peru had already sourced their high value market before they started encouraging farmers to designate a proportion of their rice paddies to growing shrimps. Chefs in Lima were clambering after these sustainable fresh-water shrimps, ensuring the farmers had ready buyers as soon as the first shrimps were ready.
  • How to develop and maintain knowledge in a community? Stand-back: Mauricio, an inspiring Colombian renewable energy engineer who introduced us to a number of his successful community projects, told us he never ‘acts the engineer’. In the plains of Colombia, Los Llanos, he stood casually at the base of the wind turbine in construction, now and then providing assurance to the enthusiastic William, strapped to the turbine as he adjusted the blades. Mauricio never carries out any of the work himself. Turbines or irrigation technologies are constructed on site, by locals. Locals spend days slowly learning how to construct each part, understanding by trial and error why a screw shouldn’t go in a certain place.
  • How to ensure a community´s involvement? Endev and Stichting Samay provided “no gifts”families always had to contribute a proportion themselves – to ensure that there was a viable local market for potential businesses. Plus, the contribution – in money or time – would ensure that the services or products provided were actually something which the community wanted or needed. And, as a result, had the motivation to maintain – and make the service last for longer.

Screen Shot 2016-06-27 at 10.00.34At the end of the trip, we were guest speakers for Project Colombia, a social enterprise
with three arms: working with larger businesses to improve their social impact; teaching English to increase the opportunities of rural Colombians; training current and future entrepreneurs, through 4 week courses, sponsored by local mayors and the CSR budget of larger companies. They are always looking for people like oikees, be it via skype or in person, do get in touch with Nelson here if you would be interested in collaborating.

These are, of course, only what we have learnt on this specific route in a specific context, along the tarmac roads and gravel paths where our mountain-bike tyres have taken us. I am very happy to hear from you if you had similar experiences, planning to go on a learning journey or just would like to get in touch. If you happen to know anyone working for a cable car company (e.g. Doppelmayr), or a perfume/essential oil/bath products company, we are looking for financing to repair a cable car in a cut-off village in the Colombian Andes and for markets for lemongrass essential oil from a post-conflict area in Colombia. Do contact me through the “Submit” feature of our blog and I will email back.

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posted June 27, 2016

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oikos Copenhagen Presents at the International Conference on Business, Policy and Sustainability

On June 16th-17th, the International Conference on Business, Policy and Sustainability was held at Copenhagen Business School with speakers including Hans Bruyninckx, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, R. Edward Freeman, Professor at The University of Virginia, and Annette Stube, Director of Group Sustainability at Maersk. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to present at this conference during the session ‘Sustainability in University Education and Operations’ on June 17th alongside Jonas Haertle, Head of UN PRME, and Peter Jonasson, former University Director at CBS. Jonas’ focus was on what PRME is doing to integrate sustainability in business schools, Peter discussed the challenges of integrating sustainability in university operations, and I was there to present what students are currently doing to drive change towards sustainability, and how we see the role of business schools.

As some of the attendees at the conference were not aware of oikos, I started by presenting oikos international in order to give an insight into our organisation’s history and engagement. I was proud to present the fact that we currently have more than 1200 members and over 200 projects annually worldwide – clearly demonstrating how sustainability is an interest amongst students across both borders and cultures, and reflecting the global movement that it has truly become. I also gave an overview of the engagement and activities in our local chapter, oikos Copenhagen. Here, focus was put on how we try to inform, educate, inspire and engage students in Copenhagen through our three main projects: oikos Academy, Green Week and Develop Prize. Our oikos Academy is a project based on 5 sessions on a sustainability related topic each semester, which is available to all students. Former topics have included ‘Urban Sustainability in Copenhagen’, ‘Sustainable Food Consumption’ and ‘Sustainable Business Models’. Our Green Week, which we do in collaboration with CBS, is a week at CBS focusing on sustainability. It consists of lectures, workshops and different events such as a sustainable business fair and fashion show, and this year we had more than 20 different companies participating including Accenture, Unilever, DriveNow and H&M. Finally, our Develop Prize is a social entrepreneurship competition that brings together students to create and develop solutions that work towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Furthermore, I was able to present some of the challenges and ambitions that we have in oikos Copenhagen. As a student organisation, we face several challenges of how to engage students, businesses and universities, how to get funding and how to actually make an impact.

We believe a way to make a strong impact is to really push the sustainable agenda in education, which is why an ambition of oikos Copenhagen for the coming year is to collaborate and contribute to develop a stronger focus on sustainability and sustainable management in the education at CBS. A way we are trying to do this is through our new project ‘oikos Education’ – a project that will integrate a lecture and a workshop on concepts within sustainable management in the new Bachelor student’s intro week. By doing so, we hope to create a strong interest amongst students throughout their studies for sustainability issues and solutions. We believe that it is absolutely essential for business schools to integrate sustainability principles into their education because, as Albert Einstein once said “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”.

After the presentation, I had the opportunity to join a panel debate together with Jonas Haertle and Peter Jonasson, where we further discussed the role of business schools as not just educational institutions, but as norm setters and thought leaders – and how they need to work with their most valuable resource: the students. Overall, it was a great opportunity to get the student voice out there and show all the work that we do in oikos – on both the national and international level.

Written by Julie Andrea Jungen Jensen, oikos Copenhagen 

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oikos International

posted June 26, 2016

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Record of Participants At The Heldentag and the Germany Meeting 2016

On Thursday June 23rd, members from oikos Paderborn, Cologne, Leipzig, Reutlingen, St Gallen and international, met to kick-off the Germany Meeting 2016. After getting to know each other a vegetarian dinner was served at a local restaurant in Paderborn to talk sustainability and catch up.

On Friday the Heldentag took place. With a record of 150 participants from the area, the event started with a sustainability quiz. Introductions were then made of the 6 workshop hosts and keynote speaker. A buffet was then laid out made entirely out of wasted food and a personalized cake for the event, entitled Fair-Anderung (essentially fair change). The first workshops round included a workshop by FemNet, one by Wasteland Rebel and one by Unverpackt Munster. The first drew attention to the NGOs work to combat modern slavery in the fashion supply chain, especially in Southern India. The latter two shared their stories on how to reduce waste and natural alternatives to our current everyday practices. Lunch followed.

Directly after lunch the keynote speaker took the floor, Tanja Steins, is the owner of Screen Shot 2016-06-26 at 11.41.27 Contigo Paderborn. Contigo is a fair-trade shop and Ms. Steins addressed the topic of fair trade and how to improve our efforts in cities as a whole towards more fair trade. The keynote presentation was followed by other three workshops: one by Limoment, one by Urgewald and the final was entitled Gemeinwohl-Okonomie. The first related to the lemonade’s brand ‘Limoment’ where the founder spoke about the need for more sustainable beverages and share a drinking moment with the participants. The second rose the issue of sustainability and finance, and presented their actions to eradicate investments in coal and the topic of divestment as a whole. In the third workshop, as the title suggests, speakers presented their criteria for a ‘Gemeinwohl-Okonomie’ in business and for society as a whole. The day was concluded with a pizza dinner.

The final day of the GeScreen Shot 2016-06-26 at 11.41.16rmany Meeting started with a session on oikos, what is our structure, what are open positions and where can we better collaborate. After interesting discussions, a short city tour demonstrated the interesting characteristics of Paderborn and the sustainability aspects of the smallest official city in Germany. The Germany Meeting was terminated with an alternative lunch over Berlin Doeners and a trip to the Contigo shop where fair trade coffee was roasted and tasted on a rainy day.

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posted June 26, 2016

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