Projects and Initiatives
These are examples of companies leading with compassion while effectively "doing" business
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We May Be Looking At The End Of Capitalism: One Of The World’s Oldest And Largest Investment Banks Warns "Greedflation" Has Gone Too Far..
Fortune, April 07, 2023 by Will Daniel
As this report says, "Albert Edwards, a global strategist at the 159-year-old bank Société Générale, just released a blistering note on the phenomenon that has come to be called Greedflation." That is just another way of saying what I have been talking about for decades on SR. As the result of rigging the tax system and creating the worse wealth inequality in the developed world the American culture today has only one social priority, greed and profit. It is a stark contrast when compared with the cultures of countries such as the Nordic nations, New Zealand, and the Netherlands that have made fostering wellbeing for everyone their major social priority.
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When costs go up, so do profits? That’s not how capitalism is supposed to work, but that is the recent trend. For over a year now, consumers and businesses, both in the U.S. and worldwide, have struggled with stubborn inflation. But the soaring costs haven’t prevented corporations from raking in record profits. The companies in last year’s Fortune 500 alone generated an all-time high $1.8 trillion in profit on $16.1 trillion in revenue. Voices largely on the left side of the political spectrum have been sounding the alarm on this—think: Bernie Sanders in Congress or Jon Stewart’s recent grilling of former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers—but now an economist at one of the world’s oldest and greatest investment banks is singing the same tune.
Albert Edwards, a global strategist at the 159-year-old bank Société Générale, just released a blistering note on the phenomenon that has come to be called Greedflation. Corporations, particularly in developed economies like the U.S. and U.K., have used rising raw material costs amid the ...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT FORTUNE HERE
Companies That Get ‘Woke’ Aren’t Going Broke — They’re More Profitable Than Ever
Rolling Stone, April 8, 2023, by Miles Klee
“GET WOKE, GO broke,” has become a rallying cry of the political right whenever they see a brand make the slightest effort to align itself with liberal or progressive values. It’s a meme that allows MAGA country to believe that there is ongoing, massive backlash to products that acknowledge and celebrate marginalized communities. But the supposed boycotts never seem to be reflected in the bottom line.
Besides, by the time we would expect to notice any effect, conservatives have already moved on to the next outrage. Kid Rock and Travis Tritt declared war this week against brewer Anheuser-Busch for a Bud Light partnership with trans actor Dylan Mulvaney, yet the focus has already shifted to the whiskey Jack Daniel’s because of its ad campaign featuring drag queens — which happens to be from 2021.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE HERE
Large blue boxes have been popping up across Nairobi in Kenya. They look like cash machines, but instead of money they dispense a clean cooking fuel that is good for the environment and much safer to use.
In Kenya, most people use wood or charcoal to cook in small homes without proper ventilation, and exposure to charcoal smoke causes a myriad of health problems for users and their families.
On top of the grave health issues, charcoal use is also to blame for deforestation, another contributor to the climate crisis, but many communities don’t have access to clean fuel and have no choice but to continue cooking in this way.
Enter Koko, a startup with an efficient and effective solution: ATMs that dispense bioethanol, an affordable and eco-friendly fuel.
The Koko ATM
The idea behind the special blue Koko ATMs is to make choosing bioethanol, which is made from sugarcane, just as convenient as charcoal. As of now, there are 700 Koko ATMs scattered across Nairobi.
“We want to convert more and more Kenyans to bioethanol as a clean cooking fuel,” Sophie Odupoy from Koko Networks told the BBC. “Our target market… [does] not have the luxury of having a lot of money. So, we’ve endeavored to make sure that whatever the denomination of money that they have, they can quickly run to the ATM fill [their] canister, come back, and continue cooking.”
One Koko user, whose young son was previously ill due to charcoal smoke, explains why he is happy with the switch. “I like the Koko stove because, number one it cannot cause damage to my family,” he says. “Two, it does not consume a lot of money.”
His sentiments seem to be shared across the city as the number of Koko users has jumped significantly in the past year. Last July there were 42,000 Koko users in Nairobi. Now there are 170,000.