Colorado State University has an incredible program within the business school -- Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise
-- that
seeks to provide sustainable enterprise solutions to some of
the most stubborn issues of our time including poverty, disease,
malnutrition and environmental degradation... [equipping students] with
the tools and network to become a global social entrepreneur, where the
bottom lines are people, planet and profit. This concentration is in
the business of creating a better world, improving the lives of people,
while building profitable ventures.
One of many laudable aspects of the program is the 50/50 ratio of American
and domestic students in each cohort. As we learned recently at their
annual kickoff celebration, hosted at sustainable business paragon
New Belgium Brewery, this translates into teams with experience on
multiple continents, often boasting 10 languages spoken on an
individual project.
Six prospective companies presented their plans as the program's
second cohort. We expect one or two of these to become strong
companies after graduation, if not before. Here are very brief
summaries of the concepts:
- RWI is focused on technology to increase clean water in Africa, with a great start working in Kenya.
- Cradle of Tea is tea made from coffee leaves, and is in aninteresting internal debate: to use a co-op model or more traditionalsuppliers model.
- Latin Health has a dengue fever solution. When the engagedlocals this summer, they learned that student nurses were more interestedthan business students, who wanted to graduate and "get a job." Thisbrings a new opportunity to nursing candidates, helping them earn moneyin a new way.
- Ayzh is focused on deploying technology solutions for ruralwomen. Opportunity to take 1.2 billion women out of working 16 hours per dayfor no money and no respect. Start with health care. Water filter.Aquaponics. More. Education is core to mission. Generating salesin 2010.
- Organic Oasis is founded by returning peace corpsvolunteers, creating a business at an intersection of themes, includingaquaponics and microfranchising, providing healthier food, increasedprofits and smaller carbon footprint.
- Rocky Mountain Hops is focused on creating a marketplace for locally produced hops, with a focus on stewardship and a slow-food related philosophy.
Helping to incubate these ideas, the GSSE faculty is first-rate,
mixing teach and academics with their collective background in
real-world enterprise, both for-profit and non-profit. It was inspiring to spend
time with several members of the team -- Carl Hammerdorfer, Tom Dean,
Paul Hudnut and Margarita Lenk, each of whom are doing good well.
As the world pays more and more attention to Colorado as a hub in
sustainable enterprise, everyone needs to keep their eye to the
northern end of the Front Range, where GSSE anchors a key hub
innovative sustainable enterprise.