CURRENT PROJECTS

Regenerate Christchurch

Sustainable Enterprises

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SUSTAINABILITY

My Publications

ADVENTURES

BAM Line Blues Band 2008

Maldives & Trips 2007/08

PHOTO GALLERY

BAM Line Blues Band 2008

PAST PROJECTS

Maldives Reconstruction

Octa Associates NZ

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CURRICULUM VITAE

Professional Projects

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Additional Info

CONTACT DETAILS

Tim Taylor

e. tim(at)littlelion.co.nz

Sustainable Enterprises for Sustainable Social Progress
Enterprise can no longer be seen only as an engine of economic progress. Today's global society needs enterprise to be driver for socially and ecologically sustainable social progress. Support for social enterprise as a concept is rapidly increasing around the world but little agreement exists on how 'social enterprise' should be defined. We see this as an important opportunity to integrate social goals with the ecological and justice pillars of sustainability. Sustainable social enterprises must generate sustainable benefits for society. Through preliminary research conducted in Kenya during 2009 and reviews of literature on social enterprise we propose the following principles for sustainable social enterprises. They must: Have explicit aims to benefit the community Be governed democratically, not based on capital ownership Involve stakeholders in a participatory manner Limit profit distribution and reinvest profits for community benefit While also achieving most, or all, of these goals in some way: Improving social wellbeing Reducing poverty and inequality Conserving life-supporting ecological systems Eventually restoring ecological systems. These are meant as broad principles that can be followed in any context. Ensuring their local relevance requires further elaboration on how these principles should be understood and approached in a specific place. Sustainable enterprises could become a widespread reality but this will require new, visionary and committed policy and investment support.
Partner #1 Currently we are working with Bernard Okeyo who runs the BENOK Agricultural Biodiversity Project near Siaya in western Kenya.
	We have provided Ben with a 12,500 KSh loan to fund investment in a passionfruit growing scheme for his farming enterprise. The loan has no interest or fees and is to be repaid in the second year of the project. Our field research has indicated that access to capital is a major barrier for sustainable enterprises, and that zero-interest credit can be key enabler without having to resort to grants.
We are looking forward to working with Ben to monitor how this loan contributes to the success of his enterprise.
Project Concept We plan to develop three sets of guidelines for supporting sustainable social enterprises, for: Starting and operating a sustainable social enterprise Organisations and investors that want to support sustainable social enterprises Policy support of sustainable social enterprises These three pieces of work will be undertaken through practical research working with emerging sustainable social enterprises to learn about the different challenges they face, and how these can be overcome. Pilot policies and organisational approaches that aim to support the emergence of sustainable enterprises also need to be developed and tested.
Research Background Sustainable social enterprises represent a viable alternative to the often unsustainable modern corporate enterprise, but their long-term viability is dependent on new goals for sustainable development. See my essay on The Immorality of 'Development as Profit' Sustainable social enterprises are already emerging in the 'developing' world with support from different organisations. This was the focus of our research in Kenya during 2009. We received funding from the Lund University Legal Empowerment of the Poor (LEP) project to conduct a study of how a legal empowerment approach could be used to support the emergence of sustainable enterprises in Kenya. The LEP framework is presented in the UN report 'Making the Law Work for Everyone’. Our paper Sustainable Enterprises for Sustainable Development: A Kenyan case study into the potential of a Legal Empowerment of the Poor approach to nurturing sustainable enterprises was presented to the Lund University Conference on Legal Empowerment of the Poor in March 2010. Download it. Below is a short video presentation introducing our research to the LEP conference.