We’ve hit a milestone recently that many thought would take some more years to achieve: Carbon prices have surpassed 100 USD in Europe recently and are flirting with the 100 EUR mark as of today. So carbon emissions are finally hitting corporate balance sheets and income statements. This means that we need real, honest action against emissions. And for that, we need transparency. Not just for holding firms accountable. But also in order to give companies the visibility they need to trigger actual action. So we called Lubomila Jordanova, Co-Founder of Plan A, a tech startup that helps companies to document and map their carbon footprint, analyse it through AI and provide recommendations where to take action. Plan A has received venture financing from leading venture capitalists such as HV Capital in Germany, Demeter, coparion and Softbank. It’s last financing round of 10M USD in November last year brought its total financing to 15M USD.

Links

- Plan A: https://plana.earth/about
- Lubomila LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ljordanova/
- Greenouse Gas Protocol: https://ghgprotocol.org/
- Morningstar stripping funds of their sustainability label: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-10/funds-managing-1-trillion-stripped-of-esg-tag-by-morningstar
- Yunus Social Business: https://www.yunussb.com/

Peter Smith, the author of “Procurement with Purpose”, takes us on a deep dive into the world of impactful procurement, how companies can build structures to integrate sustainability and inclusion into their value chains and how we can move the needle through collaboration. This episode highlights how we can leverage diversified supply chains with various partners to create meaningful impact. And it addresses how procurement managers can overcome challenges with working with smaller organizations – such as social businesses.

Links
Procurement with Purpose by Peter Smith: https://www.procurementwithpurpose.com/
Yunus Social Business: https://www.yunussb.com/

Corporates often struggle with deeply understanding their customers needs. This is especially true when it comes to issues of sustainable consumption and the so-called "conscious consumer". Kantar's data driven approach helps companies to discover trends and to deepen their understanding of the market in order to act on sustainability and social responsibility. They are able to show companies how to cater to the individual needs of vulnerable groups and minorities. Jonathan Hall, Kantar's Partner for Sustainability, gives tangible recommendations for meaningful marketing and transformational products.

Links
Kantar: https://www.kantar.com
Foundational Sustainability Survey 2021: https://www.kantar.com/campaigns/sustainability-the-european-story
Yunus Social Business: https://www.yunussb.com

In this year-end episode, we take a look back at 2021 to highlight key developments in social intrapreneurship, social business and social procurement. We take this opportunity to share our high- and lowlights, talk about the future of the stakeholder economy and how we want to contribute our small part to this transformation at Yunus Social Business.

Links:
Yunus Social Business: www.yunussb.com
Unusual Pioneers: www.unusualpioneers.com
Yunus Social Business Research: corporateyunus.com
AXA Emerging Customers, providing insurance coverage to vulnerable groups
Medtronics Labs, providing access to healthcare
Unilever's Shakti Project, providing access to essential goods and services

More and more companies understand that diversification of their workforce has a massive impact on their performance, sustainability and social impact. However, only few seem to be able to realize their diversity plans. Inclusively helps companies to hire people with disabilities and manage their special needs. Karen McEliligott at the Autodesk Foundation highlights how they have been working with Inclusively to bring people with special needs to the company.

Links
Inclusively: inclusively.com
Autodesk Foundation: www.autodesk.org
Acumen: www.autodesk.org/who-we-support/stories/acumen
List of 100 Corporate-Ready Social Businesses: widgets.weforum.org/100-corporate-ready-social-enterprises
Yunus Social Busniess: yunussb.com

100 million people across India depend on the textile industry as their main source of income. However rural artisans which are mostly women often lack the skills to operate on a wider market and hence live under the poverty line. RangSutra provides the bridge between these rural artisans and the global industry. They give access to training, working capital, and quality control. By selling their textiles to IKEA, Rangsutra was able to impact over 20.000 lives. Rural artisans working with RangSutra were able to increase their income by a factor of five. Especially the female workers profit from a better social status due to their financial independence. Learn more about this inspiring partnership.

Links
RangSutra YSB Portfolio: www.yunussb.com/portfolio/rangsutra
Ikea X RangSutra: www.ikea.com/in/en/this-is-ikea/newsroom
RangSutra Shop: www.ransutra.shiprocket.social
Yunus Social Business: www.yunussb.com

In the last episodes, we talked about social procurement and how companies buy from social businesses. Today, we want to feature a special version of social procurement. With us is Christian Garcia, Managing Director ANDEAN at McCain. He is responsible for the social business Campo Vivo which was launched by McCain in 2015 with the support of Yunus Social Business. It supports smallholder farmers in Colombia through technical assistance, stable prices, and digital training. Almost 50% of Colombia’s rural population still live in poverty and have no chance to build up assets – such as land ownership, technical assistance or irrigation. Putting thriving communities at the heart of its strategy, McCain decided to launch Campo Vivo to tackle this issue. 

In this episode, Christian talks about his journey with Campo Vivo, the challenges involved and success they have celebrated. Juliana Galvez Gerente, our Director for Corporate Partnerships in Colombia, is co-moderating this session.

Links
Campo Vivo: https://campovivo.co/
Video of Campo Vivo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnvCfHbEBN8
Yunus Social Business: https://www.yunussb.com/
McCain: https://www.mccain.com/

Learn more about the other social business initiatives by McCain, such as:
Bon et Bian, social business in France: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl8QpDCMI1M
Moulat L'Kheir, social business in Morocco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRrjGxNB6RA

Since 40 years The Body Shop acts as a perfect example to prove that higher spendings on a sustainable supply chain can make a perfect and impactful business case. What started with a store is Brighton is now a sustainable global cosmetics company. They leverage their supply chain to fight poverty and safe resources by working together with social businesses like Plastics for Change. Plastics for Change acts in highly polluted areas where it collects and recycles plastics providing clean material to their partners. The Body Shop and Plastics for Change collaborate to provide recycled packaging to their customers. 

Links
Full Social Procurement Report: https://corporateyunus.com/social-procurement
Corporate-Ready Social Enterprises (Acumen): https://acumen.org/corporate-ready
Database of 100 corporate-ready social enterprises: https://widgets.weforum.org/100-corporate-ready-social-enterprises/index.html

The Body Shop: https://www.thebodyshop.com
Plastics for Change: https://www.plasticsforchange.org
Yunus Social Business: https://www.yunussb.com