Inside Social Innovation

Cet atelier propose un éclairage détaillé sur les modalités de l’entrepreneuriat social, à travers les cas de la Green Team et de Green City Force. L’ESSEC est l’hôte d’un échange public avec deux entrepreneurs sociaux face à une audience active composée d’acteurs engagés dans l’innovation sociale et la préservation de l’environnement.

Les deux invités sont des précurseurs en matière d’entrepreneuriat vert. Malgré des domaines d’activités différents, conseil pour l’un, mobilisation civile pour l’autre, tous deux partagent une approche commune du capital humain et une pratique qui relève avant tout de la compétence plutôt que de l’investissement. Tour à tour et face aux réactions du public présent, Cyril Jacque et Lisbeth Shepherd exposent en détail le champ d’action de l’entrepreneuriat social. Quelles transformations apportées en matière d’emploi ? Quel mode de gouvernance et de coopération en entreprise ? Quelles innovations juridiques nécessaires ? Ces deux invités apportent la preuve que les entrepreneurs sociaux peuvent jouer un rôle fondamental, aux côtés des grands acteurs financiers, dans la transition vers une économie verte.

L’émission offre aussi l’opportunité de découvrir un panorama, dressé par Lisbeth Shepherd, des crises environnementale et sociale que connaissent les États-Unis ainsi que de l’évolution du cadre socio-politique en matière d’entrepreneuriat vert.

Cyril Jacque est l’un des membres fondateurs de la Green Team, société coopérative de conseil en développement durable qui compte aujourd’hui plus de 20 consultants sociétaires. La Green Team propose un modèle innovant de gouvernance grâce à son statut de coopérative où les rôles de salarié et d’actionnaire sont étroitement liés. Avec l’ambition constante d’élargir son champ de compétences, la Green Team concilie des individualités multiples et opère la rencontre entre des personnes issues des Sciences Sociales ainsi que des acteurs opérationnels. L’équipe mélange ainsi des expertises diverses pour proposer des solutions sur des sujets tels que l’altérité, le modèle de distribution alimentaire biologique, la coopérative d’habitants à destination de personnes âgées, l’hospitalité hospitalière, l’insularité durable, l’efficience 21 (collectivité territoriale),...

La Green Team est en soi un laboratoire qui fait entrevoir une nouvelle façon d’entreprendre et de penser les régulations qui accompagnent l’innovation sociale au sein d’une entreprise.

Lisbeth Shepherd a joué un rôle important en matière d’entrepreneuriat social avec dix années en France où elle a été co-fondatrice de l’association Unis-Cité. Après quelques années en Californie marquées par la collaboration avec Van Jones, fondateur de “Green For All”, Lisbeth est depuis un an à New York où elle est à l’initiative de la création de Green City Force.

Green City Force est spécialisée dans le secteur de l’efficacité énergétique. L’entreprise mobilise des jeunes en situation difficile avec pour missions de réduire les émissions carbones et d’améliorer les conditions de vie dans les quartiers. Sensibilisation des habitants et formation polyvalente des jeunes sont au cœur de la stratégie de cette entreprise.

Dysfunctional water and sanitation infrastructure can be seen strewn all across the developing world. Wells, pumps, and toilets fall into disrepair and areas once pronounced “covered” are again confronted by problems resulting from a lack of clean drinking water and sanitation. This exacerbates the challenge of achieving the Millennium Development Goals for water and sanitation. In this audio interview, part of a Stanford Center for Social Innovation series on water, Water for People CEO Ned Breslin talks with Stanford MBA student Ashish Jhina about performance metrics, planning, and financing practices aimed at supporting a longer term vision for water and sanitation infrastructure. He stresses the importance of setting appropriate tariffs and of budgeting for inevitable operational and maintenance costs from the outset. He explains how new business models could catalyze local entrepreneurial involvement in sanitation thereby making efforts to improve sanitation coverage more successful and sustainable.

Edward D. (Ned) Breslin joined Water For People as its director of international programs in January 2006, and was appointed acting CEO in late 2008. The board hired him as chief executive officer on May 13, 2009. Ned was first introduced to the challenges of water supply when living in the Chalbi Desert of northern Kenya in 1987, linked to a Lutheran World Relief program through his university – St. Lawrence. He subsequently worked for a range of local and international water and sanitation sector NGOs in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, including positions at the Mvula Trust and as country representative for WaterAid in Mozambique, before joining Water For People.

Retirement plans, green energy, organ donations — how can defaults help you save money, save the environment, and save lives? What difference does it make if you have the choice to opt-out now or opt-in later? Eric Johnson, Columbia Business School professor examines the powerful role that defaults hold in changing behavior and the way we construct our values. He offers insight on how to design defaults to maximize impact and presents common pitfalls to avoid. Johnson spoke at Small Steps, Big Leaps, a special research briefing convened by Professors Francis Flynn and Jennifer Aaker and their colleagues in the field of prosocial behavior. They presented practical, and cost-effective solutions for encouraging donations, volunteerism, social activism, and other responsible, caring, and prosocial behaviors.

Eric J. Johnson is a marketing professor at Columbia University’s School of Business. His research interests are in consumer and managerial decision-making and electronic commerce. He is among the most widely cited scholars in marketing, according to the Thompson Scientific Highly Cited ratings. His work on electronic commerce has been published in the Communications of the ACM, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Interactive Marketing, and Management Science. He has presented his work before the Federal Trade Commission, and has been quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Readers Digest, National Public Radio‘s Morning Edition, Marketplace, and the CBS Evening News. He is a coauthor of two books: Decision Research: A Field Guide and The Adaptive Decision Maker. His research in behavioral economics has appeared in Science, Journal of Economic Theory, as well as in two books. Earlier work examining the role of affect and similarity in understanding risk in papers has been published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

In addition, Johnson is the director of the Columbia Center for Excellence in E-Business, and co-director of the Center for Decision Sciences at Columbia University. Professor Johnson serves on editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Consumer Psychology (former associate editor), Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Interactive Marketing and Marketing Letters.

In the United States, at least 60% of the population wears corrective lenses. Worldwide, in contrast, only 5% of the population does. Such statistics have led Josh Silver, Oxford atomic physicist, to conclude that more than half the world needs vision correction but doesn't have access to it. In this audio lecture, host of the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford, Silver shares how he decided to "do something useful for the world" by creating specialized, liquid-filled corrective lenses that are now worn by some 26,000 people in developing countries.

Fraser Nelson, a consultant to nonprofits, gives an entertaining lesson on the why and how of nonprofit lobbying. Most nonprofits do not lobby government for a variety of reasons, but Nelson explains that it is legal, effective, and powerful. In this Stanford Social Innovation Review sponsored audio lecture, Nelson concludes with ways to get the most out of your lobbying efforts and five rules to follow.