SA Biomimicry Workshop

Here is an amazing opportunity for anyone in the design, engineering, environment and sustainability world! A 6-day Biomimicry workshop presented by Janine Benyus and Dr. Dayna Baumeister.

From 30 August – 6 September you can join these these world renowned experts at the Leshiba Wilderness in the Limpo Valley near Kruger National Park, South Africa.

You can also download the official brochure and application form here. Closing date for application is 1st July 2009.

CPSL is also organising public lectures in Cape Town on 27th August and in Johannesburg on 9th September – please see our website for more details

More information on the presenters:

Janine Benyus

• United Nations Environment Programme’s 2009 Champion of the Earth for Science & Innovation
• Time magazine’s Hero of the Environment award
• Biologist, Innovation Consultant
• Author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature

Dr. Dayna Baumeister

• Co-founder of The Biomimicry Guild
• MS in Resource Conservation and a PhD in Organismic Biology and Ecology from the University of Montana
• 11 years as a biomimicry educator, researcher and design consultant

Visit www.biomimicryinstitute.org for more information.

BoP Learning Lab – Waste Management

The Fourth 2009 Lunch-hour workshop will take place on Thursday, 25 June 2009.

TIME: 12:30 – 14:00 (coffee/tea & sandwiches supplied)
VENUE: Open Innovation Studio, 27 Buitenkant Street, Cape Town

Waste management: a business opportunity at the BoP?

The City of Cape Town, with its huge wealth gap, geographical constraints and human diversity, is faced with some of the world’s most interesting challenges with regards to urban planning, spatial organisation, public transport and the environment, to name but a few. Mr Barry Coetzee, Head of Integrated Waste Management Policy, will talk to us about the City of Cape Town’s approach to serving the needs of lower income communities in terms of waste management, tackling the dual challenge of providing urban waste management solutions in poor, high-density urban environments while at the same time creating employment opportunities and encouraging entrepreneurship at the base of the pyramid.

A vast majority of Southern Africa’s more than 240m people live below the poverty line. Even in South Africa, by far the region’s strongest and most modern economy, 75% of the population earn less than R1800* per month.

It is the mission of this generation, our generation of Southern Africans, to reduce this gap, and allow us to build a better society. Brick by brick, the work of each contributes to the progress of all. In this battle for a common ideal, businesses are vehicles of social transformation. Their ability to engage at the base of the economic pyramid (BoP) is crucial to our development and prosperity.

Businesses are emerging as an engine of positive social change as well as economic upliftment. But the challenges are huge. Identifying the right business models, learning from each other’s experience, exchanging intelligence and keeping pace with new developments is crucial in order to have a meaningful impact on the lives of people at the BoP.

The BoP Learning Lab is meant to provide sources of inspiration, to be the toolbox with which the Southern African corporate fabric can maximise its social impact at the bottom of the pyramid.

* World Resource Institute, 2008

More info on www.bop.org.za.

To confirm your attendance, please phone Norma Saayman on 021-918-4238 or e-mail to ns5@usb.sun.ac.za.

BoP Learning Lab – May

** Please note that this event has been postponed till further notice **

The Fourth 2009 Lunch-hour workshop will take place on Thursday, 21 May 2009.

TIME: 12:30 – 14:00 (coffee/tea & sandwiches supplied)
VENUE: Open Innovation Studio, 27 Buitenkant Street, Cape Town

The names of the guest speakers will be confirmed shortly.

A vast majority of Southern Africa’s more than 240m people live below the poverty line. Even in South Africa, by far the region’s strongest and most modern economy, 75% of the population earn less than R1800* per month.

It is the mission of this generation, our generation of Southern Africans, to reduce this gap, and allow us to build a better society. Brick by brick, the work of each contributes to the progress of all. In this battle for a common ideal, businesses are vehicles of social transformation. Their ability to engage at the base of the economic pyramid (BoP) is crucial to our development and prosperity.

Businesses are emerging as an engine of positive social change as well as economic upliftment. But the challenges are huge. Identifying the right business models, learning from each other’s experience, exchanging intelligence and keeping pace with new developments is crucial in order to have a meaningful impact on the lives of people at the BoP.

The BoP Learning Lab is meant to provide sources of inspiration, to be the toolbox with which the Southern African corporate fabric can maximise its social impact at the bottom of the pyramid.

* World Resource Institute, 2008

More info on www.bop.org.za.

To confirm your attendance, please phone Norma Saayman on 021-918-4238 or e-mail to ns5@usb.sun.ac.za.

BoP Learning Lab – Retail sector

Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership in conjunction with the University of Stellenbosch Business School will host a Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Learning Lab session with a focus on the retail sector on Thursday 9 April 2009.

The BoP Learning Lab aims to provide sources of inspiration and to be the toolbox with which the Southern African business community can maximise its social impact at the base of the pyramid. Spread over four continents, the BoP Learning Labs represent a “consortium of leading thinkers and practitioners interested in exploring new business opportunities in low-income communities that would benefit business as well as the local community”.

The lunchtime session on the 9th, the third for 2009, will feature presentations by Woolworths and FNB:

Woolworths has established itself in South Africa as “the difference” when it comes to retail. This seems to go further than the shopper’s experience. Even though Woolworths is decidedly a high income segment brand in South Africa, new procurement practices are constantly tested to include the BoP into the value chain of the company. Through his presentation, Kenneth Carden, strategy analyst within Woolworths, will develop the company’s integrated approach to socio-economic transformation.

David Milligan, FNB Commercial Banking, will describe the work being done by the bank to design and market Enterprise Development Solutions adapted to low income SA entrepreneurs. South Africa’s oldest bank, First National Bank is one of the largest financial institutions in the continent.

DATE: Thursday 9 April 2009
TIME: 12:30 – 14:00
VENUE: Open Innovation Studio, 27 Buitenkant Street, Cape Town

For more information, please visit www.bop.org.za. For bookings please e-mail us.

Video: What causes climate change?

Alumni event with NBI

Alumni event in South Africa – 26 February

As part of part of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership’s South Africa collaboration with the National Business Initiative, we are pleased to invite you to their annual report back session on Thursday 26th February at 3pm for 3.30pm in the Cape Town Convention Centre.

The theme is: “Business leadership for a sustainable future: SA rising to the challenge”. The event will feature a rich dialogue and debate focusing on the role and responsibilities of business in the next decade in South Africa, the paradox of growth and poverty and the challenges of sustainable development.

Prof Mark Swilling, Academic Director, Sustainability Institute, University of Stellenbosch will be present in this discussion, with Tony Ehrenreich, Provincial Secretary of COSATU, Western Cape, as well as other panellists. The panel will be facilitated by André Fourie, Chief Executive Officer of the NBI.

RSVP to Magda de Kok by Wednesday 18th February if you would like to attend.