Social Enterprise

Social enterprise is the use of commercial means to produce revenue for or directly work on a certain cause. Using goods or services can be an effective way to help solve a problem. When it comes to energy sustainability, the amount of renewable energy focused companies has grown to impressive number over the last few years as renewable energy technology becomes cheaper and more efficient. According to a report, published by the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps program, jobs concerning wind or solar power are growing at a rate 12 times faster than the rest of the U.S. economy. This mean that more companies are adopting renewable energy and more renewable energy companies are being created. This growth in the industry has made it much easier for smaller companies to begin to establish themselves and grow. These small companies often work locally which allows them to focus on region specific issues. One startup that has shown promise is Bio-Bean. Bio-Bean is a UK based company that takes used coffee grounds and produces biofuel, biochemicals, and other products. This not only reduces the waste produced by coffee companies, but it also actively replaces fossil fuels. Supporting companies like this can create huge progress in moving away from fossil fuels. Many companies are reluctant to do this as fossil fuels remain cheaper or produce the most revenue for them. Creating financial infrastructure for renewable energy will make it much more appealing for larger companies and organizations. That being said, renewable energy is still hard to market in our current economic climate. The largest challenge facing these companies is finding clients that are looking to incorporate cleaner energy into their business models. Fossil fuels often end up being the preferred form of energy consumption. In regards to the Justice Oriented Citizen model, a personally responsible citizen would support a social enterprise that works towards increasing the use of renewable energy by purchasing goods or services from them. A participatory citizen would work for or help a social enterprise find clients. A social justice oriented citizen would create a startup that actively increases the use of sustainable energy.

 

In Arthur Potts Dawson’s TEDTalk “A Vision For Sustainable Restaurants”, he describes how restaurants can implement simple tactics to reduce the amount of waste they produce and burn cleaner fuels. These restaurants follow the structure of a social enterprise as they put funds towards actively reducing waste and using more sustainable forms of energy.  These restaurants also cut down the amount of energy that is required for the production of the products that they reuse or compost. This lowers the amount of energy required to complete a meal in more than one place, creating a very large impact. Dawson discussed how a potato must travel through 8 different phases before ending up on a plate. Reducing waste at each step of the process would create significant progress. Dawson shared several different forms of reducing energy usage within a restaurant including natural air diffusion and water recycling.