How the Private Sector Can Address Climate Change

In the midst of pandemic, business models are wide open for transformation. From my perspective, the corona virus is just a precursor to the larger threat looming of unmitigated climate change. In conjunction with racial inequalities coming to the surface, and ‘business as usual’ is old-hat, furthermore potentially heading off a cliff. The UN SDG’s are what many consider the ‘gold standard’ in social impact. They provide a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity – for people and the planet, along with an urgent call for action. How do we help achieve these goals?

Many businesses are now shifting or talking about shifting towards sustainability in some fashion or another. In 2019 – the CEO roundtable, a consortium of the nation’s top CEO’s declared ‘Shareholder Value Is no Longer Everything’. Around the same time the Sustainable procurement pledge was launched from the chief procurement officers of Bayer and Heinkel, both German multinational organizations with now 4000 global members voluntarily pledging sustainability. Is that moving the needle? (Driving sustainability)

Considering the state of the planet and humanity along with all the social uprisings, I see the opportunity for systematic change to counter the effects of reckless capitalism. What if we could brand social impact at the forefront of procurement? Attracting buyers looking for solutions to be more sustainable, shifting the cost of sales, from profit only to profit and purpose. Imagine if services bought and sold had social impact in terms of embedded philanthropy built into each transaction? If large amounts of consumers opted in for such offerings, adaptable suppliers would follow their lead and offer services in more planet friendly methods – in delivery, content, and the like. They could divert millions, if not billions of dollars towards positive change – but there are no easy buttons for social impact, or are there?

Watch the intro to Symbiotic video!

There are!

On the retail or consumer level there are a few platforms that offer seamless integration of social impact into purchasing such as Shopping Gives, and Amazon Smile who has donated millions of dollars through their embedded philanthropy extension of Amazon.

I am here building Symbiotic, the only social impact technology distribution platform where procurement equals giving, connecting the dots of motivated buyers looking for social responsibility to sellers looking for profit and purpose, helping lead the shift of commerce towards sustainability.

At Symbiotic we add social impact into every transaction in terms of embedded philanthropy. We are forging a branded super-channel distribution marketplace offering B2B tech services won on the front end of sourcing from subject matter experts offering most any carrier, any service, and supporting any cause, and feature sustainable solutions whenever possible. Mapping social impact from customer generated impact to nonprofit supported to corresponding UN SDG all the while creating alt-fundraising opportunities to enable Symbiotic circular economy.

Branding and attracting opportunities with machine leaning and A.I., practicing transparency and requesting partnerships, after all we are SYMBIOTIC.

In conclusion to this brief article please forgive the infomercial style, but now more than ever, cliché or not, we all need to do what we can to help make the world a better place as our time is running out fast. If we do not make systematic changes that help improve society or fight climate change, get out of the way of those who are. We cannot turn a blind eye and expect our troubles will fix themselves.

The Call to Prevent Shootings

A school shooter, rampaging through halls previously considered safe. It’s the nightmare of parents and school children alike. But while there are arguments to be made in regards to legal- and mental health issues, one thing is indisputable: some innovation could really help.

Intelligent Education System

What is an intelligent education system? The best design to educate our society, as we discussed, must leverage technology but be cognizant of the very human elements that distinguish successful teachers and schools. With the rise of charter schools, waste in public education funding, influence of teacher’s unions, and the difficulty in compensating success: what are the principles and design elements of best educational systems of the future?

Ray’s Personal Recommendations for Good Double Bottom Line Investing Ideas

  • Early childhood education programs that produce returns of about 10-15% annualized in the form of cost savings for the government when one accounts for the lifetime benefits for the students and society. That is because they lead to better school performance, higher earnings, and lower odds of committing crimes, all of which have direct economic benefits for society.
  • Relatively inexpensive interventions that lead to lower high school dropout rates in grades 8 and 9 can pay for themselves many times over. Moving these young students into practical higher education or trade jobs when done well is highly cost-effective. For example, the lifetime earnings of a college graduate are over $1 million higher than those of a high school dropout.
  • School finance reforms show that a 10% increase in per-pupil spending can have a meaningful impact on educational outcomes for low-income students, producing a higher ROI than spending on higher-income students. Overall, researchers have found that additional school spending has an IRR of roughly 10%.
  • Microfinance. For every dollar donated/invested in this, approximately $12 is lent, paid back, and lent again over the next 10 years to disadvantaged people to start and build their businesses.
  • Numerous infrastructure spending plans that can facilitate trade and improve productivity/efficiency. From 33 studies that looked at the ROI of infrastructure investment, it is estimated that smart infrastructure programs have a 10-20% rate of return in terms of increased economic activity, making it a good trade for the government to borrow money and invest in infrastructure.
  • Public health /preventative healthcare interventions also can have very positive ROIs. From 52 studies that looked at the ROI of preventative health programs (covering a variety of program types, including vaccines, home blood pressure monitoring, smoking cessation, etc.), on average the programs created $14 of benefit for every $1 of cost.

See Ray Dalio’s paradigm shifting work and suggestions on how to improve opportunities for all Americans.