Inaugural Global Green Inclusive Innovation Summit Aims to Empower

By Carol Dreibelbis

For the first time ever, governments, businesses, multilateral organizations, NGOs, academics, and investors will come together to discuss green, inclusive businesses at the Global Green Inclusive Innovation (G2i2) Summit. The G2i2 Summit will take place from October 25 to 26, 2012 at Infosys Technologies? campus in Bangalore, India. In the spirit of global participation, the Summit?s location will rotate around the globe in future years.

G2i2 Summit organizers hope to address climate change, reduce poverty, and improve the social impact of business. (Photo credit: www.g2i2summit.com)

The G2i2 Summit will focus on accelerating the spread of innovative green and inclusive businesses around the world. A ?green? business can be defined as one that demonstrates an explicit concern for the environment and does not negatively impact the local or global environment, community, or economy. A business is defined as ?inclusive? when it aims to benefit low-income or other disadvantaged communities; businesses do this by actively including these communities in the business process, whether through job creation, offering affordable goods and services, or other means. While green and inclusive businesses may be either for-profit or non-profit in nature, they ultimately aim to do good through business.

By bringing together representatives from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, the G2i2 Summit aims to both foster innovative green, inclusive business partnerships and match these partnerships with funders. According to the G2i2 Summit website, ?New green and inclusive businesses not only need desirable green products or guaranteed markets from companies; but also funding from public and private sector sources, social and infrastructure support from governments, on-going business and technical training from multi-laterals; and local market knowledge from NGOs and academia.?

The G2i2 Summit will feature keynote speeches by Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Honorable Minister for Rural Development of India; Professor Rajeev Gowda, chairperson of the Center for Public Policy at the Indian Institute of Management; and NS Raghavan, co-founder of Infosys Technologies, a global consulting and IT services company based in India. The agenda will also include special pitch sessions for green and inclusive businesses aiming to scale or replicate in India and around the world.

One concrete outcome of the G2i2 Summit will be the launch of several innovative, green and inclusive businesses related to sustainable food, clean energy, water, waste management, and health in the following target countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Vietnam. Various companies, governments, and organizations are in support of this goal, including the UN Global Compact; multinational corporations Unilever, Novozymes, Nokia, and Greif; and the governments of the United States, Germany, South Africa, Sweden, and New Zealand.

By connecting companies and governments with complementary green, inclusive initiatives, G2i2 Summit organizers hope to address climate change, reduce poverty, and improve the social impact of business. Visit the G2i2 Summit website for more information.

How have you seen businesses have a positive impact on your community? Please share with us in the comments section.

Carol Dreibelbis is a research intern with the Nourishing the Planet project.

To purchase?State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet?please click?HERE.

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Source: http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/inaugural-global-green-inclusive-innovation-summit-aims-to-empower-businesses-for-good/

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