Puede la Alfombra Salvar Nuestros Océanos?
- Eco Products
- Conservation
- Employment
- Poverty alleviation
- Rural development
- Microfinance
- Sustainability
Ejemplo: Guíenos a través de un ejemplo/s específico/s de cómo esta solución hace la diferencia; incluya sus actividades principales.
Mercado: ¿Quién mas está abordando el problema aquí descrito ? ¿Cómo difiere el proyecto propuesto de esos enfoques?
Historia fundacional
Miriam
The Co-innovation team itself is very small, very new – and a very exciting place to work! As AVP Co-innovation I support the business to innovate together across regions and functions by becoming more 'permeable', open and collaborative.
The project in this application is not our first attempt at inclusive business. I brokered a partnership with an social enterprise which launched in 2008 but was not successfully commercialised (see vimeo). Learning is richest when things haven't quite gone as planned, and in retrospect without that 'successful failure' this project would not have flowered.
We’ve been incubating this particular idea since 2011 and have built a brilliant cross-disciplinary team from inside and outside the company to develop, prototype and now grow this new project.
Sustainability is ‘the mother of all collaborations’ so I have always mixed and matched expertise and ideas from inside and outside the company in pursuit of sustainable innovations.
Not all of them have been successful, but what I have honed is my ability to work across sectors and geographies on projects with a higher purpose. I broker and translate between partners, and of course 'navigate' the project's passage through the corporate landscape.
I get excited when someone says “that won’t work because x”, or “we’ve tried that already and it’s not worth it because y“. Why? Because I honestly believe we can overcome systemic challenges by getting the right people in the room and asking the right question... (And anyway, if it were easy it would boring, right?!)
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, BOL
We are also at an earlier stage in India and West Africa (Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal)
Fabricación
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Crecimiento (tu iniciativa piloto ya se está aplicando y se empieza a expandir)
I worked on Interface’s first foray on inclusive business in 2006 . The product was not core and the line was discontinued. This is our first inclusive model on core product.
Our yarn supplier (Aquafil) purchases thousands of tonnes of feedstock pa - including some industrial trawler nets . So it’s not new that fishing gear has gone into nylon yarn. What is new is the socio-economic and conservation benefit created by supplying this demand in a different way.
A pilot was run for 6 months which successfully completed in October 2012. We chose to run the pilot in the Philippines, which is global centre of marine shore fish biodiversity, but it faces some of the greatest levels of threat of all marine areas globally.
The objectives were to:
• Build a detailed model plan with options for implementation
• Build the social infrastructure and implement net collection in 6 communities (the target – which was met – was to collect 1-2 tonnes by the end of 6 months)
• Initial evaluation of social and environmental impacts (after 6 months)
• Improved understanding of costs involved in implementing and supporting this programme
Our real impact so far has therefore been limited to the 6 pilot communities in Danajon Bank, where training, beach clean ups and supplementary income was generated.
The pilot demonstrated that the model of working through VSLAs/MFIs was viable and that running costs once scaled could be covered by cash flow.
Project impact from first full year (from Nov 2012 - Nov 2013)
1. Improved access to financial services (through initiation of VSLAs/MFIs) for 1,400 people by helping them to manage household finances and improve their capacity to access basic services (e.g. education, health, housing).
2. Measurable improvements in the condition of beaches and mangrove areas
3. Reduced the practice of burning waste (and associated detrimental health affects)
4. Measurable reduction in the practice of discarding nets at sea (and associated effects of “ghost fishing”)
5. Diversified livelihoods resulting in increased resilience to shocks and disasters from the sale of nets into rural and impoverished communities (average family income is < £100/month)
6. Full-time employment for 4 local people
Thanks in part to Interface’s sustainability leadership 100% recycled nylon yarn is now manufactured by Aquafil, one of our major suppliers. This nylon is purchased by us and our competitors, and others outside our industry.
Net-Works takes ‘recycled’ up a notch. By supplying our supplier and having exclusivity on the story we give our salesforce an important sustainability differentiator at core product level in a mature and highly competitive market. This 'social ingredient brand' could ultimately supply other sectors too (e.g. auto/electronics)
I’ve had the pleasure of working with colleagues across all disciplines on this project to support ZSL on this project. Our small Co-innovation team has worked with procurement, legal, marketing, design, sustainability and technical teams to put this new value chain together and plan how to integrate it into an offering for our customers.
Funds have covered expert scoping trips in India, West Africa and the Philippines . After selecting the Philipppines for the pilot we invested in a 6 month pilot and have just secured Interface commitment for a year long expansion of the model into Growth phase.
We see the role of Interface as connector , catalyst and market maker. But we will not ‘prop up’ or otherwise subsidise the model. It must stand alone and supply our supplier at market prices in the long term. Our pilot demonstrated that in Danajon Bank the ongoing maintenance costs can be covered by cash flow.
Set up costs (all research, model iteration and piloting) have been invested by Interface . We are starting to explore how set up costs for expansion into other areas could be sought elsewhere, or seeded concurrently to accelerate scaling speed. The longer term plan for replication in SE Asia and beyond is to build our learning into a Net-Works ‘tool-kit’’ that development agencies and/or conservation groups can integrate when working in coastal communities the world over.
ZSL and local partner PSF bring scientific rigor and local expertise which has put meat on the bones of an idea and made it happen. We have pulled in many other external organisations and experts – many of whom have collaborated both formally and on their own time.
I also talk about this seminars I give - we have ended up collaborating with engineering students from Imperial to make sure our nylon ID methods will work in the field and can be replaced in country.
Interface has been extremely supportive of this initiative. We have kept investment request incremental and reasonably low (<£250K total since 2011).This has supported numerous small assignments with various experts globally to assess viability and partnership opportunities in different parts of the world.
Push back has been limited until the investment requests expand which is why we continue to work hard to show the model can maintain itself once established.