Chase Community Giving is giving away $3 million in grants to 100 small, local charities and Kopernik – an NGO in the Social Good Startup, that distributes technologies like solar lamps and clean, efficient cookstoves to poor last mile communities – needs your help to win.

All you need to do is vote via Facebook.

Voting is easy, just follow these steps:

1. Go to http://bit.ly/tQgrPW and “Like” the Chase Community Giving App on the top left of your page.

2. Click the green “Vote and share” button for your vote to count towards Kopernik.

3. Encourage your friends and family to do the same.

The voting window lasts only until November 22, and Kopernik needs you to take action to make a difference.

So what are you waiting for, go ahead and vote!

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Cindy Nawilis

Cindy Nawilis is Project Officer of Kopernik, an on-line marketplace of innovative, life-changing technologies designed for the developing world. Check out what they do and the technologies they offer at www.kopernik.info

Em{Power} Energy Group, was one of the eight finalists to Startups for Good Challenge, hosted by the good guys of Mashable, 92Y and UN Foundation.

In this interview I talked with Ryan Integlia and Nasir Uddin, who are Executive Director and Vice President of the organization, respectively. We talked about the business they are in and challenges facing such organization.

Em[Power] Energy is in the business of helping landfill communities, people who are living close or near landfills – around the world.

Their mission is to “revitalize waste scavenging communities throughout the world using a modular and scalable cooperative development based on renewable resources.” In layman’s term, they will help these communities to improve their living conditions by converting organic waste and waste water into electricity, compost and have them take charge of the business – once all said and done.

Unless you come from developing world, you probably not accustomed to see people living near, at or very close to the big dumpster. We don’t see them around here anymore. But, in countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, Mexico, Indonesia, India – they are coexist – with today’s modern world.

Em[Power] Energy currently work on two projects in Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Since I use Flip Cam to record the conversation, the background sound was so loud that you could hardly hear what they say. So to solve that, I split it into two – 1) via transcript and 2) on video (this part you can hear the conversation).

Among some of the things that we talk about:

• What got them started with this venture
• Some of the challenges they faced as a non-profit organization
• How forming a good and supportive team can help to overcome insurmountable challenges

So here you go – transcript of our interview. You can catch the rest of the conversation at the end of this article.

DS: Tell us about your business..

RI: Our business is about helping kids and communities living in garbage dumps using sustainable model. We merge renewable resource processing with community infrastructure and schools.

NU: We’re a non-profit 501c(3) organization. We became non-profit in 2009. One of our projects is in Bangladesh. We’re now at phase 2 of this. We’re working with the community developing waste management at household level, sorting facility, composting location education before we get to the phase 3 we’re looking at electrication before another aspects of technology of other renewable resource-oriented development. We’re also in Pakistan, where we recently implemented 2 biodigesters to involve the electrication of the clinic and the school, which is in dire need of as part of our phase 2 initiative.

DS: What inspired you?

RI: To me, when I was a kid my grandmother took me to one of these locations in Juarez, Mexico and carry that with me as I grow.

NU: Personally I’ve always been doing services or another thing and developing some non-profit in my high school as well. But this was dear to my heart in the fact that I was born and raised in the village of Bangladesh. It makes it easier but at the same time at this stage I was given a lot more opportunities than they have and I’m just giving back the way it should be. To me sustainability is the next best thing. We’re not an organization, we’re not a charity organization that giving out money one day and the next day they’re hungry again. It’s a sustainable solution where they’re helping themselves and we become jobless in each of those communities.

RI: We try to transfer the ownership of the facilities that we develop there to the community to the school, the best way they have a vested interest for the long-term. We’re going to make sure that they have a vested interest.

DS: Are you selling the (renewable) energy? Tell us more about how you help each community.

RI: We help them. They already have a middlemen. We don’t want to disrupt that process so the only thing that’s going to be new is the salvage of the organic material which has no middlemen. been around. And nobody wants. So we use that to create a new revenue stream. First the compost and eventually with gas capture and electrification.

NU: We’re working to develop partnering. I believe UN has a protocol of greenhouse gas and carbon credit. So it’s a carbon credit. Non-profit in domestically but it’s for profit in those countries. So those for profit the money goes back into to the community development, community infrastructure because that’s what make it a sustainable solution. Yes, those renewable energy related project whatever we created goes toward the community themselves.

RI: An important part is that we co-op the development. These people are already entrepreneurs on their own. They’re scavenging the garbage dumps trying to survive. So we’re just trying to interest them. Provide them with skill sets and use to grow their entrepreneurial dimension of their life. So this way they can make a move away from the environment. So that co-op business model is crucial making sure that they eventually leave.

There’s more to it below..

Check out also their pitch at the Social Good Summit.  You can follow them on Twitter @empowertomorrow and on Facebook.

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IMAGE: Landfill by Mackenzie Nicole - Flickr.

Thailand is not the only country in the world losing forests. Deforestation is also happening in our backyard. The real estate booming back in the day is to blame.

According to a recent map released by World Resources Institute, the top 10 Counties Losing Forest to Development in the US South. These counties “converted approximately123,000 acres of forest to development over 5 years.”

You see from the map that those counties in red are mostly located in the South, places prone to drought.

The 10 counties that are putting forest at risk: Harris (Houston), Gwinnett (Atlanta), Fulton (Atlanta), Wake (Raleigh), Montgomery (Houston), Meckleburg (Charlotte), Bexar (San Antonio), Duval (Jacksonville), Jefferson (Birmingham), Cobb (Atlanta).

Forests provide so many benefits to humanity.

Just to revisit some of the benefits provided by forests, here are the 9 benefits, via CBD: 

1. Forests provide food and a vast array of materials for medicinal, cultural and spiritual purposes, as well as building materials and firewood.

2. They store and purify drinking water.

3. Protect watershed.

4. Mitigate natural disasters.

5. Control erosion.

6. Forests provide nutrient cycling.

7. Help store carbon and to regulate climate.

8. Provide habitat to the vast majority of terrestrial species, many of which critical for human consumption.

9. It’s vital to national and regional economies, both directly through revenues, employment provided by the sector, and indirectly through their provision of services such as water supply to agriculture and to industry.

Anything I miss?

There’s more here..

You know how signs can come from everywhere. Maybe, this is a sign, a reminder – for the recipient to stay on track.

So if you need a pick-up, have a look on this. (only 2 mins long). It’ll inspire you.

THIS IS YOUR LIFE…

        Live Your Passion

        Live Your Purpose

        Live Your Dreams

Enjoy.

The criteria:

“Startups that are building or using technology to make a positive impact on the world will compete for a chance to present at the Social Good Summit and win a $10,000 cash prize for their company.”

So this is the first social good organizations out of four (that I was able to have conversations with) that will be featured here. The lineup: Kopernik, Empower Energy, Simple Energy and the winner of this competition – a 19-yo kid, Sun Saluter.

In this interview, I talked with Toshi Nakamura, the co-founder of Kopernik, a social enterprise who’s also a member of Clinton Global Initiative. Toshi and I shares one thing in common: Indonesia. Oh well, his organization is based in Indonesia, and I was lifted from there. That’s about it.

The problem that they’re trying to solve is in the distribution of life-changing technology to the last mile in the developing country (read: the poorest). Think of this business as the online store for innovative technologies, i.e. technology like what you see from the picture above showing d.light lantern, which is one of the products available from their store.

According to Toshi, at the present time they have a showcase of 50 different life-changing technologies for the poor available through their website.

Unlike online store that typically works to connect buyers and seller, they connect three-way : donors, those who have the need for technology (seekers) and technology providers (manufacturers). Even though, Kopernik is a young organization, in his email Toshi mentioned that in just 1.5 years they now have 41 funded projects in 11 countries – which is a pretty impressive record!

For more info on the scope of their work, go to to their website www.kopernik.info.

So before you dig deeper, here are some of the things we talk about:

• how the organization got founded
• how it works
• the challenges they face as a social good startup, and..
• why now?

Check out also Toshi Nakamura’s presentation at the Social Good Summit. Watch here.

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Picture: via Kopernik.

What is it about the world that makes it more challenging to find work? 

Technology has lowered the barriers for people to learn. For example, ever since English become one of the official languages use on the Internet, teenagers in Indonesia these days speak better English than when I was their age!

So now because of technology and access to Internet, competition for the same kind of jobs can come from anywhere in the world.

A robot can even replace you, the worker. This is already happening (as we speak). Diapers.com, uses robots (not people!) to move things around. How about that?

It’s either another person or robot or machine. Whatever. You’ve got competition! This competition leave us with few choices: either reinvent, redefine – or toast.

How do you stay employable?

Well, I’ve got news for you. You can. Here is what you want to do: skilling up and keep on learning – for as long as you able to work – for life! Because a college degree alone won’t be enough to keep you employable. You want to keep moving forward and continue to reinvent and redefine your career.

3 REASONS WHY YOU NEED TO SKILLS UP 

1. The future lies on your (continued) education

The  US Congress on Joint Economic Committee, recently did a study “Nowhere to Go” to see the impact of Free Trade to US workers. The study finds that older workers and those without a college education – are at risk (of losing jobs). That being said, jobs are hard to come by for those without college degree. “Since most of the jobs expected to be created are in sectors that require education beyond high school.”

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost 11.9 million jobs between now and 2018 will be in professionals category, where 65% of employees have a four-year degree.

2. Competition from other places/countries

This is where ‘Globality (aff.)’ which is the title of a book, comes in. This video entitled “Why companies are Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything,” precisely explains the challenges companies have in today’s environment. Of how the old model of globalization have evolved into a new phase in which challengers from emerging markets BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are competing head-to-head with the Western companies (US & European) and growing at a staggering 30%.

Even though, this video was made in 2008, the conditions still true to this date.

As a result, companies that grow faster need workers for expansion – people who could come from anywhere – local or outside the country or even poach them from other companies.

Bottom line: companies would do whatever it takes to find the talents who could do the jobs – from anywhere.

3. Talents gap

Businesses are aware of this problem. That there is a global talent mismatch.

Despite high unemployment, at least 3 million U.S. positions currently remain unfilled. In 10 years, there could be at least 20 million vacant U.S. jobs unless the current education-to-employment system undergoes significant changes, says Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Edward Gordon describes the imbalance between talent supply and job requirements as an “HR talent tsunami,” which will strike globally and create intense competition for people with science, technology, engineering and math skills and for other educated professionals in most industries. (emphasis added)

via SHRM

The view from the manufacturing sector.

According to ManpowerGroup’s 2011 Annual Talent Shortage Survey of nearly 40,000 employers across 39 countries and territories, the overwhelming majority (89 percent) of companies cited a lack of experience, technical skills deficiencies or poor soft skills among available candidates as a bar to employability.1 Workplace skills such as collaboration, critical thinking and agility are critical to generate productivity and innovation. (emphasis added)

via Manpower

THE GOOD NEWS

You read the quote from above (via SHRM) that there are at least 3 million job openings. If you’ve been unemployed for awhile, chin up. Keep your hopes high. Just remember this, there’s solution to every problem. The Javanese have this saying ‘ada hikmahnya,’ which translates to “there is a reason to everything.”

The thing is.. 

You know that opportunities are available out there. You just have to look harder and carve out a niche. Keep on learning. And never stop learning.

Check this chart below from McKinsey Global Institute. There may be something that you can do – to fill the void.

So you up for the challenge?

–

chart: McKinsey Global Institute, Changing the fortunes of America’s workforce.

Little bets are a way to explore and develop new possibilities. The idea is to start small experiment to discover big things. You have to go through the process to discover bigger and better ideas. There is no shortcut for that.

For example, comedian Chris Rock would practice (read: experiment) with his lines at small comedy clubs around where he lives – before he uses those lines (that worked) for the big stage.

The same is true with VCs, how they would invest in a number of different companies. Not all companies would succeed (if it works out 100% success ratio, it would be a dream!), however, from the companies they invest one of two would grow big and give multiple times payback to investors.

So before you dive in to the conversation, here are some the things you can learn from this conversation:

• where Peter finds his inspiration
• that it’s okay to fail

• how little bets are good for small businesses
• how the Onion comes up with their best headlines

Check it out.

There’s a correlation between deforestation, climate, rainfall. When we talk about Thailand’s worst flooding in half a century, look at the impact on people and business.

Half a century ago, Thailand was not as populated as today. Probably few manufacturing companies set up shops here.

Now is a different story.

Down the chain line, since the beginning of this month Toyota, Nissan and Honda combined are losing 6,000 units/cars a day! If you add this to the overall Thailand’s exports. And calculate its impact deeper down the chain line – how it impacted their businesses around the world – the  number could be really huge!

Check this out.

You think deforestation has something to do with “Thailand worst” floods? Because rainforests affect local weather conditions by creating rainfall.

Between 1945 and 1975 forest cover in Thailand declined from 61% to 34% of the country’s land area. Over the next 11 years, Thailand lost close to 28% of all of its remaining forests. This means that the country lost 3.1% of its forest cover each year over that period.

What happened now is Thailand going through the worst floods in half a century. The floods have disrupted the supply chain of some of the big names, i.e. Toyota, Apple, Ford, etc. For example, Toyota, Honda and Nissan – combined – they’re losing 6,000 units of car production daily since early this month.

Thailand is a big regional hub for the world’s car makers and most are suffering disruption, either because their plants are flooded or, more often, because parts makers have had to close and the supply chain has been disrupted.

The output of Japanese car makers has fallen by about 6,000 units a day because of the flooding. Germany’s Daimler AG said late on Thursday it had halted car production because of the threat of flooding. (emphasis added)

via Reuters

Moreover, Bloomberg reports that “Thailand is the world’s largest producer of hard-disk drives, the biggest exporter of rice and rubber and the second- largest supplier of sugar, according to government data.” So if you total domestic productivity, exports and its global impact down the supply chain – the impact from the floods could be huge. Really huge!

I remember when we were still a kid in Jakarta. Our house got flooded few times. When the city gets flooded, it is like snow days for us. It’s fun when it’s not too much and go on for days. Because we can play around in the thick of water! But things can get messy and people got sick after a few days of continuous rain. So enuf of it.

This flood should be a wake up call for everyone.  There is a price to everything (in life and business). That when you disrupt nature’s natural cycle of cooling system this is what could happen.

Sure by now the Japanese conglomerates may already have learned the lessons from this experience. That there’s correlation between deforestation, climate and rain fall. They do learn pretty quick. It’s about risk management and Kaizen!

The chain is disrupted (in pictures)

Pictures worth a thousands words. My friend sent me pictures of Rojana industrial park, where Toyota and other manufacturers have their plants under water siege – that you can see below the fold..

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to interview Simon Mainwaring, the author of “We First,” at Social Good Summit. If in the past, brands controlled the conversation. With social tools at people’s disposal, that is no longer the case.

Game changing: We First

The use of social tools changed how consumers view their relationships with brands. (even for those that do not fall under the category of big brands, i.e. business or people – like you and I) Because consumers now have the power to drive ‘the’ conversation.

So we talked about how connected citizens – those who are actively sharing their values via various social networks like Twitter, Facebook, etc. – choose to communicate with brands.

Some of the things that we discussed:

- The power of connected citizens.

We saw what’s happening in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain how people are reaching out despite the state of oppression in communicating the value of what they care. In the business world, for example, citizens’ participation in Pepsi Refresh Project. This is a project, where anyone with an idea can get their initiative funded.

- How to make brands to be more social.

Simon says, that if we want to make “brand to be more social” – the impact for them is huge – because it’s like you asked them “to do the most difficult thing in the world, which is to define what they stand for.” It’s not about the technology they use, however, it’s more about finding what their “core” purpose is.

- How to help business to think beyond profit. 

“There is a shift that profit and purpose are no longer mutually exclusive. Because consumers have a voice, a platform,” Simon says. People can take their frustrations out in the open in a matter of minutes. And the next thing they know is to be on defensive-side. Consumers are thinking ‘you want us to buy your stuff? Tell us, what good have you done?

The advice for brands now to maintain that relationships they’ve built with consumers, is ”to re-purpose.“

Check it out.

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photo: via Flickr – Interbrand group