February 2012
18 posts
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Tropical forests : more carbon absorbing sinks.
Photography © Mr Perswall
New estimates of U.S. researchers at the research center in Woods Hole and Boston University and Maryland, have shown that the storage capacity of tropical forests would be 20% higher than what had been estimated earlier scientific calculations.
It is no longer a secret: the forests are great carbon sinks which play an essential role in the ecosystem. But if this...
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Improving nutrition and health through agriculture
(Photo All rights reserved by CubaGallery)
Reblogged from Farming First:
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has launched a new book entitled “Reshaping agriculture for nutrition and health”. Originally the policy briefs for the conference “Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health,” facilitated by IFRPI’s 2020 Vision Initiative in India one year ago, this...
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Dannon US promotes childhood nutrition education...
Dannon established the Dannon Next Generation Nutrition® grant program in 2006 to promote childhood nutrition education in communities. Each organization that receives a grant creates a program that helps children develop life-long habits for good nutrition and exercise.
Dannon will award grants of $30,000 to four nonprofits for programs that promote healthy eating and support nutrition...
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"We are studying the impact of women's income...
(Photo @William Alix SIPA PRESS)
Here is the third article of our focus on women empowerment, an interview of Corinne Bazina, Executive Director at Grameen Danone Foods Ltd.
Which link do you make between social business and women empowerment?
“Throughout our social business initiatives, we try to rethink the role of a private company when it comes to creating local job opportunities....
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Infographic: Facts about the global water crisis
Designed By Jacob Johnson
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A Responsibility and a Market: Why Danone May...
Reblogged from Next Billon, wrote by Josh Cleveland.
The “future of BOP business” is a sweeping, flashy claim. Yet Danone’s strategy appears to be different for all the right, non-flashy reasons.
A strict focus on unit economics, clear understanding of the business’ role in social impact, and most of all, direct links between base of the pyramid (BOP) market growth and core business...
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Emissions from deforestation: Out of the woods
Image by © Jean Miele/CORBIS
Reblogged from The Economist
FORESTS are chock-full of carbon. Some three-quarters of the stuff on the Earth’s surface lies trapped in leaves, branches, stems and roots. Two to three times more is buried in the soil but it is hard to dislodge. Vegetal carbon, by contrast, is released into the atmosphere whenever woods are engulfed by fire, pests or...
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Danone Ecosystem: supporting women as they play a...
Limited access to education or job opportunities, domestic violence increase,financial dependence… Women are usually more vulnerable and affected by inequities due to national cultures or stereotyped sharing out of responsibilities between men and women.
As it impacts territories where Danone operates, empowering women is at the heart of some Danone Ecosystem Fund’s projects, as...
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3 Pathways to Social Business: An Infographic of...
Reblogged from www.globaldawn.co:
This explanatory infographic shows all the routes business has travelled in order to become more social.
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Livelihoods Fund and Yagasu : A wonderful story...
By Jean-Pierre Rennaud, General Delegate of Livelihoods Venture
On December 22nd, Jean-Pierre Rennaud, General Delegate of Livelihoods Venture and Guillaume Bouculat, CFO of Livelihoods Venture went to Paluhkuro (Indonesia North Sumatra) to inaugurate the first planting of mangrove run by Yagasu, a local NGO. This is the latest project supported by the Livelihoods fund.
After a one...
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Danone's 30% target for CO2 reduction by 2012: we...
In 2008, Danone set an ambitious goal of a 30 percent global carbon footprint reduction by 2012 across the entire supply chain, including plants and factories, packaging and end-of-cycle disposal, transportation and storage. To meet this challenge, Danone and SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) have brought together their expertise and know-how to build an innovative solution that measures the company’s...
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Fred Kirschenmann - Soil: From Dirt to Lifeline
“I’m not a soil scientist, I’m just a farmer”. In this Tedx video, Fred Kirschenmann gives us a vibrant yet very simple lesson on the importance of soil as a community of life, and the link between the quality of the soils and that of the food we grow.
Great video!
Reblogged from Common Dreams:
Fred Kirschenmann has been involved in sustainable agriculture and food...
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Newsletter down to Earth #6
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Livelihoods Fund carbon project in India receives...
The Livelihoods Carbon project of planting 6 million fruit trees in partnership with Naandi in Araku (India) has just been officially approved by the federal government of India. It follows a process started 16 months ago with the DNA (Designated National Authority), the official body responsible for carbon projects registration.
The recognition of the quality of the process implemented by...
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“After Durban, it is not yet the end of the road. The path is still open, but for...”
– Bernard Giraud, President of Livelihoods Venture
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GAIN and John Hopkins University about fortified...
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and John Hopkins University conducted a study to evaluate the impact of Shokti Doi, a Grameen Danone Foods Ltd’s fortified yogurt on the nutritional status and cognitive performance of school-aged children in Bangladesh.The first Shokti Doi cup was sold in 2007.
Five years after the beginning of this story, what can we say about...
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Lessons in sustainability from Gandhi
Reblogged from Triple Pundit and wrote by Akhila Vijayaraghavan
January 30th 2012 is Gandhi’s 64th death anniversary and four days ago, India celebrated her Republic Day. It struck me that there are some sharp parallels between Gandhian philosophies and the sustainability movement. Here are my observations:
Localism
Gandhi was a strong proponent of localism, be it food, clothing or...
January 2012
17 posts
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"Investing in women’s well-being is the best...
Photography © Rogelio Cuellar
Lourdes Arizpe is a honorary Doctorate in Anthropology, the Chair of the Board of the UN Research Institute for Social Development, a member of the UN Committee for Development Policy and a member of the Guidance Committee of the Danone Ecosystem Fund. Here is her testimony based on her experience of Danone Ecosystem Fund projects.
“I didn’t plan to become...
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“We should lead our companies with our heart as much as with our head, and we...”
– Antoine Riboud, 1972 (Marseille Speech)
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Best things to learn about danone.communities and...
danone.communities enlarged its impact through 10 projects in 2011.
danone.communities is currently working on 10 projects around the world, in Bangladesh, India, Cambodia, Mexico, France, Senegal, China … and has invested in 8 of them. Indeed in 2012, danone.communities should have more impact thanks to 2 new investments (to be announced soon), in China and Bangladesh. Learn more about the...
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After Durban: Which carbon markets for what...
Following the spectacular failure at Copenhagen and the stalemate at Cancun, catastrophe was narrowly avoided at the Durban climate conference when negotiators from 190 states managed with great difficulty - and at the last minute - to settle on an agreement. Its content was immediately subjected to criticism: it contains no quantified commitment nor constraints, and its schedule will lead the...
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Sustainability nears a tipping point
Here is a part of this great article reblogged from the MIT Sloan:
In our survey, we found that more respondents than ever before say their companies are putting sustainability on their management agendas. Our survey this year involved 2,874 managers and executives from 113 countries. According to the respondents, 70% of companies that have placed sustainability on their management agendas...
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Researchers discover particle which could 'cool...
In a breakthrough paper published in Science, researchers from The University of Manchester, The University of Bristol and Sandia National Laboratories report the potentially revolutionary effects of Criegee biradicals.
These invisible chemical intermediates are powerful oxidisers of pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide, produced by combustion, and can naturally clean...
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New danone.communities project to fight...
The project is called “NutriGo” and is the union of Dumex China (biggest Baby Food Company in Danone), One Foundation, NPI Foundation and ILSI-FP China (a government nutrition body) and danone.communities to fight malutrition of babies in rural China through education and the distribution of a fortified complementary product.
Most partners of the NutriGo project gathered In...
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Après 2050 l’espèce humaine s'éteindra →
Les 4 procureurs à la Gaîté Lyrique pour le Tribunal pour les générations futures sur le thème de la surpopulation.
Ci-dessus, les 4 procureurs : Gilles Pison, Didier Barthès, Théophile de Giraud et Thierry Keller. En lien, le résumé du Tribunal fait par OWNI.fr.
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"The Livelihoods boat is ready to sail now! " by...
B.Giraud in the mangroves
December 2011 has been a very busy and fruitful time for Livelihoods:
The Carbon Fund has been officially registered as a SICAV-SIF in Luxemburg,
The first closing of the Fund has been completed with 21m€ capital from 4 investors (Danone, Credit Agricole, Schneider Electric, CDC Climat),
Five major investments initiated by Danone since 2009 have been transferred to...
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"Runaway Climate Change", by Usbek et Rica
The next IPCC report (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), coming out in February, will announce an increase in extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and hurricanes between now and the end of the century. Never before has there been so much talk about an apocalypse as there has been at the start of this new (last) year. Scientific predictions have been mixed with visions of the...
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Can ‘Climate-Smart’ Agriculture Help Both Africa...
Reblogged from environment 360.
One idea promoted at the Durban talks was “climate-smart agriculture,” which could make crops less vulnerable to heat and drought and turn depleted soils into carbon sinks. The World Bank and African leaders are backing this new approach, but some critics are skeptical that it will benefit small-scale African farmers.
By Fred pearce
Fred Pearce is a...
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"Climat, l’emballement général", par Usbek et Rica
Photography: All rights reserved Nicholas Max Scarpinato
Le prochain rapport du GIEC, à paraître en février, annonce l’augmentation des événements climatiques extrêmes d’ici la fin du siècle, sécheresses, inondations, ouragans… On n’a jamais autant parlé d’apocalypse qu’en ce début de nouvelle (dernière) année. Les prédictions scientifiques se mélangent aux fantasmes de fin du monde. En...
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Newsletter down to Earth #5
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Co-operative business is not business as usual →
2012 has been recognised as the International Year of Co-operatives by the United Nations. This is an acknowledgement by the international community that co-operatives drive the economy, respond to social change, are resilient to the global economic crisis and are serious, successful businesses creating jobs in all sectors.
fairtrade:
Over 70% of all Fairtrade producer organizations around the...
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3 ideas that are good for both economy and...
Reblogged from The Guardian Environment:
“The theory that cutting carbon emissions costs us growth is bunk, in fact, it’s an economic opportunity”
The Vattenfall-operated Thanet offshore windfarm, situated off the Kent coast – the largest of its kind in the world. Photograph: Handout/AFP/Getty Images
As we enter a new year, the world continues to be in the grips of dual...
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December 2011
18 posts
4 tags
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We're now on Google+
Happy holidays down to Earth everyone!
We were already on facebook, on twitter, on youtube, on storify, and we’re now on…
Google+!
Joins us to find our news and to share about nutrition, nature, ecosystem and social business with us.
@Vincent_CC
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Climate Change Infographic: 'Frozen Carbon' →
plantedcity:
From the New York Times:
Perennially frozen ground, known as permafrost, underlies nearly a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere and stores a huge amount of carbon.
ANCIENT PLANTS removed carbon from the atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide. When the plants died, much of their stored carbon was trapped and frozen in layers of soil and glacial silt.
OVER THOUSANDS OF YEARS the...
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The year in Social Innovation: seven key trends →
Reblogged from GOOD.
Trend n°3: Social Enterprise Boosted Developing Economies In 2011, we saw social enterprise help clear the path to economic development in emerging markets. In Africa, social entrepreneurs helped tackle the problem of waste (allowing us to run an a story about “fecal sludge”), created jobs to spread important health tools and fight poverty, and even developed innovative...
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Will there be a war over water?
Perhaps not if we invent jumpsuits that recycle our urine, as Frank Herbert did in his science fiction novel Dune, or if we move icebergs from the poles to the coastlines of the Mediterranean. Technological, economic and geopolitical solutions are being implemented to deal with the increased scarcity and degradation of the resource, but water governance is still in its early stages. Is water...
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How to upgrade India's social enterprise ecosystem
Reblogged from Good.is :
India has become a hotbed of social enterprise, home to impact technology like D.Light Design’s low-cost LED lights for rural communities, Sarvajal’s water ATMs, and Aravind Eye Hospital’s high-quality, high-volume, low-cost health care.
India is an obvious staging ground for social innovation—it’s home to bright young minds, serious development issues,...
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La guerre de l’eau aura-t-elle lieu ?
Peut-être pas si l’on invente, comme dans Dune, le roman de science-fiction de Frank Herbert, des combinaisons qui recyclent notre urine ou si l’on déplace des icebergs depuis les pôles vers les côtes méditerranéennes. Face à la raréfaction et à la dégradation de la ressource, des solutions technologiques, économiques et géopolitiques sont alignées, mais la gouvernance de l’eau est encore...
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Le portrait de Marion Fiorentino, chargée de...
Marion est chargée de projet sur Lemateki, un projet social business, lancé à Dakar au Sénégal, par danone .communities et ses partenaires. Ce projet vise à mettre de manière pérenne à disposition des enfants défavorisés un produit fortifié nutritionnel à base de céréales locales.
Marion a rejoint le projet Lemateki en septembre 2009, pour mener une étude nutritionnelle sur les enfants des...
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Four questions to Manoj Kumar, CEO of Naandi...
Naandi which in Sanskrit (Indian tongue) means a new beginning; is one of the largest and fastest growing social sector organisations in India working in three sectors: Child rights, safe drinking water and sustainable livelihoods. Livelihoods Fund decided to carry out an extensive program of reforestation (Planting fruit trees) with Naandi foundation. Last year 700 ha has been planted,...