Author name: Jonathan Banco

Jonathan has worked in both journalism and various facets of small business development over the past eight years. Most recently, he graduated from the Monterey Institute of International Studies (graduate school of Middlebury College) in 2010 with an MBA and an MA in International Development Policy. His interests include SME development and its role in economic growth, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as how CSR/Sustainability measures impact both business operations and the communities in which businesses operate. While at MIIS he worked as a summer fellow involved in small business consulting in Accra, Ghana and was an active member of the MIIS Net Impact chapter. As a life long traveler, Jonathan has been fortunate to have lived in, worked in or visited over 20 countries on 5 continents and he truly hopes that he will be able to continue this trend.

Recognizing CSR as a Core Business Practice

I have long argued that corporate social responsibility (CSR) needs to be a fully integrated strategy throughout a company in order to have a significant effect on how the company does business. I have also written often about social enterprise/entrepreneurship where one builds a for-profit company that focuses on solving social problems as well as […]

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Conflict Minerals: Where Dodd-Frank, The Enough Project and Global Witness Went Wrong

It seemed easy and straightforward enough. Fighting in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between a variety of warring factions has resulted in the death, rape and displacement of many in the region. Based on most accounts upwards of 5.4 million people died during the official war period of 1998-2003 and some 2.7

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Is Occupy Wall Street Really About CSR?

Since the movement began, people have discussed goals/themes/demands of Occupy Wall Street and have found little clarity. In some ways this is the essence of the movement, but in an effort to define everything, many people assume it’s the anger of the common person directed towards banks for manipulating their money and tanking the economy.

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What Does Social Enterprise Really Mean?

Apparently I have a problem with terminology. I’m not sure when this started, but after writing a piece on the semantics of the term “CSR”, I have come across other situations in which terms that I thought were relatively clear, are in fact completely opaque. My new find? Social enterprise. I know what your thinking.

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The Effects of CSR on Market Capitalization

To what extent do socially and environmentally positive initiatives in the private sector boost a [public] company’s value? And is the downside greater for those that that do not engage in CSR activities or worse flout environmental or social concerns? We know that significant events such as the BP oil spill will go a long

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VisionSpring: A Model TOMS Shoes Would be Wise to Adopt

The world of international development has so many buzzwords floating around, it’s hard to know what is legitimate and what isn’t. Over the past 10 years or so, the phrase “sustainable development” has entered the lexicon and appears here to stay. While there are a number of definitions for the term, ultimately it has to

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Shell Finally Coming to Terms with Years of Nigerian Oil Spills

Following more than 50 years of oil extraction, corruption, human rights violations and environmental degradation, Shell has admitted responsibility for two large oil spills in 2008 and 2009 in the Niger Delta. This admission will allow those affected to seek damages through the British court system, which gives groups in the Delta, specifically Ogoniland, the

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Motorola Getting Proactive in the Conflict Mineral Debate

I’ve written a number of articles regarding the complexities of “conflict minerals” and the trade in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (you can find a few here and here). And campaigns undertaken by a number of advocacy groups have really put the issue on the map. So much so that a controversial rider was

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So You Want to Become a Social Entrepreneur?

According to the venerable source, Wikipedia (there’s actually a citation from the 2002 book The World of Social Entrepreneurship by J.L. Thompson), social entrepreneurship is defined as, “A social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change (a social venture). While a business

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Zimbabwe Diamonds and the Kimberley Process: Round Something

For many years now, developing countries bestowed great amounts of natural resources were thought to be on a path to development based on the wealth of these resources, which are prized throughout the West.  Such resources have included oil, minerals, metals and of course diamonds.  However, almost exclusively, this potentially game-changing situation has lead to

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Does Beer Equate to Development?

A wise man once said, “beer, the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems”. More recently, Center for Global Development (CGD) Senior Fellow, Charles Kenney published an article in Foreign Policy magazine called “Chug for Growth” discussing the role of beer and beer manufacturing in developing countries. Ever since the development profession (for

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EcoMedia’s EcoAd: More than Advertised

There’s been some discussion about the campaign of EcoMedia, an environmentally focused advertising firm that was purchased by CBS last year. EcoMedia was the firm behind the little green leafs that you may have seen on select CBS advertising earlier in 2011 called EcoAd. The idea behind the EcoAds is that companies purchase the ad

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Indian Real Estate: Housing for the Poor or Another Debt Crisis?

Like other rapidly developing nations, India has a housing problem. The rural-urban migration has overwhelmed cities like Mumbai, where the formally rural poor come to find new opportunity. Often times this migration is one indication of a country’s development. The major issue however is, where do all these people live? Up until now, more often

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Hello Wallet Helps Balance The Books and Give Back

Among the most important aspects of starting a company is determining the target market. In many cases the obvious answer to determining a market is to go where the money is. Most of the time that means target the wealthy as that is the group that would be both interested in using and have the

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How Much Water is in Your Beer?

Based on a comment I received in regards to last week’s article “Responsibilities of the Alcohol Industry”, I thought I’d follow up with an article addressing how much water is actually used to make beer. Although that article really looked at the social responsibility of alcohol companies, I did mention more than once that beer

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Responsibilities of the Alcohol Industry

There has been increasing discussion recently as to the role of corporate social responsibility throughout the alcohol industry. Of course CSR policies can and should be applied to companies throughout the private sector although my guess is that most people’s first thoughts don’t shoot to the beer, wine and spirits industry. Whether policies in that

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Developing Platforms for Social Change: The New CSR Movement?

I wasn’t planning on following up on last week’s article, “Twitter and Corporate Social Responsibility”, nor was I really considering taking the CSR conversation in this direction.  However I saw a video the other day on Mashable which was an interview of venerable Apple evangalist and venture capitalist veteran Guy Kawasaki at South By Southwest

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Twitter and Corporate Social Responsibility

For the most part, discussion concerning the role of corporate social responsibility often revolves around the initiatives undertaken (or not) by large, established companies. I’ve personally written about Apple (multiple times, here, here and here), Proctor & Gamble, Louis Vuitton etc. These seem like obvious targets as they have enormous market share within their respective

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Dear Mr. Buffet, Please Speak Up on Corporate Responsibility

So America’s greatest investor and economic cheerleader, Warren Buffet, discussed his annual investment outlook recently for 2011. This included, among other things, a recovery of the housing market during this calendar year (noted). But it got me wondering about his interest in sustainability, particularly as it relates to his already mythic influence in the world

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