Why do we exist? What do we do? How do we do it? How does it differ?
What impact will it have?
Why do we exist?
The planet is in peril, enterprise can and is becoming a vehicle for social and ecological change, yet the field itself remains seriously undercapitalized . Innovators lack the necessary resources to launch, grow and scale their triple bottom line initiatives, while a large amount of the world’s 7 billion population lacks the necessary resources for survival.
What do we do?
We provide a monthly networking event series that includes a keynote speaker and a resource exchange. The keynote speaker is a sustainability business or responsible investor leader, who gives a keynote speech that is half success story and half failure story. This living resource then steps down from the podium and joins the group in attendance. Each attende gets a card where they write down their name, organization, and ‘gives’ and ‘asks’, and is granted one minute to present. After the event, this info is transcribed into a spreadsheet and the resource exchange list is sent out to the group with simple steps for how they can help each other.
How does it differ?
Our model provides a regular monthly format where community members can meet and share resources through a regimented and mutually beneficial framework. This community bootstrapping model is simple, and can be launched in a major metropolis, in rural villages, as well as the upper echelons of the largest corporations. It is designed to ally local shareholders through a mission of shared value, where they can get resources to grow their initiatives, and can collectively contribute to growing their local green business ecosystem. The combined offline events and online resource exchange technology enables local members across communities to share resources with other members, and for people to bridge local communities to share resources with other.
What impact will it have?
Innovation is never pretty, and the emergence of the Triple Bottom Line Entrepreneurship sector needs all the help it can get. The Village Green Model collectively absorbs the first risk loss of the startup development process by sharing resources and growing our innovations openly and collaboratively. Attendees receive everything from client and sales leads to interns and office space, new jobs and new investments, and connections that ally the community towards a common goal. Our model yields a data set that reflects the needs of a local green business ecosystem, the growth rates of founders and startups, and explicit capacity gaps. The resource exchange helps fill these gaps, and the Village Green company will remain earnest in evaluating this data and crafting its product to best meet the needs of the community members themselves.
