GreenMicrofinance Center (GMfC™) is our legally registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Under this umbrella we have created the Center for Green Excellence. Our mission remains the same.
Our mission is to address climate change and environmental justice by providing education and sharing knowledge on microfinance and environment - The Missing Bottom Line.
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May we, like this beautiful bamboo structure by Architect Simon Velez, not sway or collapse, but continue on with steel-like strength. May we together address climate change with speed and sequester carbon, restore our land, and create beauty from the gifts of the earth. Like the woven reeds, all of us our intertwined. May we strive for excellence on this earth.
We cannot tire or give up. We owe it to the present and future generations of all species to rise up and walk!”
Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) Kenyan Environmentalist and Nobel Laureate
Wangari Maathai. Courtesy of the Green Belt Movement
Wangari Maathai is best known for founding the Green Belt Movement in Kenya in 1977. The initiative empowered rural women by getting them engaged in management and protection of forests. Over the past three decades, the Green Belt Movement has planted tens of millions of trees across Kenya and trained thousands of women in agroforestry, bee-keeping, and other sustainable livelihoods. For her efforts, in 2004 Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The award further boosted her status as one of the most prominent voices in the increasingly global movement to involve local communities in the management and conservation of forests.
In celebration of the launch of UNEP's Green Economy Report: This short animated film highlights the role forests can play in national development, a green economy and climate change. The film also reviews the impact of forest on business as usual and on transformative solutions. Narrated by David Attenborough.
La Mosquitia, one of the last remaining tropical forest areas left in Central America, is the most impoverished region in Honduras. Local communities, including the indigenous Miskito (or Mosquitia) people, have struggled to keep alive their distinctive cultural heritage while dealing with the threats of environmental and economic uncertainty.
Through a carbon-neutral biofuel initiative, the MOPAWI (from Mosquitia Pawisa) seek to generate equitable social development through sustainable microenterprise utilizing palm oil that is used for a variety of purposes. This approach will provide financial, social, and environmental returns in order to:
Increase local employment while decreasing out-migration;
Lower the cost of production and with lower agricultural labor;
Reduce waste and increase product yield; and,
Decrease emissions and deforestation.
“The beauty of this enterprise,” says David Hircock, Senior Advisor for Estée Lauder, “is the multidimensional, entrepreneurial approach. Many elements of this approach can bring much-needed cash into the economy and also negate the need for cash. For example, the indigenous community may not need to purchase diesel. Additionally, the enterprise incorporates important elements affecting local security issues, such as food, water, land and economics. Perhaps most importantly, this enterprise could show that the Mosquitia people are integral to the sustainable development of the area and local economy of Puerto Lempira, whereas at the moment they are so often marginalized. Now they can have a much-needed voice.”
Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, income, or education level, in environmental decision-making. Working closely with residents and businesses to make sure that the basic necessities of life-water, air, food, and shelter-are of the highest quality, the city's Environmental Justice (EJ) program has committed itself to providing fundamental rights to a safe and healthy environment in every San Francisco community. The program collaborates with other city agencies, nonprofit organizations, and community groups to promote the issues of air quality, food availability, renewable energy systems, sustainable land use, and the reduction of greenhouse gases.
Mayor Gavin Newsom announced plans to install over 365 kw of solar panels on two San Francisco Housing Authority properties. The solar panels will provide hundreds of thousands of kilowatts of clean, renewable electricity to public housing residents. "With initiatives like GoSolarSF, San Francisco is lighting the way with solar power," said Mayor Newsom. "Solar power will reduce greenhouse gases, grow our green economy, and lead the state towards a future of clean, renewable energy."
With environmental challenges-from drought to flooding-disproportionately affecting poor people's livelihoods, microfinance institutions have a strong incentive to mitigate the risks of climate change while helping their clients adapt to that change, argues Paul Rippey, the author of the latest report from CGAP on microfinance and climate change.
"Within microfinance, the word ‘sustainable' has tended to be used in a very narrow way, mainly referring to institutions that are financially viable," says Rippey. "But just as many MFIs have added social performance to their bottom line, they should also consider how their actions-and those of their clients-can help combat climate change."
Thank you, CGAP, for making mention of GMf in the Report and as an Additional Resource on your Feature page.
Recently the World Economic Forum in Davos released a new study on Green Investing: Towards a Clean Energy Infrastructure. In the study it states that"two billion people worldwide have no access to modern fuels and 1.6 billion have no access to electricity. In addition, hundreds of millions more live in areas with unreliable grids and experience regular outages disrupting light, water pumps and other essential functions".
GreenMicrofinance was listed in the study as one of eight global organizations "working on innovative ways of using microfinance to provide clean energy in developing countries". (p.21)
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Summary Report by Betsy Teutsch
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