Yunus Environment Hub (YEH)

Christina Jaeger is a social business entrepreneur and co-founded Yunus Environment Hub together with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus and his Creative Advisor Hans Reitz. YEH is a spin-off company of Grameen Creative Lab where Christina is Managing Partner and has served before as Director Circular Economy and various other roles since 2011. Prior, she worked as Assistant to the Executive Director of Yunus Centre in Bangladesh and was trained in micro-finance with Grameen Bank. She holds a Master’s degree in Political Science & International Economics from Otto-Friedrich University Bamberg and studied International Relations of Latin America, Spanish & Portuguese at UADE. Christina was appointed to the Commission on Sustainable Business, Trade and Finance of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation & Development and serves as co-chair of the ministry’s PREVENT Waste Alliance. She is also a Responsible Leader of the BMW Foundation World Responsible Leaders network.

At the YEH, we are committed to transform the current relationship between humans, business, and the environment by creating awareness and building social, environmental, and financially sustainable solutions applying the social business concept. Our social business solutions tackle issues such as waste management & plastics, carbon neutrality, biodiversity, sustainable agriculture and building a circular economy.

The concept of social business bears an enormous potential of tackling many of the environmental challenges ahead by combining the creativity and adaptability of business entrepreneurs with a purpose for sustainable impact. We develop solutions for environmental issues with the participation of corporates, governments, international organisations, universities, entrepreneurs and the communities on the ground.

 

The YEH elevates humanity by creating opportunities, sharing knowledge, designing long-term transformational social business solutions, empowering local entrepreneurs to be change agents and lead context-based solutions for their environmental and social challenges. 

Today, our world is facing an environmental crisis of global outreach and with potentially catastrophic consequences. At present, every 24 hours we emit 110 million tons of global warming pollution produced by man to the thin layer of our atmosphere, as if it were an open sewer (IPCC, 2014). In the next decade, climate change will create the world’s largest refugee crisis as tens of millions of people are forced from their homes (Taylor, 2017). Additionally, the most vulnerable people are the poorest, over 143 million people across Sub- Saharan Africa, Latin America, and South Asia or around 3 percent of the regional populations could be displaced by 2050.These mass migrations could intensify conflicts (World Bank, 2018). One of the factors that it contributing to this problem is the lack of opportunities in the poorest communities, this makes vulnerable people find the cheapest and easiest way to survive but is not always the most sustainable and environmentally friendly solution. Yunus Environment Hub is an expert in the following areas: circular economy, waste management, plastic recycling, carbon neutrality, biodiversity, sustainable agriculture, access to water and clean energy.

The Yunus Environment Hub is an organization that is dedicated to giving advice, training, and consulting services on sustainability issues (environment and society) using Professor Yunus' methodology of social business principles. Fundamental that all the activities of the Yunus Environment Hub is the conviction that the concept of social business bears an enormous potential of tackling many environmental challenges. 

Yunus Environment Hub services are around four pillars:    

• Incubation, we are constantly growing an extensive pool of social business entrepreneurs that are solving environmental issues through coaching and mentor-based incubation programs.
• Venture Building, we build new ventures together with companies, foundations and other organizations and replicate existing solutions adapted to the local context in new regions e.g. the Zero Plastic Waste City program.
• Consulting & Training, we share our know-how and solutions through training, ideation and co-creation formats to help organizations identify strategies to act upon the environmental crisis. And the fourth service is
• Education, we enable community support networks, bring social business solutions to the international community and raise awareness for the urgency of the environmental crisis.

We positively impact social entrepreneurs and marginalized communities they are serving in particular in low- and middle-income countries. For example, the Zero Plastic Waste City project tackles sustainable municipal solid waste management by increasing waste collection and recycling of uncollected materials as well as local job creation and the improvement of livelihoods. Tan An, which is Vietnam’s first Zero Plastic Waste City, 140,000 citizens are impacted and 50 waste pickers are being empowered by improving their economic income but also providing them access to healthcare, and changing the way they are perceived and treated by the society. Another example is the Zero Plastic Waste, Zero Poverty project in Colombia, where we engaged with the community of Tierra Bomba by collecting coastal waste and educating +200 households on the importance of waste separation and plastic recycling, besides establishing a system for the waste pickers to collaborate with the community and teaching entrepreneurs how to create products and build a social business from recycled plastic.

The YEH elevate issues to bring awareness and drive action through implementing and scaling social businesses. As stated before, we work on the ground with entrepreneurs who are addressing the problems at a local level and we elevate opportunities for them to escalate their impact. However, our long-term mission is to bring sustainable change by shaping global policies and changing the way businesses are traditionally done.

The project initially started when I was working with a group of researchers and students from a technical university that I was helping to design social business solutions using 3D printing back in 2015. I was amazed by the possibilities of technology, but at the same time concerned about the massive amounts of plastic waste we are creating. I was wondering why can’t we repurpose plastic waste and rather see it as a resource? The Plastic Lab was born in 2016 as a creative laboratory part of the Grameen Creative Lab to design solutions for plastic waste and to raise awareness for marine litter and the transition to a circular economy. After successful pilot projects we decided in 2019 together with Prof. Yunus to create an independent organization with Yunus Environment Hub focusing not only on plastic waste, but environment as a whole. As of July 2020, Yunus Environment Hub is a spin-of company from Grameen Creative Lab and the Yunus organization dedicated on providing solutions for the environmental crisis.

From a very early age I was passionate about nature and at the same time concerned about how we treat mother earth. During my studies I spent time in Latin America, Africa and India learning about the challenges of disadvantaged communities and root causes of poverty. All of these experiences inspired and shaped me to become a social business entrepreneur after graduating. I have a very personal connection to the people of Bangladesh and the Grameen family from whom I learned all about entrepreneurship. Poor people are the greatest entrepreneurs as they need to innovate every day in order to survive! In terms of issues the plastic waste challenge is the one I am most passionate about and that I see as the century task of our generation. Many other environmental issues are connected to waste management and marine litter, in particular our climate. Unsecured dumpsites are emitting massive amounts of methane and we need healthy oceans and algae that are growing much faster than trees for our carbon dioxide cycle. If we miss to address plastic pollution, we will see dramatic consequences on global warming and health aspects as our bodies are widely contaminated with plastics with unknown impacts.     

Climate change is a reality today that threatens the survival of humans and all species. We have been able to see the consequences of our actions but we are also in time to remedy it. After working a decade on growing a social business movement around the world I wanted to emphasize the use of this methodology to help the environment but also to create new opportunities for developing communities and thus create a sustainable future where the environment and society are benefited. I had the privilege to learn from two great minds, Nobel Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus and his Creative Advisor and serial entrepreneur Hans Reitz, and to work with both of them very closely in engaging communities, businesses and entrepreneurs to transform our economic system and redesign the way we do business. I was part of the core team to establish the Global Social Business Summit as a leading forum and bring it to Europa, Asia and the Americas to inspire action and build a global movement. Moreover, I have managed to build up Yunus Environment Hub as a successful social business and acquire strategic partnerships such as with the Alliance to End Plastic Waste to accomplish our goals and be an independent organisation.     

When deforestation in the Amazonas was accelerated (it's still continuing at an alarming rate!) we decided Yunus Environment Hub needs to get involved to do something about it. As a global organization we work with a network of local organizations, partners and individuals to deliver our projects. Through our local partners we know about the local situation and context, have better access to the communities and can identify the needs of those people and their livelihoods. In the case of the Amazonas we did not have a local partner in place. It was difficult to understand the problem and where to start as it is a complex issue with a broad geography. I decided to focus geographically and identified starting points for building potential partnerships. We have been implementing several programs in Colombia in the last few years and a good network of local partners which helped me to put me in contact with organizations working in the Amazonas. Through these organizations we were able to better understand the issues and needs of local communities. We designed a social business program that we validated with the help of the local organization and communities that we are now able to implement.

Each year 8 million tonnes of plastic waste end up in our oceans. This equals one truck load per minute. For a long time, the prevalent opinion was (in some cases still is!) that this was a problem of developing countries. When I became aware of the magnitude of the problem, I had to do something about it. For me the solution was clear: we have to turn the tab of plastics being transported by rivers into the sea by improving waste management on land. Together with my team and experienced waste entrepreneurs I developed the Zero Plastic Waste City program, a modular social business solution to sustainable municipal waste management. I managed to secure funding of USD 3 million to transform two cities in South-East Asia and recruit an international team of experts in venture building, waste management, recycling technology, product design and market strategies. We were able to build up necessary partnerships both locally and internationally and pilot our solution in a challenging environment and in the middle of Covid19 pandemic. I was able to attract additional resources to replicate the program in two cities in Africa and will continue to scale it until the problem is solved.  

There are two elements that make our work through the YEH unique. First, we are the only organisation that support and create social businesses that focus on creating a positive impact on the environment. This allow our beneficiaries and partners to obtain resources tailored for their needs in environmental impact and social business development tools. Moreover, the construction of our community around these specific issues will help us to advance together, share knowledge and expand our impact. We connect at a global level and work at a local level. The second one is that as a hub we work with a large variety of stakeholders, such as: community leaders, social entrepreneurs, decision-makers, governments, and large institutions who share our goals. This approach allows us to influence in the immediate solutions e.g. incubating social businesses and building projects such as Zero Plastic Waste City, but also give us the power to work as a bridge between communities and global leaders, to elevate issues, raise awareness, discuss and shape long-term sustainable solutions.

Currently, we have two short-term barriers:

1. How to transfer know-how and solutions from one context to another one to make them scalable and replicable in different areas.

2. Technology constrains to provide better solutions e.g. despite the

advances, recycling multilayer plastic is still challenging.

In the next five years our main barrier is:

3. How can we bring more people and organisations to work together and to be part of our hub. For us to create long-term sustainable change, we need to involve more decision makers from public and private organisations to shape policies that incentivize organisations who are taking active part on rebuilding the environment and doing sustainable businesses, as well as punishing those who are damaging it.  

To address our barriers:  

• We design modular solutions that can scaled and replicated more easily. Through local partnerships we identify the local needs, transfer know-how and design solutions that are adapted to the context, the current ecosystem, and its existing stakeholders. 
• We have joined efforts together with our Chairman Professor Yunus and participate in high-level forums and meetings with decision makers to propose partnerships and co-creation of solutions.
• We partner with current technology developers in the industry, as well as with research institutes and universities to obtain access to state of the art technology.

Currently we have been involved with different types of partners such as:

• Alliance to End Plastic Waste – Zero Plastic Waste City program
• WWF Colombia – Projects about biodiversity and entrepreneurshipCorporate alliances e.g. BNP Paribas: To consult on their sustainability strategy and develop social business intrapreneurs with their employees.
• German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation & Development, serving as co-chair of the ministry’s PREVENT Waste AllianceImpact Hubs who have served to create a multiplier effect in local areas
• Local NGOs such as Fundación Compaz in Colombia, who we support with mentoring & training

We would like to expand our reach and create more awareness and long-term sustainable change by stablishing a bigger network of partners. This will help us to elevate more opportunities for entrepreneurs and to start applying more context-based solutions.  For example, despite having worked with WWF, we would like to create a closer relationship with them to align our work as their service providers and expand it to several areas.

These relationships are also important for our long-term economic success, since we are looking to create a community of social organisations who want to grow and expand their impact and we would like to connect them with corporates, foundations or international cooperation who is looking to advance and work on the same topics.

Funding will be required to expand our reach to more organisations and to invest on social business solutions as stated before. The mentorships and coaching would be required since the organisation is expanding, as well as marketing and media exposure to create more awareness and share our experiences and projects with more stakeholders. Finally, despite legal and regulatory matters have been solved so far with pro bono support of BNP Paribas as one of our partners, in the future when implementing new projects in new countries.

We would like to partner with universities and research institutes as MIT, NASA and Caltech, consultancy firms, and businesses e.g. Schlumberger , as well as with experts who could provide us mentorship or funding, or who with we could create discussion spaces to shape the future of social business.