Social Issues - Articles

Podcast

John Sage - Social Enterprise, Fair Trade and Coffee

Combining idealism with a genuine love of business, John Sage cofounded the social enterprise company Pura Vida, one of the largest distributors of fair trade organic coffee in the world. In this University podcast, he discusses his mission to improve the lives of people in coffee-growing regions. Sage explains how Pura Vida works at the intersection of the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, showing how the two can be blended to generate both revenues and social good.

Podcast

Carol Browner - Environmental Sustainability and Global Warming

When it comes to environmental sustainability issues, former EPA head Carol Browner asserts that failing to halt global warming will make us the first generation to bequeath to the next generation a problem that can't be fixed. In this audio lecture, warning of the perils that could await, she urges her Stanford Graduate School of Business audience to seek nonpartisan, business friendly solutions to the looming crisis.

Podcast

Alex Counts - Microfinance: Controversies and Promises

Microfinance is bringing the world's poor the kind of service that used to be reserved for bank customers in developed countries. Drawing on the work and philosophy of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, Alex Counts talks in this audio lecture about microfinance's social and financial impact to an audience of Stanford MBA students.

Podcast

Joe Simitian and Michael Kirst - Financing California Schools

How is California, home of the technology revolution, preparing the next generation of students to lead the charge of innovation?  In this University podcast, Senator Joe Simitian and Professor Michael Kirst argue that school financing in California is neither adequate, efficient, nor equitable. Speaking at the Stanford School of Education, they discuss the challenges of financing California's K-12 schools in a rapidly changing environment with diffuse accountability and dilute authority.

Faith in Fair Trade

By Kathryn Wolford & Lisa Bonds 1

How Lutherans are transforming their love of coffee into global good.

Green Fire

By Laila Weir

A Chilean firewood certification program spares both the air and indigenous business.

Podcast

Marc Freedman - Social Entrepreneurship and the Encore Career

Social entrepreneurship is now a path for many in the second half of life, proving that retirement can be a time of creativity, invention, and contribution, not decline. In this audio lecture, social innovator Marc Freedman discusses the huge untapped resource in potential retirees who are finding new ways to use their experience to tackle important social problems. Freedman shares the story of the creation of The Purpose Prize, a three-year initiative to invest in these new pioneers.

Rolls-Royce Radicals

By Sandra Rothenberg & Maureen Scully

Responsible Wealth, a Boston-based nonprofit, is convincing many affluent Americans to challenge the very rules that made them rich.

15 Minutes with Victoria Hale

By Eric Nee 1

MacArthur “genius” prize winner creates drugs for the developing world.

Podcast

William McDonough - Environmental Sustainability and Green Design

When it comes to environmental sustainability, William McDonough is nothing less than a hero for the planet. In this audio lecture, he discusses how he has designed eco-friendly buildings with unique properties, such as the ability to produce oxygen. He urges his audience of Stanford Graduate School of Business students to set goals not toward an efficient bottom line of doing the wrong thing less badly, but rather toward the effective top line of doing the right thing.