Business

Amory Lovins - Energy Efficiency in Industry - Part 2

Where do you save the most energy and capital costs? In this audio lecture, Amory Lovins challenges Industry leaders to consider a different approach for systems analysis, and identifies four target areas where the greatest savings are to be found.

Energy

Amory Lovins - Energy Efficiency in Industry - Part 1

In this audio lecture, Amory Lovins discusses conservation and efficiency strategies that enable industry to eliminate waste, achieve cost savings, lower capital outlays, identify additional capacity, and increase profit. A simple commitment to new energy policies, combined with innovative design strategies and the implementation of cheaper, more powerful, and readily available technologies can provide manufacturing enterprises with a wide array of material and financial benefits.

Economic Development

Fazle H. Abed - Achieving the Millennium Development Goals

Fazle Abed explains in this audio lecture how the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) is leading grassroots efforts to achieve the eight U.N. Millennium Development Goals in Bangladesh. He describes a multipronged strategy aimed at education, gender equality, health, environmental, economic, and political progress.

Energy

Amory Lovins - Energy Efficiency in Buildings - Part 2

Well-designed buildings not only conserve energy and reduce costs but also create conditions for better health and wellness. In this audio lecture, Amory Lovins uses several examples to show how the right mix of materials, resources, and expertise can create structures that celebrate living.

Energy

Amory Lovins - Energy Efficient Design For Buildings - Part 1

Buildings represent an ideal opportunity for reducing energy use through clever design. In this audio lecture, Amory Lovins explores the many possibilities that building design offers us to "think outside of the box" in order to save energy. He shares numerous examples of effective design and even a few cases where smart energy design actually costs less to build, not more.

Collaboration

Oded Grajew - Another World Is Possible

The annual World Social Forum is the centerpiece of an international effort to promote globalization based on peace, sustainability, and solidarity. In this audio lecture, Founder Oded Grajew describes the early planning and growth of WSF, and explains the core ideals that led to positive change and strengthened his belief that a better world is possible.

Collaboration

Nancy Lee - Harnessing Corporations in Nonprofit Managment

In nonprofit management, organizations should approach corporations as they would clients and offer tailored marketing operations that serve their needs. That's the advice Nancy Lee delivers in this audio lecture. Speaking to an audience of nonprofit executives during the 2006 Nonprofit Management Institute at Stanford, Lee shares the lessons from 20 years of building nonprofit-corporate partnerships that both serve corporations' objectives and enhance nonprofits' mission delivery.

Governance

Peter Eigen - Civil Society in Global Governance

How do we look after the global public good in a society where globalized businesses aren't subject to international control? In this audio lecture, Peter Eigen explains civil society organizations' role in creating necessary structures and rules to fill the gaps in current global governance. Suggesting cooperation between academic, business, and social actors, Eigen uses Transparency International's policies as examples in the fight against corruption and environmental abuse.

Governance

William Ryan - Nonprofit Management and Board Governance

Addressing a huge nonprofit management challenge—boards' rampant and growing disengagement—consultant William Ryan suggests in this University podcast a new framework that will enhance efficiency in nonprofit governance. Speaking at the 2006 Nonprofit Management Institute at Stanford University, Ryan demonstrates how the "governance as leadership" approach sheds new light on the traditional fiduciary and strategic work of the board, and introduces a critical third dimension of effective trusteeship: generative governance.

Scaling

Fazle H. Abed - Thinking Big and Scaling Up

Solving the world's big problems takes large-scale solutions, says Fazle H. Abed, founder of Building Resources Across Communities in Bangladesh. In this audio lecture, Abed outlines the development and market perspectives that have enabled his organization to expand and meet his country's needs in key areas, including microfinance, agriculture, and education.

Leadership

Bill Drayton - Global Social Entrepreneur

Ashoka's founder, Bill Drayton, believes that everyone can be a changemaker. In this audio lecture, he reflects on many of the early influences that helped him understand how to advance true social progress. From these beginnings, he traces his own path in public service, and describes the founding of Ashoka, which has grown into a flourishing network of social entrepreneurs who can serve as role models for further progress in promoting social justice around the globe.

Nonprofits & NGOs

Margaret Neale - Nonprofit Managment and Negotiation

Nonprofit management should include negotiation in its toolkit, yet few professionals are skilled at doing it. In this University podcast, Margaret Neale, Stanford Graduate School of Business professor, explores the psychological barriers to successful negotiation and suggests a disciplined process for a rewarding negotiation experience. She delivers her talk to an audience of nonprofit executives at the 2006 Nonprofit Management Institute at Stanford.

Economic Development

Dr Muhammad Yunus - Reaching the Full Potential of Microfinance

Microfinance, the extension of small loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans, has proved to be an effective strategy for raising millions of families from poverty worldwide. Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered the microloan revolution in Bangladesh, explains in this audio lecture how he saw rural poor and women struggle against deeply institutionalized economic systems, and realized the massive change that small loans could provide.

Advocacy

Oded Grajew - Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility

As a leading thinker on corporate social responsibility, Oded Grajew is challenging businesses, consumers, and governments to join in acting ethically towards a sustainable social good. With early roots in the Brazilian toy business, Grajew now heads the Ethos Institute for Business and Social Responsibility. In this audio lecture, he shows that business can be a powerful force for positive change and shares methods of enlisting everyone's help to build a sustainable society.