FOX Features Social Enterprise & Small Planet Partners

FOX Business Live dedicates today's show to social enterprise.   Small Planet Partners was pleased to take part in the show and talk about two of our recent projects: reducing mail waste by 20 - 50%, and working with the Product Stewardship Institute and two industry associations to make it easier for consumers to opt-out of receiving unwanted Yellow Pages.

PERT Charting for Social Enterprise

When navigating  complexities, consider utilizing "The Theory of Change," a methodology to create the kind of change social entrepreneurs are interested in.  The take from the Skoll Foundation's Social Edge forum is that it "involves:

• Identifying long-term goals and the assumptions behind them
• Backwards mapping and connecting the preconditions or requirements necessary to achieve that goal.
• Identifying the interventions that your initiative will perform to create your desired change.
• Developing indicators to measure your outcomes to assess the performance of your initiative.
• Writing a narrative to explain the logic of your initiative.

You might say the Theory of Change approach is a version of the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT charting) adapted for social enterprises.

Kansas City Star Covers Upcoming E-Waste Pilot Program

Today's Kansas City Star reported on the broad contours of our upcoming electronic waste household collection pilot program.  

Two slight corrections: though Missouri is on the short list of states where the pilot project may take place, the program will be managed from our Missouri office.  

The pilot is less traditional mail-in program, with more  focus on on-the-ground consolidation, thereby reducing overall carbon footprint.

Read the full story here.