Sponsored Projects

ACCIONA develops and manages energies, infrastructures and services that share common customers through its six business lines: Infrastructures, Real Estate, Energy, Water, Urban and Environmental Services, Logistic and Transport Services.

Project: Acciona was interested in developing a new wind O&M business. The SGE Immersion team analyzed the market size, companies providing O&M services and remote monitoring services to the wind industry, and developed a market segmentation and identified the value proposition for each of the providers. The team determined which needs were and were not being met currently in the marketplace and benchmarked O&M and remote operations offerings in the North America market.

The Water Initiative (TWI) was a new business venture dedicated to creating affordable, effective local solutions to the world’s worsening drinking water crisis. TWI’s business model focuses on using a unique “co-creation” process that involves local communities directly in the design of commercially viable water solutions. Unlike most other water ventures that have sought to apply single ‘one size fits all’ technical solutions, often imposed from the top-down, TWI is developing a portfolio of point-of-use water technologies and business models that can successfully be adapted to fit local conditions and drive TWI commercial success while solving one of the United Nations’ millennium goals most pressing crises in the process.

Project: TWI sought to establish deep and trusted relationships in local communities to co-develop successful local water solutions and sustainable business models which could be economically scaled for regional, national and/or global markets. The SGE Immersion team scoped TWI’s overall global market entry strategy for businesses that could create economic value for TWI and its local partners while simultaneously providing reliable, pure, potable water at an affordable cost.

SNV, a Dutch social enterprise committed to eliminating poverty and inequality in emerging markets, is an operating foundation, a management consultancy, a think tank and a social investment fund. SNV’s blended model allows them to leverage their local operations in more than 100 offices in 32 countries in Africa, Asia, the Balkans, and Latin America while maintaining a strategic global outlook critical to building synergies and catalyzing knowledge across regions. SNV offers strategic advisory services that build the capability of public and private actors to develop solutions that increase income and employment opportunities for the low income segment while increasing their access to basic services, such as education, energy, health, and water and sanitation. As a key partner in development at the local, sub-national, national, regional, and global levels, SNV’s role is that of a catalyst for sustainable and scalable development critical to ensuring that the poor are protagonists in shaping their own future. SNV has a presence in seven countries in Latin America, including Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras. With a team of approximately 200 advisers, SNV Latin America (SNV-LA) is building its practice around the principle of economic inclusion, working to integrate the majorities into economic as well as social and public systems as an integrated solution to poverty and inequality. The organization had developed the concept of inclusive business over the prior two years in alliance with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the alliance was developing 70 inclusive business initiatives in Latin America.

Project: SNV Ecuador had conducted extensive research in order to identify which production chains involved the greatest number of small rural producers, corresponded to the poorest areas in the country, and showed the most significant market growth potential in order to promote incentives to include producers located at the base of the pyramid in various production chains. SNV Ecuador worked with some of the largest corporations in Ecuador to include small producers and services providers in their value chains. The SGE Immersion team analyzed one of the inclusive businesses being developed within Ecuador to provide SNV with information on how to improve and scale its inclusive business model within Ecuador and beyond.

Beginning in 1886 as a parquet flooring company, SC Johnson has a reputation for consumer-driven innovation. The company produces a host of well-known consumer brands, including Shout, Windex, Ziploc, Glade, Vanish, Raid, OFF!, and Pledge sold in more than 70 countries. SCJ is one of the largest privately held companies in the world, doing more than $9 billion in sales.

Project: SC Johnson was involved in numerous ventures around the world focused on engaging poor communities as business partners. In the company’s insect coil business, the organization wanted to engage the poor in the collection and manufacturing of coil packaging. The SGE Immersion team investigated how the company could involve poor communities in a recycled content packaging solution for those markets focused on the collection of waste LDPE (low density polyethylene) to be used as packaging for the company’s single-coil product. In addition to LDPE, the team evaluated other potential materials, including availability, business model, and potential partnerships.

Principle Energy is a joint initiative between Principle Capital and Masazane Capital. The company seeks to establish a renewable fuels platform that supports sustainable energy security and rural development in Southern Africa through the production and distribution of “green” energy from sugar cane. Through greenfield initiatives, partnerships with existing players, and the acquisition and repurposing of sugar mills, Principle Energy is focusing their efforts on investments in South Africa (Eastern Cape- Pondoland & KZN), Mozambique, and other Southern African countries.

Project: Principle Energy had launched an ethanol project in Mozambique where they anticipated creating 2,500 direct jobs and a cash flow of $3 million per year into a community where there were currently no jobs and the total economic activity in the region was estimated to be about $100,000 annually. Principle Energy anticipated creating numerous small business ventures that would range from laundromats to brickmaking shops to fresh produce. The SGE Immersion team analyzed the impact of the company’s proposed operations on the local community of Dombe to help Principle Energy understand how and where to make investments that would catalyze the development of a robust local economy over time.

IBM is a manufacturer of computer hardware, middleware and software, and offers hosting and consulting services.

Project: One of the challenges that corporations faced in rolling out beneficial new services to the poor and disenfranchised, especially in rural areas, was that the basic structural elements did not exist to enable access to consumer populations, a significant driver of poverty and social maladies. Individuals faced challenges to develop credit history, access insurance, access social services and healthcare, prove citizenship, etc, because they are unable to prove their identity over time and across transactions. An identity solution was seen as an integral component of a socially responsible aggregation platform used to address those challenges. The SGE Immersion team explored potential opportunities for designing delivery of solutions for the BOP on such a platform. The team investigated potential business models and key aggregation areas whereby IBM could create a socially beneficial outcome and a profitable line of business in India.

Dow is a diversified chemical company that offers a broad range of products and services to customers in more than 175 countries, helping them to provide everything from fresh water, food and pharmaceuticals to paints, packaging and personal care products.

Project: Dow had established a 2015 Sustainability Goal, Products that Solve World Challenges, which committed the company to achieving three breakthroughs in targeted areas of world need. One identified challenge was “Affordable Housing.” At the time, Dow had no approach to addressing this identified world challenge. The SGE Immersion team worked to both identify strategic options for Dow in the affordable housing arena and create a three-year plan that would increase Dow participation in this large and growing market while also providing Dow Building Solutions and the Dow Sustainability Group with a deeper understanding of existing market offerings, major market players, technology gaps, environmental sustainability, and potential Dow entry opportunities in key developing markets. The evaluation provided business clarity internally for the company and was part of the basis for clear, external messages that supported the company’s 2015 goals and Human Element campaign.

AES Eletropaulo is the largest distributor of electricity in Latin America and distributes electricity to 24 municipalities in the metropolitan area of São Paulo, Brazil.

Project: AES Eletropaulo developed an Electrical Connections Regularization (ECR) program in the low-income community of Paraisópolis in São Paulo. The program benefited some 70,000 people who live in the second largest shanty town in São Paulo. As is common in most shanty towns, residents of Paraisópolis lacked regular and safe electricity services. The company was seeking to refocus all the activities involved in the Paraisópolis program around a more holistic, bottom-up approach involving the community. The SGE Immersion team conducted a strategic analysis of the Paraisópolis ECR program and provided recommendations for future strategic business opportunities for AES Eletropaulo’s activities there.

GE is a global manufacturer of a wide range of products for the home and business, including Appliances, Consumer Electronics, Home Comfort and Safety, Lighting, Automotive, Aviation, Commercial, Energy, Healthcare, Retail, Security, and Transportation.

Project: The SGE Immersion team created an integrated Ecomagination campus program that GE could take to campuses in the US to aggressively reduce energy use, water use, greenhouse gas emissions, and operating costs.

WaterHealth International is a venture-backed, for-profit corporation which addresses the most basic needs of BOP clients — i.e. the provision of safe, clean supply of water. Based on patented technology from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, WHI has developed a turn-key solution for rural, urban, and peri-urban populations. The current focus of the company is the delivery of community water systems (CWS) into rural India (the company has units installed throughout Asia, Central and South America, and Africa). WHI has reduced the price of safe, clean water by two orders of magnitude in rural India — delivering 12 liters of treated water for Rs 1, and approximately 20 liters for Rs 1.5. The company has experienced high adoption rates (up to 80% of families using the CWS within a month of installation) but the delivery method still means that families are purchasing daily 12 or 20 liter containers which will only satisfy part of the daily demand for potable water in the typical rural household. The WHO estimates that an average water consumption of 40 liters/day per person is desirable.

Project: WHI wanted to investigate the feasibility of moving from its metered business model to a non-metered business model for the CWS in India. The SGE Immersion team evaluated the current business model, customer behavior, and usage modes to recommend alternative models for WHI.