by Sarah Kear Peel
The Civic Economy breaks down the traditional silos of the Business, Government, and Charitable (or Voluntary) Sectors.
Listening to the economic news of the last few years, it’s no surprise that there’s a feeling of despair over our crumbling global financial crisis. Europe’s economic model is being crushed by services they can’t afford, and the American laissez faire model allowed banks to take greater and greater risks, until it all came tumbling down. The costs to the health of families and communities are steep in both cases.
Mash Up: Waste reduction or housing?
But WAIT! It’s not all gloom and doom. Exciting things have been happening. Estuaries of hope have been popping up where the traditional boundaries of the Business, Government and Charitable (or Voluntary) sectors are being mashed up and rearranged at their meeting points. The result is that “A civic economy is emerging, one that is both fundamentally open and social. It’s an economy which is fusing the culture of Web 2.0 with civic purpose.” This is what NESTA, an organization with a mission to make the United Kingdom more innovative, recounts in the exciting stories of 25 trailblazers in the Compendium for the Civic Economy. It encompasses the people, ventures and behaviours that re-engineer our government, society, and economy for the benefit of people and planet in a way that neither the state nor the market alone have been able to accomplish.
Mash Up: Health care or small business?
The stories of NESTA’s 25 trailblazers are great case studies to learn from, however, they are predominantly all from the UK. This past week I had the privilege of meeting amazing Canadian trailblazers at two events, the CBSR Summit 2011 on Canadian Business as a Global Citizen, and the Live Green Toronto Community Innovation Summit (hosted at the Centre for Social Innovation, one of my favourite spots in Toronto.) Here are just a few:
Mash Up: Foreign aid or business training?
Digital Opportunity Trust is a CanadianICT start-up incubator that works in emerging economies with a blend of business and community development approaches. As the CEO Janet Longmore describes her work in thisvideo, “We’re very focused on transformational, sustainable models that build the local capacity of young people to solve local problems through ICT enterprise”.
Ideal for busy families, or new gardeners, he Young Urban Farmers blend urban food sustainability with a for-profit service that will plant, maintain and harvest your veggies and herbs for you in your very own backyard.
GreenTbiz is working to combine the services of the traditional Business Improvement Area with the mandate of environmental conservation. Through collaboration and eco-efficiencies, GreenTbiz helps it’s members think green and save green.
Then of course, there’s the organization I work for, Fashion Takes Action, which engages both the fashion industry and consumers in creating and consuming fashion in a more sustainable manner.
As Tonya Surman, Executive Director of the Centre for Social Innovation, said in her welcome to 150 community innovators and boundary crossers, “The hope of a new economic model is here the room.” And that is something worth celebrating!
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