Small-Scale Social-Environmental Enterprises in the Green Economy: Supporting grassroots innovation

To achieve a top-to-bottom growth of the “green economy,” incentives and enablers need to be identified for those micro enterprises working at the grassroots level.

A three-year study of 1,300 social and environmental enterprises in developing countries reveals how they are using new business models to develop new products and services for their communities. But their scale-up is hampered by lack of access to research and technology support and gender barriers, as well as challenges with complex partnerships, progress monitoring, and financial viability. A large pool of innovative ideas thus remains untapped, and an opportunity to build a sustainable economy is being missed.