- Base of the Pyramid
- “BoP” or “Base of the Pyramid” is a socioeconomic designation of the world’s four & a half billion poor.
- Clean Technology
- “Next generation” technologies with dramatically lower environmental impacts
- The Great Convergence
- Because clean technologies are almost always “disruptive” in character (i.e. they threaten incumbents in current served markets), the “Base of the Pyramid” (BoP) is often the best place to focus early commercialization attention.
- Indeed, the BoP can be the perfect breeding ground for innovators seeking to stake out the future in renewable energy (energy generated from natural sources which are renewable (naturally replenished), distributed generation (electricity generated from many small energy sources), point-of-use technology (non-centralized, household-scale treatments for water purification), biomaterials (materials made from natural feedstocks), and wireless IT (just to name a few examples).
- The Global Forum will focus on this coming convergence as the highest leverage point for sustainable enterprise in the decade ahead. By starting at the base of the income pyramid, where the majority of humanity resides, companies can partner with people to address social and environmental challenges — while developing technologies with global reach.
- Please read our white paper [PDF] for a more in-depth discussion of the “Great Convergence” idea.
- Sustainable Global Enterprise
- Sustainable global enterprise represents a new private-sector-based approach to development focused on creating profitable businesses that simultaneously raise the quality of life for the world’s poor, respect cultural diversity, and conserve the ecological integrity of the planet for future generations.
Updated: November 13, 2008