11. März 14

Creating shared value – best practice from the field

In India it is easy to find the perfect example for what Michael Porter described as „creating shared value“.

Here comes another example, I had the honor to visit myself last week: More than 800 slums exist in Bangalore. These are areas where people from the villages live in tents or huts they build from the material, plastic and wood lying around.
They have no water, electricity or toilet facilities. The families live there together on property they rent for 4 euros a month – and they are facing the danger of eviction, which could happen every day. Most of the men and women work in construction, for 2 or 3 euros a day. Their children usually don’t go to school; they have to care for the younger children, the household or other tasks.
In the evening it is getting dark early and because there is no electricity, they use kerosene to light their lamps.

This is of course very dangerous in an environment, where the huts and tents exist of plastic and wood. And it is a huge threat to the environment, too. SELCO, a solar energy company, is running through its foundation a project which aims to bring solar lamps to the people in the slums. They have solar panels working on one of the main tents and have battery racks in a secure place. The people form the slum rent for a small amount the lamps and get the batteries re-charged at the main facility.

This is much safer than burning kerosene in a tent. And for SELCO it is a new business they start. This is shared value.