PerpetualPlanet

I’ll confess up front. I love the game of golf. Yes, I know golf courses are looked at with scorn by champions of sustainability. Those dismissing this as golf propaganda will be forgiven.  But any environmentally-minded golfer who understands my dilemma will read on with great hope that indeed great courses have their place in sustainable recreation.

The Shark from Down Under, PGA professional Greg Norman, has created a masterpiece course near Shannon, Ireland.  Doonbeg Golf Club, I think, will rank as one of the must play courses of the world with Bandon Dunes, Pebble Beach and St. Andrews.

<>

Norman and his firm designed the course with minimal disturbance to the site.  Very little earth was moved in comparison to modern courses.  The native grass fairways maintain most of the bumps and rolls originally present, and wind around off-limits ancient grey dunes.  In addition, all construction and future maintenance had to comply with EU Habitats Directive that protects an endangered species of snail in the area.

The course began operations in 2002 and seems likely to host a future Ryder Cup competion.  The effect it will have on the local economy is guaranteed to be dramatic.  Future impact studies will show if the serious reservations by some about the ecological impact were warranted.

These days, when purchasing vehicles for your company fleet or for your family, fuel economy and environmental costs probably gaining weight in your decision process. The folks at GreenerCars.com are making it easy to select what is friendliest to the planet and economical.

Based on official emissions and fuel-economy tests, and other specifications reported by auto manufacturers, they calculate a Green Score for each car, minivan, pickup, and SUV on the market. The Green Score falls on a scale of zero to 100. A higher score implies a greener car, meaning a vehicle having a lower environmental impact. The top performers in 2004 appear here (you need to register to see far enough down the list to find an American or European model).

For a typical commuter, buying a car that gets 40 mpg instead of 25 will result in gas savings of 300 gallons in a 20k mile year or about $700. That’s almost like getting your car insurance for free!

GreenerCars.com charges about nine dollars for a month’s subscription, but that gets you the impartiality that comes with not relying on advertising. You will also learn as much as you want to know about emissions standards and maybe more.

About 4 billion people on the planet are ignored by most marketers.  Making less than $1500 per year, puts them off the radar for most multinationals.  However, this market, coined as the bottom of the pyramid, may be more fertile than most b-schoolers first think.  Corporations like HP, Citicorp,  Honeywell and Starbucks are currently experimenting with products made by and sold to people who possess almost nothing.

Many of the efforts focus on meeting basic needs such as food and clothing.  One company in India, for example, sells jeans making kits for $6 each to entrepreneurs who assemble and sell them at a profit.

However, high tech companies are watching HP’s e-Inclusion program on project of which aims to create digtal town centers with affordable shared internet access.  Pilot sites already  exist in Central America, Asia, Africa and Central Europe.  Banks look to assist by creating microcredit operations in the same areas, accepting very small deposits and making very small loans.

Success is not guaranteed, but the prospect of such an enormous number of new customers apparently makes efforts to create the required purchasing power an attractive investment.

Authors C.K. Prahalad and Stuart L. Hart explore The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits in a short paper and in their book by the same title.  Prahalad is a professor at Michigan Business School nad Hart teaches at UNC Business School.  The subheading of the book is synomous with doing well by doing good: “Eradicating Poverty Through Profits”.