Green Economy Coalition (GEC) - Development Alternatives - Local Green Enterprises (LGEs) - Setting Trends

So what does applied Green Economy look like? The answer perhaps lies in the "less" and not the "more".

Around the world the voices heard are 'Local - Green - Enterprises (LGEs)'. Recently various of my organisations partnered with Development Alternatives and the Green Economy Coalition to show case how less is more! How? Read on!

Before we move to our comments and participation, here is a bit about the agenda of the event. It was a 3 day event and a fair, interactive space and workshops from multiple members around the world. The mail goal was to get a current finding on what is a green economy, critical emphasis on Local Green Enterprises (LGEs) and possible policy interventions at all levels to support these LGEs

First, the fun element to get a fair idea of the fare!

Our trust the Delhi Organic Farmers Market was invited to participate in strength and we got our farmers and participants from, as far as, Himachal Pradesh ( Cold Pressed Apple Juice), Tamil Nadu (Honey from Tribal Collector of the Nilgiri Mountains and Nagaland), Rajasthan (Tribal medicinals from trees such as Silk Cotton and Khair ), Delhi NCR and so much more. There were enterprises ranging from those working with tribal and medicinal products, organisations working with urban marginal women groups on handicrafts and other such wonderful and of course the fruit, vegetable and milk offering direct from farmers to consumers. Here are some of the images of the second day of the fair.

There was tribal music too! Because - what is agriculture without 'culture'!!

It would have stopped there as a regular fare, but a little extra much we do care!

So we were also requested to prepare a lunch fare for over 180 souls with the chefs (read culinary artists) of Delhi NCR - The Culinary Lab. All ingredients used by the Chefs were sourced from the Delhi Organic Farmers Market and even the farmers and vendors (i.e. Enterprises) from whom the sourcing was done were present at the event! Now how much more Local and Green can this be? Who would have thought that a simple vegetarian fare would have brought smiles and appetites to everyone present that day!

And just in case you may have missed this - but even the plates, glasses and cutlery were made from compostible material!! Especially the plates made from cardboard and leaves of the creeper Bauhinia Vahili.

So DOFM actually helped showcase how a platform can support "Local Green Enterprises" and easily enabling transparency to connect Consumer, Intermediary and Producer with a visible String Theory!!

Now comes the tricky part! We were asked to be a table facilitator for a working group session on how LGEs are impacted in the domain of Food and Agriculture Systems. With the main inquiry being -

As a Local Green enterprise,  

What do you measure in the processes of production/services to ensure: a. Environment consciousness – water, material efficiencies, waste and pollution management. b. Inclusive consciousness – Jobs, wage rates, distribution of profits, provision of goods and services of need to local population

What are the major roadblocks that restrict access to credit for local green enterprises?

What are the opportunities of accessing fund through green finance instruments that you have witnessed so far?

What are different market opportunities that helped you scale up the customer base of your products and services?

How do your foresee the potential of local green enterprise to accelerate the transition towards green economy for India?

The discussion were spirited to the fact that we came up with the maximum outputs for each of these and how they are eventually tied up with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ensure LGEs flourish. Did I mention that while the discussion was ongoing, we had our friendly DOFM Charka Spinning veteran Gandhian who managed to spin 200m of thread from bundled of organic cotton to help our minds stay sharp!

Since fiber is also an essential output of Agriculture - along with food, I would like to think we did set a trend on re-defining what Sustainable Food and Agriculture System will be like!

On the last day we were also requested to give our inputs on two sessions -

Sustainable Procurement for LGEs (Co-hosted by DA, FICCI, TERI) - We did so by explaining how expensive regulatory barriers can be suitably modified to let LGEs compete and flourish, as well as how the ideas of True Cost Accounting and inclusion of Natural Capital (as opposed to Monetary Capital) as part of Systems Thinking, to see how the Green in LGEs flourish! The fact remains that "Small is Beautiful" and for any large scale system to really turn to the "Green" it will have no choice but to highly localize, decentralize and accept diversity - all three of which are true characters of India!

Triple Bottom Line Impact of LGEs (Co-hosted by DA, UNIDO, GRI) - where the lone farmer in the session was the founder of DOFM Trust and represented how the idea of "price" and costs for farmers was underrated today and is the most important in helping to build a new marketing system to allow the "Green" to flourish.

In all - a lively and lovely set of days, a good set of friends who gave a resounding ear and agreed to take these aspects higher up the power chain i.e. to the policy makers to see how scale and diversity can go hand in hand to produce the color - Green!

Just so much we can contribute to the events around us using - Local Green Enterprises - we can create, small as they are and as effective as they come by. But then again there is so much more to do and miles to go before we .......