On April 14th we were very honoured to have Nobel Peace Prize Laureate prof. Yunus visiting Danone Research & Innovation in Utrecht and giving a lecture to 300 employees.
Prof. Yunus gave a very inspiring lecture about his work in microcredit and microfinancing, social business and his connection with Danone.
Prof. Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank and in 2006 jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.”, met Danone CEO Franck Riboud in 2005. They met over lunch and talked about social business. They shook hands to confirm their mutual interest and agreed to build a yoghurt plant in Bangladesh to promote local community development. From the beginning, the business was designed to make enough money to be sustainable, but to focus primarily on social goals — a revolutionary ambition.
By 2007, the first plant was up and running in Bangladesh, producing affordable yogurts fortified with micronutrients — iodine, zinc, iron and vitamin A — to counter nutritional deficiencies among Bangladeshi children.
Today, Prof. Yunus has strong convictions that he refers to as three zero’s;
1) zero poverty
2) zero unemployment
3) zero carbon footprint
In the final closure prof. Yunus fully agreed with an additional zero: zero diseases and moreover zero malnutrition, being the starting point for diseases in later life.
Danone went on to found danone.communities, offering a mutual fund designed to encourage social business initiatives, launched in 2007.
Today danone.communities is launching nearly a dozen immersion trips to study the potential of new projects.
You can find more information about prof. Yunus by following this link: http://www.muhammadyunus.org
More information about danone.communities can be found here: http://www.danonecommunities.com