Triple Bottom Line at the Bottom of the Pyramid?

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/innovation-at-the-bottom-of-pyramid/

We’ve been reading about companies that profit from additional revenue generated by serving populations at the base of the pyramid – with its $5 trillion in annual purchasing power globally[1]. I’m interested in cases where this kind of social innovation spawns savings and further innovations across a company’s product line and customer base. For example, Nicholas Negroponte created downward pressure on the laptop market, thereby triggering the notebook craze we can witness in university halls and on Best Buy shelves. Apple’s I-phone even seems to be an extension of the craze. In the Prophet of Cheap, Andy Greenberg wrote of Negroponte: Like any good visionary, he pushes our ambitions beyond what is realistic – occasionally changing reality in the process.

Can visionaries like Negroponte inspire a reality in which we vastly reduce the resource consumption and waste associated with products and their obsolescence? I am extremely interested in technological advances, but concerned about what seems to be an ever-decreasing life span for products like cell phones and computers. My phone dies in one way or another every 1-2 years and my laptop seems to be outdated in about 2-3 years. Will we see the same trend for products designed to meet the needs of the BOP population? Or, perhaps, can social innovators design creative retro-fits for existing products?

In this article – an interview with C.K. Prahalad – the professor of corporate strategy at the Ross School of Business of the University of Michigan says, “Consider the area of electronics. Every consumer will want a cellphone so product designers should be asking: why does every model of cellphone need its own unique charger? The charger is not a distinguishing feature. Imagine the savings in resources and waste, as well as savings to the consumer, if there were one universal charger?”

I agree with Prahalad, but it seems to me that companies see profit in selling proprietary things – whether it is bike parts, car parts, IT systems, or phone chargers because it’s a way of holding onto customers. Will the environmental concerns we face in both the developed and developing worlds lead to more universal items? What past examples can we learn from? Please weigh in.

I have heard concerns over the increased waste and pollution generated by bringing products and services to the BOP populations. Certainly, we will see increased global cell phone waste now that more people have cell phones, and we will see more pollution as a result of more people having electricity. But I’d like to think that the creativity and adaptation involved with SI will feed a vision for environmental sustainability across our culture.

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[1] Forbes article, From Microfinance Into Microinsurance, 11/26/08