Unleashing the Power of Social Business to Bring Solutions to the Environmental Crisis
What We Do
Building on over 40 years of Grameen’s experience in developing and implementing social business solutions, Yunus Environment Hub provides expertise on all aspects related to environmental issues.
Circular Economy
We support the transformation from linear to circular economy. A circular economy is based on the principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. Our solutions are based on the 7 R's Rethink, Reduce, Re-use, Repair, Refurbish, Recover and Recycle.
Zero Waste
We are committed to advancing the paradigm of zero waste by engaging in promoting extended producer responsibility and encouraging responsible waste disposal and management practices. By emphasizing closed-loop recycling and circular business models, we strive to create a more sustainable ecosystem that reduces the environmental impact of waste.
Carbon Neutrality
The basis of our work is to contribute to a carbon neutral economy. We develop and support solutions that target global carbon reductions by innovating carbon-free business alternatives and compensating mechanisms for unavoidable emissions. We lead by example, as a carbon neutral organization.
Biodiversity & Restoration
We contribute to the preservation of biodiversity and some of the world's most endangered rain forests by supporting local communities and indigenous people through sustainable entrepreneurship, capacity building and access to markets. Solutions include ecotourism, permacultures, sustainable forestry and afforestation programs.
Sustainable Agriculture
We promote sustainable agriculture by empowering small holder farmers and rural communities through entrepreneurship training, capacity building, digital skills and access to markets. We help to grow sustainable practices in largely remote and difficult to reach areas to sustain the livelihoods of local people.
Clean Energy
We support solutions that provide clean energy both as a replacement for traditional sources of energy such as charcoal or gas and as energy supply for households without prior access to electricity. Grameen Shakti is the world's largest rural renewable energy company and has experience in decentralized solar panels, improved cooking stoves and community biogas plants.
Access to Water & Sanitation
We foster solutions that provide access to clean water and sanitation in both rural as well as urban communities. For example, Grameen Veolia Water operates and maintains a water treatment plant that provides safe drinking water in rural Bangladesh, where the groundwater is naturally contaminated by arsenic.
How We Do It
Harnessing the Power of the Yunus and Accredited Networks
For a network to truly work, it requires trust and deep-felt human connection around a common purpose. For over 40 years, Prof. Yunus endlessly created meaningful connections around the world, building a strong network, which is the foundation of our organisation.
Yunus Environment Hub is accredited to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and has been granted observer status to the UNEP's Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions concerning the transboundary movement of waste, and the UN International Negotiating Committee (INC), focused on the development of a legally binding global plastic treaty.
Our accreditation to these networks enables us to play an integral part of expansive global networks dedicated to addressing critical environmental challenges. It also facilitates our engagement with international forums, collaborations with organisations, interactions with experts, and connections with individuals deeply passionate and committed to resolving social and environmental issues across more than 100 countries.
Our Team
Professor
Muhammad Yunus
Recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, Professor Muhammad Yunus is internationally recognized as the founder of microcredit and as the father of social business. For more than 40 years, he has successfully worked to meld capitalism & social responsibility. In 1976, he created the first institution to provide micro-loans to empower the poor to become entrepreneurs. Grameen Bank has since lent more than USD 26.5 billion to those suffering extreme poverty across Bangladesh while maintaining a consistent repayment rate above 98% and has been replicated worldwide.
Complimenting his work with microcredit, Prof. Yunus pioneered the global social business movement. Today, he continues to advocate for businesses that are created to solve social & environmental problems. His early career as a professor of economics - followed by years of work with dignitaries and icons influencing global culture and economy - allow him unprecedented insight into the forces and industries that can affect powerful change through social business.
Aside from the Nobel Peace Prize, Prof. Yunus is the recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal & the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Only seven individuals in history have received all three distinctions. In addition he received more than 60 honorary degrees from more than 25 countries and more than 140 awards from more than 35 countries. For his constant innovation and enterprise, Fortune Magazine named Prof. Yunus in March 2012 as “one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time".
Prof. Muhammad Yunus
Co-founder & Chairman
Christina Jäger
Co-founder & Managing Director
Hans Reitz
Co-founder & Creative Advisor
Luise Wunner
Operations & Program Director
Ambrose Mbuvi
Social Business Consultant
Tam Phan Hanh
Country Director Vietnam
Rubina Mustary
Finance & Accounting Manager
Julie Chrysler
Circular Economy & Social Impact Lead
Bramwel Otieno
Regional Program Manager
Leonard Mwasi
Program Manager
Sarah Wangira
Communications Officer
Andrea Naranjo
Innovation & Impact Manager
Minh Dang
Senior Consultant
Lâm Quang
Program Assistant
Krithika Ganesan
Program Manager
Valentina Montaño
Program Coordinator
Current Vacancies
Join our Team!
Our Services
Incubation & Acceleration
We constantly grow an extensive pool of social business entrepreneurs that focus on environmental issues through incubator and accelerator programs.
Venture Building
We build new ventures together with companies, foundations, and other organizations and replicate existing solutions adapted to the local context in new regions.
Consulting & Advisory
We share our expertise through research, strategy frameworks, and policy development to help private and public sector organisations identify approaches to act upon the environmental crisis.
Education & Training
We offer capacity building in circular economy and just transition strategies to support the scale of holistic solutions. We provide trainings for the informal sector to improve skills and livelihoods.
Our Contribution
Our solutions are based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals targeting a combination of different goals in each specific project, while always contributing to Professor Yunus’ vision of “A World of Three Zero’s”: Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment and Zero Net Carbon Emissions.
In his book A World of Three Zeros, Prof. Yunus mentions that capitalism is doing just what it is meant to do: create and concentrate wealth. He advocates rethinking the basic tenets of capitalism, given that poverty and unemployment demean so many people and that the climate crisis threatens life on earth.
Prof. Yunus questions Adam Smith’s assumption that a “human being is basically a personal-gain-seeking being” and asks us to consider the social dimension to the decisions and investments we make. He lays out a new framework, supported by his own successful economic experiments, for better tapping human capital to solve the world’s problems.
Our Impact
We support social business entrepreneurs that work on scalable solutions for climate action by building their business capacities, enabling circular strategies, and strengthening their ecosystem so they can grow and expand more sustainable solutions. To understand the tangible outcomes of our efforts, please explore the impact reports below.
Our Commitment to Carbon Neutrality
We want to lead by example and have implemented several organization policies and practices to reduce our carbon footprint. With the support of our partner ClimateSeed we compensate our unavoidable emissions. ClimateSeed is of course a social business as well.
Learn how Yunus Environment Hub went Carbon Neutral here.