Welcome to the Social Business Earth Website

What is Social Business Earth

Social Business Earth is a social business centre based in Lugano, Switzerland, that raises awareness on Social Business, a concept developed by Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus, with a focus on Italy, Switzerland and surrounding areas. We interact with universities, the private sector, NGOs, doctors, artists, media, private individuals and investors who believe that creating a world without poverty is possible through the implementation of a new economic model based on Social Business.

The goal of Social Business Earth is to create new Social Businesses that will benefit the poor and the disadvantaged in countries around the globe.  This will also allow future generations to choose whether they want to work in a profit maximizing company or a company that is committed to solve a social issue, a social business. Social Business Earth encourages people to think differently and act out of selflessness which is inherent in all human beings.

What we do

1. Create new Social Businesses to solve social, economic and environmental problems (e.g. poverty, education, healthcare, housing, environment, climate change etc.) in both developed as well as developing countries. Initiate collaborations with existing for-profit companies, NGOs, private entrepreneurs and other non-profit organizations, offering expertise and consultancy in the field of Social Business.

2. Educate, Connect and Collaborate with universities, high schools and other educational institutions to integrate Social Business into their teaching, research and practice. Initiate Social Business Courses and Chairs in universities, offer interactive workshops, invite speakers who have created a Social Business to provide concrete examples. Facilitate the start of a Social Business Club and Social Business Competition in the aforementioned institutions, organize conferences and events on social business for selected audiences (universities, government departments, foundations, NGOs etc.).

3. Involve the Arts. Raise awareness on Social Business in the music and fashion industry and other art sectors.  Create an “Arts for Social Business Fund”.  This fund will be generated through the profits of concerts, artwork sales such as music albums, haute couture garments by famous designers and paintings, and will be used for the start-up phase of new social businesses.

Social Business Earth was established under Swiss law as a social business and is the first of its kind in Switzerland.  Investors who wish to invest in Social Business Earth will slowly recoup their original investment without taking any dividend beyond that point. All profits made by SBE will be reinvested in the company to expand, hire new professionals and address other social challenges through the creation of new social businesses.  SBE's objective is not to rely on donations but to be a financially sustainable social business that improves the current condition of the world and humankind. Poverty eradication is not a utopia, it is very possible if we do not turn our head away from the problem and pretend it does not exist.

   “One day our grandchildren will go to poverty museums to see what poverty was like.”

                                                                                                       Muhammad Yunus