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Pitch

Use collective intelligence to orchestrate cooperation that makes city-level circular economy initiatives essentially self-funding at scale.


Description

Summary / Résumé

Our Change Engine Based SDGs Acceleration Program (called the Social Impact Marketplace Based  or "SIMBa" Job Creation Program in East Africa) is a radically innovative approach to accelerating achievement of the SDGs that essentially pays for each government's participation, only requiring that governments provides tax credits to incentivize investment, and requiring that governments in addition reimburse innovators with a portion of savings realized due to their social impact innovations. The Change Engine Based SDGs Acceleration Program increases outcomes for investors, donors, and governments that cooperate to provide this funding, to the point that the SDGs become essentially self-funding at massive scale. Similar cooperative synergies provide the competitive advantage needed to assure the success of these projects as for-profit businesses. Still further cooperative synergies enable sustainable business models that thrive on reduced consumption, making entirely new levels of social, economic, environmental, or other impacts possible. Relying on this capability to self-fund at scale, this competitive advantage, and this improved capacity for impact, we’ve designed a large pipeline of projects capable of game-changing levels increases in access to affordable renewable energy, sustainability, and other impacts, both at home and abroad.


What actions do you propose? / Quelles actions proposez-vous?

We will begin by deploying a pilot of our program. Prior to this pilot we will identify a number of potential value chains to be deployed in the pilot, and list each of these on the Social Impact Marketplace platform. Having listed them, we will assess the projected impact on sustainability per program dollar for each, and place impact bonds on the value chains with the highest projected impact. Taking those impact bonds into account we'll then calculate the projected investment returns, and for the value chains with the highest projected returns we'll secure investment from investors or from the Social Impact Marketplace Fund we aim to create and raise. Finally, the marketplace will enable local entrepreneurs and businesses to implement these business opportunities, where the marketplace has provided the investment, the customers, the suppliers, and the cooperation within the value chain, to ensure they succeed in meeting their profitability goals as well as in achieveing their impact on sustainabillity.
Our project will use the change engine principles for orchestrating cooperation to remove the barriers to implementation at scale of initiatives with the potential to impact the goals of this challenge. We propose to support implementation of solutions with the potential for transformative impact on sustainability through "impact bonds" that multiply impact per program dollar spent by governments.
Our project will use the change engine principles of design for collective intelligence to create solutions that have the potential to impact the goals of this challenge through increased access to affordable renewable energy. We propose to support development of these and other new solutions with the potential for transformative impact on sustainability through "impact capacity bonds" that compensate developers of those solutions with a portion of the cost savings actually realized by governments, to essentially pay those governments for their cooperation.
A separate project to be launched in East Africa will include in its phase III a Design for Change challenge that will use the Collaborative Design Platform to be developed within this effort based on the change engine pattern, to design cost effective modular housing , renewable energy and other integrated solutions that together have the capability to reduce the cost of living by the $30 to $100 per month required to lift families above the poverty line. The insight gained from this effort will be used to launch a Design for Change Europe challenge in the project's phase IV. This challenge will design solutions that together have the capability make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, particularly to revitalize ghost towns. In America this includes a Design for Change challenge that will address the housing shortage and sustainability in Silicon Valley. We propose to support research that can be incorporated into new solutions such as the Collaborative Design Platform, that have the potential to increasecapacity for transformative impact on sustainability. This support will be provided through "impact c squared bonds" that compensate investment in research.
We propose to work with engineering schools at local universities to create a course articulating the methodology for applying these design principles, and how specifically they can be applied in Aeronautics and Astronautics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, as well as the other engineering disciplines. We're in the process of creating a textbook to describe these design principles. Collaborating with these school of engineering in this effort, as well as in the effort to create a course in this methodology will ensure the thousands of engineers needed will be available.
 


Which types of stakeholders are involved, in which way? / Quels types de parties prenantes sont impliqués, de quelle façon?

a) Municipal Governments: commit to piloting privately funded solutions that have demonstrated the potential to achieve impact on sustainability. Commit to implementing these solutions at scale when the pilot has demonstrated the capability of that impact to be replicated locally.
b) National Governments: commit to supporting impact through tax credit funded impact bonds that increase impact per tax credit dollar as opposed to other approaches.
c) Development Agencies: commit to supporting impact through grant funded impact bonds, impact capacity bonds, and impact c squared bonds, that increase impact per grant dollar.
d) Private Businesses: bid to implement impact projects for which we've orchestrated cooperation that provides them with investment, customers, suppliers, and everything else they need to succeed.
e) Impact Investors: bid to invest in impact projects for which we've orchestrated cooperation that provides them with impact bonds and other instruments that increase their projected returns significantly above market averages at decreased risk.
f) Development Finance Institutions: fund the Social Impact Marketplace Fund that will invest in projects on the marketplace in phase I of the program. This fund will be supported by impact bonds and other instruments that increase the fund's projected returns significantly above market averages at decreased risk.
g) Universities: teach courses that we'll design for business schools to educate managers on how to implement these projects. And teach courses that we'll design for engineering schools to educate engineers in each discipline how to design products and services to enable the synergies supporting these projects.


How could the actions be scaled up at the neighborhood or city level? / Comment serait-il possible d'augmenter la portée des actions à l'échelle des quartiers ou de la ville?

We've defined a process called "business model replication" to replicate programs in different neighborhoods. Deploy the Social Impact Marketplace to create synergies of cooperation that will ensure these replicated programs are funded and succeed in achieving their targeted impacts.


What impact will these actions have on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change? / Quels impacts auront ces actions sur la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre et l'adaptation aux changements climatiques?

This collective intelligence based economic model is to our knowledge the only known model capable of thriving on reduced consumption, while out-competing models that are based on competing to increase consumption. Regardless of whatever initiatives are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emission, a reduction in the consumption driving these emissions has the potential to increase their impact.


What are the other environmental, economic or social benefits? / Quels sont les autres bénéfices environnementaux, économiques et sociaux?

Virtually any social, environmental, economic, or other impact can be achieved through the deployment of a product or service. The change engine creates synergies that enable the deployment of that impact at scale. We're developing value chains with the potential to create enough synergies through cooperation for the savings to fund Universal Healthcare, and Universal Education in countries without them. We're developing value chains with the potential to radically increase access to affordable renewable energy. And we're developing value chains with the potential to drive massive job creation.


What are the most innovative aspects and main strengths of this approach? / Quels sont les aspects novateurs et les principales forces de cette approche?

Other approaches to collective intelligence are capable of improving decision-making to increase outcome for structured problems in  which possible approaches to solutions are restricted. Our approach is capable of improving decisions for unstructured problems in which no restrictions are placed on innovation.


What are the proposal’s projected costs? / Quels sont les coûts projetés de la proposition?

Workshop to engage prospective participants: $50,000
Value chain design: $200,000
Value chain analysis for impact/investor returns/entrepreneur returns/scaling of impact achieved by NGOs and other service providers: $500,000
Pilot implementation and management: $2,000,000


What are the potential challenges or obstacles? / Quels sont les défis ou les obstacles potentiels?

The main challenge is launching an effort that requires such broad collaboration around a complex idea. This requires building mind share among thought leaders and other early adopters, who must lead the formation of a movement that will build cooperation on the scale required. But once launched, the "change engine" will run on it's own power.


About the authors / À propos des auteur(e)s

The education and expertise I've accumulated is best described not by my background in physics, my career in the software industry, the years spent as a writer and photographer, or by my time in the non-profit sector working to understand the barriers to transformative social change. There's an African proverb "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together". With this in mind I'd describe my background as having been characterized by the inclination and opportunity to think outside these boxes. And more recently as awakening to the realization that there is no box at all. Having had the chance to develop our "change engine" outside any boxes, I've never been impaired by any need to tame a concept that's too wildly ambitious. Today, keeping that African proverb in mind, I'd now characterize my background as having provided the understanding it's the right time for us and our "change engine" to unite with other contributors to build a movement that will "go far".


References / Références

See 6 in particular

1. Williams, A. E.  An Approach to General Collective Intelligence, Working Paper, 2018, Abstract submitted to Collective Intelligence 2018
2. Williams, A. E. Commonalities in Requirements for Artificial General Intelligence and General Collective Intelligence Derived through Biomimicry from Observation of Human Intelligence, Working Paper, 2018, Abstract submitted to Collective Intelligence 2018
3. Williams, A. E. Defining a Universal Impact Metrics Framework as a Step Towards the Goal of a Semantic Metrics Framework, Working Paper, 2018, Abstract submitted to Collective Intelligence 2018
4. Williams, A. E. The Change Engine as a Bridge Between Computer Science and Social Innovation Approaches to Collective Intelligence, Working Paper, 2018, Abstract submitted to Collective Intelligence 2018
5. Williams, A. E. Using Collective Intelligence to Orchestrate Development Cooperation with the Capacity for Global Impact, Abstract Submitted to the International Social Innovation Research Conference (ISIRC).
6. Williams, A. E. A Collective Intelligence Based Econometric Model for the Reduction of Climate Change Related Consumption and Simultaneous Increase of Economic Growth, 2018, Abstract Submitted to 2018 Conference on Econometric Models of Climate Change
7. Williams, A. E. The Change Engine Collective Intelligence Model for Social Simulation, 2018, Abstract Submitted to Social Simulation Conference 2018