ProGreen

ProGreen is committed to bringing marginalized communities in rural areas to the mainstream of economic activity through:

 Identifying, harnessing sustainable business opportunities
 Such business opportunities will be commercialized by ProGreen through formation of rural micro-cooperatives

ProGreen is currently in the process of setting up a cooperative to manufacture Biodegradable leaf Cups & Plates. Biodegradable leaf cups/plates are an environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative plastic and paper disposables. The pilot project is based at Salem, India.

Other business opportunities in the pipeline include a rural BPO cooperative, providing outsourced ‘data entry and conversion’ services and a textile cooperative.

Why ProGreen?

India’s robust economic growth over the 90’s has largely been restricted to urban areas. There is a need to innovate ideas that will enable us to bring the marginalized rural communities to economic mainstream; prosperity will lead to social change

The ProGreen Model

For every identified business opportunity, ProGreen will partner with local agencies to reach the prospective cooperative members. These cooperative members are business partners for ProGreen, which will primarily outsource production/service to such cooperative members. In addition to providing technology support, training, and initiating the formation of the cooperative, ProGreen will play a major role accessing markets for the product/service.

Some part of the capital costs like machinery for manufacture/cost of computers (for the BPO cooperative) will be borne by the stakeholders. ProGreen will partner with banks and finance institutions to enable cooperative members to gain access to capital. ProGreen believes that it is important for the stakeholders to own their business, and become micro-entrepreneurs. This will ensure sustainability of the cooperative

Revenue Model

The profits generated from each cooperative will be shared between the cooperative members and ProGreen. Generally, cooperative members receive 40-60% of the profits based on their contribution to the value-chain.

ProGreen intends to establish at least three cooperatives in Years 1 & 2

Areca Leaf/Cups Plates Cooperative At Salem District, Tamil Nadu 75-100 members
Business Process Outsourcing Cooperative At Trichy District, Tamil Nadu 75-100 Members
Textile Cooperative At Bagalkot District, Karnataka 75 Members

Investment

ProGreen would require start-up funding of 100,000 US $ in the first two-years. ProGreen is expected to start generating profits with the first 15 months of operation.

The Go-to-market strategy is two fold for ProGreen
1. Formation of the cooperative
2. Finding markets for the products/services

1. Formation of the cooperative

ProGreen will partner with non-profits, microcredit agencies etc working in project area to reach the prospective cooperative members. Such partnerships create a win-win situation since it generates employment and provides livelihood for the economically backward. It is equally advantageous to ProGreen, which can initiate the formation of the cooperative

2. Finding markets for the products/services

Areca Leaf/Cups Plates Cooperative

A significant part of the long term revenues of ProGreen will be realized through exporting the product to the US, EU and Asian markets in addition to sales from local market. The challenge is to gain product acceptance in global markets. ProGreen will achieve this by targeting a niche market through a predominantly online model. ProGreen will also capitalize on the wider product acceptance in the local market.

Business Process Outsourcing Cooperative

ProGreen does not intend to be a full-fledged BPO company, but only an ‘enabler’ in assisting the large BPO firms to tap affordable talent in rural areas. In this process, the larger firms will benefit from reduced wages, steady & reliable source of manpower, no ‘attrition issues’ and an opportunity to adopt ‘socially responsive’ practices. Thus, ProGreen will interface between large captive as well as third-party BPO players to sub-contract work from them. ProGreen will establish close ties between the cooperative and BPO firms in order maintain quality standards and long-term stable contracts.

Textile Cooperative

The textile cooperative is to be located among a community of handloom weavers, who have preserved an ethnic and traditional weave. ProGreen will develop lucrative niche markets for garments and accessories made from this handloom. ProGreen hopes to establish supply contracts with niche clothing retailers, in India and globally.

Start-up Funding

In addition to the support from BID network, ProGreen is currently in the process of pursuing funding from other sources, which include:

1. Youth Social Entrepreneurship Initiative supported by GKP
2. Echoing Green

ProGreen will bring about Social Change through economic empowerment of rural communities.

Employment and Increase in Income level

Areca Leaf/Cups Plates Cooperative 75-100 members Estimated average income of US$ 1,100/year for each cooperative member
Business Process Outsourcing Cooperative 75-100 Members Estimated average income of US$ 700/year for each cooperative member
Textile Cooperative 75 Members Estimated average income of US$ 600/year for each cooperative member

Other Non-Quantifiable Social Benefits

Economic empowerment of rural poor has a wide range of social benefits many of which are not quantifiable and thus not feature in the SROI model. Some of such social benefits are as follows:

Health and Nutrition benefits: Economic empowerment plays a major role in improving the health and nutritional status of the entire family

Education: ProGreen believes that having a stable source of income will encourage the stakeholders to send their children to school

Sanitation & Hygiene: Improved standard of living through economic empowerment will ensure access to better sanitation. This will reduce the occurrence of diseases.

Participation in Local Governance: Improved economic status will enable the stakeholders to have better say in the village governing body. People also will feel empowered and confident to question the actions of those who are in power.

Bridging the gap between rich and poor: There exists a huge disparity between the have’s and have-nots in India. According to UNDP the richest 20% of the population have close to 50% share of Income or Consumption. Efforts like ProGreen are steps in the right direction to bridge this gap.

Migration to Urban Areas: By 2015, 1/3rd of Indian Population is expected to live in urban areas (Source: UNDP). The urban centers will not be able to sustain such growth in population. ProGreen will do its bit to avoid such migration among the target stakeholders, by providing them income opportunities in rural areas