“Many of the emerging technologies that we consider to be inherently clean and sustainable, renewable energy, many applications of bio- and lifescience, nanotechnology in all of its emerging forms, wireless telecommunications, micro-credit, micro… These are all emerging technologies. They all have the potential to fundamentally change the way people live, dramatically reduce the human footprint, ecological footprint, on the planet. They tend not to take root very quickly in established main stream markets at the top of the pyramid. because they’re disruptive to the way that things are currently done. So I take very much the view that the quickest and best opportunity to bring these to commercial fruition is at the base of the pyramid in conjunction with local people and not just in an imperialistic way, but by also drawing heavily upon the local knowledge, indigenous knowledge and native practices that exist. There’s still a lot of embedded knowledge at the base of the pyramid in local societies about how to live that many of us at the top of the pyramid have forgotten.”

Stuart Hart, Chair of Sustainable Global Enterprise and professor of management at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management