Launched in 2020, the ANDE Climate and Environmental Action Initiative targets the complex challenges hindering green entrepreneurs in the broader SGB sector. These businesses are crucial for scaling environmental solutions and fostering resilient economies through their contributions to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The initiative employs research, convening, training, and advocacy to bridge significant financing and capacity-building gaps for green entrepreneurs, emphasizing their distinctive needs. It aims to spotlight and boost funding for climate action leaders within entrepreneurial ecosystems. Acknowledging the disproportionate impact of climate change on women and minority groups, the initiative also prioritizes support for these communities. A key goal is to cultivate a common understanding of effective climate action and its measurement within the SGB sector.
ANDE, in collaboration with the IKEA Foundation, has released comprehensive investment guides on the waste management and circularity sectors, spotlighting critical opportunities and financial strategies. Have a closer look at the new guides to unlock investment in waste management in Kenya and India.
Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) are in a unique position to provide climate solutions. ANDE scales ecosystems supporting green entrepreneurs to advance global goals, pushing climate action, and ensuring clean water, sanitation, and affordable, clean energy by 2030.
Climate change presents unique challenges and opportunities
SGBs must be involved in mitigation, adaptation, and resilience-building efforts, and they need support.
“Green entrepreneurs” are developing, deploying, and expanding localized solutions to global climate crises, yet only 2% of incubators and accelerators focus on climate challenges worldwide. One example is Mark Kebo Akparibo, founder of Tele-Bere Green AgroFarms. They are revolutionizing agriculture in Ghana’s semi-arid Northern Savanna.
As part of ANDE’s Accelerating Women Climate Entrepreneurs (AWCE) program, Tele-Bere received funding support from ANDE member FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. Watch their video and visit our entrepreneur journeys page and discover other stories of climate entrepreneurs.
In partnership with the IKEA Foundation, ANDE launched the second phase of its initiative supporting green entrepreneurship in India and Kenya. The program seeks to help ensure a smooth transition to a greener, more inclusive economy in which green entrepreneurs can thrive and create good jobs. Through this partnership, ANDE conducted research on the green enterprise economy and brought together donors, investors, enterprise support organizations, policymakers, and entrepreneurs to identify and support solutions that help green enterprises in India and Kenya grow.
ANDE, along with the Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC) and World University Service of Canada (WUSC), and support from Global Affairs Canada (GAC), aim to build the gender-lens investing ecosystem for growth-oriented women entrepreneurs to start and grow climate-related businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa through this project. AWCE will contribute to poverty reduction by identifying and promoting good practices to support women entrepreneurs in climate-related value chains and developing a road map for international development stakeholders to provide further gender-responsive support to women climate entrepreneurs and intermediaries.
ANDE’s Learning Labs bring together a group of experts to address climate concerns worldwide. These labs are meticulously designed to foster a culture of knowledge exchange and collaborative learning, serving as a repository of insights, tools, and best practices. Our members can leverage these resources to effectively support and accelerate the growth of green businesses.
SGBs' have a critical role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
ANDE members are helping adapt and prepare for climate change one step at a time by taking climate action.
SGB Climate Champions is a global ANDE campaign that aims to share the stories and experiences of our members across ANDE’s network from all eight chapters. The campaign highlights successful climate business models and shares knowledge on how SGBs and ESOs can incorporate climate lenses into their work.
This landscape guide is intended to outline India’s current context in recycling and circularity, with a focus on the investment potential, opportunities and business models in the ten most significant waste streams in India. It provides a framework for how investment potential in a waste stream can be determined, which covers five areas that define that potential: market size and growth; investable start-up pipeline; product readiness; policy support; financing needs and gaps. The guide also includes a historical outline of investments and funding in each waste stream and outlines the roles and participation of various types of equity funders, along with the potential and participation of non-dilutive funding options.
Kenya's waste management and circularity sector offers significant opportunities for investors, driven by economic growth, increasing waste generation, growing regulations and innovations. This introductory guide is the first in a series that also includes investment guides that deep dive into each of the highest opportunity sub-sectors in Kenya’s waste and circularity sector: plastic waste, wastewater, organic waste and integrated waste management. These guides provide further information on trends, opportunities, policies and challenges, as well as further details on the main identified business models and their financing needs and case studies of successful businesses.
"Endeavor Insight partnered with HSBC to examine the challenges that climate tech founders face as they scale their companies, and the opportunities for investors and supporters to help them succeed. This study demonstrates how global connectivity can further drive innovation and highlights what decision makers can do to better support female-led and minority-led companies."
In Extrapolations, Mumbai in 2059 is depicted as a dystopian city where climate change forces all commerce to take place at night, with people relying on oxygen stations to survive the extreme heat. This grim vision highlights the severe consequences of unchecked climate change, underscoring the importance of climate adaptation. Effective adaptation should focus on maintaining quality of life, which requires urgent investment in adaptation strategies today. The report shifts focus towards adaptation finance, challenging the idea that it is solely a public good with little role for private sector investment. While continuing to emphasize climate mitigation, the report identifies areas where adaptation investments can yield both positive impacts and financial returns. It stresses that addressing climate change is not only crucial for the planet but also presents significant business opportunities. The choices made in the next decade will be critical, requiring unprecedented capital to scale effective solutions.
East Africa is emerging as a vibrant hub for climate innovation, with a growing number of innovators and stakeholders developing solutions to address the region’s pressing climate challenges. The region's unique combination of urgent climate needs, a burgeoning tech ecosystem, and an increasing focus on sustainability has attracted significant attention from investors looking to support the advancement of climate action.
Within the East Africa climate ecosystem, stakeholder networks and relationships are crucial for ensuring the successful implementation of climate action policy and innovative solutions. Effective collaboration across the diverse stakeholders shaping the East Africa climate ecosystem, is key to fostering a more integrated and impactful approach for tackling climate challenges. Several factors influence how these stakeholders interact and collaborate within the climate ecosystem. These include the availability of funding, policy frameworks, technological infrastructure, and the strength of local entrepreneurial support systems.
This study examines the dynamics of climate innovation in East Africa, with a focus on the interactions, relationships and networks among key climate stakeholders. Qualitative and quantitative data collection was used to identify the enablers, barriers, and support needs critical to fostering a mature and integrated climate innovation ecosystem in the region. The insights provided in this report are aimed at informing stakeholders on the varying factors shaping interactions among key players in the ecosystem. Greater awareness of these dynamics can help reduce fragmentation in adaptation and mitigation efforts, while also enhancing the scalability of climate solutions to drive increased impact and inclusivity in East Africa’s climate ecosystem.
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are at the heart of our economies and societies and play a crucial role in achieving global climate goals. They represent over 90% of businesses and 50% of greenhouse gas emissions globally.
Our research shows a growing paradox: while more SMEs recognize the importance of climate action, the barriers to taking effective action are also increasing. This widening gap demands urgent attention.
The challenge: the need to take climate action is intensifying, with more SMEs reporting that they have been directly impacted by climate change. 70% report experiencing direct effects on their business in the past year. These impacts include supply chain disruptions (39%), damage to assets or property (25%), and loss of productivity (24%).
