Colorado State University has an incredible program within the Business School — Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise — that “seeks to provide sustainable enterprise solutions to some of the most stubborn issues of our time including poverty, disease, malnutrition and environmental degradation… [equipping students] with the tools and network to become a global social entrepreneur, where the bottom lines are people, planet and profit.  This concentration is in the business of creating a better world, improving the lives of people, while building profitable ventures.”

One of many laudable aspects of the program is the 50/50 ratio of US and domestic students in each cohort.  As we learned recently at their annual kickoff celebration — hosted at sustainable business paragon New Belgium Brewery, this translates into teams with experience on multiple continents, often boasting 10 languages spoken on an individual project.

Six prospective companies presented their plans as the program’s second cohort.  We expect one or two of these to become strong companies after graduation, if not before.  Here are very brief summaries of the concepts:

• RWI is focused on technology to increase clean water in Africa, with a great start working in Kenya.
• Cradle of Tea is tea made from coffee leaves, and is in an interesting internal debate: to use a co-op model or more traditional suppliers model.
• Latin Health has a dengue fever solution.  When the engaged locals this summer, they learned that student nurses more interested than business students, who wanted to graduate and “get a job.” This brings a new opportunity to nursing candidates, helping them earn money in a new way.
• Ayzh is focused on deploying technology solutions for rural women. Opportunity to take 1.2 bn women out of working 16 hrs per day for no money and no respect. Start with health care. Water filter. Aquaponics. More. Education is core to mission.  Generati g sales in2010.
• Organic Oasis is founded by returning peace corps volunteers, creating a business at an intersection of themes, including aquaponics and microfranchising, providing healthier food, increased profits and smaller carbon footprint.
• Rocky Mountain Hops is focused on creating a marketplace for locally produced hops, with a focus on stewardship and a slow-food related philosophy.

Helping to incubate these ideas, the GSSE faculty is first-rate, mixing teach and academics with their collective background in real-world enterprise, both for-profit and non-profit.  We got to spend time with several members of the team — Carl Hammerdorfer, Tom Dean, Paul Hudnut and Margarita Lenk, each of whom are doing good well.

As the world pays more and more attention to Colorado as a hub in sustainable enterprise, everyone needs to keep their eye to the northern end of the Front Range, where GSSE anchors a key hub innovative sustainable enterprise.