The video centers around the speaker's journey from cherishing nature to confronting climate change's harsh realities. A poignant memory is shared of distributing aid in flooded Bangkok, driving the realization that climate change disrupts the harmony between nature, humanity, and animals. The speaker expresses concerns over global societal inequalities and challenges the audience to consider if this is the world they wish to leave for future generations.

The key theme of the discussion is the need for systemic change over mere climate intervention, highlighting flaws in the current economic capitalistic model that focuses primarily on profit rather than environmental and societal impacts. The speaker advocates for social entrepreneurship as a solution, sharing personal experiences with ENACTIS and Yunus Thailand in fostering projects that blend business with environmental and social problem-solving. A notable success story is the Grameen Bank, which revolutionized microfinance by providing low-interest loans to impoverished women in Bangladesh, challenging traditional bank models.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. harmony [ˈhɑːrməni] - (noun) - A state of agreement or concord. - Synonyms: (concord, balance, peace)

And as I handed out these packages, I realized that harmony that I was seeking was not possible in the face of climate change.

2. greenhouse gas emissions [ˈɡriːnhaʊs ɡæs ɪˈmɪʃənz] - (noun phrase) - Gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. - Synonyms: (carbon emissions, pollution, atmospheric gases)

In the last 80, 90 years, we've pumped out 90% more greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere.

3. inequity [ɪˈnɛkwɪti] - (noun) - Lack of fairness or justice. - Synonyms: (unfairness, injustice, disparity)

And we're seeing that we live in a very unequal world.

4. capitalism [ˈkæpɪtəlɪzəm] - (noun) - An economic system where trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit. - Synonyms: (free market, private enterprise, market economy)

Now it's clear that our current economic system of capitalism has failed in creating a sustainable and just planet.

5. resilient [rɪˈzɪliənt] - (adjective) - Able to recover quickly from difficulties. - Synonyms: (strong, robust, hardy)

The self sustainability of it makes it a resilient solution.

6. systems view [ˈsɪstəmz vjuː] - (noun phrase) - An approach that regards a subject as part of a larger, interconnected system. - Synonyms: (holistic view, integrated perspective, systems thinking)

These things cannot be separated from each other and have to be seen in a systems view.

7. social entrepreneurship [ˈsoʊʃəl ˌɑːntrəprəˈnɜːrʃɪp] - (noun phrase) - Using business methods to address social and environmental issues. - Synonyms: (impact enterprise, social venture, ethical business)

So social entrepreneurship, what is it?

8. microfinance [ˌmaɪkroʊˈfaɪnæns] - (noun) - Providing small loans to low-income individuals or those without access to banking. - Synonyms: (small loans, credit access, microlending)

To date, this is the biggest microfinance institution that has been replicated worldwide

9. collateral [kəˈlætərəl] - (noun) - Something pledged as security for repayment of a loan. - Synonyms: (security, guarantee, pledge)

Most banks require collateral. Grameen bank required no collateral.

10. empowered [ɪmˈpaʊərd] - (adjective) - Having the authority or power to do something. - Synonyms: (enabled, authorized, strengthened)

And if empowered young people can be powerhouses of change.

Building a Sustainable Future Through Entrepreneurship - Pavini Sethi - TEDxYouth@ICS

As someone who spent their holidays immersed in nature, free time spending time with my dog or forcing my parents to go to the nearest safari park where I could spend time with animals, and spending birthdays going to charities for donation drives, I always found home in nature, friends in animals, and dignity in all human beings, regardless of their gender, age, income, background, and so on. And so it was always my wish to seek harmony among all these things.

But in 2012, Thailand was struck by one of the worst floods in history. One fifth of Bangkok was flooded underwater, and there were deaths of hundreds of people. I went out on a boat to distribute food packages to underprivileged communities whose houses had turned into islands. And as I handed out these packages, I realized that harmony that I was seeking was not possible in the face of climate change. So I made it a personal mission to learn more about these issues and get involved in the solutions in the way I could.

And as I learned more about these issues, I realized just how severe they were. The climate crisis is real. It's here, it's now. It's no longer an issue of tomorrow. And while we might not feel it this very second, eventually it will impact us all. In the last 80, 90 years, we've pumped out 90% more greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere. We're heating up our planet, and the consequences are seen every day on news or in our personal lives, or you've probably heard someone who's been affected by natural disasters and other effects of climate change.

In fact, Bangkok, according to a new research study, could be partially underwater by 2050. Now, that's not very far away, and that's scary. And our state of society, well, while we've made huge developments, we're also seeing that we live in a very unequal world. Currently, 1% of the whole population owns nearly 50% of the wealth in the world world. Just imagine that right out of the 8 billion people, 1% owns nearly half the wealth, while many still live in extreme poverty conditions.

And COVID 19 just made things worse. The 10 richest people nearly doubled in wealth as millions fell into extreme poverty. So this really got me thinking, you know, is this the kind of world we want to live in? And is this the kind of world we want to leave for our generations? I don't know about you guys, but for me it's not. And so, reflecting on the theme of TED this year, which is the potential for change, I have this question of how can we grow and how can we change our ways to create a more sustainable, a more inclusive world?

And in answering this question, I really like this quote. You'll see it a lot in climate protests, but I think it holds a lot of wisdom. We need systems change, not climate change. Now it's clear that our current economic system of capitalism has failed in creating a sustainable and just planet. Yes, it's allowed a lot of comfort and conveniences and innovations that let us live lives as we are today. But in the face of climate change, all these comforts could go right? The problem with capitalism is that it only focuses on growth and profits, not considering the impacts that all these activities businesses are running have on our planet and society.

So it's clear that we need to build a new system that recognizes that environment, economy and society are very much interlinked. We need a good environment to have a good society. Right. If there's air pollution, as there is now every day, that's going to cause health impacts on people and that's going to cause more sick leaves, and eventually it's going to cause impacts on economy. These things cannot be separated from each other and have to be seen in a systems view.

So we need to create a new economic system that not only considers economic value, but also human value and also environmental value. How do we do this? I had the chance to join ENACTIS a couple years ago and that's when I found something that really aligned with me and that's the concept of social entrepreneurship. So social entrepreneurship, what is it? We hear it a lot, maybe, but maybe not many people understand what it is. It's basically using the force of business to solve social and environmental problems. So it makes money, it makes profits as a business does, but the purpose at its core is to solve a problem.

Now I really like this idea because the self sustainability of it makes it a resilient solution. And there's a lot of creativity you can explore in building solutions through social entrepreneurship. So I was involved with this club for many years, eventually led the club and took the whole team down to the Philippines where we did a service trip. And here we did several initiatives, one of which was creating a little compost business within a rural school. So we built bins there and trained the staff to operate these bins and also the students.

And then we taught them how they can make fertilizers from composting their food waste, which they can sell to rice farmers and then get money to continue to drive the solution. So this is a very small pilot of what a social and entrepreneurial model can look like. But that's when I learned when you put Your money in charity, it only has one life, right? You give the money, it's used, it creates its impact, but it doesn't come back to continue the solution. But with social entrepreneurial initiatives, you put the money, it creates an impact, it creates more money that goes in the system and that money has endless life.

The second thing we did as well is run a boot camp on entrepreneurship for the rural students. And it amazed me what ideas they came up with. They came up with many entrepreneurial initiatives and at the end we even saw some students build a business after the boot camp. And that was really touching, right, because many of them initially thought of leaving their hometowns after graduating, but some then reconsider doing so when they realize they can use the power of business to create money in their own neighborhood and stay there.

And so that's when I realized poverty is not a lack of potential, but it is a lack of access to resources and services that enable people to fulfill their potential. Right? So these kids in the rural villages were full of potential, but they just needed some support to get that out there. And once they did, they could be their own change makers. And now they can create their own impact. And for me, that's the most sustainable.

So a couple years down the line, I ended up at Eunice Thailand, which is where I work now. And Eunice Thailand is co founded by Professor Muhammad Yunus, who is also the chairman of our organization. Now this is very exciting to me because I'm not sure if you know of Professor Yunus, but he was the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has really basically globalized micro finance movement, but also the social business movement. So he was already an inspirational figure to me and now I can have him as my big bosses, if you will.

So in my time at Eunice Thailand, I've been very, very lucky and honored to be able to meet Professor Yunus now three times in different conferences and dinners and sit and talk to him and learn about how he launched the social business movement and some of the case studies that he's done. And through that I learned even more how transformative social business can be in tackling our social and environmental issues. And I'd like to share some examples of social businesses just so you can get an idea of the scale it can operate at.

So the social enterprise and business that Professor Yunus is most famous for launching is the Grameen Bank. Every social business starts from a problem. So he realized in rural Bangladesh there was a lot of poverty. And when he went to talk to villagers, he realized That a big issue and limitation was a lack of finance that they could access in order to invest in starting their enterprise or taking their kids to school and such. The only way they could get that money was by loaning some money from loan sharks that set really high interest rates.

So when they had to pay back, it was in big installments and often trapped them in a. In a debt cycle. So when Professor Yunus asked them, well, how much money do you need? It was really not that much. They just needed around $20 or so. So he tried to lend to five different rural villagers and see if they would give it back. People thought he was crazy. No one was going to give it back. But eventually all the borrowers gave the money back.

And so more people started to know about this and come to him to ask for some money. So this movement grew and eventually he decided, why not just establish this as a bank? But he was going to make this a social business, not a traditional business. So what he did is he flipped the traditional bank model around. So traditional banks only loan to middle income or rich people, but Bermin bank was only going to loan to the poorest of the poor. That was a criteria. In order to loan the money from the Grameen Bank, Traditional banks often loan to men. Bermin bank decided to loan primarily to women.

Most of the lenders from Grameen bank are women. And most banks charge high interest rates, but Grameen bank charged low interest rates. Most banks require collateral. Grameen bank required no collateral. And so he flipped the traditional business model around to serve the poorest of the poor. And the impacts have been incredible. To date, this is the biggest microfinance institution that has been replicated worldwide. And in Bangladesh, there's Grameen banks in over 8,000 villages. It has been able to loan 10 million to 10 million borrowers, most of which are women.

And they've been able to loan about $40 billion in money to the poorest of the poor. And this has really transformed the landscape in Bangladesh, right, Because now women could access finance and they could start their own businesses and they could invest in their children's education. In fact, it's a rule that all borrowers from Permeen bank has to send their children to school.

So you can see how the force of business here was able to nearly eradicate this issue of access to finance in the rural villages of Bangladesh. And this is a business, right? Even though there's low interest rates, there is a lot of borrowers. So with the high volumes of borrowers and the low interest rate, this is a very financially self sustainable model. So you can see how business and impact can go hand in hand. And with a social business model, you can make solutions sustainable and scalable.

And my personal interest is how can we get young people to be equipped to be drivers of this vehicle of change? So I'm the youth engagement and education lead here and this has been the question that I've been trying to tackle through my work because I believe that young people are the most powerful generation. Through my work at Eunice Thailand, I've realized that if equipped and if empowered young people can be powerhouses of change. We've seen some incredible initiatives come out of these programs that we've led.

Just a few days ago, I heard that one of the teams we supported won the Holtz Prize competition for his business that he innovated to create products from paper waste, diverting huge amounts of paper waste from landfills. There's been solutions created turning fabric waste into new products. Right. There's been solutions of creating compost bins that can reduce food waste going to landfills. So there's a huge amount of potential in these young people to drive this change.

And I've seen that and I believe that education is the most important force in shaping young people to be equipped to be these drivers of change. Right. Sustainability and social entrepreneurship shouldn't be just another subject or we add in here and there, twinkle in here and there. It should be something that's embedded in all subjects. When we teach history, we should teach our young people what led us to be in the state we are today. How can we learn from that? And how can we move forward better?

In biology classes we can teach how does natural systems work and what has been the effects of climate change on these natural systems. In business, we can teach young people how can you create business models that solve and tackle these environmental and social issues? I think this has really got to be a transformation that has to happen now. So the young generation is equipped to be change makers and drivers for a more sustainable future.

A few months ago, I was very lucky to go to Dubai for COP28 and I brought this message to the global stage. So I participated in a panel discussion where I brought this issue to a global platform. In my opinion, we cannot achieve all the other SDGs if we don't achieve SDG 4.7. Making sure that the young people are equipped with the knowledge to act and to create solutions to our environmental crisis. Leveraging technology and leveraging entrepreneurship. And every problem is an opportunity for a solution.

The SVGs the 17 SDGs highlight 17 of the biggest global problems out there, but also 17 areas where there's opportunities to innovate social business solutions to tackle these issues. Right. And I have to give a disclaimer that not all issues can be tackled through social business. Of course we need government to step in, we need private sector to step in, we need NGOs to step in. But with enough creativity, a lot of issues can be solved through entrepreneurship.

And so we often think about or get asked as young people, what are you going to do after university? And many of us might think of the ideal place to be employed. But I want to challenge you guys to consider the fact that you don't have to be job seekers. You can also be job creators that create green jobs, that create social enterprises that can pave our way to a more sustainable future.

So to close off the speech, I want to say it's now or never. We have to transform our systems to be more inclusive, more sustainable. And we can do this through the vehicle of social business. And drivers of this vehicle are youth. And if we can bring all these things together, I believe that we can transform the trajectory of our future from one that leads to our self destruction to one that leads to harmony among nature, among animals and among humans. And hopefully one day that childish hope and dream of mine will come true. Sat.

SUSTAINABILITY, SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP, INCLUSIVE ECONOMY, INNOVATION, EDUCATION, ECONOMICS, TEDX TALKS