Waste Concern

Iftekhar Enayetullah and Maqsood Sinha, co-founders of Waste Concern in Bangladesh, had earned an international reputation for their innovative approach to dealing with the vast quantities of waste that threatened to overwhelm the overcrowded city of Dhaka. Having just been recognized by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship as “outstanding social entrepreneurs,” the two were eager to take Waste Concern to the next level. Their ambitions included scaling up their waste processing operations, introducing new technology, and creating a new trading business selling credits for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions under the framework develop under the Kyoto Protocol. The case describes Waste Concern’s model and details two opportunities to raise capital from large foreign firms that would provide the funds to grow the organization. Enayetullah and Sinha were concerned not only about the financial aspects of the two offers but also about the objectives and philosophies of the two suitors. Enayetullah and Sinha wanted any decision to be consistent with Waste Concern’s goal of promoting Kyoto Protocol related (Clean Development Mechanism) projects throughout Bangladesh and converting waste into a resource to benefit the poor.