Author/s:
Rouf, Kazi Abdur*
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada (rouf56@hotmail.com)
Abstract:
Microcredit is a well known tool to address the issue of poverty that is a condition that affects the bottom fifty percent of people. Microcredit alleviates poverty by engaging communities in microloans and micro-businesses so that they may earn income. This new microeconomic determination program is expanding all over the world to develop economic growth in people’s lives; however, if microfinance institutions are not controlled and they are provided to people who practice unsafe and non-eco-friendly businesses, the effect could be a minimalist microcredit approach that is unable to promote sustainable business development. To understand microcredit and renewable energy programs for green development, the researcher visited and studied Grameen Bank of Bangladesh; Grameen Shokti’s Renewable Energy Project in winter 2008 and had an internship at the Alterna Savings’ Community Micro-Loan Funds program in Toronto in the summer and fall of 2007 respectively. This paper envisions a comparison and contrasting of the Grameen Bank and Grameen Shokti credit systems (Bangladesh) with Alterna Savings credit programs (Canada) and its impact on Toronto’s local living economics and environmental development. Results show that within the two sample cases, microcredits are positive to environmental sustainable development.
Keywords: Green microfinance; green enterprise; Grameen Bank; microfinance institutions (MFIs); solar home system; women empowerment; small and medium enterprises (SME)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrsm.2012.v1i1.32
*Corresponding Author