WEconomy

“The cause always benefits more from a purpose project that delivers social value and financial returns.”

Part Three: Chapter 16Weconomy Impact Engineering, Step Two: Build a 360 Action Plan

By Marc Kielburger

Changing the World Starts with a Whiteboard

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Atlantic coast leaving thousands of Americans homeless. Mandatory and voluntary evacuations in large swaths of the Gulf Coast displaced more than one million people. Many found themselves without basic amenities. In the aftermath, Tide, the detergent made by Procter & Gamble, launched Loads of Hope, a mobile laundry service for families affected by disaster. The company tricked out a truck, installing high-efficiency washers inside a flat-bed—a big-rig laundromat that they drove into relief areas. In a little more than a decade, 45,000 families in crisis have used the mobile laundry service.

Laundry soap can't rebuild infrastructure, but Tide's mobile program was able to fulfill an immediate need for clean clothing. One less thing for displaced families to worry about. Tide cleans the clothes, but leaves location scouting to the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), a government agency that bases decisions on population density in relief areas, groundwater, and electrical grids. Coordinating with other aid efforts allows Tide to dispatch its big rig to crisis areas ...