Giving Compass' Take:

• This blog profiles Certified B Corporation ECO2LIBRIUM, which helps rural areas in Kenya thrive economically, while still being environmentally friendly (one project focuses on energy-efficient cooking stoves).

• How can climate change advocates and other international developers create more sustainable business practices, as described here? How can we make sure that community voices are heard?

• Here's more on how we can improve health and equity while addressing climate change.

Forests cover nearly a third of the planet, provide a crucial habitat for biodiversity and serve as important moderators of climate, but they’re shrinking annually as trees are removed for agriculture, logging or other purposes  —  and as climate change degrades their condition. Nonprofit organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and World Rainforest Fund have worked for decades to reduce deforestation globally.

One Certified B Corporation is tackling this environmental challenge on a smaller scale in Kenya, where tree cover has dropped by more than 9 percent since 2001 and many rural residents rely on the forest for firewood used for cooking and heating. ECO2LIBRIUM (ECO2) is digging deeper to get to the root causes of environmental and societal challenges in Kenya, an eastern African nation with historically low income levels and high unemployment rates

“We need to conserve natural resources, and one of the reasons those resources are lost in poor societies is because of poverty and a lack of opportunity,” says Anton Espira, a native Kenyan who is chief of operations and field director for ECO2. “Our projects put a focus on the creation of jobs and the reduction of poverty, which lead to gains in natural resource conservation.”

Read the full article about the Kenyan Earth-minded business at B the Change.