Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship

SJF Ventures and Citi Community Capital, Citigroup’s community lending and investment group, announced the closing of SJF Ventures III LP, the first nationally focused Impact Investment SBIC fund. Licensed by the US Small Business Investment Corp. (SBIC) under its new Impact Investment Initiative, the SFJ Ventures III fund will make equity investments in growth-stage cleantech and “positive impact” companies.

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Perhaps the first step in the morphing of our electric delivery system into a more democratic enterprise is the adaption by a number of leading utilities, of internet-based social media, to engage more actively with their customer base.

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As companies consider the steps in incorporating or re-incorporating as a benefit corporation, one unique aspect of the process continues to cause confusion. It is the idea that a company’s “material positive impact” will be determined by a third-party standard. This post reviews what that means and provides a list of third party standards available.

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Contrary to popular belief, humans have failed to address the earth’s worsening emergencies of climate change, species’ extinction and resource overconsumption not because of a lack of information, but because of a lack of imagination, social scientists and artists say.

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The Club of Rome and the Smithsonian Institution’s Consortium for Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet are hosting a symposium on March 1, 2012 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the launching of Limits to Growth, the first report to the Club of Rome published in 1972.

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A recent editorial in The Economist would have us believe that of all the problems facing the oceans—acidification, plastics pollution, decline of habitat—overfishing is the easy win, the simple fix. Really, the article argues, this whole overfishing mess is the fault of fishermen. If fishers would just wise-up to the long-term environmental consequences of taking too much, they would make the well-informed and uncomplicated choice to just simply catch fewer fish. This naive finger-pointing exercise is about as helpful and logical as driving past an unemployment line and yelling out the window, “Get a job!”

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Impact investment is at a crisis point: Clean up now or lose credibility. How can they meet the challenge?

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Back in 2010, in the months preceding the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day an ambitious campaign, called A Billion Acts of Green was launched to inspire individuals all around the world, to make a commitment to reduce their impact on the planet. Today, The Earthday Network, announced that they have reached the halfway [...]

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New sustainable fashion brand Honest By launches with a 100 percent transparency policy that reveals the full picture of how its clothes are made including where the materials come from, how the products are manufactured, and how much they cost to make, and how much they’re being marked up.

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The top 9 startups were chosen from a pool of over 200 applications to publicly pitch at the Valentine’s Day Pitch Conference. Startup teams had 5 minutes to win the panelists over. Panelists included big names in startup investing, such as Dave McClure, founder of 500 startups and Thomas Korte, founder of Angel Pad.

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As future generations take the lead in determining our sustainable future and responsible business, how will their innate conceptions and expectations for a responsible economy inform our challenges and solutions?

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While Harvard’s most well-known innovative (droped-off) student was at the center of media frenzy last week, the university is already thinking on the new Zuckerbergs. Harvard is hoping to nurture the culture of innovation in campus through a new innovation lab (i-lab), aiming to foster team-based and entrepreneurial activities and deepen interactions among Harvard students, faculty and entrepreneurs.

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Consumers in emerging markets increasingly demand – as they should – products designed to meet their specific needs rather than ones patched together or retro-fitted from existing ones.

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“We are living through an era where we are all being asked to be CEO’s, Chief Emotions Officer,” says Conley. It was through understanding his emotions via emotional equations that helped him get through a period of struggle in his life.

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Here are some tips for restructuring challenge campaigns to make them more successful.

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Today we’re faced with a double crisis – environmental and economic, and all across the world there’s a tug of war between the need for sustained economic growth and the imperative for environmental protection.

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How can we successfully rise to these challenges? In theory, development that is sustainable and not damaging to the planet is doable. In reality, there are challenges at every step, and so far our record on moving towards sustainability in a collective manner, with a common framework, appears to have been quite feeble.

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My recent stay in Detroit and current trip to Doha have opened my eyes to how citizens are taking matters into their own hands and building more sustainable economies.

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What a difference a year makes!  In 2011, the Pipeline Fellowship  began as a single program in New York to train ten women to become angel investors and support women social entrepreneurs.  In 2012, the Pipeline Fellowship is expanding to include two locations, four programs, and will train forty women. 

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With a “renaissance” in how companies, NGOs, and governments are collaborating to tackle some of our toughest challenges, this blog post looks in-depth at the specific new models and practices that are emerging in cross-sector collaboration.

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Eight19 announced Kickstart, a program that funds pay-as-you go solar energy in poor dual areas, this week at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.

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By Jeff Klein In the early 1990s I moved to Santa Fe, NM to work with some friends who were building Seeds of Change, the organic seed (and now food) company. Early on in my work there I became responsible for managing the warehouse, where the seeds were stored, packed and shipped, and where orders [...]

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It was Jon Stewart that first made the reference. He called Bill Gates “Batman” to his face on his TV show. Why Batman? I think he probably meant Bruce Wayne, Batman’s civilian identity: the eccentric millionaire industrialist, who is also a philanthropist, sworn to do good and serve a greater ideal of justice. Of course, [...]

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The following is a guest post by our friends at Saybrook University’s Organizational Systems Program (a 3p sponsor) – designed for students who want to understand the nature of organizations, collaborative practices, and transformative change. By Kathia C. Laszlo, Ph.D. Social entrepreneurs are starting new organizations that combine best management practices with a socio-ecological purpose. [...]

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The recession started a renaissance in how companies, NGOs, & governments collaborate. With governments and non-profits facing yawning budget deficits and business facing one of its biggest trust-deficits in history, organizations are coming together in unprecedented ways to tackle some of society’s greatest challenges. In fact, a distinct set of collaborative practices used by the “best corporate citizens” and their partners have emerged that others could adopt.

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By Jeff Klein Promoting ideas has been a principal focus of my work for the past six years, beginning with my work as Executive Director of FLOW and continuing today with Being Human, Conscious Capitalism, and Working for Good among others. Ideas are powerful. Napoleon Hill noted that “Ideas are the beginning points of all [...]

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At first glance, AMEE, a venture-backed UK company launched in 2008, looks like any other carbon tracking and management provider. But upon further investigation, it becomes clear that although still in its early stages, the AMEE platform has the potential to be much more. The company’s mission is to make the world’s environmental data more accessible [...]

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Since the dawn of corporate social responsibility, Patagonia has been it’s pioneer and poster child. The company was founded on the principle that the business’s bottom line was more than just monetary. As early as 1974, founder Yvon Chouinard published an essay in the Patagonia catalog urging climbers to be more conscious of their motives and to [...]

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They say the best days of boat ownership are but two; the day you buy it, and the day you sell it. In the time between, the hassles and cost of insurance, maintenance and storage are a large burden to bear for a few days of fun, when you actually get to use it. Even [...]

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Do you believe games can help save the world? Use these effective gaming mechanics from Climate Reality Project and PSFK as inspiration to help your product or service – and the environment – win.

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