In this interview, Sourcemap founder Leonardo Bonanni shares his quest to shed light on supply chains and to make them more sustainable.

Read On »

Health data liberation is catalyzing entrepreneurs to create products and services to help consumers, patients, doctors, nurses, and other health professionals both seek and deliver better care. The data is also enabling tools that help doctors get a sense of patient population trends, that help journalists identify key report worthy issues such as health disparities and that help officials see food deserts so they can craft better policy.

Read On »

In this video interview, author of The Unhealthy Truth, Robyn O’Brien, chronicles her journey behind the American food system, which started when her youngest of four kids developed an egg allergy.

Read On »

Technology is the glue that binds the pieces of the sustainable food puzzle.

Read On »

Four rules in the first 90 days of a software business: Over invest in user research up front. Size the market. Put just-enough processes in place. Know what is going on inside your system

Read On »

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.

Read On »

there is a way to both sequester carbon and grow more food in one fell swoop: composting. Soil is one of the biggest carbon pools on the planet with a few gigatons of carbon potential.

Read On »

One of the fundamental failures of market economies is their wrongful assumption that all members enjoy equal access to information.  Suppose we can solve that issue when it comes to food.  Would the “invisible hand” make the right choices to put us on a sustainable path?   Perhaps we will soon find out.  Foodtree is a [...]

Read On »

Among the greatest challenges of our generation are water, food, and energy.  Food is almost an offshoot of the other two because so much water and energy is used to produce it.  So how do we make sustainable food choices on a large scale?  By connecting it to a value that every human being can [...]

Read On »

“One ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”   But prevention is difficult, because it requires behavior changes, which is difficult.  That’s why wellness through gaming, gamification and social mobile apps is heating up.  It’s easy to change behavior when engaged through a game or working towards the goal with a group of friends.  [...]

Read On »

Sustainability starts with personal health, and the love of healthy food can be learned. That is good news for a nation trending towards more diet related diseases every year. In one US study, over 30% of participants were overweight or obese by 9 months of age. How do we reverse this trend? Dr. Alan Greene, [...]

Read On »

Americans pay 3-4 times the price for healthcare that folks in other developed countries pay to receive equivalent or better care.  A crop of self-managed tools for health is coming to market to fill in the gaps for Americans by providing better health tracking information, as well as a community, or a “social layer,” around [...]

Read On »

When the earthquake hit Japan this year, a $50k grant was given to International Medical Corporation in a matter of days to buy satellite phones to help with rescue communication. The grant came through Foundation Source , the nation’s largest foundation management platform, with over $4 billion in managed assets.  Over $3 million dollars are [...]

Read On »

SOCAP 2011 explored the intersection of money and meaning. What role does spirituality play in ‘meaning?’ And how does it manifest itself in business? One panel at SOCAP specifically explored spirituality as a manifestation of meaning in business.  The panel was titled Spirituality & Social Enterprise: What’s Your Motivation? In this interview, the panel moderator [...]

Read On »

Renewable energy is a thriving industry for entrepreneurship in developing countries.  In this interview, Meredith Elliott of E+Co discusses her experience investing in energy solutions in over 22 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America.  E+Co is a non-profit that focuses exclusively on energy projects in developing countries in order to bring entrepreneurs up the [...]

Read On »

The 25,000 residents of the West Oakland urban neighborhood spend $58 million on groceries per year.  Yet for most residents the nearest fresh grocery store is as far as 10 miles away, qualifying the neighborhood as a food desert. As a result, the community sees over 70% of their grocery spending leave the neighborhood.  With [...]

Read On »

Waste from food packaging is a tough sustainability nut to crack.  The materials are often contaminated and therefore difficult to recycle, and return-logistics are messy and expensive.  However, with determination and supply chain partnerships, it is possible.  In this interview, Harv Singh of Whole Foods Market talks about how St. Benoit yogurt has successfully obtained [...]

Read On »

Although advertising is being transformed by social media, such new technology holds less than 5% market share. Traditional advertising methods such as TV, billboards and posters still dominate for now. But what if you could team up with other people to buy TV ads, billboards or posters to support causes you believe in? LoudSauce is [...]

Read On »

Over 85% of global fisheries are at limit or exploited.  What can be done to reverse this trend and drive a sustainable fish future? In this interview, Cheryl Dahle, the Project Director of Future of Fish, discusses her work in reversing this trend, as well as actions consumers can take to help. Traceability is a [...]

Read On »

Doing the right thing is hard. From sticking to a daily exercise routine to starting a company, we can all use a pat on the back to fuel our good intentions. One of the start-up companies at SOCAP 2011 is empowering people to make daily positive actions large and small. In this interview, Veer Gidwaney, [...]

Read On »

As generous as human beings are, an investment instrument will almost certainly bring more dollars than philanthropy. Can we direct this flow of capital for good? This year’s marquee sponsor for SOCAP is turning philanthropy on its head by providing impact investment options to the everyday investor. Instead of giving, users of Mircoplace can invest, [...]

Read On »

The assets essential for living are air, water and food.  How do we systematically invest in these, our most important assets?  In this interview at SOCAP 2011, Dave Chen, the founder of Equilibrium Capital Group talks about directing capital towards management funds in green real estate, land management, water, energy, agriculture and forestry.  His group [...]

Read On »

Imagine living in a low-income neighborhood, not owning a car, and the closest grocery market that sells fresh fruits and vegetables is 5 miles away.  Meanwhile fast food chains and corner stores like McDonalds, and 7-11 are walking distance.  What would your diet look like then? About 2.3 million American households live in these food [...]

Read On »

There were many meaningful projects at SOCAP2011, one is Code For America.  Jennifer Palke founded Code For America in 2009 to re-invent government by leveraging the talents of designers and programmers.  Code for America offers service year programs, just like the Peace Corps, but with the culture of startup incubators such as the Y-combinator.  Program [...]

Read On »

At SOCAP 2011, many international companies solving global poverty issues were represented, but poverty is also a reality for millions of North Americans.  In this interview, Donna Morton, the CEO of First Power Canada, discusses her program for building jobs and reviving the economies of first nation Native Americans all over North America.  Morton works [...]

Read On »

The food was great and the company was inspiring.  SOCAP 2011, a conference at the intersection of money and meaning, might have been the best party you can legitimately expense this year.  Entrepreneurs, investors, futurists, filmmakers, programmers, catalysts and you-name-it are converging to solve our planet’s most pressing issues in land management, water, climate change, [...]

Read On »

Up to 40% of total energy spending in commercial buildings is in lighting.  Controlled lighting can save 40-70% of that energy.  My previous interview with Jeremy Stieglitz of Redwood Systems revealed that networked lighting is possible for new construction, but what about lighting in existing buildings, the so-called retrofit market? In this interview, Danny Yu, [...]

Read On »

Imagine a product that has zero landfill elements.  A product that cycles into new products, or decomposes completely.  That’s the principle of Cradle to Cradle, where waste from one process is a food input for another– the way things happen in the natural world. In this interview, Bridgett Luther, the President of the Cradle to [...]

Read On »

Clean Energy startups can now get a leg up with a new startup accelerator program accepting applications this summer.  GreenStart, the brain child of Dave Graham and his two co-founders, wants to help mission-driven entrepreneurs succeed.  GreenStart is looking for ideas that reduce use of dirty energy or promote the use of clean energy.  Capital [...]

Read On »

Seventeen percent of enterprise printing is wasteful.  This adds up to $90 wasted per employee in unnecessary printing – according to the folks at PrintEco. In this interview, Arpan Shah talks about how he is helping companies start addressing this waste within minutes.  His software plug-in for Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer automatically removes one [...]

Read On »