NComputing is also using a technical solution to green PC use. With distributed computing, nComputing systems draw less than five watts, using 90% less energy than a typical PC, and can be run by solar power or a battery.

Sungeeta Chowdry of the Acumen Fund spoke about the Ripple Effect Project, their collaboration with IDEO (represented by Sally Madsen) to create solutions for customer-centered, sustainable and affordable delivery of water.

They brought together twenty organizations (both for-profit and nonprofit) on the ground in India and East Africa, in addition to the nonprofit Gates foundation, the private company IDEO and the Acumen social venture fund, for a complex cross-sector collaboration. IDEO led a human-centered design process, which means rapid prototyping, speaking to potential users immediately, iterating while continuing to listen, and coming up with a fairly quick solution. The resulting projects are commercial water sales operations, with some unusual aspects such as government ownership of the land and/or equipment in some places.

So why is water sales a more effective and scalable solution than donated aid? Some of the answers are compliance and aligning incentives. Madsen and Chowdry explained that people aren’t always able to make the best health decisions. Using a standard business practice of customer segmentation, IDEO put together a set of behavior profiles, so on-the-ground organizations could talk about more than health, such as by emphasizing the status of buying clean water or following  government direction.

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As you probably know, that convenience comes at an environmental and social price: documentaries such as FLOW and Thirst, organizations such as the Sierra Club and Environmental Defense Fund, and even a few of us lowly bloggers, have reported on the costs created by water’s transformation from a freely-available resource to a multi-billion dollar commodity. That bottle of water you buy now contributes to the world’s third-largest industry.

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Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  In the case of St. Thomas 7-Hot Pepper Sauce, it was definitely the chicken.  Without the chicken, there wouldn’t be the fertilizer to grow the hot peppers to make the hot sauce that the sent kids from the St. Thomas projects in New Orleans Lower Garden District off to college.

And without the chickens, Derek Hoeferlin and his architectural students from Washington University would not have had reason to take interest in this little community garden which has begun to harbor interest for it’s uniquely designed “urban chicken coop”, the story of its recovery post-Katrina and the sustainability recipe it holds for other communities across America.

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This growing sector, driven by both social purpose and financial promise, is attracting growing amounts of talent, money, and attention. Initially funded primarily through philanthropic support, social enterprises are now reaching the status of mainstream investment opportunities for banks, venture firms, foundations and wealthy individuals.

But with new models come new metrics, especially if this sector will continue to attract significant capital investment. These new metrics (referred to as Social Return on Investment or SROI) were one of the key topics at the recent Social Capital Markets 08 conference. The conference, held on October 13-15 in San Francisco, sought to bring together social capital and social enterprise to address this basic question of social investing: How do you measure the non-financial, social, or environmental value created by an enterprise?

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Do yourself a favor, and go watch the introductory video on the new KivaB4B site, which makes the most clear, compelling connection between entrepreneurs like yourself, and people in the countries that microfinance serves. It shows, side by side, the similar needs and activities we all have as entrepreneurs — a little boost, a bit of advice, and a lot of encouragement and community.

In a powerful synergy, Kiva, one of the top players in this realm, has partnered with Advanta, a credit issuer that is highly supportive of small businesses, to create KivaB4B. It’s simple really: You as a business owner put money towards someone via Kiva, and Advanta matches it, dollar for dollar, up to $200 a month. This may sound small, but think about it this way: If only 1% of Advanta’s 1.3 million customers put even $50 towards this, that would mean $1.3 million going to these people. Dollars that go a lot farther then they do here, making for a potentially significant positive impact for people just like yourself, really.

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Over eight years ago, he started the Company by selling t-shirts, and now sells a sophisticated clothing line in Sameunderneath’s own stores as well as many other retail outlets. You can see from several years’ of press coverage, that Sameunderneath has been getting its “be kind to one another” message out pretty well.

But I was visiting one of Sameunderneath’s Portland stores to check out the style and quality of the clothing made from bamboo and cashmere. I love these fabrics–so soft!

Sameunderneath’s styles are fairly simple but different enough to be interesting.

Unlike Nau, which I noted has an innovative distribution strategy, Sameunderneath’s retail outlets and distribution appear to be relatively standard, although the Company has a history of using local manufacturers. And both Portland Sameunderneath stores are in highly walkable shopping areas, which may or may not be more green than being in a mall, but I certainly feel more green when I see more pedestrians than cars.