During the Thursday morning breakfast, Zhang Yue, chairman and CEO of China-based Broad Air Conditioning woke the crowd up as he spoke through an interpreter. A few minutes before that, I found myself asking a colleague “Who is this guy?” After 10 minutes, I changed my mind. More people should listen to this guy. True, I haven’t done due diligence on his company but if his company does half the things that he says they do then I’m on board. Yue created China’s first “non-electric chiller” and insists on showing consumers how triple paned windows will reduce their need to use air conditioners. Consider that their business revolves around making air conditioners.

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Even a year gone since the failure of Lehman, fundamental questions remain regarding the core underlying assumptions of our financial system. Though currently derivatives trading and black boxes appear out of favour, what will replace them in terms of helpful and productive uses of capital still has yet to be determined. This question was what the Conference on Social Capital Market’s, or SoCap09 tried to give some structure to; while the trend towards sustainable investments and long-term ROI seems to have taken the place of actively managed funds seeking 20x returns.

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Shah coordinates the domestic policy agenda to help government support both social entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations. She says the government has the ability to drive resources toward the most innovative solutions. There will be funds such as to support nonprofit organizations grow promising programs and help them spread across the country, but Shah emphasized the government’s goal to catalyze multi-sector partnerships addressing issues in education, health care and environment.

An example she gave was that Cisco is participating in workforce retraining initiatives, helping to develop a community college curriculum in health IT.

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The large gathering at HUB Bay Area’s pre-launch gathering last night at the Brower Center in Berkeley was impressive.

Within the short one hour window that I was there, I met someone from Global Issues Network – an organization dedicated to introducing youth to the power of networking and conversation to solve the world’s most pressing issues; from the Global Micro-Clinic Project – an organization helping economically depressed and conflict ridden areas form partnerships to prevent and manage disease; from Silicon Valley Bank – banking for innovative ideas; and from Solutions – an enterprising LEED certified collaboration of architects offering “new thinking” to help re-architect problems and find solutions.

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A bridge is about to open up that will make things easier but safer for people who want make their investments consistent with their values.

Just like a bridge makes traveling between two islands easier, the new rating system to be unveiled at Socap09 will be like taking a train instead of having to paddle through choppy waters.

The bridge, called GIIRS, is being built for people who are trying to make sure their investments have a positive social and environmental impact while they also try to earn a financial return. It’s a tool that makes it easier, safer and clearer for those investors who want to make a difference.

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The front pages in the UK this week are a-spread with the news of record profits at Barclays Bank, with accompanying bonuses for top bankers. This echoes last week’s story at Goldman Sachs. Given the recent bailouts and government support, the Economist is right to note that ‘such largesse looks cheeky at best’!

Although the two crises have little in common, this obstinate reminder of how little has changed in the financial sector prompts me to deeper pessimism in the environmental crisis.

Why? We’re perhaps only a year into, and most certainly nowhere near out of, the greatest economic crisis in living memory. Many people are still in the thick of it, as witnessed, for example, by record unemployment levels on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet it seems that we are incapable of learning, or changing in the face of significant crisis.

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But the interesting thing is that my blog gets a decent number of hits. Not, mind you, for any of the articles I write, but only for the resources I list.  The page that, overwhelmingly, gets the most attention, is the “Green Business Opportunities” page.  With Google Analytics, it is easy to see that most of the people who come to my blog do so because they are searching for this exact phrase. People want to change the world.  We need to make sure they have the resources to do so.

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Set up as a “201″ panel discussion, the moderator asked the audience and participants to be honest, avoid soliloquys and “pitches” and stick to the business of user-worthy advice.  Matt Flannery, co-founder of Kiva.org, Steve Newcomb, co-founder of Virgance (new owners of this blog), and Ben Rattray founder of Change.org then answered questions designed to help fledgling business idealists through the realities of what it takes to rally social change.

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In 2009 it is expected that 1 billion cell phones will be sold worldwide.  Asia Pacific will increase its uptake from 1 in 4 to 1 in 3.  The New York Times recently reported that India adds more cellphone connections than any place in the world with 15.6 million added in March alone.

Cell phones are a hidden indicator of emerging market performance.  They open new markets by reducing distances and by increasing access to information.  This in turn stimulates efficiencies in productivity and amplifies commerce which improves local economies.  Increased wealth creates independence and leads to a more educated population which in turn, drives market-driven policy making and other reforms.

In 2005, the Grameen Foundation set the stage for emerging market cell phone adoption and launched the the “Village Phone” business in rural Bangladesh, publishing a how-to manual and setting up micro-finance loans to villagers in towns that had no access to telecommunications.   Four years later, entrepreneurs have finally caught on and despite the downturn, the last 6 months has shed light on a few innovative initiatives that have been announced in a variety of sectors around the world.

In February, the Gates Foundation in partnership with a worldwide consortium of mobile industries teamed up to announce the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) initiative.  With a goal of supplying 20 million people with mobile financial services by 2012, this program will enable those in developing countries to carry out mobile banking from their phones in order to protect and grow their money.

Several new projects in the area of HIV/AIDS education have also been announced recently.  Several providers are developing text messaging services to deliver HIV/AIDS health management services (medication regimens, appointments, advice/consultations).   And Project Masiluleke, borne of the social incubator Pop!Tech, will begin its first phase with 1,000,000 broadcast text messages to the general South African public on both HIV/AIDS and TB for a year. Metropolitan Life, an insurance company in South Africa has partnered with CellBook to provide an information booklet on HIV/AIDS that can be downloaded onto the cellphone.

The future of well-designed social innovation programs should take a look at the realities and economics of what is driving health and welfare in emerging markets.  Cell phones are a truly universal technology platform that will provide critical resources to populations of all class and trade.  Hopefully, the iPhone Labs aren’t the only place smart developers are spending their time in.

image credit: marceloconsultario on creative commons

Yesterday the White House announced President Obama’s 2010 request to Congress for $50 million to set up a Social Innovation Fund with the goal of identifying the most promising results-oriented non-profit programs in order to expand their reach throughout the country.

Taking a page from his grass-roots leadership style, Obama’s announcement of the request continues to drive home a message that change will come from the individuals who make up the communities they live in.  The request for seed capital to identify and foster those efforts will come in parallel to an administration re-looking at policy areas to enable new approaches.

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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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Good ideas have a life of their own.  That’s what Paul Baricos, Executive Director of the Hollygrove Growers Market and Farm (HGMF) in New Orleans is learning two years after the Carrolton-Hollygrove Community Development Center (CHCDC) set out to figure out how to bring fresh produce to a neighborhood with no real access to affordable food.

The result of this initial vision, and perhaps ten iterations later, is a one-of-a-kind one-acre urban produce and garden center located in the New Orleans community of Carrolton-Hollygrove.  Initiated just two short years ago in partnership with the New Orleans Food & Farm Network, the site is in its fledgling stages of a well mapped out multi-use center.  “We began this journey simply trying to figure out how to bring fresh produce to an under-served community. What has evolved is a vision for this center to be a resource for urban gardening that delivers fresh produce”, relayed Paul.

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Three and a half years ago, not many would have suspected that New Orleans would ever recover, let alone demonstrate the promise of prosperity after Hurricane Katrina wiped out an already fragile economy.  At the time the levee broke, New Orleans was already suffering from an exodus initiated in the late 80’s when the oil industry began its regional decline.  But the very characteristics that have given New Orleans its unique disposition are those contributing to its stealth recovery.

Communities that support successful entrepreneurship exhibit a similar range of traits.  Not surprisingly, many of them are emotional qualities bred by circumstance and history.   New Orleans was a late addition to the United States, acquired as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.  Literally separated by swamps and rivers, New Orleans benefited from both a distance and unique geographic location.  In combination with its very European roots, quite literally the city enjoyed a more laissez-faire approach to development which lent itself to a certain type of creativity and openness.

This same bayou location plus southern gulf weather has also not been kind to it, which has bred another entrepreneurial quality, emotional fortitude.   One could argue that this is an innate quality but New Orleans has an extra high concentration of this, born of survivor-ship.  From this comes a kind of optimism and resiliency that drives entrepreneurs ever forward.

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He talks about how the15 percent drop in diamond prices in the past six months is actually helping his business,

“There is an opportunity with diamond prices going down because we don’t hold a lot of inventory as those prices go down we can pass that on immediately to consumers, where a lot of our competitors in the market are holding inventory that they purchased at higher prices and can’t do the same.”

Venture gives BLOOMBERG TELEVISION(R) viewers an inside look at what it takes to be an entrepreneur.  The weekly half-hour program will feature interviews with entrepreneurs and small business owners, focusing on issues and policy that impacts the way Main Street does business.  “Venture” airs on Friday nights at 8:00PM ET, 11:30PM ET the show re-airs Saturdays at 1:30am, 3:30, 7:30am, 8:30, 11:30, 6:30pm and Sunday at 12:30am, 3:30, 6:30, 9:30, 12:30pm, 3:30pm.

“Venture” can also be seen on Bloomberg.com

Solar group purchasing program 1 Block Off the Grid (1BOG) just launched a new campaign in New Orleans.

1BOG works by grouping customers together into a sort of buying club. Then, after a rigorous selection process, they choose a solar installer who will provide the biggest discount and the best quality. The more people that sign up, the better the discount for anyone buying solar through the program.

If you aren’t familiar with 1 Block Off the Grid, what they do may be best explained by New York Times Magazine:

…in a cultural moment when many individuals aren’t feeling all that rugged, perhaps it makes sense that a company called 1BOG has put collective buying at the center of its business model. The name is derived from the phrase “one block off the grid,” a reference to the goal of rounding up groups of homeowners willing to install solar-power systems on their houses — removing the rough equivalent of one block from a city’s electrical grid.

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The old electromechanical electric utility meter changed little in principle over the last hundred years. In the next coming decades the smart meter will progress as much over this meter as the PC has over the typewriter. It will utilize a microcontroller as sophisticated as any PC. It will have its own web page that can be part of your home page and your social network. It can evolve to best serve the most efficient use of renewable energy.

The present meters are also called “Thomson” meters after the supposed inventor Elihu Thomson the first CEO of General Electric (after restructuring of Edison General Electric). Thomson’s meter was like a clock with a torsion pendulum. Instead of a spring, the force between two magnets governed the speed of the pendulum.

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Why make an exception for Ode? It’s quickly become my favorite magazine… the first (and, so far, only) one I’ve subscribed to on Zinio. Ode’s not only focused on issues that matter to me — social, environmental, and economic change — but also on stories about people making a difference in these areas.

In short, there’s a lot of good news in Ode… and, more and more, we need that.

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The Walt Disney Company claims to have a long history of environmental stewardship. But for years the company has been the very antithesis of of anything related to environmental awareness.

The very fact that it razed down acres of orange groves in Anaheim to build its first theme park filled with “plastic” fairy tales should speak for itself. Child health activists have been against the company’s use of toxic cleaning materials in their theme parks for the last three years; they even protested outside an annual shareholder meeting in Oakland, CA yesterday.

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AT & T has partnered with One Economy and Meraki to bring free WI-FI internet to low income communities Sunnydale Housing Authority, San Francisco’s largest low income housing project.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom gathered with the leaders of the three partnership companies who have successfully helped better San Franciso’s low income communities by providing free broadband access to Sunnydale also which the San Francisco Chronicle calls one of the most depressed, dangerous and decrepit areas of the city.

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In order to capitalize on the up-and-coming ecotourism business, Bonaire agreed to the installation of a 11MW wind farm, 14MW biodiesel plant and a 3.5MW backup battery in 2007 with the end goal of completely unyoking itself from fossil fuel dependence.  Spearheading this project are Ecopower Bonaire BV, a consortium of Dutch-German companies, Evelop, Enercon, and the local Bonaire water and energy company. 

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