Editor's Note: This is a guest article by Neetal Parekh, founder of Innov8Social, which covers topics in social innovation. The following is adapted from an article originally published on Innov8Social.
The passage of the benefit corporation legislation makes California the 6th state to recognize a new form of corporation that is for-profit and committed to creating a positive impact on society and the environment. California joins Maryland, Vermont, Hawaii, Virginia, and New Jersey in the benefit corporation club.
Non-urgent bills such AB 361 and SB 201 signed into law will become effective January 1st, 2012. Until then, social entrepreneurs interested in becoming among the first benefit corporations in California, can use the time to decide which legal structure is the best fit, and become prepared to meet the various requirements. Attorney Donald Simon shares some tips on how a company can get ready for benefit corporation certification or re-certification as a benefit corporation in these two videos:
On Tuesday, October 10th, the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) was officially opened during a ceremony that included Mayor Villaraigosa. LACI's mission is to accelerate the development of clean technology businesses and to create sustainable, well-paying jobs in the Los Angeles region. It was created through a collaboration of the Los Angeles Cleantech Alliance which includes the Mayor's Office, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Community Redevelopment Agency for Los Angeles and local education and research institutions: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, UCLA, USC, CalTech, and Arts Center College of Design.
"The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator is an important investment in the future of our great city," said Mayor Villaraigosa. "LACI will have an important role in developing new profitable businesses and creating jobs right here in LA. With this project, we take a big leap forward, toward a stronger and more sustainable economy that will help distinguish LA as a center of innovation and prosperity."
"Research shows that the best way to create jobs is to build new companies, and that is exactly our mission here at LACI. Our goal is to find and nurture up and coming clean technology companies and provide them with the tools and mentorship they need to succeed, including access to our growing network of government, business and education leaders. After just a month of being open, we already have two terrific portfolio companies and look forward to welcoming many more," said Fred Walti, executive director.
LACI, located in downtown Los Angeles, currently has two portfolio companies: 350Green (developing electric vehicle charging networks) and Gridtest Stystems (producing test equipment for electric vehicle charging stations and infrastructure). Gridtest was recently selected as one of the winners in the California region of the 2011 Cleantech Open competition (Gridtest won the Transportation category).
Additional information on LACI, including the application process for join the incubator, is available on the LACI website.
Green For All will present a Green Business Academy in San Jose, California from September 29 - 30. A brief summary of this program is:
Do you want to learn what it takes to succeed in the Bay Area's green market? Do you want to know what resources are available specifically for green start-ups? Our two-day business academy will convene green business leaders, business support organizations, and capital providers to help you grow your business. You will also have the opportunity to meet with lawyers at our Business Law Clinic and sign up on our website to practice your elevator pitch at the event. Panels are workshops will include
Funding for Green Companies
Your local resources for Green Business Success
Start-up Tips from Green Entrepreneurs
Elevator Pitch Practice Session
Business Law Clinic
Networking Opportunities
There is no charge for this program, but advance registration is required and you should enter code "greenvcbiz" in the Special / VIP Code box. In addition, if you would like to practice your elevator pitch in front of the audience, please send us a 150-word description of your company by September 15th.
On July 18, the Unreasonable Institute, a Boulder, Colorado-based startup accelerator, will be bringing 26 entrepreneurs (from 17 countries) to San Francisco for a Pitch Day (and Night). The Unreasonable Institute takes its name from a George Bernard Shaw quotation that states that "all progress depends on the Unreasonable man [andwoman]."
The presenting entrepreneurs include:
An MIT researcher from India with an anemia detection device recognized by the World Health Organization as one of the 7 most innovative emerging healthcare technologies.
An entrepreneur who is helping build the recycling infrastructure in Mexico and who has generated $1 million in revenue in the past 18 months.
You can view the complete list of presenting entrepreneurs here. Thanks to our friends at the Unreasonable Institute, readers of Green VC can obtain a 30% discount on registration to attend the Pitch program. To obtain this discount use code "secretdiscount" (without the quotes) when registering online.
Echoing Green, an organization that provides seed funding for social entreprenuers, recently announced its 2011 Fellows. The winners, and their projects, are:
Faty Tanriverdi and Majid El Jarroudi Adive Program Area: Economic Development Location of Impact: Europe
Bold Idea: Transform the workforce of French corporations by connecting procurement officers with suppliers and entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities.
Organization: Every year, big companies spend billions of Euros in procurement, but discriminate against local entrepreneurs who do not have the right networks/reputation. Adive is bridging the gap by setting all entrepreneurs on an equal footing in the eyes of corporations through a unique platform that connects procurement officers’ needs and the potential of entrepreneurs in disadvantaged territories, which fosters an unprecedented shift of mind and reveals a new generation of first-class entrepreneurs.
Yusuf Randera-Rees Awethu Project Program Area: Entrepreneurship Location of Impact: South Africa
Bold Idea: Inspire an entrepreneurship revolution in under-resourced communities across South Africa
Organization: We use a unique model to liberate the world-class entrepreneurial potential lying untapped in South Africa’s under-resourced communities. Our aspirations for our entrepreneurs are unprecedented among peer organisations, and our talent identification process is entirely innovative. In only eight months our story has captured South Africa's imagination to the extent that we believe we can inspire an entrepreneurship revolution in a country in which entrepreneurship rates are dangerously low.
Brenden Millstein and Raphael Rosen Carbon Lighthouse Program Area: Environment Location of Impact: United States
Bold Idea: Take on global climate change, at a meaningful scale, by building a one-stop-shop for companies to eliminate their entire carbon footprint.
Organization: Carbon Lighthouse will enable consumers and corporations across the globe to profitably eliminate their carbon footprints. By combining four existing technologies - energy efficiency, demand response, renewable energy, and carbon allowances into a single financed package, Carbon Lighthouse eliminates the upfront costs, transaction costs, and redundant engineering/contracting currently preventing corporations from profitably eliminating their carbon footprint.
Javier Lozano Clinicas del Azucar Program Area: Health Location of Impact: Mexico
Bold Idea: Establish a major chain of low-cost diabetes management clinics that provide accessible preventative and supportive care to the underserved 90 percent of Mexicans who need this care.
Organization: Diabetes in Mexico is called ‘the disease of the rich’. This is because current care alternatives are expensive, inconvenient and out of reach for 90% of the population. By developing innovative evidence-based algorithms for diagnosis and disease management, and by creating a chain of low-cost diabetes clinics, we will revolutionize the way diabetes care is delivered in developing countries and for the 14 million patients with diabetes in Mexico.
Ameca Reali and Adrienne Wheeler Cooperative Advocacy for the People Program Area: Civil and Human Rights Location of Impact: United States
Bold idea: Bring together the recently incarcerated, defense attorneys, prisoner rights advocates, and plaintiff attorneys as a membership cooperative that addresses systemic criminal justice deficiencies in Louisiana, and develops strategies for accountability and reform.
Organization: Implementing a non-capital post-conviction project in New Orleans provides incarcerated individuals with the possibility of freedom, access to justice and the opportunity to make radical changes in a system with glaring deficiencies. Also creating a collaborative space where attorneys, legal workers, and advocates can participate collectively in planning and implementing strategies for accountability and reform.
Reid Saaris Equal Opportunity Schools Program Area: Education Location of Impact: United States
Bold Idea: Narrow the achievement gap in U.S. schools by working with principals to find “missing” minority students and implementing a rigorous 12-month college prep curriculum, including AP and IB classes, in the most underserved communities.
Organization: EOS is an early-stage, education-reform non-profit that changes lives and narrows the achievement gap by collaborating with principals to address an inequity in our schools: under-enrollment in the best academic programs, especially by students who are Latino, African-American, or low-income. EOS identifies these missing students who we have shown can succeed at the highest academic levels within their schools - and works with schools to transition them into the best, college-bound classes.
Deborah Ahenkorah The Golden Baobab Prize Program Area: Education Location of Impact: Africa
Bold Idea: Solve African illiteracy by inspiring a new generation of African authors to write children’s literature to which African youth can relate.
Organization: GBP is an award that inspires creation of African literature for young readers & annually calls for unpublished short stories & awards monetary prizes. Outstanding stories are connected with publishers in Africa & abroad. GBP produces stellar works to supplement educational curricula, open up new windows of thinking for youth, provide a voice for African people & encourage mutual cultural understanding. It also promotes workshops & training to further stimulate youth literature market in Africa.
Bonnie Oliva and Shivani Siroya InVenture Fund Program Area: Microfinance Institution Location of Impact: Global
Bold Idea: Provide direct, crowd-sourced investment from individuals to the next frontier in microfinance—job- and wealth-creating micro-business owners caught in between a traditional micro-loan and bank finance.
Organization: We fill a significant gap in the microfinance sector by providing micro-business owners with the expansion capital and resources they need to grow their businesses, and we raise this capital through our online investment platform. As businesses grow, they become engines for job creation and economic growth in their communities. We help catalyze this long-term growth by requiring businesses to re-invest a small portion of their profits in their communities.
Amy Bach Judicial Outcomes Center Program Area: Criminal Justics Location of Impact: United States
Bold Idea: Shine a spotlight on criminal justice and inspire change in the U.S. judicial system by creating a widely available ranking of local courts based on their effectiveness in crime reduction and recidivism prevention.
Organization: The Center will house a Justice Index that will rank local criminal courts on factors such as recidivism, crime reduction, and collateral consequences (e.g. whether people lose jobs or homes after contact with the system.) Most important, the Index will spot egregious conduct and lagging performance so citizens can demand improvement from legal professionals. As of now, no one knows how a court is operating, so there's no pressure for change. We will then offer services to those who rank low.
Mohamed Ali Niang and Salif Niang Malo Traders Program Area: Agriculture Location of Impact: Mali
Bold Idea: Radically improve the health of Malians with the organized “micronutrient fortification” of locally-produced rice.
Organization: Malo Traders LLC is a cross-cultural social venture committed to combatting poverty and malnutrition by purchasing, storing, processing, and fortifying rice grown by small-scale farmers. Micronutrient food fortification is one of the most effective ways of addressing a range of problems facing the world and our model is socially responsible, socio-culturally appropriate, and financially viable. Our model is designed to not just tackle food insecurity but also nutritional insecurity.
Joel Jackson Mobius Motors Program Area: Transportation Technology Location of Impact: Kenya
Bold Idea: Design and manufacture functional and low-cost vehicles for farmers and entrepreneurs—in Africa, for Africa.
Organization: Mobius designs, manufactures and sells highly functional, highly affordable vehicles for Africa. We empower entrepreneurial buyers with business advice and financing to use their Mobius cars as a platform for transport services to lower income end-users. The range of business-in-a-box services is vast from public transport, to mobile medical care, to consumer goods distribution. These endogenous businesses will create systemic change in the capacity and utility of Africa’s transport network.
Mark Hecker Reach Education, Inc. Program Area: Education Location of Impact: United States
Bold Idea: “Flip the script” on traditional literacy programs by hiring and training struggling high-school students to tutor younger children, improving educational outcomes for both groups.
Organization: Using a three-pronged approach -- training, tutoring, and compensation -- Reach Incorporated provides struggling high school readers with the opportunity to improve their reading skills through teaching. Two days each week, our tutors prepare lesson plans. On two alternating days, they tutor 2nd and 3rd grade students. Tutors are paid a stipend for their participation, and they are able to address academic skill gaps - “ their own and their students” - in an affirming and empowering environment.
Ani Vallabhaneni and David Auerbach Sanergy Program Area: Sanitation Location of Impact: Kenya
Bold Idea: Resolve the massive sanitation problems in the world’s slums, starting in Kenya, with an economically sustainable network of clean, containerized toilets that convert waste to electricity and fertilizer.
Organization: Sanergy promotes the fundamental human right to sanitation in the slums of Kenya by increasing access to and usage of hygienic sanitation facilities. We create an efficient, equitable, and sustainable sanitation cycle by building a dense network of small-scale sanitation centers across the slums, a low-cost containerized waste collection infrastructure, and converting this waste at our central processing facility into electricity, fertilizer, and other high-margin products.
Michael Carter Strive for College Program Area: Education Location of Impact: United States
Bold Idea: Help low-income students break the cycle of poverty by getting into and attending a four-year college, using an affordable, scalable network of “near-peer” mentors—well-trained undergraduate students with similar backgrounds.
Organization: Strive’s vision is to build a movement of college students dedicated to creating opportunities for and maximizing the potential of high school students from low-income communities. Strive pairs high school students with trained undergraduates to provide one-on-one support through every step of the college application process. This innovative and cost-effective approach has proven to be both scalable and effective, helping low-income students break out of the cycle of poverty.
Rajesh Panjabi and Peter Luckow Tiyatien Health Program Area: Health Location of Impact: Liberia
Bold Idea: Pioneer a comprehensive approach to reconstruct the rural health care system in war-torn Liberia with a new model for community health workers.
Organization: Founded by survivors of Liberia’s civil war, Tiyatien Health partners with the Liberian government to pioneer a model community health worker (CHW) system that is redefining how post-conflict nations rebuild rural public health services. Filling the massive health worker shortage in rural post-conflict areas, our CHWs form a novel locally-led primary care workforce that delivers comprehensive home-based medical and social services – providing access to care for the poorest of the poor.
Earlier this month the Skoll Foundation announced the 2011 winners of the The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship. This program of provides a cash award to social entrepreneurs whose work has the potential to make a significant impact on issues such as environmental sustainability, health, tolerance and human rights, institutional responsibility, economic and social equity, and peace and security.
“Many of the most challenging problems we face – access to clean water, effective and affordable healthcare, and literacy and education – are rooted in poverty. But looking at our 2011 Skoll Award winners, I see great hope for the future,” said Sally Osberg, President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation. “The four social entrepreneurs we honor this year offer scalable, proven solutions to these truly daunting problems.”
The four 2011 Skoll Awardees are:
Rebecca Onie, Health Leads Onie founded Health Leads (formerly Project HEALTH) with Dr. Barry Zuckerman, Chair of Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center, to expand the capacity of clinics to connect patients with food, housing and other resources that they need to be healthy and to build a pipeline of new leaders in the health care system. In the clinics where Health Leads operates, doctors can “prescribe” these critical resources just as they would medication. Patients take their prescriptions to the clinic waiting room, where Health Leads’ college volunteers connect them to the necessary resources. In 2010, 57 percent of Health Leads’ patients obtained at least one resource in 90 days (e.g., a family with an asthmatic child needs help getting heat in the winter) and 83 percent of volunteer graduates entered jobs or advanced study in the fields of health and poverty.
Ned Breslin, Water For People Breslin spent more than 16 years in Africa working on water and sanitation before joining Water For People and introducing bold, systemic solutions to critical issues facing the sector. Water For People partners with communities in developing countries to create sustainable, locally-maintained drinking water solutions and supports market-driven sanitation solutions, such as its Sanitation as a Business program. Accountability and sustainability are major focuses for the organization. It recently developed a new monitoring and evaluation technology called FLOW (Field Level Operations Watch,) which leverages Android technology and Google Earth software for tracking the status of water points at least 10 years after implementation.
Ellen Moir, New Teacher Center Moir, a longtime teacher and educator of teachers, founded the New Teacher Center (NTC), which improves student achievement in American public schools. NTC does this by accelerating the effectiveness of new teachers, specifically those who work with low-income, minority and English as a second language (ESL) students. Its mentorship and professional development programs provide support and guidance to novice teachers in the early stages of their careers, as well as to principals and administrators. NTC also influences policy at the district, state, and federal levels. It is the only national nonprofit in the US that is focused on new teacher effectiveness and inducted 26,818 teachers and 1,762 new and experienced principals (reaching 1.84 million students) in 2009-10.
Madhav Chavan, Pratham Chavan leads Pratham, whose goal is to ensure that every child is in school and learning well. Pratham works across urban and rural India, mobilizing volunteers to execute low-cost solutions to maximize government efforts. Starting by setting up pre-schools in community spaces or people’s homes in slums, Pratham introduces remedial literacy learning in Indian schools and focuses on measuring outcomes. It launched Read India, which has trained over a million volunteers and teachers, reaching more than 34 million children. Pratham also created partnerships that publish children’s books and provide computer and English learning. It developed the Annual Status of Education Report, a nationwide household survey that assesses the impact of government spending on education. Visit PrathamUSA.
Also, as a reminder, the final application deadline for the 2012 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship is April 27, 2011. For more information:
The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship is a program of the Skoll Foundation that provides a cash award to social entrepreneurs whose work has the potential to make a significant impact on issues such as environmental sustainability, health, tolerance and human rights, institutional responsibility, economic and social equity, and peace and security. This award is intended to provide core support for organizations with a track record of at least than three years to help them expand their programs and capacity to deliver long-term, sustainable change. Awards are presented at the Skoll World Forum, which takes place annually in Oxford, England in March.
The final application deadline for the 2012 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship is April 27, 2011. For more information:
The Clean Tech Open (CTO), a business plan competition that will provide more than $1 million in prizes for early-stage clean technology startups, recently announced the finalists for its 2010 competition. The finalists, by regional competition, are listed below. You can also view a list of the semifinalists here.
These finalist teams will now be competing at the national competition, which will be awarding a grand prize of $250,000 in investment and services on November 17, 2010.
California Region
FogBusters, Inc. - Revolutionary technology for removing fat, oil and grease (FOG) from wastewater
Suntulit - Smart, multi-zone HVAC system enhancement for homeowners with central forced-air systems
Stramit Strawboard - Converts low-cost agricultural waste into high-value building board
Pure Solar - Laser-processing tool to produce an industry-standard c-Si wafer to increase efficiency for photo-voltaic cell manufacturers
SmartSense - Real-time fault detection, fault prediction and performance monitoring for electrical grids
Pressure Sentinel - Automatic tire inflation system that eliminates the problem of underinflated truck tires
North Central Region
EarthClean - Creator of a biodegradable, non-toxic fire suppressant system that can be used in existing firefighting equipment
Graphene Solutions, Inc. - Technologies that increase the practical application of nanomaterials in coatings, composites and energy generation and storage
Silicon Solar Solutions - Improves energy output and lower cost of silicon-based solar power cells.
North East Region
OnChip Power - Bringing integration to power electronics
7Solar - Energy Independence, one building at a time
V Squared Wind - Wind technology
Pacific Northwest Region
Arcimoto - Builder of a fun and cost-effective electric vehicle for the around-town drives that typify most vehicle use
Nanocel Inc. - Revolutionizing the cooling of electronic devices with its microfluidic polymer cooling system that can cool specific areas that generate the heat
Puralytics - Maker of unique water purification devices that remove all types of pollutants in a single step without using chemicals or producing waste water
Rocky Mountain Region
infiniRel - Assures renewable energy service providers of maximum equipment uptime at the lowest service cost through predictive data analysis and maintenance scheduling support
INOTEC - Distributes electrons to microbes in a manner that provides them with energy to more efficiently transform and remove contaminants found in waste and drinking waters
pureSilicon - Addresses growing electrical use by computer servers
Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives, announced earlier this month that it has provided a grant of up to $750K to Jumo, a company that is building a web-based platform for connecting individuals with cause-based organizations. Jumo's founder is Chris Hughes, who is a co-founder of Facebook. In conjunction with this grant, Chris Bishko, Omidyar Network director of investments, will join Jumo’s board of directors.
“Omidyar Network has extensive experience with both for-profit and philanthropic online marketplaces," Bishko said. "We believe Jumo is pursing a powerful opportunity to leverage networking technologies to facilitate deeper engagement between individuals and cause-based organizations."
Jumo is scheduled for launch later this year. Some additional background is available in the following video.
The Progressive Automotive X PRIZE, an international competition launched in 2008 with a $10 million prize purse designed to inspire a new generation of viable, super fuel-efficient vehicles, recently announced its winners (video at the end of this post). They are:
$5 Million Mainstream Class Winner: Edison2 “Very Light Car #98” (Charlottesville, VA) Economy: 102.5 MPGe Fuel: E85 ethanol Boasting the lowest drag coefficient of any car with four wheels tested in the GM wind tunnel and at the Chrysler Proving Grounds, this vehicle demonstrated over 100 MPGe on the test track, and verified in the lab, under stringent testing conditions using a highly innovative small displacement engine. Its low weight of just 830 pounds is a tribute to its use of light weight materials, reduced engine displacement and a host of other weight-saving innovations.
$2.5 Million Alternative Side-by-Side Class Winner: Li-ion Motors Corp “Wave II” (Mooresville, NC) Economy: 187 MPGe Fuel: Battery Electric This side-by-side two-seat battery electric car was built on a lightweight aluminum chassis and weighs in at only 2,176 pounds, despite the weight of its powerful lithium ion batteries. The Wave II demonstrated outstanding low mechanical and aerodynamic drag that resulted in 187 MPGe in combined on-track and laboratory efficiency testing, a 14.7s zero-to-60 mph acceleration time, and over 100 miles range over a real-world driving cycle.
$2.5 Million Alternative Tandem Class Winner: X-Tracer Team Switzerland “E-Tracer #79” (Winterthur, Switzerland) Economy: 205.3 MPGe Fuel: Battery Electric This tandem two-seat vehicle combines the best of motorcycles and automobiles. This clever design has two extra outrigger wheels that deploy at low speed to stabilize the vehicle. At 1436 pounds, the E-Tracer is able to deliver over 100 miles in range, led the competition with over 200 MPGe in combined on-track and laboratory fuel efficiency and achieved a zero-to- 60 mph acceleration time of just 6.6 seconds.
“We’ve seen a shift in the market since we first launched this competition, and a greater awareness by people everywhere to think more seriously about the actions we take, and how they affect our environment,” noted Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation. “Gas mileage ranks as one of our top concerns when purchasing a new vehicle and I believe strongly that the innovations showcased throughout the life of this competition will continue to impact and improve our car buying options for the future.”
“Congratulations to the winners and to all the teams who competed over the course of this competition. Their innovations and hard work are truly inspirational,” said Glenn Renwick. “We’re extremely proud to support a competition that will result in more super fuel-efficient vehicle choices; choices that will make people’s lives better.”
There will now be opportunities for winners and other competitors to move forward with their inventions. Under a U.S. Department of Energy-funded technical assistance program, qualified Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE competitors will obtain funding support for access to key automotive expertise and test facilities to assist them in readying their vehicles and technologies for market introduction.
Earlier this month the 
