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DayOne Response Waterbags Deliver Clean Water After a Crisis, SOCAP11 [VIDEO]

An Increasing Need for Clean Water, Demands Solutions

Sometimes a need can be so necessary and apparent, that a innovation is a welcome sight, rather than a big surprise. Access to clean water after a disaster is one such need that has affected global superpowers as well as countries deep in their development stages. Whether the need for clean water comes after natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes or from man-made scenarios such as war, explosion, or delayed government response—it is essential, and often unmet.

Meet DayOne Response

DayOne Response is a social venture aiming to answer the call for clean water. DayOne Response’s V.P. of Business Development, Amy Cagle, was on hand at the SOCAP11 Innovation Showcase on the second day of SOCAP11.Below she shows us the DayOne Waterbag that can sanitize any water and make it potable by utilizing the technology of PUR purifier packets (that purify using chlorination-flocculation technology) along with a specially-designed waterbag for easy water collection, filtration, and delivery.

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How can a waterbag do that? 

DayOne Response demonstrates in this short training video taken in Haiti. Water filtered using DayOne Waterbags and PUR packets meet the World Health Organization guidelines for drinking water.

The DayOne Waterbags may be a scaleable solution, since they take up little space when empty, can turn almost any water into clean drinking water, and can be distributed quickly after a disaster, which can free up resources, and can give affected individuals quicker access to safe water.

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Namaste Solar’s Co-Founder Talks About Being a B Corp at SOCAP11 [VIDEO]

B Corporations In Different Forms

SOCAP11 (Social Capital Markets 2011) brought together a confluence of people, ideas, and dialogues from around the social innovation sphere. It was especially interesting to hear about various corporate forms that social ventures had decided on.I had a chance to talk with Blake Jones towards the end of Day 2 of SOCAP11. We had both attended the same breakout session on benefit corporations earlier in the day.

His company, a b corporation, is also a cooperative.

Meet Blake

Blake co-founded, Namaste Solar, a B corporation based in Colorado. (Reminder: B corporation is a voluntary certification, benefit corporation is a new corporate form for social innovation that has passed/is being introduced in various states. You can read more about the differences between B corporation and benefit corporation)

Here is a quick interview with Blake explaining what Namaste Solar does and why and how they decided to pursue the B corporation certification.

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More About Namaste Solar

Namaste Solar is an employee-owned cooperative that installs solar systems in homes and businesses.

Namaste Solar is proud to be a B corporation and exists to benefit all of its stakeholders, including community and environment.

They may be looking for impact investors in the future.

Follow SOCAP11 Coverage

You can read posts about this year’s conference by clicking on the SOCAP11 tag on Innov8Social. Following up on tweets from from SOCAP11 is also possible by following @innov8social on Twitter and searching #SOCAP11 for all related tweets.

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One World Youth Project’s Executive Director at SOCAP11 [VIDEO]

SOCAP11 (Social Capital Markets Conference 2011) featured a number of social businesses and non-profits. Representing the

photo: LinkedIn

photo: LinkedIn

non-profit organization, One World Youth Project (OWYP), was the organization’s Executive Director, Jess Rimington.We had a chance to catch up with Jess, who was in town from the OWYP’s headquarters in Washington D.C.Below is a quick interview, where she explains what OWYP is, its current locations, and how and why the organization decided to incorporate as a non-profit.

One World Youth Project (OWYP) is an initiative to raise global awareness by offering a 3-semester leadership program for university students who prepare and lead global competence curriculum to secondary school students.

It is structured as a non-profit. Executive Director Jess Rimington calls it a “social profit” because the organization could have been incorporated as a for-profit entity since universities pay for the training course.

It has recently expanded to multiple locations worldwide.

Additional SOCAP11 Coverage

You can read posts about this year’s conference by checking out the SOCAP11 tag on Innov8Social. You can also catch up on tweets from SOCAP11 @innov8social on Twitter and can search #SOCAP11 on Twitter for related tweets.

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Impact Investing at SOCAP11: An Interview with Absolute Impact Partners [VIDEO]

Impact Investing Lens on Social Entrepreneurship

SOCAP11 (Social Capital Markets Conference 2011) may have ended last Friday, but its concepts and topics are coming to life as they are retweeted, blogged about, and discussed in articles, message boards, and through various social and professional networks.

One topic that I was eager to learn about through attending SOCAP11 was impact investing. As a concept it is a source of intrigue and fascination, but in practice I wanted to chat with investors dedicated to impact investing to learn about this niche, its need, and what criteria impact investors base their investments upon. And, I was equally curious about how impact investing works abroad.

Meet Absolute Impact Partners, Impact Investment Firm

So it was serendipitous to run into the Director of a new impact investing firm based in Singapore, called Absolute Impact Partners. In the video below, Lynna Chandra explains the concept behind their entry into the impact investment field, what they hope to achieve, and she outlines the criteria they use before making an impact investment or assisting a local social entrepreneur with mentorship resources.

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Key Points

Absolute Impact Partners was started alleviate poverty through a multi-level approach, with a focus on addressing the lack of access to global markets faced by many local social entrepreneurs.

Lynna spoke about connecting local manufacturers to international markets, through creating distribution streams for products so that entrepreneurs have multiple distributors for their products.

She mentioned that her firm looks to identify businesses or projects seeking impact investment are socially aware, environmentally conscious, generate profit, and create change in the community.

Follow SOCAP11 Coverage

You can read posts about this year’s conference by clicking on the SOCAP11 tag on Innov8Social. You can also catch tweets from SOCAP11 @innov8social on Twitter and can search #SOCAP11 on Twitter for related tweets.

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California State Assemblymember Huffman Talks About AB 361 [VIDEO]

How do you get from idea to state law?

In following the journey of California’s AB 361 and the number of other bills across various states that would create (or have created) a new corporate form called a benefit corporation—learning the impetus for the legislation is often as interesting as

photo: votesmart.org

photo: votesmart.org

understanding the process.

And the story of California’s AB 361 is particularly interesting. You can watch California State Assemblymember for the 6th Assembly District Jared Huffman talk about the crowdsourcing origin of AB 361 and other key points of the bill below.

Assemblymember Huffman is the sponsor for AB 361, which was recently voted through the California State Senate Committee on Banking and Financial Institutions and also successfully passed through the State Judiciary Committee.

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Attorney Donald Simon’s Q & A on California Benefit Corporation Legislation [VIDEO]

California Benefit Corporation Law, From a Legal Lens

How can new entrepreneurs, founders, social enterprises be ready for benefit corporation legislation? Why might new businesses opt to incorporate as a benefit corporation? What makes benefit corporation compelling—from a legal standpoint?

Meet Donald Simon, Attorney and Co-Author of AB 361

These are a few of the questions we asked Donald Simon, Attorney and Partner at Wendel Rosen Black & Dean and Co-Chair of the Legal Working Group. Simon is an environmental activist-turned attorney who has remained steadfast in his passion for conservation causes —having founded two 2 environmental non-profit organizations. He has been a lead attorney in drafting and advocating for AB 361.

We caught up with him after the California State Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on California’s benefit corporation legislation, AB 361.

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Adeo Ressi Talks About the Founder Institute

Meet the Founder Institute

I have attended two workshops hosted by the Founder Institute–a kind of accelerated startup MBA program for promising entrepreneurs–both hosted by the Institute’s Founder Adeo Ressi. From the talks I walked away feeling the passion, energy, and vision that Ressi and his team have for new entrepreneurs and budding startups.

Meet Adeo

I had a chance to catch up with Adeo after his talk on Startup Legal Q&A for Silicon Valley. Watch the quick video below to hear him outline the concept of the Founder Institute, his vision for its reach, and what inspired him to launch this initiative.

In the realm of social innovation I can’t help but think that innovation comes first—without innovation or entrepreneurial spirit there may be little with which to balance social or environmental values.

You can find out much more about the Founder Institute, the CEO mentors, the schedule of course offerings, and the application process on the Founder Institute website.

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Elizabeth Doty Explains “The Compromise Trap”

What is a “Compromise Trap”?

What do you call it when you have to find middle ground between your internal compass or set of values and demands of a workplace, academic environment, or an entrepreneurial venture—how about a “compromise trap”? The term describes a pretty familiar scenario for many at some point in their careers–and it is the title of Elizabeth Doty’s new book.

Meet Elizabeth Doty

Elizabeth DotyWith credentials from Berkeley and an MBA from Harvard, Doty approaches this issue with over 3 decades of experience with large organizations including serving as a management consultant to companies such as Intuit and Hewlitt-Packard.

Elizabeth led a lively discussion during an event organized by Net Impact San Fransisco on May 24, 2011. I caught up with her afterwards to see if she could explain the concept of a “compromise trap” and what she learned through research & writing her book.So here it is—a peek into The Compromise Trap in author Elizabeth Doty’s own words….

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