Mark Jonathan Pincus is an American Internet entrepreneur known as the founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company. Pincus also founded the startups Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and Support.com. Pincus served as the CEO of Zynga until July 2013, then again from 2015 to 2016.
Jeffrey Hollender is an American entrepreneur, author, and activist best known for founding Seventh Generation Inc.
Seventh Generation, Inc. is an American company selling eco-friendly cleaning, paper, and personal care products. Established in 1988, the Burlington, Vermont–based company distributes products to natural food stores, supermarkets, mass merchants, and online retailers. In 2016, Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever acquired Seventh Generation for an estimated $700 million.
Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a wide range of organizations, which vary in size, aims, and beliefs. For-profit entrepreneurs typically measure performance using business metrics like profit, revenues and increases in stock prices. Social entrepreneurs, however, are either non-profits, or they blend for-profit goals with generating a positive "return to society". Therefore, they use different metrics. Social entrepreneurship typically attempts to further broad social, cultural and environmental goals often associated with the voluntary sector in areas such as poverty alleviation, health care and community development.
Jacqueline Novogratz is an American entrepreneur and author. She is the founder and CEO of Acumen, a nonprofit global venture capital fund whose goal is to use entrepreneurial approaches to address global poverty.
Alex Paul "Sandy" Pentland is an American computer scientist, the Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, and serial entrepreneur.
Gary Hirshberg is an American businessman. He is the former chief executive officer of Stonyfield Farm, the world's leading organic yogurt producer, based in Londonderry, New Hampshire. He joined the company just after its founding in 1983 and stepped down in 2011, but continues to serve as Chairman. He frequently speaks on topics including sustainability, organic agriculture and the profitability of green business.
Christopher P. Michel is an American photographer and entrepreneur, who founded Military.com. He is the current artist in residence at the National Academies.
Net Impact is a nonprofit membership organization for students and professionals interested in using business skills in support of various social and environmental causes. It serves both a professional organization and one of the largest student organizations among MBAs in the world. From its central office in Oakland, the organization supports over 300 autonomous volunteer-run chapters and a membership base of over 100,000, with programs and networking events centered on topics such as corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, nonprofit management, international development, and environmental sustainability. Additionally, various Net Impact Case Competitions are hosted annually throughout its university chapters to encourage teams to analyze and propose more sustainable business practices.
Chip Conley is an American hotelier, hospitality entrepreneur, author, and speaker.
Wiser.org, formerly WiserEarth.org, was a user-generated online community space for the social and environmental movement. As one of the social networks for environmental sustainability and social change, Wiser.org was the primary initiative of the non-profit organization WiserEarth, which tracks the work of non-profits around the world. The site mapped and connected non-governmental organizations (NGOs), businesses, governments, groups, and individuals addressing global issues such as climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights, and more.
Impact investing refers to investments "made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return". At its core, impact investing is about an alignment of an investor's beliefs and values with the allocation of capital to address social and/or environmental issues.
Komaza is a distributed forestry company that partners with smallholder farmers in Kenya to plant trees for sale as sustainable wood products. They provide farmers with the support across the entire value chain, from supplying seedlings and other planting inputs to establish tree farms, up to harvesting, processing and selling mature trees to local markets. Komaza has planted nearly 7,000 tree farms and currently employs over 100 full-time staff.
A sustainability organization is (1) an organized group of people that aims to advance sustainability and/or (2) those actions of organizing something sustainably. Unlike many business organizations, sustainability organizations are not limited to implementing sustainability strategies which provide them with economic and cultural benefits attained through environmental responsibility. For sustainability organizations, sustainability can also be an end in itself without further justifications.
New Resource Bank is a San Francisco, California-based bank which is a part of Amalgamated Bank.
New Ventures is a global program that provides services for the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) whose main goal is to generate a positive environmental or social change within their own communities.
Fundación Avina is a Latin American philanthropic foundation working towards sustainable development in Latin America by encouraging alliances between social and business leaders.
In business, a B Corporation is a for-profit corporation certified by B Lab for its social impact. B Corp certification is conferred by B Lab, a global nonprofit organization. To be granted and to maintain certification, companies must receive a minimum score of 80 from an assessment of its social and environmental performance, integrate B Corp commitments to stakeholders into company governing documents, and pay an annual fee based on annual sales. Companies must re-certify every three years to retain B Corporation status.
Wayne Silby is an American social investor and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Calvert Investments, one of the first and largest socially responsible mutual funds in the nation, and has been acting as the Founding Chairman until his recent retirement.
Jessica Rolph is an American entrepreneur and businesswoman. She is the CEO and co-founder of Lovevery, co-founder and former chief operating officer of Happy Family, and co-founder of the Climate Collaborative.
