Social Venture Network

It is time to check out Social Venture Network.  Founded in 1987 by Josh Mailman and Wayne Silby, SVN is a nonprofit network that brings together change leaders who are committed to the triple bottom line, people, planet, and profits.  “The idea for SVN came from realizing that there was a generation of people involved in the business community that had progressive social values,” Mailman says. “We decided that it was imperative for us to use our resources to create a new paradigm: one in which business operates to add value to society — without compromising the well-being of future generations.”

As their website states, “SVN believes in a new bottom line for business, one that values healthy communities and the human spirit as well as high returns.”  They have such resources as job listings at sustainable companies, best practices, featured events and conferences, and a great reference 20 Ideas That Changed the Way the World Does Business that we will be profiling here at the Green Wizard at www.ThoughtRocket.com/Blog.

SVN’s mission: to inspire a community of business leaders to build a just economy and sustainable planet.

Right on.

Algae Converted to Transportation Fuels

GreenFuel, founded in 2001 and headquartered in Cambridge, MA, profitably recycles carbon dioxide!  It turns out that algae can be converted to transportation fuels and feed ingredients or recycled back to a combustion source as biomass for power generation.  According to their website, GreenFuel’s high yield algae farms recycle carbon dioxide from flue gases to produce biofuels and feed, reducing net carbon dioxide production as waste becomes profit. Harvesting algae for biofuels enhances domestic fuel production while mitigating CO2.  Wow.

GreenFuel uses Algae because it has several advantages over other crops:

• Algae are the fastest growing plants in the world and can be grown year round, unlike seasonal crops.
• Algae farming does not require agricultural land or clean water, so it does not compete with food crops for these resources.
• While it is difficult to compare one energy crop to another, per hectare of land algae is more productive than corn, soy or palm.
• Unlike other energy crops, the entire biomass produced from algae can be used in end products.
• Lastly, the algae produced by GreenFuel can be used to produce renewable biofuels needed to reduce dependence on non-renewable fuel sources such as coal, oil and natural gas.

GreenFuel doesn’t claim that recycling carbon dioxide will solve all of the world’s energy problems, but they certainly have a great start.  Greenfuel is one example of the kind of innovation needed to save our future.  Pretty awesome.