For four years Becca Williams, Founder of Like Hearts Lab and Thought Distillery, watched and documented interesting companies, organizations, tools, services, and products related to social impact/social enterprise. This was a living, breathing record, until winter 2021. Please note she was not directly affiliated with these organizations, programs, or services. If you have an interest in this space, she hopes you will walk away with knowledge of new materials and operating models that will help us build a more sustainable, inclusive, accessible, equitable future for all.
Academics/Learning
- Amani Institute
- Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation | Georgetown University
- Business Strategies for Social Impact | Wharton on Coursera
- Environmental Design | University of Colorado Boulder
- MA Material Futures | UAL Central Saint Martins
- Social Impact Strategy: Tools for Entrepreneurs and Innovators | University of Pennsylvania on Coursera
- Terra.do
Accelerators/Incubators/Venture Studios/Impact Investors
- Access Ventures
- Accion Venture Lab
- Adasina Social Capital
- Agora – Latin America and Caribbean focus
- As You Sow – shareholder advocacy
- Backstage Capital
- Bamboo Capital Partners
- BlueOrchard Impact Investment Managers
- BridgeforBillions
- Case Smart Impact Capital
- Colorado Impact Fund
- Common
- Conscious Venture Lab
- Conveners Accelerator Map
- Disability Impact Fund
- Echoing Green Fellowship
- Ecosystem Integrity Fund
- Ellevest
- Envision – accelerator for young, underrepresented founders. Equity-free.
- Fast Forward for Tech Nonprofit Entrepreneurs
- Fledge Conscious Company Accelerators
- Futureshape
- Generation Investment Management
- Global Impact Investing Network
- Grameen Creative Lab
- Halcyon Incubator
- Hult Prize
- Human Ventures
- ideas42 ventures
- Imagine H2O – water focus
- ImpactAim | UNDP
- Impact America Fund
- ImpactAssets
- Impact Engine
- impactmania
- “Is a Social Impact Incubator Right for You?” | Classy
- Kapor Capital
- KKR Global Impact
- Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship
- Mozilla’s Fix The Internet Incubator
- Norselab
- Ocean Solutions Accelerator | Sustainable Ocean Alliance
- OpenIDEO
- PlugandPlay
- Portfolia
- Rethink Impact
- Rev Hub Orange County
- S2G Ventures
- Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund
- Seed Spot
- Skoll Foundation
- Social Wealth Partners
- Techstars Sustainability Accelerator in Partnership with The Nature Conservancy
- The Audacious Project
- Turner Impact Capital
- Uncharted
- Virtue Ventures
- We in Social Tech: Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs
- XGenesis – water and climate focus
- Yunus & Youth
- Zinc VC
Accessibility
- AN INCLUSIVE SPEAKER DESIGN THAT LETS THE BLIND SEE THROUGH MUSIC | Yanko Design
- (Communication Service for the Deaf) CSD Social Venture Fund
- INCLUSIVELY DESIGNED WASHING MACHINE THAT TAKES A NEW ‘ANGLE’ ON DOING LAUNDRY | Yanko Design
- LEGO Braille Bricks
- ThisAbles
- THIS AI ROBOT + SMART HOME SYSTEM REPLACES HEARING DOGS FOR THOSE WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT! | Yanko Design
- THIS SMART-CANE USES GOOGLE MAPS, ALEXA, AND OBSTACLE DETECTION TO GUIDE THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED | Yanko Design
Web Accessibility
- Accessibility Object Model (AOM)
- Deque Systems
- Introduction to Web Accessibility | W3C
- Stark | accessibility-focused tools for design and dev teams
- The A11Y Project
- The Disability Visibility Project
- Universal Design
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
Architecture/ Construction/ Infrastructure/Urban Planning
- CobBauge
- “Digital twins offer “a very powerful way of developing our cities” say experts” | Dezeen
- “Floating Farm in Rotterdam is now home to 32 cows” | Dezeen
- Forust
- “Green roofs can make cities healthier and happier. Why aren’t they everywhere?” | FastCo
- Hempitecture
- “How to recycle a building” | FastCo
- “Hungary plans €1 billion greenhouse city powered by renewable energy” | Dezeen
- “Hyunseok An designs a sustainable algae micro-farm for the home” | Dezeen
- Icon Build
- “Newtab-22 uses seashells to develop concrete alternative” | Dezeen
- Powur
- Prvok
- “Reeform wants to bridge the gap between urban architecture and ocean sustainability” | Yanko Design
- “Running brand On creates zero-impact mountain hut in Swiss Alps” | Dezeen
- “SHoP and Ken Smith convert Manhattan’s Pier 35 into an eco park” | Dezeen
- “The most common way to demolish a building is also the most wasteful” | FastCo
- “This floating mobile campus is 100% self-sufficient & facilitates programs for our sustainable future! | Yanko Design”
- Vilius Vizgaudis reimagines Texan city as “capital of sustainable living” | Dezeen
- “Vincent Callebaut proposes a roof that generates energy and food for Notre-Dame Cathedral” | Dezeen
- “You’ve heard of the circular economy. Now meet the circular city” | FastCo
Circular Design + Economy, Other Sustainable Design
- Barber & Osgerby create chair for Emeco that can be endlessly recycled | Dezeen
- Circular CoLab The State of the Circular Economy in America
- “Designing Your Product to be Sustainable” | Yanko Design
- Explore Circular Design | Ellen MacArthur Foundation
- “Five designs for a sustainable death” | Dezeen
- Mater
- Nature Squared
- Retuna Återbruksgalleria | “the world’s first recycling mall”
Clothing/Fashion/Textiles
- “Algorithmic Couture aims to reduce fashion industry waste with digital customisation” | Dezeen
- Allbirds Sustainable Socks
- “Biogarmentry clothes can photosynthesize like plants” | Dezeen
- “Bio Iridescent Sequins are the green alternative for sustainable sparkles” | Dezeen
- British Retail Consortium (BRC) Voluntary Guideline on Veganism in Fashion
- Charlotte McCurdy | carbon-sequestering clothing
- DESSERTO Vegan Leather
- DoneGood
- FLWRDWN™
- “H&M, Zara, and other fashion brands are tricking shoppers with vague sustainability claims” | FastCo
- “Is your favorite fashion brand greenwashing? Use this checklist to find out” | FastCo
- “Lab-grown spider silk used for Adidas x Stella McCartney biodegradable dress” | Dezeen
- Levi’s Secondhand
- “Madewell, Patagonia, and Eileen Fisher want to buy your old clothes” | FastCo
- “Meet BM Leather: The leather made from the residue left behind while brewing beer” | Yanko Design
- MycoWorks fine mycelium
- “Native Shoes makes plant-based sneakers from pineapple and eucalyptus” | Dezeen
- Post Carbon Lab
- Recover Brands – tees made from bottles
- re/make – fast fashion stats
- “Repurposing winter jackets led to these portable cribs for stray cats!” | Yanko Design
- Resonance Companies
- “Seriously, stop throwing away your old clothes” | FastCo
- SmartWool Second Cut™ Project
- The Fabrics Of The Future Will Be Eco-Friendlier, Cooler And Reusable | crunchbase news
- “The next big thing in fashion? Not washing your clothes” | FastCo
- Theory for Good
- Thousand Fell recyclable sneakers
- “When you’re done with this T-shirt, bury it. It turns into worm food in 12 weeks” | FastCo
- Worn Wear | Patagonia
Communities/Networks
- American Sustainable Business Council/Social Venture Circle
- Impact Hub
- MIT Solve
- Net Impact
- Social Impact World/Social Impact Chat Slack group
- TUMML
- US Green Building Council
Consulting Firms/Agencies
- coflowco
- Conspiracy of Love
- dojo4
- Social Impact Strategies Group
- Supur
- Sustainalytics
- The Knew Purpose
Conferences/Events
CSR/ESG/Business/Branding
- Edelman Trust Barometer
- Fitch Ratings ESG Products
- Nike Circular Design
- The Emerging Fourth Sector: A New Sector of Organizatinos at the Intersection of the Public, Private, and Social Sectors | The Aspen Institute
- “To Affinity and Beyond: From We to We, the Rise of the Purpose-Led Brand” | Accenture
- “What Boards Need to Know About Sustainability Ratings” | HBR
- “Why It’s Time to Finally Worry about ESG” | HBR
E-Commerce
Environment/Climate Change
- “3D printed terra cotta tiles restore devastated coral reefs” | FastCo
- “American buildings aren’t designed to survive climate disasters” | FastCo
- “Cities Are Tucking Climate Change Fixes Into New Laws” | Wire
- “Climate Adaptation Isn’t Surrender, It’s Survival” | Wired
- “Climate Change Is Going to Transform Where and How We Build” | HBR
- “Coming Full Circle: Sustainable Retail In A Post-Recycling Age” | PSFK
- “Finland announces plans to become carbon neutral by 2035” | Dezeen
- “Food Waste Is a Serious Problem. AI Is Trying to Solve It” | Singularity Hub
- “Get ready for tens of millions of climate refugees” | MIT Technology Review
- “How Realistic Are the Global Climate Change Targets? New Research Weighs In” | Singularity Hub
- “If we spend $1.7 trillion on climate adaptation we could make four times that much back” | MIT Technology Review
- “In Arizona, a case study in how architecture can adapt to climate change” | FastCo
- Level10 Energy
- “Our planetary health report card looks really grim” | MIT Technology Review
- “Rain-harvesting panels would let people in drought-stricken cities catch their own water” | Dezeen
- “Satellites will let us track air pollution from every power plant in the world” | MIT Technology Review
- Smart Forest City Cancun
- “The best (and easiest) thing your city can do for itself? Plant more trees” | FastCo
- “The code that powers our lives has a hidden environmental toll: A startling new paper reveals the massive carbon footprint of machine learning.” | FastCo
- “The dark side of green development–and what cities should do instead ” | FastCo
- “These algae tiles can turn any building into a pollution-scrubbing machine” | FastCo
- “This AI shows what climate change could do to your house by 2050” | FastCo
- “This credit card also tracks your carbon footprint along with your payments” | Yanko Design
- “U.S.’s Most Energy-Efficient Cities Are Also Its Richest, Boosted by Green Policies” | Karma Impact
- “What is carbon gentrification?” | FastCo
- “Why carbon taxes may need to be far higher than we’d planned” | MIT Technology Review
- “Will the rise of IoT and slowing of Moore’s Law contribute to climate change?” | VentureBeat
Food/Food Waste/Groceries/Restaurants
- 38th & Sheridan
- Apeel
- ClubZero
- Dream Pops
- Everytable
- Goodr
- Green One
- Greyston Bakery
- “Gulp. Your reusable coffee mug may be just as bad for the environment as a disposable” | FastCo
- KAIKU
- Kuleana
- La Cocina Kitchen Incubator
- Low-CO2 food labeling will be the next ‘low fat’ craze – FastCo article | FastCo
- Misfits Market
- Noir. Dining in the Dark Saigon
- NotCo
- Olio – food + household item, community-based sharing app
- Restaurante Interno – Second Chances
- Shelf Engine
- The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders
- This airline is replacing millions of single-use cups with tasty edible ones | FastCo (Air New Zealand)
- trū Shrimp Company
- Zero Grocery
Healthcare
- “A hospital introduced a robot to help nurses. They didn’t expect it to be so popular” | FastCo
- Centering Pregnancy
- Chester the AI Radiology Assistant
- Clear Health Costs
- Manatee | “mental health for today’s family”
- “Price Transparency in Health Care Is Coming to the U.S. — But Will It Matter?” | HBR
- Sidecar Health
- “When Patient Experience and Employee Engagement Both Improve, Hospitals’ Ratings and Profits Climb” | HBR
Jobs
- “28 (now 32) of the best places to look for purposeful jobs that make the world better” | Moving Worlds
- B Work
- Building Solar Farms May Not Build the Middle Class | The New York Times
- Careers in Social Impact | Net Impact
- Collective Impact Forum
- Design Gigs for Good
- Devex
- goodgigs
- Kapor Capital
- Rethink Impact
- Skoll Foundation Community Jobs Board
- Social Enterprise Jobs Google Group
- Tech Jobs for Good
- Tech Nonprofit Job Board
Packaging
- CY-BO | Kenji Abe
- Elena Amato creates sustainable cosmetics packaging from bacteria | Dezeen
- “Icelandic design studio makes bioplastic meat packaging from animal byproducts” | Dezeen
- LivingPackets
- Notpla
- PriestmanGoode Zero Takeaway Packaging
- TerraCycle
- “The shockingly simple way to make packaging more sustainable” | FastCo
- Tokki
- Vericool
- “Wilson’s plastic-free tennis ball packaging” | BillerudKorsnäs
Personal Care/Home/Retail
- “A backpack made from completely natural, eco-friendly materials? Yes please!” | Yanko Design
- “Aivan grows headphones from fungus and yeast” | Dezeen
- “An eco-friendly brush that calculates the plastic you have saved from the trash” | Yanko Design
- Biofase
- Bite Toothpaste Bits
- Blueland
- Buffy
- by Humankind
- Crafted Society
- Eclipse Foods
- “Eco-friendly design alternatives of everyday products that help you save the planet” | Yanko Design
- Enrou
- Folium
- Food Rescue Hero
- Formr Furniture
- Goodee
- Groundfridge
- “How An Eco-Friendly Toothpaste Tablet Is Disrupting The Personal Care Market” | PSFK
- “Innovative Bio-Integrated Design Wins Water Futures Design Challenge” | The Bartlett School of Architecture
- Loowatt
- “Made entirely out of natural materials, this travel kit is comfortable and eco-friendly” | Yanko Design
- Michroma
- No Tox Life
- OnMateria
- Packed With Purpose
- Reswirl
- Rhodora Wine Bar
- “Royal College of Art student designs compostable clay vases… out of waste milk” | Yanko Design
- Scribit Pen
- “Shampoo Packaged in “Bottles” Made of Soap” | Kottke.org
- Space Available
- Sprout
- “Stop throwing away your cooking grease—this kit turns it into soap in minutes” | FastCo
- “The anti-plastic movement is coming for your bathroom” | FastCo
- The Earthling Co.
- The Little Market
- Toasting Good
- Useless Survival Kit
Plastic – Pollution
- “Do plastic bag taxes or bans curb waste? 400 cities and states tried it out.” | Vox
- Four technologies tackling the problem of plastic pollution in rivers | Dezeen
- “Investment Dollars Flow Into Circular Economy As Concerns Over Plastic Trash Grow” | Karma Impact
- “Microplastic Found Even In The Air In France’s Pyrenees Mountains” | NPR
- “Microplastics Have Invaded The Deep Ocean — And The Food Chain” | NPR
- “Single-use plastic: China to ban bags and other items” | BBC News
- “The biggest problem with Coachella is that it all goes away after two weeks” | Dezeen
- “This sickening graphic shows how much plastic exists on Earth right now” | FastCo
- “Three-quarters of plastic products are toxic” | FastCo
- “Why Plastic Waste Is a C-Suite Issue” | HBR
Plastic/Other Materials – Reuse/Alternatives
- “Biodegradable plastics offer “no advantage” over conventional plastics in reducing ocean pollution” | Dezeen
- Bioplastics – Industry standards & labels
- “Bottle recycling scheme in Rome exchanges plastic waste for metro rides” | Dezeen
- “Chemical process to turn plastic waste into clean fuel” | MIT Technology Review
- “Decay by design: These 3D-printed organic plastics naturally decompose” | FastCo
- Ecovative Design
- “Enis Akiev makes marbled tiles from post-consumer plastic waste” | Dezeen
- Friendship Bottles
- Full Cycle Bioplastics
- Furniture made out of old jeans is way more beautiful than it sounds | FastCo
- “Inside the $3 billion race to kill plastic” | FastCo
- Mafia Bags – upcycled sails
- “Malmö Upcycling Service repurposes waste materials to make sustainable furniture” | Dezeen
- Mamou-Mani
- “Mandalaki’s Birò O2 concept car is made from 80 per cent recycled plastics” | Dezeen
- MarinaTex
- Notpla
- Rareform
- Ro Plastic Prize
- Slippy Collection and its Kickstarter campaign
- “Snøhetta unveils S-1500 chair made from discarded fish nets” | Dezeen
- Standards for biodegradable, compostable and bio-based plastics: call for evidence | gov.uk
- SuperBee beeswax wraps
- Symplastic
- “These designers are using toxic waste to make gorgeous pottery” | FastCo
- “This beautiful new fabric is actually old plastic bags woven on a loom” | FastCo
- “This gorgeous museum is made from old jet fuel tanks” | FastCo
- Yardbird
Recreation/Play
- Frammento skateboard made from recycled tires | Paolo Gentile
- Grow It Yourself Helmet
- “I spent a day riding a bike made entirely of old Nespresso pods” | FastCo
- LEGO Replay
- Vélosophy Cycles
Technology
Impact Investing/Financial Services
- Arnie
- Aspiration
- CoPeace
- Doconomy
- Entelligent
- OpenInvest
- “This website gorgeously illustrates whether your investments are ruining the planet” | FastCo
- Util
Other Technology/Platforms
- beam
- BeeHero
- Copia
- FreeWill
- LanzaTech
- millie
- Our love of the cloud is making a green energy future impossible | TechCrunch
- phin
- “Robots that can sort recycling” | MIT News
- The Austin Social Innovation Ecosystem Map
- Think Sustainably Helsinki
- To the Market
The Arts
- “IKEA taps a world-famous artist to bring solar power to the masses” | FastCo
- “Julia Lohmann brings seaweed pavilion to Davos as climate-change warning” | Dezeen
- “Kelly Jazvac presents “beautiful and horrific” plastiglomerate lumps at Milan Triennale” | Dezeen
- “Shed prints plastic pollution on walls to highlight the problem of ocean waste” | Dezeen
- “This exhibit will make you ponder your plastic addiction” | FastCo
Tools
- B-Lab/UN Global Compact SDG Action Manager
- Impact Management Resources | Impact Management Project
- Logic Models | Community Tool Box
- Policy Priority Inference (PPI) framework | Omar A. Guerrero
- World Bank ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Portal
Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash