Press Release – DRAFT
Social Venture Network Announces 2013 Innovation Awards Winners
Meet the next generation of world-changing entrepreneurs
August 7, 2013 – San Francisco – A soccer ball that never deflates. A sandal that sends girls
to school. A piece of paper that keeps food from spoiling. From refrigerators to soccer fields and
hospital waiting rooms, SVN's 2013 Innovation Awards winners are changing the way the world
does business. They've already had enormous impact in reducing waste, promoting health and
supporting education and employment in the developing world.
As the world's leading peer-to-peer network of values-driven entrepreneurs and investors, SVN
is proud to support the next generation of socially responsible business leaders. This year's
winners represent the very best of that group – people of all ages and backgrounds, working
everywhere from Berkeley to Rwanda. What unites them? The belief that business has the
ability – and the obligation – to be a force for good in the world.
Expert Judges
The 2013 Innovation Awards was judged by a panel of 11 expert judges, including previous
Innovation Award winner Nikhil Arora of Back To The Roots, Amy Hall of EILEEN FISHER, Inc.,
Renata Hron Gomez of the Hitachi Foundation and Amy Domini of Domini Social Investments.
The entrants were judged on their use of innovation, impact and ability to scale.
The Winners

Kavita M. Shukla and Swaroop Samant, Fenugreen: While the world's farmers
harvest enough to feed the planet, 25% of our food supply is lost to spoilage.
Fenugreen is taking on this massive global challenge with a simple innovation,
FreshPaper. Low-cost, compostable and made with organic spices, FreshPaper keeps
produce fresh 2-4 times longer. Fenugreen aims to revolutionize the food economy from
farm to fork, and transform the lives of the 1.6 billion who lack access to refrigeration
with its mission of "Fresh for All."

Liz and Ben Bohannon, Sseko Designs: Sseko Designs is an ethical fashion brand
that uses fashion to educate and empower women. Sseko hires high-potential young
women in Uganda to make sandals to enable them to earn money through dignified
employment that will go directly towards their college educations and ensure they will
continue pursuing their dreams. By working for Sseko during their gap year, these
talented young women from impoverished backgrounds gain access to a comprehensive
social impact program tailored to their needs and will earn enough income to finance
their career ambitions.

Elizabeth Scharpf, Sustainable Health Enterprises: SHE is a social venture that
invests in people and ideas that are typically overlooked as vehicles of socio-economic
change. SHE’s initial initiative involves developing a franchise model to manufacture and
distribute affordable, eco-friendly menstrual pads for girls and women by sourcing local,
inexpensive raw materials (e.g., banana fibers) and leveraging existing networks.
Coupling these new businesses with public health and hygiene education and advocacy
will have a significant social and economic impact on these communities.

Tim Jahnigen and Lisa Tarver, One World Futbol Project: One World Futbol
inventor Tim Jahnigen was inspired to start his project after watching news footage of
kids in Darfur playing a soccer game using a ball of trash tied up with twine. At that
moment, Tim and Lisa set out to design a ball that played like a “real futbol,” but would
never wear out, never go flat, never need a pump. OneWorld's goal is to bring the joy of
soccer and play to youth in disadvantaged communities so that children can be children
no matter where they live. For every ball bought by individuals at retail, the company
donates a second ball to organizations working with disadvantaged communities around
the world.

Michael Murphy and Alan Ricks, MASS Design Group: MASS Design Group is a
nonprofit architecture firm committed to building better buildings and enabling the
people who build them. Their first project, the Butaro Hospital (Rwanda, 2011),
employed architectural solutions to mitigate the transmission of airborne disease and
spurred local markets by hiring and training over 4,000 community members. Today, the
team works across Rwanda, Uganda, Liberia, Haiti and the US, conducting immersive
research in communities not only to build context-appropriate, safer, and healthier
facilities, but also to leverage local material markets, lead training workshops, spur craft
development and foster economic empowerment. MASS believes that this inclusive
process is the key to healthier and more resilient communities, and so invests in people
to drive positive change.
SVN 2013 Innovation Awards Prize
This year's award winners were judged based on the innovation and impact their businesses
displayed in solving social, environmental and economic problems. The winners will be formally
recognized at SVN's 2013 Fall Conference from October 17-20 in Baltimore, Md., where they will
present their pioneering work to an audience of more than 400 CEOs, investors and social
entrepreneurs. They will receive two years of SVN membership, along with free support and
advisory services from SVN members, and extensive media promotion.
– Ends –
SVN’s 2013 Fall Conference
SVN's Fall Conference unites these up-and-coming innovators with pioneers like Jeffrey
Hollender of Seventh Generation, Seth Goldman of Honest Tea and Majora Carter of the Majora
Carter Group. The conference takes place October 17-20, at the Renaissance Baltimore
Harborplace in Baltimore, Md., and focuses on building valuable peer-to-peer relationships
among high-impact, innovative business leaders. More information on guest speakers and
registration at: http://svn.org/attend-an-event/2013-fall-conference.
About SVN
Since 1987, Social Venture Network (SVN, www.svn.org) has been the leading network of
entrepreneurs who are transforming the way the world does business. SVN connects the
leaders of socially responsible enterprises to share wisdom and resources, form strategic
alliances and explore new solutions that build a more just and sustainable economy.
Contact
Donna Daniels
Social Venture Network
203-453-5693
donnad@svn.org
Kate Worteck
Social Venture Network
415-561-6501 x 11
katew@svn.org
Annette Leach
Hotwire PR
415-840-2790
SVN@hotwirepr.com