The summer issue of Ms. Magazine carried an article entitled “The Green Bottom Line: How environmentally conscious, women-run companies do good and do well.” The article, written by Ms. contributor Laura Orlando, begins with blackEnergy: “The trade-off between social good, the environment and profits isn’t really a tradeoff anymore — it’s an excuse. Just ask Sonja Ebron, CEO of blackEnergy in Atlanta. Her company, founded in 2001, secures energy for black communities, using collective buying power to negotiate some of the lowest natural gas rates in Georgia. Moreover, it sends some of its profits back to nonprofit organizations in its customers’ communities. And since the company anticipates that access to energy will get much tougher because of climate change, Ebron — who has a doctorate in electrical engineering — hopes its efforts to locally produce power will help ‘ease the transition to low-energy living’ for its customers.”

The article notes that more than $2 trillion is invested with socially responsible businesses today, much of it going to “triple bottom line” businesses — those focused on profits, social values and environmental stewardship. Other examples of such businesses include the White Dog Cafe, a wind-powered organic restaurant and food store in Philadelphia, and FarSounder, a marine electronics company that develops sonar technology to protect whales and coral reef from ship strikes. In addition to friends, family and angel investors, triple-bottom-line businesses are now sought out by formal investment networks like Investors’ Circle and Springboard Enterprises, among many others.

As it began, the article ended with a quote from blackEnergy’s CEO: “Creating social change is the only way to build a successful business in the long term,” says Ebron. “While profit-oriented businesses aim for profit, and nonprofit organizations aim to provide services, social enterprises aim for both. There is no trade-off for a successful social enterprise, because its business plan is designed to create wealth by doing good. And focusing on the bottom line helps ensure our social goals are met.”