The end is nigh in our search for 2007's top social entrepreneur

Contest sponsored by 'The Independent' to find the most innovative, society-changing business figures nears its clima

Last year, The Independent began a quest to find the UK's most successful social entrepreneurs. Putting aside the traditional view of entrepreneurship that the more money a business makes the better this contest would look for those businesses which were using money to transform society.

More than 30 companies put themselves forward for consideration, and today The Independent, in collaboration with The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), can present the six finalists. All of them embody the concept of social entrepreneurship but there is still confusion in the UK over what this term exactly means.

Social entrepreneurship is not just another way of describing a charitable organisation or foundation, nor is it about campaigning or simply corporate social responsibility.

Instead, social entrepreneurs identify opportunities for market creation and in the process change systems and practices that have excluded millions from benefiting from advances in information education technology, health technology, full employment, and the like. Their role is also that of a transformational catalyst, spinning off models that can be replicated for wide adoption in many settings. And almost always the obstacles encountered to effect the systems' change are enormous.

Social entrepreneurs are often written off as impractical dreamers but a great example of what can be accomplished is seen in the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank and pioneer of micro credit. He was deemed borderline sane as he struggled to launch his "bank for the poor" in Chittagong, Bangladesh. No one would have predicted that in the 20 years since Grameen's founding, the biggest banks in the world would be pursuing commercial opportunity among the poorest of the poor.

Pamela Hartigan, managing director of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, said the one thing that all the finalists had in common was innovation. "What they are doing is really changing systems, whether it be for the environment, different ways of sourcing things or distributing things, they are all innovators," she said, adding that all of the finalists' ideas were replicable. "They can go beyond the one place and they all have a direct impact on the ground, they are not intermediaries," she said.

When choosing a winner, "we want to pick the really unreasonable people in Britain, those who have done something completely different, something that has changed systems," she added.

The main aim of this collaboration between The Independent, the Schwab Foundation and the BCG is to showcase the UK's best practices in social entrepreneurship, highlighting how ordinary people can achieve the extraordinary. We aim to be a catalyst that promotes policies and practices to ensure that more social innovators with a business case are encouraged and nurtured.

Above all, this competition recognises that profits and prin-ciples do not have to be mutually exclusive, whether you're running a small or large business. The Independent's contest recognises the huge contribution that social entrepreneurs are set to make both to free market capitalism and to the world as a whole.

The winner will be announced at a ceremony at the British Museum on 14 January. Here we present the six finalists.

Belu Water

Belu Water was laun-ched with the mission of harnessing the resources of business "to create a sustainable balance between people and the planet". It does this by using 100 per cent of the profits from the sale of bottled water to fund clean water projects.

Belu Water's first step was "to create the most eco-friendly bottled water in the world", which is carbon neutral, and the first to come in a compostable bottle made from corn.

Its co-founder Reed Paget points out that this is the first carbon neutral product out of 70,000 stocked at Tesco and that Belu company is inspiring most major retailers to consider using similar plastics for their products. "This is shaking up the entire packaging industry in the UK," he said. "We are a major catalyst for change."

Launched in 2004 with investment from wealthy benefactors, Belu is currently breaking even. But due to its pledge that each bottle sold will translate as clean water for one person for one month, it has already set about cleaning up the world's water.

In Tamil Nadu in India, Belu has installed hand pumps and wells for 10,000 people. So far, 20,000 people in India and Mali are able to get clean water and ten times this number are projected for 2008. Belu is also working on a rubbish muncher for the Thames which will remove 45 tons of plastic bags and bottles each year.

Its message of sustainability reaches more than 500,000 consum-ers every month and has shown itself an effective medium for engaging the public in a wide range of environmental issues.

MEND

Obesity is an urgent, growing health epidemic which is rising faster in the UK than in any other part of Europe. If current trends continue, at least half of the population will be obese by 2032 and more than 50 per cent of primary school-aged boys will be obese by 2050. Currently, 3 million children in the UK are overweight or obese, with obesity rates noticeably higher in lower socio-economic groups. These children have a higher risk of dev-eloping diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and typically are bullied and have low self-esteem.

To tackle this growing crisis, MEND was set up as an obesity prevention and treatment programme based on research carried out at Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Institute of Child Health. The programme was laun-ched in 2004 after several years of development. MEND stands for Mind (Behavioural modification), Exercise (Increased physical activity), Nutrition (Dietary education) ... Do it! Thanks to funding from the Big Lottery, Sainsbury's, Sport England and local primary care trusts and local authorities it is offered completely free of charge to families. Children between the ages of seven and 13 and parents attend 20 after-school sessions over a 10-week period. The programme's emphasis is on lasting behavioural change, rather than weight loss or dieting.

MEND says that so far the results have been positive. Children treated six months and a year ago have sustained weight loss, improved health, higher exercise levels and increased self-confidence, according to the organisation. Some 2,500 children have been through the MEND Programme, which is currently running at more than 230 sites including eight in Australia and Denmark. Funding has been secured to provide the programme for 27,000 children at 300 sites by 2010 and there are plans to roll it out to the US.

The Hub

The Hub is a members' club with a difference membership is restricted to "social innovators", people who are striving to improve the world around them in new ways. A cross between an office and a coffee shop, the Hub provides the space for members to meet, interact and help each other.

Its founder, Jonathan Robinson, said: "The Hub is the place for people with ideas. We're seeking to borrow from the best of a members' club, a business incubator, an innovation agency, a dynamic public space, and a think-tank to create a very different kind of institution."

He said that The Hub attracts people "making good within and beyond the public, private and third sectors". The Hub takes as its starting point the belief that there is no absence of good ideas in the world. "The problem is a crisis of access, scale, resources and impact," Mr Robinson said.

The Hub's mission is to inspire and support social innovators to realise imaginative initiatives for a radically better world, he said.

It does this by offering membership to The Hub and "by working with leading institutions on Hub Ventures to design spaces, cultures, networks and services that inspire and support social innovation".

There are currently six hubs in Rotterdam, Sao Paulo, Bristol, London, Soweto and Johannesburg, but the company is expanding rapidly and there are plans to have more than 20 hubs by the end of 2008.

Community Food Enterprise

The London Borough of Newham is one of the most economically deprived areas in the UK. In part due to this poverty, many of its residents suffer from poor health, with incidences of cancers, diabetes (type 2), coronary heart disease and other diet-related diseases well above the UK average.

Eric Samuel, a lay preacher, launched Community Food Enterprise (CFE) after moving into the area and being shocked at what he found. "I was horrified by the poverty," he said. "I previously had no idea of the issues affecting the community there." He explained that many areas in Newham are "food deserts" where people experience physical and economic barriers to accessing healthy food. In 1999, when Mr Samuel moved there, Newham had the lowest concentration of affordable fruit and vegetable retailers in east London. This issue affects the most vulnerable and economically deprived people in the community.

Mr Samuel believes that eating healthy food should be a right, not a privilege. Living in the Cranberry Lane Estate, he became aware of the issue of "food deserts" when single parents and elderly residents living on the estate complained about the long trek to buy groceries. In response, he created a food co-op to provide them with food. Not long after, residents on the much larger Windsor Park estate approached Mr Samuel to replicate his business to address similar issues in this area.

CFE grew out of these early food co-ops. It provides affordable fruit and vegetables through its outlets and a mobile food store delivers fruit to schools, workplaces and local shops, provides education on food and nutrition, trains and empowers local volunteers and influences local and national food policy.

The Eden Project

The Eden Project transformed a clay pit into "Eden", an attraction that has drawn more than 9 million people to Cornwall since 2000. Established as an educational charity, the inspiration behind Eden was the belief that "we can work towards a better future". The idea was primarily Tim Smit's, working with horticultural gurus Peter Thoday and Philip McMillan Browse, and the Cornish architect and co-founder Jonathan Ball.

All the money raised goes towards work on public and formal education, research and conservation, and the project brings together science, art, technology and commerce. Eden showcases more than 1,000,000 plants representing 5,000 species from many of the climatic zones of the world. Inside its two futuristic "biomes", the biggest conservatories in the world, visitors wander between stories of different plants, how man both uses them and is dependent on them. For example, one such story explains how chocolate is made from cocoa plants. Pieces of artwork and sculpture that "engage and challenge" visitors on topical subjects include a horse made from driftwood, a giant built from discarded electrical appliances and an enormous granite "seed" weighing 70 tonnes.

The tourism that Eden draws to Cornwall has had a big impact on the local economy. Eden employs more than 500 people, uses 2,500 suppliers, and visitors stay in hostels and hotels nearby. As well as informing and engaging its visitors, Eden is involved in education in the UK and internationally, and forms partnerships with ecological organisations around the world.

Cosmos Ignite Innovations

Cosmos Ignite Innovations, founded by Amit Chugh and Matthew Scott in 2004, is the first global company to address the challenges of kerosene replacement through a for-profit, sustainable social venture.

Its mission is to provide a cheaper alternative for the 1.6 billion people without electricity who are dependent on the dangerous and smoky glow of fuel based lighting such as kerosene. Cosmos Ignite has developed a suite of products ranging from $10 to $50 (5 to 25) which reaches more than 30,000 customers from India, Afghanistan and Pakistan through to Nigeria and Panama, and it also engages with Government at a policy level. It uses the latest Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology, in ready-to-use products such as the MightyLight, a solar-powered, water-resistant lamp.

Cosmos Ignite says that this, however, is just the start. It aims to exploit the commercial opportunity of kerosene replacement through a sustainable soc-ial venture and reach millions of kerosene users within the next three to five years. Its vision: "To have the tremendous social impact through the 'removal of darkness' but also to pioneer a new model of social business venture, demonstrating the power of the private sector to 'ignite' social change".

As Cosmos Ignite explains, not only is kerosene expensive, accounting for nearly 20 per cent of global lighting costs, it is also hugely inefficient, generating only 0.2 per cent of global lighting output. More important, the soc-ial costs of kerosene are enormous, and include respiratory illness, accidental fires and burns, lack of education and millions of tonnes of CO2.