Businessweek.com profiles 25 ventures selected from reader suggestions in their third annual roundup of America’s most promising social entrepreneurs. Guess who made into this year’s list?  Emory Knoll Farms/Green Roof Plants co-owners Ed Snodgrass & John Shepley – also two of our contributing editors!

“…Socially minded entrepreneurs and investors are still building the infrastructure to start and expand companies that exist between the purely for-profit and the purely philanthropic…Investors are beginning to consider social ventures more seriously…” ~ excerpt from Businessweek.com of June 22, 2011

Funny – Ed, our Plant Editor, has been with us the longest (since 2004) and writes the “Ask Ed” column, and John is our newest contributing editor, the Green Business Editor,  having just come on board earlier this year with his column “Sustainable Business Insights.”   Corporate sustainable  responsibility and has been their motto from their beginning in 2004; in 2010, Emory Knoll Farms  became one of the first benefit corporations under a Maryland law that creates a new legal designation for social enterprises.

Businessweek.com is asking us to “read through the profiles of these social ventures””then vote for the most promising before July 12 (the voting page is also available at the end of the slide show).  We’ll announce the top five vote-getters on July 19.” Everyone can vote once for their favorite.

How about we greenroofers unite and let’s all vote for Ed and John, and in the process highlight Emory Knoll Farms and our greenroof & wall industry!  A little self promotion never hurts, you know.

Read “America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs 2011” by John Tozzi, and the accompanying article “For-Profits Fixing Social Ills” by Nick Leiber, Joel Stonington, John Tozzi, and Venessa Wong which includes  the slide show of 2011’s 25 private, for-profit social enterprises  here – and specifically the one about Ed and John here.

For some background on Ed and Emory Knoll Farms, you can review my 2009 “From Llamas to Greenroofs: An Interview with Ed Snodgrass.”  Visit the Emory Knoll Farms/Green Roof Plants  website here.

Congratulations, Ed & John – way to go!

~ Linda V.