Click the player to listen to my conversation with Ted, which goes into detail about how he launched operations oversees and why he choose to become incorporated as an L3C.  Right-click and save for the MP3.

Prosperity Candle is a for-profit social venture with L3C legal status (a Low-profit Limited Liability Company combines the financial advantages of an LLC with the social advantages of a nonprofit).  Ted Barber and his co-founder Amber Chand spent several years exploring the optimal product or service that could be used to create a business model they called Shared Prosperity, which gives every woman a regular and transparent share in profits.  They settled on candle-making (after extensive at-home tests) because it’s a highly scalable craft that requires only incremental investment in low-cost equipment (in this case, the wax molds).

For $140 an Iraqi woman can purchase a kit complete with the materials and equipment for candle-making, as well as an extensive entrepreneurship guide that covers record keeping, steps for starting a business and attributes of a successful entrepreneur.  Working with its core partner Women for Women International, Prosperity candle subsidizes the cost of the kits and additional wax molds; a new partnership with a microfinance provider now enables the women to buy materials on credit.  The entrepreneurs are paid $5 for every exportable candle when they bring their products to their local collection branch, run by Women for Women.  The entrepreneurs can produce one candle per mold per day, which, at one $5-candle per day, allows a woman to receive more than double the average hourly wage.  After selling eight candles, a woman can invest in a new wax mold and double her output and income.

On Prosperity Candle’s signature components is the interaction between consumers and the entrepreneurs.  ”It’s a rare instance when [an entrepreneur] is able to sell her product across the world and have a [consumer] talk directly to [her].  It’s had a tremendous impact on the women’s…sense of self esteem, of being connected to the world, of not being isolated in Baghdad…. It’s a powerful experience for them to realize that this isn’t just a project taking place in Baghdad, but that it’s a long-term opportunity for them and that they now have customers,” says Ted.

Like this interview?  You can thank Ted on Twitter like this and follow him at @WomenProsper.

I spoke with World of Good co-founder Siddharth Sanghvi on how he and Priya Haji built a business that caught eBay’s eye and turned responsible purchasing mainstream. Siddharth talks about how he and Priya built the company and gives suggestions for other social entrepreneurs. Our conversation is about 20 minutes. Click the player below to listen or right-click and save for the MP3.

Siddharth and Priya met in business school and founded World of Good in 2004 from a combined $10,000 in savings.

For the past two years World of Good and eBay have partnered to create the world’s largest multi-seller marketplace for responsible shopping, WorldofGood.com by eBay.  The social enterprise has connected more than 40,000 artisans from developing populations with eager buyers. Last year (2008-09) 74% of sellers on WorldofGood.com saw increased sales.

A thank you to Jill Primost of WorldofGood.com for reaching out and coordinating this conversation. I worked with Jill on the socially responsible giving campaign iGiveTwice.com and she’s terrific.

World of Good fan? Keep up with Siddharth, Jill and the team on Twitter and tell them what you think, @WorldofGood_com.

1. Consumers trust brands more than they trust the government.

(Annie Longsworth, Managing Director, Cohn & Wolfe)
Republicans and Democrats meet at the checkout. Brands have a colossal toolkit to affect positive change. They’re working from a current level of high consumer trust.

2. 4  motivators in consumer behavior: Status, Altruism, Safety & Value.

(Mike Kraft, Senior Manager of Environmental Sustainability for Clorox)
Kraft used these principles to help turn Clorox’s Green Works line into the #1 consumer choice across every category of natural cleaning products.

3. Sustainability needs to be expressed honestly.

(Duke Stump, North Star Manifesto)
Consumers are highly skilled at sniffing out inauthentic brands and campaigns. Be authentic, be transparent, be honest.

4. The movement begins inside the company.

(Duke Stump)
Business initiatives need to stem from the company’s value-system. Creating an environmental campaign around saving the rain forest when you’re a cruise line or cereal manufacturer lacks internal (and customer) resonance.

5. Consumers are willing to pay 60% more for Fair Trade products.

(Rob Cameron, Fair Trade International)
Fair Trade Certification has become a brand, which draws its strength from its multilateralism. Many brands can be a part of this umbrella designation.

6. 76% of people will spend the same or more on green products in the next year.

(Annie Longsworth)
If you solve the top consumer obstacles to buying green–price, limited selection and limited availability–3/4 of consumers will be attracted to your product.

7. 83% of people want a label that tells them where their was grown and produced and clearly lists all ingredients.

(Annie Longsworth)
Given the bombardment of claims, certifications and nutrition information on our consumer goods, I’m surprised that consumers would look for additional (and esoteric) product information.

8. Interest in personal health correlates to interest in health of the planet.

(Thomas Oh, Director of Marketing, Frito-Lay)
SunChips connected its message of healthy, whole-grain snacking to environmental sustainability and appealed doubly to its target consumer.

9. 88% of people interviewed say the business sector should play a role in contributing to social and environmental change.

(Andrew Winston, author of Green Recovery)
Brands have consumers’ trust (see #2) and dollars (#4 and 6) and now consumer expectation for a product that’s both of value and of values. Business is now a powerful vehicle for social and environmental improvement.

10. The top green brands are found across sectors and aren’t ‘granola.’

Toyota, Walmart, Burt’s Bees, Green Works, Procter and Gamble, Ikea, Disney, SC Johnson, Toms of Maine and Dove.
(Annie Longsworth)
Your brand does not have to be organic, unprocessed or carbon-neutral to be a sustainability heavy-hitter. Social and environmental responsibility is not reserved for the benevolent; it’s just smart business.

Sustainable Life Media is a fantastic resource for sustainability news, trends and best practices, and they put on one heck of a conference.