Not every business in Boston is a cesspool of greedy bastards ready to garrote you with their bootstraps. Turns out there are actually some pretty decent people in commonwealth—some are even running companies with a commitment to making the world a better place. We spoke to four Bostionians who do good business doing good.

TEEN VOICES

All teens have something to say—angst, anyone?—

but Teen Voices gives them the opportunity to actually have their voices heard.

Each fall, spring and summer, about 30-35 female high school students attending public schools in Boston are given an opportunity to work with a college mentor, attend life skills workshops and write for the award-winning print and online publication. “Teen Voices creates an atmosphere where teen girls can talk to other teen girls about what it means to be a teen, discussing the way they are portrayed in the media and the way certain issues impact their lives,” says marketing and editorial director Sarah Binning. The 60-page magazine is published twice per year, featuring articles on all topics—including some racier subjects like sexting. Don’t do that, bee tee dubs.
[@teenvoices. teenvoices.com]

EVERY PERSON HAS A STORY

Ryan Ansin, a photographer and videographer, was offered the chance to work on a documentary about water purification in Rwanda—but he turned it down. “I would be the random white guy drinking bottled water and wouldn’t be affected by the change,” he explains. Instead, Ansin offered to teach photography in Rwandan schools, beginning the foundation behind his organization, Every Person Has a Story (EPHS). Believing that photographs coming from the person experiencing the event themselves rather than a third-party photographer are more meaningful, Ansin and other EPHS representatives began to travel to schools throughout the world, teaching photography and giving out cameras for individual use.

“We connect each of the organizations we work with abroad to high schools and middle schools here in the states to exchange photos and ideas, allowing students in the US to open their eyes to reality, both positive and negative, of things that are happening around the world.”

And vice versa.

Today, EPHS has 21 locations including in Rwanda, Kenya, the DR, Haiti and Cambodia.
[ephas.org]

NJABINI APPAREL

Instead of spending his free time partying, Northeastern University undergrad Mike Behan founded Nijabini Apparel while on co-op last December, and he’s been running the company with a small team ever since. The type-two social business employs Kenyan mothers, offering them the opportunity to be self-sufficient, educate their children and save for the future. After training, the employed report to a workshop each morning where they hand-make infinity scarves, slippers, bracelets, handbags, yoga bags and more.

“Each product you buy is unique and it creates a special bond between the woman who makes it and the person who finds it after they make it,” Behan says. “[The buyer] is the person driving this impact—each sale goes to further employ more women.”

[@Njabini_Apparel. njabiniapparel.org]

PRACTICALLY GREEN

After discovering her son’s food and environmental allergies two years ago, Susan Hunt

Stevens realized the difficult changes required to sustain an environmentally healthy lifestyle—and wanted to help others alter their lives for the better, too.

“We recognized that almost everyone wants to make changes, but there’s a big gap between what people say they want to do and what people actually do—it’s not easy,”

Hunt Stevens explains. She created the interactive technology company, Practically Green, to motivate and inspire people to make healthy, reasonable changes in their everyday life: “Really, the focus is to make the process of living a sustainable lifestyle easier—and way more fun.”
[@practicallygrn. practicallygreen.com]

SANERGY

We all hate public bathrooms. The stench, the small space, the idea of hundreds of people going in and out of them per day—but what if your alternative was a plastic bag?

For the 2.6 billion people in the world don’t have access to adequate sanitation, a porta-potty is a luxury they don’t have.

Sanergy, explains co-founder and MIT grad David Auerbach, addresses this issue using a three-step module: fill, collect, convert. After building a network of low-cost sanitation facilities in Nairobi, Sanergy franchised these out to local entrepreneurs in the community who charge others to use the toilets. Members collect the waste on a daily basis, eventually converting it into fertilizer. Don’t wrinkle your nose—the model creates jobs while addressing social needs
[@Sanergy. saner.gy]