UPDATE: And the winners are! ... Chid Liberty, Driptech, Native American Natural Foods, Re: char, Solar Sister, and The Mission Continues. Many of the Innovation Award finalists will be speaking at the SVN Fall Conference. Learn more here.

Social Venture Network (SVN) brings CEOs and founders of high-impact, innovative businesses and social ventures together to foster peer-to-peer relationship building and collaboration. Throughout SVN’s 23-year history, it has been “the network of pioneers of socially responsible business”. Singlebrook CEO, Elisa Miller-Out recently joined SVN. She has begun building meaningful relationships with other high-impact entrepreneurs at events like the 2011 Spring Conference, NYC Member Gatherings, and through her Peer Circle.

SVN announced its 5th Annual Innovation Award Finalists in June. SVN’s Executive Director, Deb Nelson describes the ideology behind the Innovation Awards. "We believe the most ground-breaking solutions emerge when you combine passionate leaders with innovative ideas. At Social Venture Network, we support and connect the most influential social entrepreneurs on the planet, and we launched the SVN Innovation Awards to honor the next generation of visionary leaders. "

Innovation Award winners are invited to join SVN and benefit from this great opportunity to grow their social ventures with the help of the people and resources found in the SVN community. Several of the ten finalists have unique, innovative stories involving Technology for Change.

Peter Frykman of Driptech manufactures and distributes affordable, low-maintenance and efficient irrigation systems to small-plot farmers in India and China. The Driptech irrigation systems are 50% less expensive than the nearest competition. Driptech is rapidly expanding to serve the needs of 600 million subsistence farmers who would benefit from this irrigation system.

Jamie Yang of EGG Energy is providing an affordable, safe, market-based solution to Tanzanians who do not have access to electricity. EGG Energy, the “portable grid”, supplies rechargeable, portable batteries for a subscription fee.

Katrina Scotto di Carlo of Supportland is combing tech with the buy-local campaign in Portland, OR, with hopes to expand to other areas of the country with a strong network of local businesses. The Supportland website maps local businesses and offers a rewards card that can be used at any of the 90 businesses. Supportland also provides these businesses with a web presence and a place to build their network.

Jason Aramburu of Re:Char uses pyrolosis, a technology that has been around since World War II, to empower local villages in the developing world by providing them with a soil enriching product while reducing CO2 emissions in the process. Pyrolosis is a carbon-negative technology. Plants take CO2 out of the atmosphere, and as they decompose, that CO2 is released back into the atmosphere. The pyrolosis process uses agricultural waste, including plants before they decompose, to create bio-char and bio-oil. Bio-char is used to enrich the soil for farming, and bio-oil is a low-grade fuel that can be easily converted to heating oil and diesel for farm equipment.

Visit the SVN website to find out more about the SVN 2011 Innovation Award finalists.

Singlebrook is happy to share this story of technology for change! If you know of other great examples of T4C, we urge you to join our movement by sharing them in our LinkedIn Group: Singlebrook Technology for Change (T4C), or on Twitter using the hashtag #SBT4C. Any tweets that use our hashtag will automatically get re-tweeted to our following.