Founded in 1987, SVN is a community of leaders. We are company founders, private investors, social entrepreneurs and key influencers who share a commitment to building a just and sustainable world through business. The relationships and initiatives born within their network have ranged from lasting friendships to investment deals to founding organizations.
Our Mission
We connect, support, and inspire business leaders and social entrepreneurs in expanding practices that build a just and sustainable economy.
Meet the Team
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CEO & Founder, Leverage Lab
Pronouns: she/herSara dedicates her time and energy to the intersection of business and sustainability. With a Masters Degree in the Science of Sustainability and 20 years of experience in the field, Sara helps businesses capitalise on declaring, measuring and monitoring their impact. She helps companies achieve B Corp certification, honing their ethical business practices and baking them into the DNA of their companies. Her passion for engaging people has gifted her with a vast network and an ability to lead productive workshops; finding ways of working across silos and building collaborations that are in service to a wider agenda.
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Operations Specialist, Project Manager, Graphic Designer
Pronouns: she/herEliane serves as SVN’s Operations Specialist. With a background in social entrepreneurship and a BBA from Simon Fraser University, Eliane brings five years of experience in operations, community engagement, and project management to this role. She excels at implementing scalable systems, optimizing processes, and developing communication strategies that enhance organizational efficiency and stakeholder engagement.
Prior to SVN, Eliane managed a community of over 80 coaches at Sphere Guidance. Her passion for social impact extends beyond her professional life; she has served as a board member for Hustle at RS Dance Society and founded Get Out There, an online hub connecting youth with civic and environmental opportunities in Vancouver. She brings deep experience in Human-Centred Design and business systems analysis, having worked with a number of startups including PlayCity, Nomad Nutrition, Sphere Guidance, and Roots & Rivers.
Our Board of Directors
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CEO & Founder, WareCorp
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Co-President, SunCommon (2015-2023)
Duane has a varied background as a social entrepreneur, currently in his 7th career with stints as a medic, police officer, non-profit manager, political campaigner, justice department official, legislative director, and values-led business practitioner. The common thread through all his roles has been organizing people to take meaningful action towards positive change.
He moved to Vermont in 1996 to help Ben use Ben & Jerry’s as a force for social change. After 12 years there as Ben’s Chief of Stuff, Duane left to launch his latest venture — SunCommon — to make it easy and affordable for homeowners to help repower Vermont with clean, safe, in-state energy. SunCommon, a Benefit Corporation and a Certified BCorp, has grown to become Vermont’s largest provider of residential, community, and commercial solar business, employing over 100 people.
Duane has been an active member of the VBSR community since 1996, and his wife Laura served as VBSR’s Program Manager in the past. He’s a member of the Social Venture Network and serves on the Board of Trustees at VPIRG. In 2015, he was recognized by VBSR with the Terry Ehrich Award for Lifetime Achievement in values-led business.
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Founder, Azizam Wines
Founder of Azizam Wines and Hariri Consulting, based in Baja California, Mexico.
Applying climate communications, policy, and change management experiences to winegrowing, championing a terroir-based, sustainable approach using urban climate resilience strategies.
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Principal, Reredel Ventures
Pronouns: he/himI've dedicated my career to improving people's lives, our social fabric, and the quality of our natural world through improved leadership, business performance, and operational choices, particularly in "impact" businesses.
Since my beginnings in a highly successful family business, I've been an entrepreneur, CEO of my company and of other businesses., investor, board member, and more.
My professional mission is to multiply the positive human, social, and environmental impact businesses by contributing to healthy business performance and relationships; and to do so at a scale that meaningfully contributes to bring about my vision: a world where what we now call “the green economy” or “a just economy” is the economy.
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Director, Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy
I work at the nexus of systems change, leadership development and regenerative design through a broad set of collaborations and via my own change agency Living Lab (fka Coalesce).
As a coach, I help changemakers navigate complexity, hone purpose, and customize and carry out a strategy for amplifying impact within institutions and across sectors.
As a consultant, I enable systems transformation by building organizational capacity, facilitating community-wide vision, aligning plans and policies, and activating solutions that celebrate each community's unique essence.
As a connector and convener, I weave together communities of like-minded/hearted people and solutions, I design processes, host gatherings and hold space for synergistic impact.
I am guided by my love for life and commitment to a healthy future whether through the framework of the UN SDGs, science-based targets, planetary boundares, B Corp, Future Fit or otherwise. My work is aiding in the collective shift away from the narrative of extraction and exploitation and toward a story of equity, circularity and symbiosis on planet earth.