Last week I posted a draft of an essay I've been working on, about how "transcommercial enterprises" - companies which see doing the right thing as the path to profits - might become the future of business. The response has been terrific, most recently these two transcommercial anecdotes:

Cooperation is Catching is the story of how Unilever (the world's largest buyer of seafood) joined forces with WWF to create the Marine Stewardship Council - an objective body to certify sustainable fish catches. Since its founding in 1999, MSC has now grown to include "over 100 major seafood processors, traders and retailers" who see in sustainable fishing not only a future for their industry, but better profits today. (Thanks Jean-Paul!)

Markets Shaped by Consumers describes how groups of people working together to fill a need unmet by the market often end up creating entirely new markets, and how social software, the Internet, cellphones and other technologies of collaboration are accelerating the process. The implications for socially- and environmentally-responsible products and services are, I trust, obvious.

"Eric von Hippel, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, argues that a huge swath of innovation can be traced to elite consumers whom he calls lead users. These imaginative and technically adept consumers spot a need and invent a solution, often changing whole industries, from sports to software. Mr. Von Hippel and his graduate students have compiled a series of case studies that fit his model of user innovation. Mountain biking, for example, began in the early 1970's when cyclists wanted to abandon paved roads for rough terrain. At the time, commercial bikes were not up to the task, so cyclists took heavy old bike frames with balloon tires and bolted on motorcycle-type lever-operated brakes for surer stops when careering down mountain trails. The industry spotted the trend, and mountain bike sales now account for more than half of the bike market in the United States." (thanks Howard, via Marcia!)