Ecotact

Time for responsibility: As part of a special section on community service and responsibility, Time magazine just put out a list of “Responsibility Pioneers.” Acumen Fund is among them, along with investee D.Light Design, and peer organizations like KickStart, Ashoka and Living Goods. (Full list here.)

Ripple Effect makes a splash: IDEO and Acumen Fund have been partnering around innovation in the water sector, as this story on Forbes.com highlights.

Ecotact in the news: This video on CNN.com showcases the work of Acumen Fund investee Ecotact, which provides sanitation services in Kenya, as well as David Kuria, the entrepreneur behind the organization.

Outlook on GEWP: Outlook India recently featured this article on the success of drip irrigation and GEWP.

The pulse of Pulse: VentureBeat looks at the development and progress of Pulse as a platform for metrics in the social investing space.

“The toilet is a godsend” says Maurice Kirimi, a 29-year old Kenyan interviewed in line outside an Ecotact Ikotoilet last week. Maurice’s comments - along with a handful of other customers’ - were featured in an article that appeared in Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper about new, pay-per-use public toilets. Entitled “Public toilets no longer filthy dens but gleaming havens,” the article discusses pricing (5 KSh for the toilets - about $0.06 USD; 10 KSh for a shower - about $0.12 USD) and customer satisfaction.

We’re glad to see an Acumen Fund investee featured in the article, but what’s even better is to hear customers’ opinions of clean, professionally-managed sanitation facilities. And you can’t beat the photo, which is of an Ikotoilet facility on Aga Khan Walk.