Has captialism failed? Can we simply keep going as usual? The economic crisis has people rethinking the way they do business.

It’s been claimed that pepper from the Cambodian province of Kampot is the best in the world. But many plantations were destroyed under the rule of the Khmer Rouge and the region has taken a long time to recover.

From successful advertising executive to social entrepreneur: Sina Trinkwalder founded "Manomama", Germany's first social business venture in the textile industry.

In 1979 a group of anti-nuclear activists set up a company for solar technology. Solartechnikfirma Wagner & Co now has a 350-strong workforce, and is still run on the principle of self-management.

A growing number of coffee drinkers want coffee that not only tastes good but is also ecologically produced. It's a market niche that "Coffee Circle," a young company from Berlin, is successfully developing.

Sonett has an annual turnover of €6.3m, making it the third-largest provider of biological cleansers and soaps on the German market. The company's profits have been climbing for years. Report by Tabea Mergenthaler.

Ludolf von Maltzan is the manager of the "Brodowin Eco-Village" in Brandenburg. The organic farm has 220 cows, and they are much better off than the livestock on most other large dairy farms.

Reinhard Backhausen makes polyester fabrics that are fully recyclable. Customers get a certificate that allows them to get the material collected and recycled when they've finished with it.

Germany’s largest mineral water springs, the Adelholzener Alpenquellen, are not run by a powerful corporation, but by a Catholic order.

'Let your money work for you.' That slogan was once used by banks to attract new customers. But the banks didn't tell them what exactly would happen to their money. Now, investors have becoming more selective.

Since March, 2010 the relatively new social-business magazine aims to spur its readership on to sustainability, setting a good example in the process.

Chairs made of fig-tree-bark, gas tanks made of bio-plastics or mobile cases made of hemp fiber - these are only a few of the many products designed by Stefan Osswald from Halle.

Two things that Thomas Rau really dislikes are garbage and wasted energy. The businessman and founder of an architecture firm in Amsterdam is also sure that intelligent design and clever tricks can help eliminate both.

Regionalwert AG, a company based near Freiburg, Germany, works to save small farming operations. Its investors are motivated less by the desire for profit than by the preservation of regional economic structures.