Impact Investing Might Help Save the World But Can Get Messy Along the Way

For a company in the unglamorous wastewater business, Cambrian Innovation Inc. has a high profile in Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Its technology uses electrically charged microbes to digest refuse, producing clean water and energy. Its customers include Domaine Chandon, a winery in Napa Valley, Calif. And its biggest investor is the billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple Inc.’s co-founder.

A couple of years ago, Cambrian bought rival Baswood Inc., which counted the actors Woody Harrelson as a cofounder and Edward Norton as chairman. “Films are now my sideline,” Norton said at a 2011 environmental symposium. “Waste is my business.” Baswood’s sludge bioreactor also uses microbes to treat water, and its marquee customer was Dr Pepper Snapple Group. Cambrian and Baswood’s merger promised “real change for the health of our planet,” Norton said.