In her latest contribution Heather Wilkinson of Striding Out analyses the social business and enterprise scene in Indonesia.

A major theme currently in Indonesia is about environmental conversation - educating local people to converse and protect their natural environment and tackling the waste issues that currently prevail across the area.

Based on my experience of travelling the islands and mingling with locals so far, there is still a lot to do. Litter is everywhere and many local residents are just chucking it into the sea or on the street even when there are bins next to them. However, there are some social enterprises which are just beginning to scratch the surface and help locals go green to protect their own future.

Is the benefits system locking people into poverty? This is the controversial argument of a book from Roundhouse Founder Torquil Norman. Entitled Kick the Tyres, Light the Fires it first appeared last year and has just been released in paperback. The book is part autobiography and part political thesis outlining his life to date before moving on to his prescription for change in the welfare system.

Writing in the Third Sector, ClearlySo CEO, Rodney Schwartz, reflected on our recent report on Investor Perspectives on Social Enterprise Financing and in particular the notion of 3D investing. You can read the full article in the latest issue. Alternatively, we've reproduced the text below.

When June O'Sullivan arrived at the Westminster Children's Society, she found a charitable organisation with enormous potential, but facing a number of problems. Established in 1903, it had been providing affordable childcare to  local people  for over a hundred years. However, if it was to ever help as many people as it could, she believed a radical change of structure. She set about transforming the organisation from a small local charity into a growing social enterprise - now under the banner of the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF).

After five years of building Striding Out CIC, I'm attempting the four hour working week philosophy, encouraged by Tim Ferris, and taking some time out travelling the world, getting inspired, having fun and spotting interesting social enterprise concepts, whilst still working remotely as Chair of Stridng Out (this is turning out to be a bit more than four hours a week though - I haven't mastered it just yet).

In New Zealand there is a clear opportunity for social enterprise to tackle environmental goals. The country generally has a positive green and sustainable image, yet I was surprised to see just how early stage this entire sector is. According to several people I met energy efficiency and sustainable living is only just beginning to take shape. There is a real opportunity for social enterprises to drive forward development in this space and I met two which were doing just that.

Last week we launched our first major piece of research entitled 'Investor Perspectives on Social Enterprise  Financing'. It was a great piece of work and contains much the sector as a whole can work with. We dragged in report author, Katie Hill, to tell us more.

Is there a real interest among institutional investors?

Positive news comes in the fact that there is interest from institutional investors. Around 96% of all those I interviewed said they were interested in this space. There is demand from the client side and there are signs that they have spotted it. RBS, for example, has started training its staff in financing the needs of social entrepreneurs. However, much of this client demand goes unidentified - it would be great to capture that interest and see that convert into investment action.

New up on Social Edge is a new discussion looking back on a tumultuous few weeks for the Murdoch empire. The piece is currently online, but you can read the full text below.

Headlines in the UK, the US and many other parts of the world have been dominated by one item these past few weeks: the "phone hacking" and related scandals which led to the closure of the longstanding Sunday Tabloid newspaper the News of the World and their impact on the wider media empire run by Rupert Murdoch.

UK Politicians, hitherto too frightened to challenge the power of this media mogul, are rising up to call Murdoch and his lieutenants to account, and the concentration of voices in the media is being seriously questioned for the first time in years. It is not too dramatic to suggest that democratic forces in Britain are re-awakening from their slumber.

I have never gone to the Glastonbury music festival, but always aspired to do so.   The combination of great music, wonderful surroundings and dinosaurs (both on stage and in the crowd), ALL MY AGE, seems certain to make me feel less old than I actually am and grant me a weekend's return to the youth I never had!

Sadly I read in the Observer over the weekend that the crowd, Instead of contenting themselves with traditional mainstays (sex, drugs and alcohol) now also seem to have developed a new practice: leaving their tents and many associated possessions at the venue.   The result is that this waste has to be scooped up, brought to and thrown into landfilll--at a considerable financial and environmental cost.   This story raises an issue we in the social enterprise sector need to focus heightened attention on--end of life disposal of consumer products.

It was a busy day at ClearlySo yesterday as we crammed in two very different, but complimentary social investment events. We started early with a breakfast launch event at the Guildhall for our new report into Investor Perspectives on Social Enterprise Financing.

It's a great document and was brilliantly written by Katie Hill. It provides a real insight into one segment which is yet to fully embrace the social investment space: institutional investors. This entire area appears to be in a pivotal state at the moment: institutional investors are showing interest, but are deterred by the thought of high risk, lack of impact reporting and a perception that there are two few investible opportunities. That last point has been a continuing mill stone around the sector's neck, but it's one that is not necessarily true, as our second event of the day illustrated.

This morning saw the launch of our first major piece of research into the social investment marketplace. Commissioned by City of London Corporation, City Bridge Trust and Big Lottery Fund the study aims to examine the appetite among institutional investors for social investment. You can download the full report from the City of London Corporation website.