This post was originally produced for Forbes.
Nearly 2,500 years ago, Hippocrates penned his famous oath requiring doctors to pledge, among other things, to do no harm to their patients. While not required by all medical schools—and by virtually none in its original form—most people are familiar with the concept.
Social entrepreneurs seek to address an almost infinite range of issues, from climate change to HIV and from homelessness in America’s inner cities to extreme poverty in remote villages of Africa and Asia. Whether for financial or political reasons, some social entrepreneurs focus on a single issue, seeming to wear blinders to others.
One of the international development world’s favorite interventions is clean cookstoves. They are a favorite, in part, because they have three separate impacts: improving health of women and children, reducing time or money spent gathering wood or buying charcoal and finally, mitigating climate change by slowing deforestation.
Clean cookstove, left,…