Award-winning social entrepreneur Madeleine Shaw shares insights from her 25-year journey and offers tools and encouragement for others considering starting their own impact-based projects or ventures for the greater good.

The Greater Good is a 21st century call to action for everyday people—particularly women and others who have traditionally been excluded from the mainstream business community—to tap their unique perspectives to found and lead successful social impact ventures. Groundbreaking menstrual health innovator Madeleine Shaw (co-founder of Aisle—previously known as Lunapads) presents an inspiring look at the inner journey behind creating businesses and initiatives that make a difference. In addition to sharing frank insights from her own career, she highlights the journeys of a host of other successful social entrepreneurs, and in so doing surfaces an emerging movement—a movement that may be the driver of a more just and sustainable future. Dispelling the myth that you need a business degree or a blockbuster tech idea to change the world, Shaw guides readers in mining their own experience, values, and passion to forge a unique and personal vision for the greater good.

Madeleine Shaw's profile page

Madeleine Shaw is a multiple award-winning social entrepreneur with over a quarter-century of experience launching for- and nonprofit ventures with social change at their heart. In 1993, at the age of twenty-five, she founded her first company, the precursor to Lunapads (rebranded as Aisle in 2020)—a founding Canadian B Corporation whose groundbreaking sustainable menstrual care products are sold in more than forty countries. In 2014, Shaw founded G Day, a registered charity that produced rite of passage events for tween girls across Canada until 2020. In 2017, she launched Nestworks, a family-friendly coworking community. She lives near Vancouver, BC, with her husband and daughter.

“Mandatory reading for changemakers everywhere.”

­—Chris Guillebeau, author of­ The Money Tree

“Madeleine is an extraordinary innovator whose ideas have had profound positive influence on so many lives. Her voice is a beacon for these times. Her stories will engage, inspire, and activate.”

—Joel Solomon, author of The Clean Money Revolution: Reinventing Power, Purpose, and Capitalism

“Madeleine Shaw is a brilliant innovator, fierce feminist, generous collaborator, and persuasive storyteller—and is all of these things at once in The Greater Good.”

—Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, author of Periods Gone Public: Taking a Stand for Menstrual Equity

“Run, don’t walk, to buy The Greater Good. The old business models just give us the same results. Madeleine Shaw knows firsthand how to do good successfully. This is an essential primer for the new business world we need.”

—M.J. Ryan, author of Radical Generosity and How to Survive Change … You Didn’t Ask For

“Madeleine Shaw’s book arrives at the perfect time as a gift to future generations of social entrepreneurs who have dreams for a more equitable world. Shaw’s decades of experience, insight, and wisdom are now available to all in a relatable format.”

—Vicki Saunders, founder, SheEO