Social entrepreneurs try to make an economic profit while simultaneously generating a social profit, too. Do well by doing good is the social entrepreneur's mantra. An innovative new website, Greendeavor.com, is attempting to do just that. While Greendeavor is indeed very green (it's in early beta), the inspirations and ideas behind the site make it chock full of potential.

Greendeavor is primarily a shopping site with a green twist. When you login to Greendeavor, you can browse through categorized lists of companies rated from poor to outstanding in nine different social and environmental areas, including impact on climate, sustainability, fair workplace, transparency and green shipping. When you click through to one of these participating sites and make a purchase, Greendeavor makes a little money for the sales referral and you earn rewards points for every dollar you spend. A minimum of 70% of that referral money goes toward funding rewards for Greendeavor shoppers, like gift certificates to Wild Oats and iTunes, but, in a final green twist, some of that money also goes toward offsetting your carbon footprint.

When you first create an account at the site you're asked to either assume you're an average American who spews 21 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year (twice that of the average European) or to use Greendeavor's carbon calculator to more accurately assay your annual greenhouse gas impact. As you earn rewards points, you also earn carbon offsets: when your personal carbon meter reaches zero (that is, when you've earned enough offsets to negate your carbon impact), every rewards point you earn for the rest of the year is doubled.

But Greendeavor is not simply a shopping referral site; it also aims to be a social networking success like any good web 2.0 application. You can also earn rewards points and carbon offsets for posting green tips, reviewing products and companies, referring friends to the site and much more.

Greendeavor is brand spanking new and a few of its central features are not yet fully in place. But you've got to love the ideas driving the site plus if you get in on it at this early date you can rack up your rewards points simply by referring your friends to the site!