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Highlights of Day Two of the Business Innovation Factory Summit (BIF-4) were a couple of speakers who are using innovation to try to change the world. The day kicked off with the unexpected — a venture capitalist who’s still somewhat bullish. David Berry of Flagship Ventures pointed out that VC optimism in the current economic climate depends on what the fund invests in (technology not so good; better is life sciences and energy, where Flagship invests), how they structure the exits (IPO not so good; M&A better),and where the VC is in their fundraising cycle (not so good if you’re trying to start a fund now; better if you just closed a fund). Flagship has started a company called LS9 that makes a biofuel using e coli as a building block, re-engineered so “sugar goes in and oil comes out that’s chemically identical to what goes into your car – a renewable petroleum that we can make domestically.”

Later, Cat Lainé of the inspired us all with a talk about how AIDG is innovating for people in the “bottom 4 billion,” working to improve lives not by directly eradicating disease with new vaccines, but by infrastructure improvement. AIDG brings renewable electricity and solar hot water to families and agricultural workers in developing countries. The idea is that simple infrastructure improvements have a dramatic effect on quality of life, and set the stage for people to improve their lives. Business incubation and collaborative innovation are the tools AIDG uses to create the environment where small businesses can manufacture, install, and repair simple infrastructure technologies for people who live in $2 to $4 a day.

Other bloggers at BIF-4 posted far more extensively than I have. You can find blog coverage here and Twitter stream here.