So contends Frenchman Michael Mathres, 29, a former info-tech marketing consultant, speaking of the putative next New Thing: socially and environmentally correct businesses that treat even their developing-country employees well and make "sustainable" products like waste recyclers.

"Current consumer trends and targets set by governments and international bodies to satisfy the world's population needs in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable way will be fulfilled through the economic revolution," says Mathres, sounding as obscure as a modern French philosopher.

Borrowing from London's once hugely popular First Tuesday soirées, which introduced dot-com entrepreneurs to financiers (and sometimes to future spouses), Mathres and two British colleagues, Charlie O'Malley, 37, and James Wallace, 31, have begun holding matchmaking sessions at PricewaterhouseCoopers' London headquarters. Each of the first two get-togethers -- on Mondays (ironically) in March and May -- drew more than 100 people, including private bankers from J.P. Morgan and UBS, venture capital funds, U.K. government officials and New Age hawkers of everything from electric cars to solar energy systems for poor countries. The events occur every 60 days. "We see ourselves as brokers matching finance, human resources and intellectual capacity," says O'Malley, a former investment manager at private equity fund adviser Capricorn Associates. Wallace was a marketing manager for a U.S. telecom.

The trio's business, Susten8 (pronounced "sustenate" and meant to evoke "sustainable"), has had to scrape by, start-up style, on £25 ($46) admission charges and a handful of corporate sponsors, including the Netherlands' tiny Triodos Bank, which lends to companies that it deems add "social, environmental and cultural value." The partners hope to parlay their networking shindigs into a conference business and earn commissions introducing entrepreneurs to moneymen.