These investments can bolster existing efforts in each area and also lead to new innovations that will ultimately not just be measured on their financial return, but on their double or triple bottom lines.

FORBES: Geoff Moore of TBC Capital on the Potential of Impact Investing

The move was apparently made to bolster Facebook's mobile chops -- an area the company considers ripe for opportunity.

ENGADGET: Facebook likes Karma app, buys the whole darn thing Mobile

Trash tiles could, for example, bolster the space radiation shielding around the astronauts' sleeping quarters or perhaps a small area in the spacecraft that would be built up to serve as a storm shelter to protect crews from solar flare effects, NASA officials said.

MSN: NASA hopes astronaut trash can be used as radiation shield