Andrew Martin is one of those people who radiates palpable positive energy. I sat across from him for our recent interview and marveled at how he didn’t have to say a word for me to feel it. Then I found out why.

“When people do good deeds, it benefits their mental, emotional and physical health,” Martin said.

Ah, so that’s it. He wasn’t talking about himself there, but as founding chairman of the Good Deed Foundation, he is the embodiment of this simple fact. A philanthropist and longtime entrepreneur who made his fortune founding Smartfood Popcorn, Annie’s Homegrown and Heather Trust, he has turned his attention and gifts to helping women and children in poverty and finding solutions to climate change through this foundation.

In a recent blog post on www.gooddeedfoundation.org, Martin cited the health benefits of doing good deeds in a list culled from Allan Luks’ The Healing Power of Doing Good. Here’s one of my favorites: Regular club attendance, volunteering, entertaining or faith group attendance is the happiness equivalent of getting a college degree or more than doubling your income.

“Once you’ve got the habit, it’s hard to go back,” Martin said with a laugh. “It’s hard to be a crusty old guy once you’ve been a good guy.”

Martin is trying to get people hooked into his particular drug of choice – giving. His affinity for altruism grew partially from the fact that he is dyslexic. While he didn’t find his reading disorder particularly cumbersome, he was segregated in school as a child.

“I identify with people on the fringe,” he said.

It also allowed him to develop keen social skills and a sense of observation about people. He became involved in, of all things, literacy programs and found it fascinating because his students’ experience with words on a page registered so differently from his own. Now he is trying to engage people in a whole different kind of experience.

What’s innovative about the Good Deed Foundation is its recognition that there are lots of people who would like to do something for the greater good, but are already overwhelmed in their lives. That’s why the company’s slogan is, “A simple act. A world of good.”

Let’s say you’re gainfully employed, have three kids, a house to upkeep and you even squeeze in some semblance of a social life, but you want to be a conscientious citizen and do some good deeds. You could, for example, buy Cabot Cheese or some other Good Deed-affiliated product and know you are also giving to a worthy cause. Or, the next time you buy a cell phone, instead of throwing the old one in a drawer or wondering what to do with it, you could go to the Good Deed Foundation Web site, and click on the “Recycle Your Cell Phone Now” link. The company has partnered with ReCellular so you can request a free, postage paid envelope to drop your phone in or a postage-paid shipping label to put on your own box.

Now suppose you feel like you can eke out a little bit more time for this program. You can request a free cell phone collection box to be put somewhere in your town that gets high traffic. From there, your only responsibility is to call Federal Express when it’s full. With this simple act, you are not only helping to save energy, but the phones are refurbished to help people at risk. For example, some are programmed as 911 phones for senior citizens or abused women.

“In the first few weeks, we broke all of ReCellular’s records and crashed their system twice,” said Calandra Cruickshank, executive vice president of the Good Deeds Foundation. The job comes to her naturally after growing up in a house that was “always a train station for people with no place to stay.”

For Martin, the idea behind all of this is to create a model that’s sustainable. Funded by grants from the Women’s Funding Network, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and Martin’s own Heather Trust of New Zealand, Good Deed’s reach extends to about 80 million consumers.

“If we keep on the trajectory we’re on now, [in five years] I’d like to see every major consumer product carry some sort of good deed that will help a sincere social program,” Martin said. “Not out of charity, but because they’re going to make more money.”

Think of it this way. If a consumer is trying to choose between Brand A and Brand B in the supermarket, might the idea of contributing to a cause not sway their decision?

“It’s a business model, not a charity,” Cruickshank said. “It’s the only way to sustain it.”

Martin proudly listed the requirements of the company that he says will “gradually lift the corporate bar.” One, all royalties/donations to Good Deed are audited and reported and are displayed on the Good Deed Web site in order to provide 100% public transparency. Two, Good Deed has a maximum cap of 10% that can be retained for operations. And three, Good Deed has an unprecedented governance standard -- the board must adopt the highest governance standards found anywhere in the world.

“It might be pumpkin patch stuff, but it’s important,” Martin said. “Our central message is, even if you don’t support the products, do help yourself mentally, emotionally and physically by doing good deeds.”

Which brings me to another benefit listed on the Good Deeds Web site courtesy of Luks: Doing good deeds can enhance our feelings of joyfulness, emotional resilience, and vigor, and can reduce the unhealthy sense of isolation.

What more do you need to know?

Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.