Comments on: 5 Tips for Fortunate Ecopreneurs

By: Waylon Mokiao

Waylon Mokiao — Wed, 26 May 2010 00:22:58 +0000

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By: Garden with a Purpose: Five Mission Ideas for Your Victory Garden : Eat. Drink. Better.

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:46:23 +0000

[...] 4. Increase Self-Reliance However you slice it, we live in unpredictable, tumultuous times, particularly economically. Strengthen your economic self-reliance by raising part of your food needs yourself. As my husband John and I write about in ECOpreneuring: Putting Purpose and the Planet Before Profits, the less you need financially, the more opportunity you have to not be dependent on the paycheck trap and follow your own green business dreams. [...]

By: James Oates

James Oates — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:00:57 +0000

Excellent information…thank you. It seems to me that the key is balance. Certainly there are businesses that have forsaken the planet in the quest for profit, and, that’s not sustainable…and, a business that forgoes profit may be said to not be a business…that is more of a charity…and, that is probably not sustainable either. Just like many other aspects of life, holding a balance produces the win-win outcome.

Warmly,

Jim
http://www.JamesOatesIII.com

By: Scott Cooney, Author of Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:11:16 +0000

John,
I love your post. I think Mike Chadima, in his comment about it, misses the main points you are making (and made beautifully in your book), and that is that you have created jobs (yours and your wife’s most importantly, and others as well), that you have created exactly the life you want, and that your business is sustainable in people and planet first, but also in profit. There is no reason you need to create a franchising opportunity or pursue interminable growth in order to provide for yourself and your family, create jobs in your community, and keep your footprint small. Your business model may be different than that of other ecopreneurs, but you are 1) in business, 2) employing yourself, 3) making money, and all the while, and most importantly to many of us 4) making the world a better place in the process.

The one thing I believe about the coming green economy is that we’re going to bend if not break all the old rules.

Scott Cooney
Author of
Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur
(“Ecopreneur’s Guide” on Facebook)

By: Mike Chadima

Mike Chadima — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:05:05 +0000

John:

I think this post is a bit naive and certainly limited in scope. I have no quarrel with local-centered enterprises, nor the focus on the need for companies to identify all areas in which they can employ sustainable and renewable resources.

But without a clear focus on profitability (and the growth of same) any business, whether eco- or not, will not survive. This leads to missed opportunities in providing stable employment for others and deploying the resources, ever-growing, to make a difference in the environmental agenda.

Certain laws of commerce cannot be broken, and profitability is one of those. If we want to continue to do good, we will need the resources that profits provide in order to do so.