Bryan Welch, publisher of Utne Reader, Mother Earth News, and Natural Home Magazine, gave the keynote address at Green America’s Green Business Conference in San Francisco. (Take a look at TriplePundit for my 5 articles over the last few days on the hot topics of the conference). His guidelines for a sustainable future are simple and beautiful. As was his slideshow of his goats he raises in a humane manner on his Rancho Cappuchino (a tongue-in-cheek reference to being called a Cappuchino Cowboy by a more traditional rancher) in Kansas.
But one particular question in the Q&A session gave him pause: is the green economy the latest in the dot-com bubble mold?
While Welch paused, and the crowd of green business owners awaited his answer in at least a slight bit of trepidation. Welch, after all, is the publisher of several magazines in the green economy, and should have his finger on the pulse as well as anyone else.
He thought about it, admitted there were some difficulties, but said that he thought the green economy is here to stay. It has to be. He likened green entrepreneurs to those who invented cars before there were usable roads, to those who invented planes before we understood aerodynamics….
So rest assured…it’s not a bubble. We are moving in the right direction. If the expected crowd at this weekend’s Green Festival is anywhere near the record breaking group they anticipate it to be, it will be one more piece of accumulating evidence to the staying power nurtured by the green economy.
Scott Cooney is the author of Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur (McGraw-Hill)
About Scott Cooney
Hi There,
I am working with this great IT company called Computation Ltd located in Toronto. ON at 280 Jane St. The Company specializes in Recycling Computers, Refurbished Equipment and IT Tech Support.
On November 23-29th, Computation is hosting a free computer check up event. During this time we are inviting the general public into our 280 Jane St location. Come in with your don comps and we will fix you up in no time.
Check us out at http://www.computation.ca today.
The green economy could become a bubble, thats right. But in the dot-com bubble there were very fast many IPOs and many many companies, which alle did the same: They gave their people a new home, but had no business model.
The business model of the clean technologies is even better, so I think it will last 10 years or longer to become a bubble…
I can see why the analogy is drawn but in the late 90′s profiteering and naivety combined to be at the heart of boom and bust. As much as some corporations are stalling on a green commitment the reality is that this ‘bubble’ will change sizes frequently over the coming years but will ultimately grow.
I think the green movement is here to stay and the fact that major corporation as well as small business’ have jumped aboard proves that it will only grow.