Ecopreneurist

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You could mistakenly believe, judging by all the press about US cleantech, renewable energy, and green business ventures, that the hub for all things green and innovative is the US. Far from it. If Enviu, from which I learned  and wrote about Happy Shrimp has their way, Europe will step forward strongly as a leader in fostering, developing, and supporting innovative sustainable ventures.

Enviu, together with 8 other innovation labs from Spain, Denmark, Poland, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands is soon to be launching the NEXT Europe Alliance. The launch is set for the upcoming iFest, the business inspiration fest in Spain  where there will be, “ideas and energy to solve the issues of the near future.”

Europe’s top sustainable innovation labs? An overview

All of the labs could be the subject of an article each, but aside from the universal thread of a focus on innovation, each one has a different place at the table: Read the rest of this entry »

This is the first of several posts describing “Strategies of Abundance” for ecopreneurs and green business owners.

Even in financially tough times, these Strategies of Abundance reflect interrelationships between personal finance and business, especially for small business owners. The key for ecopreneurs is how they use their business to make the world a better place. Profits from a green enterprise are the catalyst for ecopreneurs to achieve their Earth Mission, whether to restore ecological integrity or make photovoltaic systems affordable to all.

STRATEGY #1: Stop paying the banker.

The longer you hold a mortgage, the more you work for the bank and the more profitable you make them. For comparison, below is a chart from our book, ECOpreneuring, reflecting how interest can pile up on a $100,000 mortgage at 7 percent interest for terms of 15 and 30 years. While the monthly payment is less for the 30-year mortgage (the primary reason many of us choose it), we end up paying more than double for the use of the same pot of money.

By accelerating our mortgage payments on our 30-year fixed mortgage by paying down the principal when we could, we have the ability to earn less income to pay the bank than if we did otherwise over the long-term. Prepayment on principal is usually acceptable and completely legal. Every time you pay down the principal, the remaining interest and balance is recalculated, meaning that more of your regular monthly payments go to the principal and not interest payments.

Read the rest of this entry »

As an entrepreneur, you may at times question your sanity : long hours, uncertain outcomes, energy drain on the rest of your life. And yet you keep on going. You have to. The thrill of successfully launching a new endeavor, whether to make a living, a difference in the lives of people, an impact on the health of the planet, or all of the above is too great not to.

And yet, there may be times that nothing’s coming to you. You’re either stuck for a new idea, or having doubts about or missing pieces to what you’re currently working on. In steps Springwise. Springwise is hub for people to share ideas, and is smartly designed for rapid skimming, by category, keyword, and country.

Now, you may say, what’s new about this? There are lots of business and entrepreneurial blogs and publications out there. Fair enough. Amsterdam based Springwise puts it well when they say,

Springwise scans the globe for the most promising business ventures, ideas and concepts that are ready for regional or international adaptation, expansion, partnering, investments or cooperation. We ferociously track more than 400 global offline and online business resources, as well as taking to the streets of world cities, digital cameras at hand.

They also enlist the eyes and minds of an additional 8000 Springspotters in 70 countries to keep an on the ground perspective on what’s going on.

What does this look like? Read the rest of this entry »

At the Investors’ Circle Conference in San Francisco, the Plenary Session of the May 7th Education Day was titled, “Is Organic the Next Clean Tech?” Can organic foods (and other products) can attract major investment capital, in the way clean technology has in the past few years, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.
I am not sure whether the answer is a resounding yes, but panelist Walter Robb, Co-President and COO of Whole Foods Market announced that Whole Foods will be investing in small supplier companies, and all of the panelists were positive about the potential of investing in organics.

Kristen Groos Richmond, Co-founder/CEO of Revolution Foods, who has a wonderful if improbable company, which I wrote about before, can speak first-hand about the ways entrepreneurs can attract professional investors while pursuing goals such as connecting local farmers and consumers. Read the rest of this entry »

Both for profit and non-profit businesses are led by ecopreneurs who are making the world a better place through their creative, innovative and ground-breaking enterprises. Lisa’s and my book, ECOpreneuring, features numerous “Ecopreneur Profiles” — including David Anderson, the founder and CEO of GreenOptions.com — along with many other brief summaries.

But there are millions of ecopreneurial enterprises prospering throughout the U.S. and around the world. Perhaps you’re one, too.

So, we have formed a partnership with EcoSector.com, an on-line portal serving as a unique conduit for growing the green economy, offering opportunities to share video clips, feature photographs of products or services, and display blogs. Read the rest of this entry »

Jacob Malthouse doesn’t have a plan to make a profit. His business, Big Room,Inc. has just released its first product, ecolabeling .org to address a need in the market, a need for some way to make sense out of all the labels making green claims… not to make money.

Spoken like a true social entrepreneur, I told Jacob when I spoke with him this week.

Ecolabeling.org addresses the challenge that many of us have: What do all of these certifications, seals of approval, standards and verifications actually mean. Is it truly green or is it just greenwashing? The independent database of over 300 labels (and growing) seeks to provide a one stop site for information on all types of green labels.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have strong opinions, and I rarely suppress them (just ask my husband). During political campaigns, I show support for my candidates with buttons and yard signs. I have plastered my car with progressive bumper stickers. Before I have even started sipping wine at parties, I am already loudly proclaiming the beliefs I hold on important current issues. Lately, I have been taking my strongly-held opinions to the next step: I am becoming a green business proselytizer. Like a lot of people who become religious missionaries, I can not help it. I believe that I have found my calling.

My preaching, my free advice to business owners, my reaching out to people who never consider their carbon footprint–it all happens spontaneously. But it keeps happening, and it feels like the right thing to do. A few months ago, while shopping and talking to the owner of my two favorite women’s clothing boutiques here in Evanston, IL, where I live, I started explaining to Kelly how she could make her businesses greener. I gave her standard advice: install compact fluorescent lights, change to low-flow plumbing, get a more efficient heating and cooling system, recycle more. Even though I have no official training in how to green a business, the ideas popped into my head, and the conversation flowed naturally. As I presented the options to her, she listened.

Read the rest of this entry »

The more income-producing and complementary projects my wife and I have in our ecopreneurial business, the more stable and secure we feel, careful to not let work override quality of life considerations.

After all, we, like many ecopreneurs we’ve interviewed or met, don’t live to work. Instead, we find our livelihood and the businesses we navigate deeply satisfying as we make the world a better place through the green businesses — for profit and non-profit alike — that we own or direct.

The key to our approach to ecopreneurship is looking to nature for inspiration. Our green business is both diversified in enterprises as well as the products and services we offer, filling economic niches in much the same way as plants, animals and fungi fill ecological niches that create sustainable, interdependent and healthy ecological systems. For example, there are thousands of bed & breakfasts in the U.S., but only a few that specialize in serving vegetarian (or vegan) organic breakfasts with ingredients mostly harvested a hundred feet from their back door, like we do. That the Inn is completely powered by the wind and sun and welcomes children as guests, serves as additional niche experiences we offer our guests who we generally refer to in our ECOpreneuring book as “conserving customers,” not consumers — but more on this in a future blog. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s been a lot of talk recently, as the country slides into recession, about the impact this will have on innovation.

Will companies pull back from risky projects? Or will they re-jigger their efforts to support products that thrive in a recession…new or not.

Suddenly, innovation has a bull’s-eye on its back. As the recession debate shifts from “what if” to “how long,” claims a recent article in Business Week on the world’s most innovative companies.

Green entrepreneurs have no choice. Innovation is why they are in business. But, what strategies make the most sense for eco-friendly businesses facing a not-so-friendly economy?

Read the rest of this entry »

There’s been a lot of energy behind wind power these days, with talk of larger and more dramatic installations every week. But this may leave you wondering, what does it have to do with me? Would I ever want one of these giant towers in my backyard or on my business? Noble though the idea is, for many, this is not an appealing or feasible option, due to space limitations or code restrictions. But then you may wonder, would a micro turbine make a notable dent in my energy needs?

Last week while at the Green California Summit, I saw a beautiful and practical solution to this: Helix Wind. With its elegant, rippled white shape, and the ability to work with any wind greater then 4.5 mph, requiring only 14 feet in height, these turbines bring it all home, literally.

How much power do they bring? 1KW for personal, 2KW for businesses, enough to meet as much as half your energy needs. There’s no need to have a battery to store the power generated as in solar panels, as “net metering,” or power metering that accounts for energy put back into the grid as well as what’s used, can be used as credit towards your energy costs.

There are many micro turbines out there, but none has the unique undulating helix form of this. So? Beyond being aesthetically interesting, this enables it to catch air from any direction, more efficiently, with less needed. The unique shape apparently is also, they claim, completely safe for birds - one of the stumbling blocks to greater implementation of such devices. Silencing other critics is the fact that it’s, well, silent in operation.

Now what about cost, rebates? Read the rest of this entry »