Ecopreneurist

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The Wall Street Journal published some interesting research on consumer purchasing behavior as regards ethically produced products. The study conducted by a doctoral student at Western Ontario University, studied the price consumers were willing to pay under various circumstances.

The researchers studied coffee and asked consumers to determine how much they would pay for ethically produced coffee; how much they would pay for coffee produced by an unethical company and then tested at what level a product is considered ethically produced.

There were a variety of different permutations in the study but the results were a bit surprising!

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Though being green is all the rage in the US, one needs to look beyond our borders…well beyond, to find countries in which consumers act truly green. Not surprisingly, those consumers in the developing world, impacted the most by environmentally harmful behavior, tend to be the greenest.

The recently completed National Geographic/GlobeScan “Consumer Greendex,” rather than measuring the overall “greenness” of each nation looks specifically at consumer behavior and tells a different story than that of traditional measurements of sustainability by country.

The US, still doesn’t fare very well

The findings show that consumers in Brazil and India tie for the highest Greendex score for environmentally sustainable consumption at 60 points each. They are followed by consumers in China (56.1), Mexico (54.3), Hungary (53.2) and Russia (52.4). Among consumers in wealthy countries, those in Great Britain, Germany and Australia each have a Greendex score of 50.2, those in Spain register a score of 50.0 and Japanese respondents 49.1. U.S. consumers have the lowest Greendex score at 44.9. The other lowest-scoring consumers are Canadians with 48.5 and the French with 48.7.

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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 »

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 »

As retailer to over 90% of US households, Wal-Mart is in the unique position of being an excellent compiler of information.

Recently they started tracking shoppers’ green buying habits. Actually all retailers track products their consumers purchase for inventory control. Wal-Mart however was one of the leaders in using this data to tightly control inventory and share information with manufacturers. They retain leadership in this area with RFID tracking systems and well managed JIT manufacturing cooperative programs with their vendors.

Now Wal-Mart is sharing some of this information with the world with the Wal-Mart Live-Better Index .

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