Ecopreneurist

Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.

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 »

A nation of 9-5-ers is giving way to a spirited movement of innovators, searching for ways to make a life filled with purpose and meaning, instead of simply earning a living. And they’re thriving in the place-based “honey bee economy” that restores, preserves and conserves the planet.

From an enterprising individual operating a small retail business to an inventor who comes up with a better way to fuel our vehicles, from the founder of a non-profit organization to the organic grower who feeds our local community, just about anyone can be an ecopreneur and run a green business.

Are you one? See how many questions you answer affirmatively below.

• Are you more interested in what you do and with whom you work than how much you make?

• Does community, environmental and social issues drive what you focus on with respect to your livelihood or volunteer time?

• Do you view your experiences, growing and diverse knowledge base and unique skills sets as the primary value you can offer clients, customers or workplace?

• Do you think the late Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman ate too many Big Macs after he argued — much to the chagrin of the massive multinational corporations and millionaire politicians — that “the only social responsibility of business is to make profits”? Read the rest of this entry »

All participants to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme ought to have submitted crucial data on their 2007 greenhouse gas emissions levels by 31 March. The greenhouse gas data would be sourced by around 10,500 companies involved in carbon trading and is an important factor influencing the market price of traded carbon.

But many of the parties failed to meet the deadline, which is why the EU authorities in charge of the information said they will release the data to the public at a later date.

Emissions data is of vital importance for market traders because it shows the level of demand for the instruments they trade. The data is seen as a benchmark number setting the appropriate carbon price.

Read the rest of this entry »

Companies involved in offsetting their carbon footprint have access to over twenty tools to calculate their emissions, most of which have been launched in the last year. So far, the voluntary carbon offsetting market is dominated by European players. Reviews of their efforts have not been all too positive, so US companies following in their footsteps do best to avoid the pitfalls.

The main criticism centers on what’s left out of the equation. Companies embarking on greening up their business practices are faced with a daunting task and most go about it the “easy way” at first. There’s the option to simply offset carbons on the Chicago Climate Exchange, the European Climate Exchange or on the newly established NYMEX venture, the Green Exchange. Businesses have access to these exchanges if they wish to reduce their overall greenhouse gas emissions by as little as 1%.

Read the rest of this entry »

I, for one, don’t remember the stagflation of the 1970s.

It was a time when prices were increasing at the gas pump and grocery store, and when the economy sputtered along with little or no growth. Some neighbors saw their wages flatten — or their jobs disappear altogether. Gold, often seen as a barometer of economic confidence, was at an all time high (adjusted for inflation). I was pre-teen in a comfty Detroit suburb with a father who worked at then stalwart, GM, so a roof over my head and food on the table was never a concern.

But here we are today, with Priuses outselling Suburbans. Oil and gold are at all time highs. Things seem far more perplexing, interconnected, global. First, there’s the perception of a housing crunch, even though fretting over a 15 percent decline in home values over the last year or two seems rather odd given the incredible run-up of many homes over the past decade, sometimes by over 100 percent.

Second, the sub-prime mortgage mess has snared many who agreed with greedy lenders that living beyond our means was okay. That more jobs are being outsourced overseas or replaced by fancy machines in this increasingly global marketplace isn’t helping either.

Even if the Federal Reserve or Congress and the Bush Administration do manage to convince the American people that they should keep on spending by splurging with windfall tax refund checks — thus avoiding a recession — the printing presses rolling off fresh greenbacks and mounting debt on a national level could result in the onset of stagflation. Oil, while swinging up and down with the speculator’s bets and value of the dollar, will continue on its upward trajectory reflecting the reality of “peak oil,” the period by which its extraction and refinement will get ever more expensive and difficult. Our economy, and those linked around the world, are based on this fuel and this fuel is largely denominated in US dollars. When the dollar falls in value, the price of a barrel of oil must increase.

So why will ecopreneurial businesses fare any different than all the rest if, in Read the rest of this entry »

Unless you’re hidden deep in a cave in Afghanistan, you’re probably aware just how popular and prevalent green businesses are, as well as the greening of existing ones. And in many ways, this is to be applauded. Companies seem to be falling over themselves to find ways to be more efficient, as in the VW Polo Bluemotion car, a Prius beater without the hybrid geewhizery. And then there’s Walmart, which seems to have turned over a green leaf in convincing ways, albeit with plenty of room to improve.

However, the question seems to be, is it possible to consume our way to a greener planet? Is buying more things the solution to the current and impending resource shortages? The newly released Smart Seed, an engineered grass seed that purports to require less watering, via much more efficient root systems, would seem to be of this camp. Yet is the answer a greener lawn, or to not have a lawn at all? Will it take drastic change in the way we (we being the developed world, and those emulating us) go about living our lives? Doing business? Raising our families?

Or is there a middle ground between gluttony and martyr-like abstaining from participation in modern consumer culture in order to “save the planet?” Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve probably heard about carbon offsets. They’re everywhere these days, and it seems not a week goes that I don’t hear about a company pledging to go carbon neutral. And yet, it all seems so…full of hot air. What’s real? What do they really do? Which will make the most impact? How are the different purveyors, well, different?

I have a suggestion: Take a look at LiveNeutral.

Why? Well on a basic, financial level, they are a non-profit. And? And that means that offsets purchased through them are tax deductible. More, you say? The resulting lower overhead means better priced offsets as compared to similar for-profit companies offering similar quality offsets.

Read the rest of this entry »

What’s a budding eco entrepreneur to do? You have an idea, you have the hutzpah, but who are you going to turn to for help when you need to make a thousand decisions in your first year of operations?

You might see if there is a local chapter of Net Impact in your area. Originally an on-campus organization in business schools, uniting students who wanted to learn to use business to impact social change, Net Impact now has professional chapters of business people (with and without MBA’s) that have frequent speaker and networking events. If you’re an “arm-chair entrepreneur” and want to find information online, Net Impact also provides a Resource Center with articles and links to sites with “how to” and background information on such topics as environmental sustainability, social responsibility and entrepreneurship.

Co-op America might sound like it is for commune-dwelling, neo-hippies, but in fact red-blooded entrepreneurs with green hearts are right at home in this community of green businesses. You can read some of the presentations given at Co-op America’s most recent Green Business Conference. And, Co-op America’s site also includes interviews with eco entrepreneurs, so you can benefit from their pioneering experiences.

Don’t forget the SBA. Some of the most challenging issues (budgeting, financing, cash flow, just to name a few) that all entrepreneurs face are usually the most difficult issues for eco entrepreneurs too. In addition to providing information and training, SBA loans can be great deals in terms of interest rates and qualifying criteria. Did you know that, as long as your business occupies over 50% of a building, you can buy it with an SBA loan? Buy it and green it!

What are your favorite resources for entrepreneurs? Please let us know.