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Five Tips to Launch Your Own Green Business: ECOPRENEURING
Here are some tips to get started, with much more detail found in the book, ECOpreneuring: Putting Purpose and the Planet Before Profits.
1. Identify your Earth Mission
Your Earth Mission is that overarching springboard from which your business, livelihood, and life launch forward that respects nature and fosters socially just relationships with all life. Much more than a job title on a cookie cutter business card, an Earth Mission drives ecopreneurs to create enterprises that are ecologically restorative, socially responsible, and that measure their success in how they build community wealth in a living economy, not just adding cash to the bank account.
If your Earth Mission is to help create a healthy food system and support local foods, your business could be a restaurant that showcases Minnesota-grown fare or a non-profit organization that fosters hands-on experiences for kids on farms. Green travel and ecotourism businesses provide opportunities to connect travelers with experiences that support local economies, respect area habitat and may also run on renewable energy and feature local foods.
2. Be Fossil Fuel Free
By calling your own self-employed shots, you can significantly decrease the amount of fossil fuel you consume. Working from home and eliminating the daily commute ranks a significant first step as the average American now spends 100 hours annually commuting. Additionally, you can purchase green energy from your local utility or even install on-site renewable energy systems.
3. Keep Diversified
Just like Mother Nature, aim to keep your business diversified and not put all your eggs in one basket. On my own Wisconsin farm, our small, diversified businesses could be their own zip code: a bed-and-breakfast, organic farm, a marketing consulting company, an electricity utility that harvests power from the wind and the sun. Some enterprises generate revenue while others save on expenses through self-reliance, such as growing our own food.
4. Engage in Multiple Economies
Ecopreneurs realize there's more to business than just cash transactions. Instead of always hitting the store, ecopreneurs often barter and exchange with others. Looking for an office desk? Tap into the collecting and reuse economy and ask around or use on-line exchange resources. Chances are there's a desk sitting in someone's garage that you can have for free. Ecopreneurs prioritize the household economy: achieving greater self-reliance on the home front through things like growing your own food and caring for children (versus daycare).
5. Define Your Good Life
Get out of the bigger-is-better mentality; instead, define the "good life" on your own terms, prioritizing quality of life versus a hefty bank account and piles of stuff. By operating lean and green, avoiding debt and feeling passionate and inspired about one's work, ecopreneurs craft lifestyles and livelihoods based on their passion to leave this world a better place.
Lisa Kivirist is the co-author of ECOpreneuring and Rural Renaissance and is a W.K. Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow. She and her family operate the nationally-recognized green B&B, Inn Serendipity, in southwestern Wisconsin.
