By Lisa Kivirist •
June 17, 2009
That once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that both warms one’s heart and instills a swarm of nervous stomach butterflies came about for me last week: giving a commencement address at my old high school, Glenbrook South in Glenview, Illinois.
While it ranked an honor to receive the distinguished alum award, the five-minute speech proffering advice for the 2009 graduating class proved to be a unique challenge for me, requiring me to think about and process the “Lisa Kivirist” from 1985 when I graduated, when the only “green” I knew was the one in the padded paychecks I aspired to earn, to the green rolling hills of our Wisconsin farm and B&B today, Inn Serendipity and helping others launch green businesses through my book, ECOpreneuring.
Detours with a dose of serendipity quickly arose as the theme song for my last twenty years, a refrain that I wanted to leave with the graduating class. Life may take unexpected turns, but remember, as I learned, to keep connected to the core values, your earth mission, figuring out ways to craft a life and livelihood based on your passions.
Here are some excerpts from my speech:
By Scott Cooney •
May 6, 2009
The Fourth Annual Sustainable Industries Economic Forum will feature ecopreneur Ray Anderson, founder and Chairman of Interface, a company specializing in sustainable carpets and other industrial products. The event will showcase a panel discussion with rock stars of the green business world, representing a broad swath of green industries. The timely discussion for this year’s event will focus on the current economic realities of the green business sphere.
Other speakers and panelists including Anup Jacob, founding partner of Virgin Green Fund, a consulting and venture capital firm affiliated with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, Laura Rodormer, Division Manager of Green Construction for
By John Ivanko •
March 25, 2009
Figure out what you love to do. Then just do it — under a green umbrella. By focusing on the process, rather than the product, Peter Nicholson serves as ecopreneuring inspiration, founding the premiere non-profit organization serving sustainable education in Chicago, Foresight Design Initiative, based around his passion for design. Nicholson is among the Ecopreneur Profiles featured in our ECOpreneuring book.
“For me, design is manipulating variables for a desired outcome, which in this case is improving our urban quality of life without sacrificing the needs of future generations,” explains Peter. “The variables could be anything from words to graphics to economic influences. I’m fascinated with how we could use design to empower people, to improve human conditions holistically, and often dismayed by the abundant examples of how poor design hinders us.” Today, Peter serves as Executive and Creative Director of Foresight Design Initiative, providing him a palette for sustainable design expression. Like many sustainable enterprises, they have plans to operate from a showplace green office building not unlike the Matson and Associates Eco-Building in State College, Pennsylvania.
Peter’s career roots back to a foundation in music, essaying initially to be a concert cellist. “When I realized I didn’t have the talent for professional music, I parlayed my music background into arts administration,” explains Peter. Blending music and entrepreneurship, his first venture included launching a classical orchestra in New York City. “I felt classical music was staid and stuck in the 19th century, losing a whole new potential audience. With this new group, we aimed to blow the lid off same old same old and designed fresh, hip graphics and style for every element.”
Enticed by design, Peter enrolled in a design graduate program but left after a year, realizing he had garnered the tools he needed, and took his education into his own hands. A residency in Europe led him to the o2 Challenge in the Netherlands in 1998, a life-changing, dynamic, hands-on working conference on sustainable design that planted the seeds for Foresight Design Initiative. “I realized that sustainability would not evolve without a broader application of design and found, in the challenge of this pursuit, barriers that were both worthwhile and fulfilling to engage,” explains Peter. “Sustainable design, however, was an emerging field; I knew I needed to create the conditions to practice this vocation.”
By Paul Smith •
March 12, 2009
In these turbulent economic times, there’s two major approaches that can happen: tighten everything down and hope you survive, or create new opportunities, within your business or in a whole new one.
For those that choose the second option, there are several interesting paths to follow, and many places to find ideas to inspire which one you choose. Springwise is my favorite, with thousands of trend spotters around the world, writing brief, engaging pieces on companies expanding what’s possible. For quick [...]
By John Ivanko •
February 25, 2009
Often stressed ecological systems emerge, evolve and reorganize in the most innovative ways.
The same holds true for T. S. Designs, the nation’s largest maker of the most sustainably printed T-shirts. It’s a company that revolutionized the very process of manufacturing. Isn’t this the kind of innovation and creativity President Obama is calling for?
Ironically, T.S. Design’s transformation was brought about by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), championed by the US government under the Clinton Administration, that nearly destroyed their business when their customers shifted to off-shore sources for cheaper T-shirts.
T. S. Designs, founded by Eric Henry and Tom Sineath, now uses 95 percent American-made organic cotton in their T-shirts. Its patented REHANCE printing process allows them to avoid using plastisol, normally made out of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), thus reducing the harmful ecological impacts of these ubiquitous products. As I write about in ECOpreneuring, T.S. Designs doesn’t just make an eco-effective product; it transformed its business model from a focus on profits to operating by a triple bottom line: people, planet and profits. Instead of selling to the Gap and Nike, it now sells to Whole Foods Market and Greenpeace.
“Although Tom and I have always taken care of our employees and tried to make socially and environmentally responsible decisions with our business, our transition to a triple-bottom-line business was not spurred by inspiration, but by desperation,” admits Eric, about their transition. “We believe that if you go outside your market to source a product that your market is capable of supplying, that is not sustainable. Unfortunately, this is due to NAFTA’s and the World Trade Organization’s missions that are driven solely by consumer price and do not consider environmental or quality-of-life costs.”
By Lisa Kivirist •
February 18, 2009
While unemployment skyrockets and banks decline, there remains a ray of hope right around the corner: spring. For those of us living in the Midwest, now is that time of anticipation when March peaks on the calendar and we vocally vent together about how the “worst is behind us.”
Seed catalogs jam mailboxes this time of year. We Wisconsin gardeners lustfully gaze at the Royal Burgundy Bush Bean and Panorama Red Shades Bee Balm like tempting centerfolds, vividly dreaming of starting anew in the field once again.
But these seed catalogs offer more than just plant starters. Dig a dash deeper and this arrival of the seed catalogs summons a message that can germinate just what this country of angst-ridden job seekers could really use: hope. Hope wrapped in a message of self-employment of the ecopreneurial variety. Plant seeds for your own green business, follow your passion for leaving this world a better place, and you just might amaze yourself at the true prosperity your harvest.
Here are three tips reaped from the pages of seed catalogs on how to become a self-employed, independent ecopreneur:
By Reenita Malhotra •
February 11, 2009
The English language has a wonderful way of evolving with major or minor events in the economic, social and political history of man. Following the release of words like “Mompreneur” and “Ecopreneur”, the latest buzzword that is floating around the business and economic sphere is “Obamapreneur.” While it is clear that all “Preneur” roads lead to a noble business mission but what the heck is an Obamapreneur?
By Scott James •
January 30, 2009
Scott James is a frequent contributor to Planetsave. This is his first post on the Ecopreneurist.
Hi Everyone, I want to introduce you to the Carbon Advice Group. It is an international carbon offsetting venture that allows users to create their own carbon offset merchant sites. This site harnesses the spirit of social entrepreneurship in the drive to be carbon neutral by empowering anyone to set up their own personalized micro-site where they can provide carbon offsets to their family, friends or business colleagues.
Every person and business leaves a carbon footprint, perhaps most notably through travel or food consumption, and this site empowers people to take responsible action to offset the unavoidable emissions of everyday transactions. I especially like that the affiliate set-up lets people take the carbon offset message to their personal community/network/business and take a lead role in spreading that awareness. Here is a page that I set up as an example: Scott on Carbon Advice Group.
“We want to motivate the average person in the street to get online, build their own site and get the message across to everyone they know,” says serial Social Entrepreneur and Carbon Advice Group founder Matthew Sullivan.
By Scott Cooney •
January 7, 2009
I interview ecopreneurs with an average of 3.5 years in business to ask them what the best use of their advertising dollars is. Their responses may shock you.
Or, they may not.
By Scott Cooney •
January 5, 2009
I present some preliminary demographic data from survey research I conducted with successful ecopreneurs during the research leading to the publication of my book, Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur (McGraw-Hill).
June’s most often associated with weddings, summer vacations, and Father’s Day… as you can see by the headline, we went in some other directions that month, too.
Summer was here, and the living was sustainable… and here are some of our best efforts.
June 2008
That once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that both warms one’s heart and instills a swarm of nervous stomach butterflies came about for me last week: giving a commencement address at my old high school, Glenbrook South in Glenview, Illinois. 
