Things will change here in the USA. These changes will sometimes more difficult for some than others. More of us are already using public transportation, riding bikes — even moving closer to where we work or pressuring employers to offer flextime (to avoid rush hours) or telecommuting from home. In part thanks to the mushrooming energy costs, how much of business was done in the period of relatively inexpensive oil and other fossil fuels will morph into a new model of business model where energy costs are front and center.

Another trend: the explosion of people starting their own green business as an ecopreneur, operating their business without destroying the planet or exploiting people. Energy conservation and efficiency are often the very DNA of these enterprises. Eventually, the politicians in Washington DC might realize that opening up ANWR merely delays the reality that we need to cut our addiction to oil, for climate’s sake. We need to get back to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide to maintain some degree of climate stability. Burning more oil, coal or natural gas is not the way.

There are many financial benefits of becoming a business, depending on how you structure it. Not only are businesses taxed after their expenses have been deducted, but many legitimate deductions are available to a small business that reduce its reported earnings — like the use of your personal car for business-related and documented use.

Owners of vehicles that are used for business purposes can deduct those miles associated with business use and be reimbursed for mileage by the business. For example, when we drive to speak at a Green Festival, MREA Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Fair, or to visit a client, we reimburse ourselves at the IRS specified rate. Make sure to maintain a vehicle travel mileage log for each vehicle used for business purposes.

Making Money from your FUEL EFFICIENT Vehicle

One of our discoveries we write about in ECOpreneuring is the tax benefit of using our fuel-efficient vehicle for business purposes. Every year, the IRS sets the reimbursable rate for the business use of your vehicle, based on national fleet repair and maintenance averages and fuel costs, both of which are rising. We get the same rate whether we drive a super-fuel-efficient Toyota Prius or Volkswagen Jetta TDI (diesel) versus a low-mileage Hummer. It turns out we’ve managed to make money off each business mile we put on our Volkswagen Jetta TDI because the cost of operating and fueling it is less than for other new and less fuel-efficient vehicles.

How? First, we only buy used vehicles because as soon as most new vehicles are driven off the dealer’s lot, they lose about 25 percent of their value. Second, by the time we might sell our used vehicle with years of reimbursed business miles paid to us as owners, the cost of the vehicle would have broken even. For example, one year we might have 7,193 business related miles put on our VW Jetta, multiplied by the IRS designated rate (2007) of $.445/mile, resulting in the business reimbursing us for the business use of the car to the tune of $3,200. Keep in mind that this expense item reduces the reported earnings of the business by $3,200 as well.

So if you have to drive, why not create a green business where you can at least deduct your miles related to business use of your vehicle? By the way, when we can, we put B100 (100 percent biodiesel) or B10 (locally secured from a Smart Station) in our Jetta. Our other vehicle exclusively used for business is an all-electric CitiCar. We also work from our home office, completely powered by the wind and sun.

Photo Credit: scotech at Flickr (under a Creative Commons license)

Returning to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in our Earth’s atmosphere is the level that most of the world’s scientific community agrees as the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. When industrial revolution began, it was 275 parts per million. Today, we’re far above that at 385 parts per million and continuing to rise at an accelerating pace, often contributing to the extreme weather, shrinking glaciers and numerous other effects of climate change familiar to more and more of us.

View this stunning 350.org video animation on YouTube, created by the innovative Free Range Studios, designed to reach out to the world to foster the coming together of global community to address this challenge — and hold our political leaders accountable to provide the policies that encourage the changes we must all make as citizens and green business owners.

For most ecopreneurs, addressing climate change is at the core of our triple bottom line approach to operating our green business, putting into practice ways to mitigate climate change, be it in how we use or over-produce energy from renewable energy sources like the wind and sun, serve up organic or pasture-raised cuisine from a sustainable food system, focus on a more bio-regional or local economy, and cultivate relationships with their conserving customers. Many paddle a kayak with a community of like-minded ecopreneurs, rather than try staying afloat on the Titanic dependent on increasingly expensive fossil fuels while trying to dodge melting glaciers.

350.org, an organization spearheaded by Bill McKibben, seeks to weave together all communities around the world seeking to help our return to safety and atmospheric stability, to 350. “This is a problem that comes with a time limit,” says McKibben. “If we do not solve it soon, then we’re not going to solve it.” In eighteen months, world leaders will be meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, to discuss solutions to climate change, but their solutions are tepid at best according to McKibben. So he and several others have taken it their charge to help everyone on Earth — with the help of everyone on Earth — to understand the importance of climate change and returning to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide, forcing the kind of comprehensive change necessary at all levels of society and with governmental policies that foster such rapid change. Wouldn’t it be great if governmental policies actually rewarded, in more significant ways, the adoption of renewable energy systems or conservation steps in our green enterprises, rather than helping bail out an investment bank or provide financial incentives to own SUVs?

As we write about in ECOpreneuring and Rural Renaissance, we examine our ecoprenuerial enterprise from the perspective of how our business is a catalyst for solving climate change in various ways, like over-producing electricity from the wind and sun. Our B&B serves as a waystation for citizens searching for ways to reclaim self-reliance, self-sufficiency and community interdependence. Others we’ve met at a Green Festival, the MREA’s Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Fair, or a farmer’s market are finding creative ways to solve our problems today with renewable energy, energy conservation, and sustainable food systems, all while thriving in a local economy.

So, how are you helping get to 350? First step, let’s get everyone on the same page and get the arrows of change pointing the same direction. See www.350.org to learn, take action and spread the word to change the world for the better. This could very well be the largest branding campaign ever with the intent of restoring our planet, rather than destroying it with the products or services we use and throw away.

Share the change. Create the change. Be the change.

Related Posts about 350:
Creativity 350: Crafting a Green World

Photo provided with permission: 350.org

Returning to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in our Earth’s atmosphere is the level that most of the world’s scientific community agrees as the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. When industrial revolution began, it was 275 parts per million. Today, we’re far above that at 385 parts per million and continuing to rise at an accelerating pace, often contributing to the extreme weather, shrinking glaciers and numerous other effects of climate change familiar to more and more of us.

View this stunning 350 video animation on YouTube, created by the innovative Free Range Studios, designed to reach out to the world to foster the coming together of global community to address this challenge — and hold our political leaders accountable to provide the policies that encourage the changes we must all make.

350.org, an organization spearheaded by Bill McKibben, seeks to weave together all communities around the world seeking to help our return to safety and atmospheric stability, to 350. “This is a problem that comes with a time limit,” says McKibben. “If we do not solve it soon, then we’re not going to solve it.” In eighteen months, world leaders will be meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, to discuss solutions to climate change, but their solutions are tepid at best according to McKibben. So he and several others have taken it their charge to help everyone on Earth — with the help of everyone on Earth — to understand the importance of climate change and returning to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide, forcing the kind of comprehensive change necessary at all levels of society and with governmental policies that foster such rapid change.

As we write about in ECOpreneuring and Rural Renaissance, we examine our ecoprenuerial enterprise from the perspective of how our business is a catalyst for solving climate change in various ways, like over-producing electricity from the wind and sun. Our B&B serves as a waystation for citizens searching for ways to reclaim self-reliance, self-sufficiency and community interdependence. Others we’ve met at a Green Festival, the MREA’s Energy and Sustainable Living Fair, or a farmer’s market are finding creative ways to solve our problems today with renewable energy, energy conservation, and sustainable food systems, all while thriving in a local economy.

So, how are you helping get to 350? First step, let’s get everyone on the same page and get the arrows of change pointing the same direction. See www.350.org to learn, take action and spread the word to change the world for the better. This could very well be the largest branding campaign ever with the intent of restoring our planet, rather than destroying it with the products or services we use and throw away.

Share the change. Create the change. Be the change.

Related Posts about 350:
Creativity 350: Crafting a Green World

Photo provided with permission: 350.org

However, ecopreneurs go beyond organic, beyond compliance to laws and regulations (or redefine them), beyond consumerism, beyond minimum wages and beyond the free market economy to conduct business. Entrepreneurs become ecopreneurs when their spirit, boldness, courage and determination not only transform the landscape but coalescence into a movement to transform global problems into opportunities for restoration and healing. After talking with thousands of ecopreneurs over the past decade, we’ve discovered quite a few distinguishing characteristics reflected in the chart to the right. Additionally, ecopreneurs seem to be more focused on cooperation and collaboration than competition as the means to get ahead in the world. That’s why so many form innovative partnerships or creative interdependencies with fellow ecopreneurs — just as in nature.

The most progressive ecopreneurial enterprises address more than one of the many challenges facing us. Their business might foster fair trade relationships (promoting economic justice and equity), generate more energy from renewable energy sources than it uses (severing our addiction to fossil fuels) and even serve local, seasonal, vegetarian, and organic meals to those who work in the business.

Ecopreneurs take a penchant for innovation and problem-solving, applying it to meaningful purpose. Ecopreneurs emblazen the re-greening of Earth, restoring degraded land, cleaning the air, building healthy and safe homes, devising clean, renewable energy sources, offering prevention oriented alternatives to treatment focused healthcare and helping preserve or restore the ecological and cultural wonders of the planet by changing the way we experience travel, just to name a few. While entrepreneurs make their money work for them through the businesses they create, or assets they accumulate, ecopreneurs use their businesses to implement their Earth Mission. If you’re earning a living now, perhaps working for a company or organization, then becoming an ecopreneur will revolutionize how you think about money, your livelihood, your life.

While many entrepreneurs may be motivated, at least in part, to the mantra of “greed is great” on their journey to becoming a millionaire, growing numbers of ecopreneurs are adopting a different course, focusing on solving the problems facing society through the businesses they create, greening their bottom line. Many are redefining their wealth, as we have, not by the size of their bank account or square footage of their home. Wealth is defined by life’s tangibles: health, wellness, meaningful work, vibrant community life and family.

In the end, ecopreneurs are all about making a difference for the planet, fellow citizens, and our community. As we write about in ECOpreneuring, ecopreneurs generate revenues to run their business based on their passion to make the world a better place. Not, as the late Milton Friedman expounded: to make profits for a relatively few shareholders.

It’s pretty clear why people over the last several decades started referring to each other as consumers: wealth and greed. Today, about two thirds of our economy is based on “consumer spending.” If we stop spending, our economy will likely fall into a recession, or worse. While our standard of living (measured in possessions) has never been higher, the quality of our life is not what it once was. Until recently, Americans have enjoyed an economic boom like no other, though it’s hardly shared among all citizens. But now, our spending habits have seemingly caught up with some of us.

We’ve discovered that owning lots of stuff often gets in the way of achieving a satisfying and fulfilling life. As a result, we’re revisiting our values and reorganizing our life around better meeting them. When we do purchase something, it’s as a “conserving customer”. If we own a business, perhaps as an ecopreneur, we offer products or services that seek to make the world a better place. Our enterprise, either for-profit or non-profit, is a means by which to create the changes we seek in the world.

With awareness building about our far-reaching and global impacts, we’re changing how we live, work and play — becoming conserver customers, not consumers. Instead of borrowing from the future or burning through resources, reducing the possibilities for future generations, ecopreneurs are seeking to thrive in a restorative economy that’s life giving. It’s a change in consciousness not merely a change in shopping habits. Ecopreneurial businesses, by how they operate and what products or services they offer, foster this conserver behavior. Ironically, many so-called conservatives are more concerned about conserving their present way of life and the status quo, refusing to pay attention to the changing world around them.

At our small-scale Inn Serendipity, created from a four-square farmhouse on five and half acres, our guests can relax, savor a local breakfast with most of the organic ingredients harvested from a hundred feet from our back door and drive away knowing that their carbon dioxide emissions were carbon off-set through our participation in the non-profit Trees for the Future Trees for Travel program. The revenues we generate from our business enterprises, besides meeting any financial obligations, are devoted to the good work of improving soil quality, producing more renewable energy than we use and contributing in various ways to helping others who wish to launch their own enterprise or live in a more sustainable way. Our profits fund our purpose, rather than the purpose of our business being solely to make profits.

I’m pretty certain that we cannot merely shop our way out of climate change, or any of the other issues facing the planet. But business and the conserving customers they serve can play a pivotal role in transforming our economy into one that respects ecological realities and seeks to prosper through fair trade, not free trade. After all, if half of all Americans had a solar electric or solar thermal system on their roof or grew at least some of their own food in a community garden or backyard, it would fundamentally change our sense of local self-reliance which is one of the hallmarks of sustainability.

Perhaps the first step is simply calling one another a citizen of planet Earth, then getting to work together to cooperatively make the world a better place, starting in our community.

Following are a few more strategies we’ve employed, like many other ecopreneurs.

Strategy # 5: Enough Is Enough

A key facet for many small business ecopreneurs is the recognition of living within our ecological and financial means. By exiting the rat race and crafting our own business at a level we can manage, we can commit ourselves to our Earth Mission. A key step, however, is to let go of the idea that we must own a new car or new stereo, go on lavish vacations or in myriad ways keep up with the fictional Joneses. Many Europeans have known this for years.

Strategy # 6: Be Creative and Innovative

“Of three precious resources in life — time, money and creativity — the only unlimited one is your creativity,” writes Ernie Zelinski in The Joy of Not Working. “Make creativity your number one resource, and time and money won’t be as scarce.” Ecopreneurs sometimes thrive in a service economy where there are not products or in a durable economy where there is no waste. After all, who really wants to “own” carpet. I, for one, will be the first in line for an affordable service contract for a computer (famous for their obsolescence in less than three years).

Strategy # 7: Know your Credit Worthiness

Know your personal FICO credit score, typically between 300 and 850. This credit score determined by Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) largely determines how much money your credit card company will extend as credit, the interest rate at which you can lock in your mortgage, what rate you receive for home and vehicle insurance and other variables that can increase or decrease your expenses.

The FICO score is based on statistical analysis of your credit history, kept by three very large corporations, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. Make sure this score is calculated on accurate information by requesting a free credit report, based on the federal Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, from these three companies through annualcreditreport.com. Call 877-322-8228 or mail a standardized form to Annual Credit Report Request Service, PO Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. Build good credit by never missing a mortgage or credit card payment and paying off your credit card balance every month.

Strategy # 8: Green Fitness through Efficiency, Eco-effectiveness and Frugality

“The greatest security is not in having the most, but in needing the least,” writes Charles Long in How to Survive Without a Salary. Efficiency, eco-effectiveness and frugality are like muscles needing constant training to be strong and fit. Creativity fosters green frugality. This muscle needs to be strong since it’s continually tested by outside forces, including mainstream media (Buy this!) and even members of your family who fail to recognize the significance of today’s pressing and interconnected issues.

Many Americans have succumbed to attention deficit disorder every time we complain about rising energy prices, broken families and poor health. There is, however, a growing sense of mindfulness or consciousness toward managing our businesses, matched by the growing awareness among “conserving customers” that no matter what they buy, they impact the world. Those businesses that pay attention to what’s happening around us are reaping financial and ecological benefits, while other businesses are forced to shutter their doors.

Many ecopreneurs, largely due to their human-scaled enterprises, are keen observers, innovative problem-solvers and holistic and systematic in their approach to operating their business.They’re also wise with their personal finances, giving them the freedom, flexibility and financial resources to make their dreams come true.

Of course, the best strategy of all is running your own green business and taking advantage of all the benefits of doing so, including possibly reducing your tax burden, regaining control over your life, and harnessing the power of free enterprise to transform the world into your positive vision of what it should be.

Financial aspects of business, while essential to master, are not the focus for most ecopreneurs, many of whom determine that lifestyle, ecological or social issues override the profit motive that dominates other businesses. Ironically, the marketplace is beginning to recognize green businesses that operate more efficiently, adapt more quickly to change, approach customers and vendors more cooperatively and fairly end up earning a greater return for both the environment and investment made.

What strategies have you adopted that have worked well to make your green business more effective, profitable or, perhaps, generated a greater ROE, Return on the Environment?

Strategy # 2: KISS Principle: Keep It Small Stupid

While the mantra today might be get big or get out, be a millionaire or — for the more socially responsible — “getting to scale” without losing the values the business was founded upon, we’ve discovered the more human-scaled our operations and practices, the more we can accomplish in terms of reaching our Earth Mission.

Size matters not. It’s what and how we operate. Do the best we can in whatever our priorities and live without regrets. It’s a qualitative measure of success, not a quantitative one. Not bigger, but better.

There’s a small mart revolution going on, proclaims Michael Shuman in The Small Mart Revolution. It echoes the “power of one” worldview; we are the world. We don’t underestimate what a nation of ecopreneurial proprietors might collectively accomplish. Perhaps that’s how we view scale: a nation of ecopreneurs. However, we also respect the decision of those ecopreneurs whose fire in their belly lead them to become household names or lead to the sustainable transformation of their communities.

Strategy # 3: Thrive on Natural Capital

Healthy soil provides our daily meals. Winds will blow, regardless of the raging political debate on the pros and cons of renewable energy. Ecopreneurs, by their very focus on enhancing, restoring or preserving natural and social capital through their business operations, will prosper in the emerging restoration economy. Implement The Natural Step framework, or use the Ecological Footprint analysis to guide how, what, and where your business (and life) ebbs and flows. Eliminate waste, for waste is simply lost profits.

As the availability of natural resources continues to decline while the demand for resources increases (thanks to an ever-growing human population and developments in China, India and other nations), just about everything will get more expensive. Many feel it at the pump and produce stand.

At Inn Serendipity, the more energy prices rise, the quicker our investments in renewable energy pay off. Swings in food prices have little impact on our enterprise, since we grow so much ourselves. That’s why we invest in the future, not save for it. Likewise, the more B&B guests who experience a shower with solar-heated water, the more people who realize that a break from fossil fuel is not only possible, it’s pleasurable.

Strategy # 4: Leverage the Local

A theme runs throughout our ECOpreneuring book: there’s a lot to be said for a local economy that’s largely about goods and services being exchanged among neighbors. A strong local economy can reduce shipping costs, exert fewer ecological impacts, offer greater social and community cohesion, result in more money circulated within the community rather than being siphoned off to some distant place, provide a more stable economy with jobs less dependent on distant decision makers and therefore more secure, and provide a genuine ability to build mutual trust among community 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.

For example, in our very first homeowner mortgage payment of $722, only $7 went to principal and the remaining $715 went to finance charges. After the interest rates plummeted in the early 2000s, we refinanced the 30-year mortgage when we were able to secure a significantly lower interest rate, reducing the monthly payment to $653. Ten years later, after we realized just how much we were working for the bank and were well into our accelerated paydown of the principal, $610 of our monthly mortgage payment went to principal and $45 to interest. We paid off our farmhouse mortgage about two decades early, saving the need to earn about $95,000 in future income and freeing us to focus on the issues we cared about most, not making already profitable bankers wealthier.

The bank owns your house for many years before you have much equity (paid-off principal). By the end of a $100,000 mortgage, your $100,000 actually ends up costing you $239,508. As Rob Roy, author of Mortgage Free: Radical Strategies for Home Ownership, says, “If there is any question as to who owns your house, stop making your mortgage payment.” He, and we, suggests owning the house without the bank owning it for you. After all, the word “mortgage” is from the Old French, mort gage, or “death pledge.” We agree with Roy that prepayment of your mortgage is among the best investments you can make, the quicker the better.

Those who argue for the mortgage interest deduction benefit of holding a mortgage, they must regularly itemize their federal income tax return. If, on the other hand, you do not itemize deductions and take the standard deduction on your federal income tax return, having a mortgage serves no taxation benefit. For most Americans, you will come out ahead paying off the mortgage rather than saving a few dollars on your federal income taxes.

Mortgage interest, however, may help reduce your taxable burden on investment property where you have rental income, a topic for a future blog. In this case, an income producing asset (say a recreational cabin you rent out, proceeds from which pay the mortgage and support sustainable forestry) could be considered “good debt” since it generates positive cash flow and provides a good ROE, “return on environment” at the same time. A CPA and tax advisor can offer professional guidance.

Dumping debt also applies to credit cards, college or car loans and other consumer loans. Just one credit card debt with a balance of $15,000 and a monthly minimum payment of $300 based on an interest rate of 13 percent would take nearly 20 years to pay off, amounting to nearly $9,000 in interest, according to the website Cardweb.com. What good are contributions to a 401(k) or IRA with a stock portfolio earning 10 percent a year when you’re paying credit card debt at 16 percent? The same holds true for vehicle financing, especially if the financing offered is stretched over six years. Recent college grads don’t set out to be poor savers. On average, they’re saddled with a median undergraduate student loan debt of over $19,000.

How have you broken free from the financial stranglehold of our present debt-focused financial system?

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. Besides EcoSector.com’s search function, find possible funding support, announce new products or services, or inspire other ecopreneurs. It’s a dynamic ecopreneuring portal that incorporates ideas from those business owners who use it. Perhaps best of all, is completely free to use.

Among the many features which might help you launch or grow your business include:

• Secure possible funding support for your enterprise
• Foster business-to-business networking with other sustainable business enterprises
• Share your knowledge and experience to help inspire other ecopreneurs in as they launch or develop their enterprise
• Garner new business leads or sales
• Locate new employees or interns eager to work in the green economy for a sustainable enterprise
• Submit timely new information (for example, a press releases about a product launch) or events

Share Your Ecopreneur Profile on EcoSector.com

Submit your own ecopreneur profile on EcoSector.com and connect with other enterprising ecopreneurs who are changing the world for the better through the businesses they create. There is no fee to join the EcoSector.com portal.

For some ecopreneurs, it might even bring the needed capital to get their enterprise off the ground or develop it further. We look forward to learning more about your green business or enterprise.

For the average American working for a paycheck, May Day — a pagan spring ritual where you dance around a Maypole — marks yet another, less festive occasion.

From the first of January until around the first of May, all the money many of us will earn goes to pay our share of income tax to the US government.

Kiss those months — that money — goodbye (the present tax stimulus package is really just a refund).

We followed the advice of our parents, as most children do: get a good education, go to college and get a job — a nice, secure, well-paying one, with great fringe benefits, stock options or profit-sharing. But the bimonthly paychecks — after the government gets its share for income, Social Security and Medicare taxes — aren’t enough to keep up with the bills. Even with raises and promotions, many of us feel that we keep getting further in the hole, since the more we earn in earned income, the more it’s taxed. The reality is that the system is largely devised this way, not to tax the very rich but to exact a fee on the middle class and poor to keep these wage earners on the treadmaster of a job — or “promising career.”

When you’re earning wages, you’re making money for someone else or, often, something else called a corporation and its shareholders. For your job, you get a paycheck, from which income taxes are withheld to pay for an ever-expanding governmental bureaucracy of the size that even the Romans or Greeks would envy, according to William Bonner and Addison Wiggin in their exhaustive and provocative book, Empire of Debt: The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis.

Besides buying a new car to commute to your job, usually purchased with bank financing, many people acquire a mortgage from another bank to buy a house or condo. Now you have property taxes on top of income and payroll taxes. So you’re earning wages to pay taxes to the government, interest payments to the banks that hold your car loan and house mortgage, and insurance premiums to cover yourself if anything sours.

All the while, you help make more money for the company you work for and the shareholders of the business. You’re working so you can afford to keep paying the bills to keep your house, your car and your life. Meaningful work — working passionately for something you care about — is relegated for those retirement years, increasingly elusive thanks to rising energy, food and healthcare costs. Anyone you know putting off “retiring” because their stock portfolio didn’t deliver enough returns for them to feel comfortable enough to try living off interest and dividends? Either they’re still working or had to get a job to make ends meet.

It doesn’t have to be this way, as many ecopreneurs are discovering. In our unconventional business how-to book ECOpreneuring, my wife and I write about how small business, especially a green business that operates in a way that restores nature and values human life (not exploit it), can be a one-way ticket to keep more of the money you earned while doing good for the planet. Forming your own business as a Limited Liability Company (LLC), C Corporation or S Corporation are among many options to garner the greatest return on your investment of life energy into a project and increase your savings, allowing you to do the things you want to do, not have to do. These ecopreneurs, in how they manage their green business, leverage the power of their business to make the world a better place. In so doing, they may earn less income but power their business with renewable energy, operate carbon neutral (or carbon negative), and focus on serving all the stakeholders of their business, including their local community, by operating a diversified portfolio of enterprises that fill niches.

Many ecopreneurs make a life, not earn a living. Today, I planted 30 trees in addition to caring for my son. The tree planting didn’t add much to GNP (a topic for a later blog), but it will help address climate change, help stabilize the soil on the edges of my family’s small farm, provide a future revenue stream for my son if he mindfully stewards the land. I even broke a sweat doing it, burning off a few calories to boot.

This May Day, perhaps it’s time to think about launching the green business you’ve always wanted — either a for profit or non-profit. Isn’t it time to put your life energy toward something greater than just paying off mounting and unsustainable US government debt this May Day (including the cushy retirement packages politicians seem to end up with, while we end up with little or nothing)?

This May Day, we’re celebrating: our wind turbine spinning our meter backwards; our gardens planted to provide about 7o percent of our food needs without the use of chemicals (or a tractor); our good health; and our business that provides enough revenue to support our family and a quality of life that doesn’t have to come at a cost to the Earth.

We’ll dance to that.

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.

In any given year, our green business receives mini-paychecks from about 50 businesses including publishers and non-profit organizations, plus thousands of dollars from individuals who stay at Inn Serendipity, order products from our website or buy books at our speaking events. What we work on changes or adapts to new opportunities, interests, passions and our evolving Earth Mission.

Our Diversified Income-producing Portfolio of Work can be summarized as follows:

(a) Inn Serendipity Bed & Breakfast (29%): We manage all facets of this two
bedroom bed and breakfast, sharing cleaning, breakfast preparations and hosting guests.

(b) Consulting (18%): Because of our varied backgrounds and educational experiences, we’ve consulted on projects including database management, public relations, advertising and marketing endeavors.

(c) Freelance writing and photography (14%): Among our passions is the need
to express in words or photographs how we interpret the world. John’s photography and writing clients are varied and international, with a focus on tourism, environmental issues and sustainable development.

(d) Special projects (12%): Sometimes one-time opportunities offer the ability to generate our electricity or work on specially funded projects. This is the most serendipitous aspect of our income.

(e) Inn Serendipity Woods cabin rental (9%): We manage cabin rental contracts, website marketing and guest relations, while also maintaining the cabin and property. Much of our work on this 30-acre property is devoted to sustainable forestry (silviculture) and reforestation and organic agriculture (we rent a few acres to an Amish neighbor to grow corn organically, tilling, of course, with a horse team). Because we have no quarterly sales goals we must meet (or profits-focused shareholders), we can invest in the future abundance of the land and practice stewardship.

(f) Workshop facilitation and speaking (8%): Conferences and fairs allow us
to share our perspectives while learning about the many inspiring ways others
have embarked on similar journeys. From the renewable energy and sustainable living fairs to the Green Festival, our presentations or workshops hopefully jumpstart others into action and reinvigorate our commitment.

(g) Cottage retail store and book sales (8%): We sell our books, photography prints and handmade mugs to B & B guests.

(h) Authoring books (3%): Much more involved than writing for magazines or newspapers, authoring books provides an avenue to address in a comprehensive and artistic way those issues closest to our hearts. Income varies greatly from nothing in one year to several thousand dollars in another.

(i) Farm-direct agricultural products (1%): We sell super-energy-efficient LED lights for greenhouses, surplus flowers, vegetables, fruits and herbs grown on the farm, and eventually, unique, niche agricultural crops grown in the strawbale greenhouse.

We search for synergistic business activities that cross over from one project to the next, or help lead to new opportunities. While hired to complete a business and marketing plan for one non-profit organization, for example, we prepared a sample three-page feature article for a major statewide magazine and submitted it on spec (non-assigned) as a part of the public relations plan. It was accepted, helping position the organization as a conservation leader in the state. We synergistically cultivated both our PR skills and writing abilities to produce a better result for the client and possibly lead to future freelance writing projects for a statewide magazine. As knowledge workers with varied skill sets, we seek a natural balance of interrelated projects that challenge us while also helping us achieve our overarching Earth Mission.

A green business needs some money to make money. For ecopreneurs, money is a tool to serve their Earth Mission. Many have discovered how little they need, balanced by how creative they are in their approach to financing start-up. In today’s world of outsourcing and subcontracting, you really don’t need to own the factory any more. Profits can be plowed back into the business to grow and enhance the enterprise or be reduced by expenses associated with off setting carbon emissions, restoring the land or compensating vendors or employees beyond the “free market price” established for their services or products.

How have you created a diversified portfolio of work for your green business? More importantly, how have you used the profits of your business to reinvest in making the world — or your community — a better place? Within the next week, please consider sharing your own ecopreneur profile on our ECOpreneuring book website for others to be inspired by — or perhaps help you secure needed funds for your enterprise.

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”?

• Do you focus your life pursuits on helping others or restoring, enhancing or preserving the environment?

• Are you more concerned about achieving balance in your life, seeking quality of life that doesn’t adversely impact the Earth or exploit people?

• Do you readily try new ideas, explore new ways of doing things or adopt new practices or use new products or services that reflect your values?

• Are you mindfully aware of your direct and indirect impacts on life on Earth, and accept responsibility that results in you being actively engaged as a steward of limited resources for the benefit of all life, not just for the present generations but for future generations as well?

• Is work a reflection of your passions and values, deeply fulfilling and providing meaning and purpose, or merely only the focus for paying the bills, building personal wealth and funding your retirement?

If you answered “yes” to one or more of the questions above, then welcome to the ecopreneurial movement that is changing the world for the better.

Everyone can follow their dreams. Everyone has them. No more specialized training is needed than what you’ve already experienced up to now. As explored in ECOpreneuring, a change of perspective, a new approach to money and wealth and the necessary hard-thinking work of pruning your passions and forming your Earth Mission, your life purpose and business plan, are the necessary ingredients.

This is the first of many blogs that will touch on the many aspects that define ecopreneurial enterprises and the ecopreneurs who guide them. I hope to learn more about your approach to ecopreneurship, since diversity is both the foundation of the “honey bee economy” and the Earth’s ecological systems on which we depend.

Related to this, within the next week, Lisa Kivirst and I will be collaborating with another organization to provide a web portal to share your approach to ecopreneurship, learn about other enterprising ecopreneurs, seek funding support, and network with other green businesses.

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 fact, our economy morphs into stagflation? Because green businesses are based on ecological principles and, more importantly, practices. Self-reliance, localization, community-based interconnections and wise use of all resources, including energy, materials, and people. For the best ecopreneurial businesses, there is no waste. Like in nature, green businesses seek to use resources in the most efficient way possible.

Only the most productive, innovative and energy efficient businesses will continue to thrive during a period of stagflation. As my wife and I write about in Rural Renaissance and ECOpreneuring, our business model — a model that’s rooted in a fiscally and ecologically conservative approach to enterprise — will sustain us and our community because most factors of inflation are less pivotal to the profitability of our business. What if your energy costs are zero or food costs but a fraction of the typical food costs for a comparable business? What if your local market needs the goods or services you provide, fairly priced and based on the fair wages you pay your employees? Many of the ecopreneur profiles in ECOpreneuring actually create products from the waste stream rather than from virgin materials. Some have embraced the “service economy” where products just keep getting used over and over again; for example, Interface Inc. offers floor coverings that are ecologically sound and can be replaced through a service contract with their clients (the old carpets are then transformed into new carpets).

No matter whether stagflation or recession set in, an ecopreneurial business can weather the economic storms ahead. In fact, many will emerge at the top of their game because — as in nature — stress and turmoil spur innovation. Our ecopreneurial business, Inn Serendipity, set out to produce more electricity than it uses. Now we’re exploring ways to eliminate the need to refuel our car at a gas station, perhaps through the investment in a plug-in hybrid. Until then, at least some of our local commuting will take place in an all-electric CitiCar, recharged with a photovoltaic system on site (which also recharges a lawn mower and other items).

How is your ecopreneurial enterprise set up to prosper despite a slowing economy, recession or stagflation? What’s your business strategy of survival, or, rather, as we write about in ECOpreneuring, your business strategy of abundance? In our case, rather than be dependent on limited and decreasing supplies of oil, we’re largely powered by unlimited and renewable wind and solar energy. Worth mentioning, solar and wind energy are also generated tax free (and for businesses, ecopreneurist owners may often qualify for tax credits for actual generation).