That’s the advice from Amy Vernetti, a managing director at headhunting firm Taylor Winfield. She says many of the green jobs are coming from areas that probably don’t leap to mind when you think of cleantech, such as companies developing fuel additives and air-filtration technologies. “These are hidden gems in the market,” she says, adding that some of them are “hiring like crazy.”

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Okay, we’ll admit that the last things you would mistake us for are “fashionistas” but we can spot sustainable shoes when we see them. Don’t get on our case about shoes and sustainability. Okay, going barefoot would be the best way to go but for the rest of us we just wear our duds as green as possible. The still relatively unknown Autonomie Project creates the eco-friendly Ethletic footwear, as well as other clothing and accessories. They offer the classic low-top as well as flip-flops but the Organic Chucky Ts got us.

So what’s in their sustainable shoe? The soles come from FSC certified all natural sustainable latex which means that someone actually tapped a rubber tree in well managed forest rather than creating a shoe bottom made from chemicals like most other shoe makers. The canvas upper comes from 100% certified organic cotton and all dyes used on the canvas lack PCP and AZO. And for those of you considering whether to eat your houses for your feet consider that they are 100% vegan.

We didn’t forget about the social justice angle either. No sweetshop for these shoes. The
Autonomie Project uses only Fair Trade labor and they never use animal products and encourage cruelty-free purchases. They assist their workers to development and market their products so that they may live long and prosper in a soon to be reconfigured global marketplace.

We’re lacing our vegan babies up and heading out. Imelda Marcos eat your heart out.

We all know a successful ecopreneur or two (or ten).  What characteristics unify ecopreneurs?  Are they all young?  Are they all progressive?  Are they all spending quality time with their organic gardens to get away from it all? 

In conducting the research for Build a Green Small Business:  Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur, I interviewed hundreds of ecopreneurs to find out just what made them tick. 

I asked ecopreneurs about their business, hoping to learn what made them greener than their conventional counterparts, and what might help others succeed.  I was amazed to find out how willing ecopreneurs were to share their business secrets with someone who was going to write a book about it.  The main finding, therefore, is that this ‘ecopreneur personality’, if there is one, is selfless and committed to the betterment of society. 

But we probably suspected that.  What other trends are there? 

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Alignment around the Environmental Mission

One of the most important operational issues in any business is alignment around a common goal. In some organizations the mission and the highest priorities are unclear. Often, well-meaning staff members are working at cross purposes or are at least not benefiting by the compounding effect of everyone’s efforts complimenting that of everyone else.

In an eco-enterprise, you probably think about and speak about your mission often, and it is likely that your staff joined your green business because they believe strongly in the mission.

Knowing Employment Rules Helps You Devise An Ideal Strategy

As the owner of a green business, you have some flexibility in terms of paid time off and holidays, flexible work schedules and more, and this can help build staff loyalty and help save you costs. By assessing the specific needs of your staff, you can work out a custom benefits package that pleases them and works for you financially.

Do not assume that you have to have the same benefits that were offered at your former employer or that of your friends’ current employers. Find out the employment laws, and then define your own strategy.

I usually recommend separating vacation time from sick time, versus lumping it altogether as paid

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I bring this up to Ecopreneurist readers because I feel it is particularly easy for there to be miscommunication between employees and employers in a mission-driven business.  In any startup, most employees make near-term financial sacrifices to be part of the team. In environmental startups, many employees join, at least in part, due to a desire to make a positive impact on the planet.

“We’re All In It For the Cause” (and other Signs of Potential Trouble)

Be careful when people feel they are sacrificing. One day, they might feel slighted over a promotion not received or a plum project assigned to someone else, and they might look back at the time they have

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Photo credits: Wired.com.

Entrepreuneur.com recently wrote an excellent guide for small business owners on proactive moves they can take to survive - and better yet, thrive - in the nose-diving economy.

“You Can Weather the Economic Storm (Product price sensitivity and financial creativity can help you thrive in any economy)” is especially relevant for green entrepreneurs as many of the principles underlying Dennis Romero’s advice aligns with what sustainable business leaders already know: go for local resilience, understand the value of community-based goodwill and when in doubt, simply, simplify, simplify to the bare essentials (do the latest farm-fresh food recipes or eco-cleaning supplies mantras sound familiar, anyone?).

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Kate Lister ad Tom Harnish, the folks behind the great telecommuting blog, Undress4Success, are writing a book called Undress4Success–The Naked Truth About Working From Home to be published by John Wiley & Sons in March 2009. The team have compiled a great deal of research and posit that work-at-home programs could reduce Gulf Oil Imports by almost 75%. If that’s accurate, it could be a game-changer.

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CSR - HR = PR

(Corporate Social Responsibility - Human Resources = Public Relations)

I came across this “equation” yesterday while researching best green HR practices. It is a quote by Adine Mees and Jamie Bunham of Canadian Business for Social Responsibility from DRIVING SUCCESS: Human resources and sustainable development. They then followed with this:

If employees are not engaged, Corporate Social Responsibility becomes an exercise in public relations. The credibility of an organization will become damaged when it becomes evident that a company is not ‘walking the talk’.

Although some say that the verdict is still out when it comes to green initiatives for employees, I say not. Some studies say that while nice, offering green initiatives doesn’t actually affect employment decisions or employee satisfaction, the two metrics that actually mean something. However, when looking at the trend data, Green employee programs seem to make a lot of sense. Trend watcher Reinier Evers says that the rising importance of salient perks and benefits, which he calls “perkonomics“ is a development that should not be ignored. Studies show that female and younger employees increasingly want green HR initiatives. In another, 79% of Gen Y workers report that they would be more likely to accept a job offer at a green company than another company when evaluating two similar job offers. Another study found that 69% of Gen Y workers want their company to be more environmentally friendly. Working women (63%) feel the same way, compared to only 54% of men and 52% of Boomers.

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The other two People bottom lines are vendors/suppliers and investors (if your business has any), addressed below:

(3) Vendors and Suppliers

How a sustainable business chooses and interacts with vendors and suppliers, so-called business-to-business transactions, that provide the supplies and services the business needs to run is one way ecopreneurs are helping grow and magnify our impacts. We seek out like-minded vendors with whom to do business. Co-op America’s Green Pages (greenpages.com) is often our first stop to look for products our business might need, since it lists thousands of socially and environmentally responsible businesses.

A growing number of small businesses are perhaps inspired by the Amish and their collaborative sense of community and shared economic prosperity. Rather than working alone, many Amish provide goods or services to each other, working together on projects that on the surface may benefit only one farmer, but on the whole end up benefiting the entire community. As author Bill McKibben writes about in Deep Economy, there’s greater comfort and security from community membership than individual ownership. This idea is reflected in the business-to-business commerce mushrooming on the Internet and in small businesses, especially the nanocorps, or new forms of interlinked commercial websites, like Sohodojo.com.

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It’s no secret: businesses who build durable internal systems breed long term and sustainable profits.

In fact, the rule on the street, and this applies to enterprising green businesses who are past their mainstream ‘breaking point’ and are now swimming with the rest of the so-called ’sharks’, is often ‘automate or perish’.

But automation (business speak for “doing it better and faster”) is hardly a Darwinian one-way street – eco-minded companies are benefiting more than just their own bottom line by developing or partnering to develop software that automates green decision making: they are greening entire industries.

And, the three who are doing it – Green Printer, Workforce Software and Sustainable Minds – have a lot to share on what it takes to get there.

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Well then, what does the green collar jobs market look like?

From where Ellis sits, there is an enormous demand on the client side (those looking to hire) and there is a shortage of green collar job candidates. Really? Yes, and that includes an intriguing factor: Many of the client companies have set their expectations so high, who they’re seeking doesn’t exist. An example Nick gave is asking that the candidate have 5 years experience with LEED certification. Many people may have tremendous experience in techniques and knowledge that falls within the green building realm, but LEED is fairly new, most don’t have that much experience with LEED specifically yet.

How to remedy this?

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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).

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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.

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Bryan Gallagher already brought up the need to seriously shake up the undergraduate silos system to keep up with business reality and demand for corporate environmental and social responsibility (CESR) leaders.

Khurana and Nohria want it to happen at the MBA level.

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