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

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).

They say everything is bigger in Texas and that certainly applies to the giant windmills that have replaced oil derricks in the rural area of Sweetwater, in Nolan County. According to the New York Times, the towers stand 20 stories high and the turbine blades are as long as a football field, and farmers can earn $500 per month for each turbine they allow built on their land. Texas is now the largest producer of wind power in the United States, with $700 million in investment injected into wind projects in January alone, enough to power 100,000 homes.

But even bigger news to those who would like to see some attention paid to America’s rural economic health, is the impact that these wind farms are having on the rural economy. Property values have doubled, teens are staying in the area after graduation to work in the growing number of wind power jobs, and the downtown area is in a state of renewal.

“Since the wind boom began a few years ago, the total value of property here in Nolan County has doubled, and the county judge, Tim Fambrough, estimated it would increase an additional 25 percent this year. County property taxes are going down, home values are going up and the county has extra funds to remodel the courthouse and improve road maintenance…Wind companies are remodeling abandoned buildings, and new stores, hotels and restaurants have opened around this old railroad town.” –Clifford Kraus, New York Times

But this rural revival is in danger of an early death unless Congress extends the federal renewable energy tax credits that have helped fuel wind energy growth. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) estimates that over 116,000 U.S. jobs and nearly $19 billion in U.S. investment could be lost in just one year if the tax credits are not renewed by Congress. These jobs are in the areas hardest hit in today’s economy: construction and manufacturing. Concerned citizens should contact their elected representatives to encourage them to act to extend the federal renewable energy tax credits.

While tourism is big business, much of the industry can be just as destructive as the other extractive industries (mining, lumber, agriculture), sometimes operating in the same places around the world, places like the spectacular Alaskan Wilderness or rainforests of Indonesia. Oceans containing fish or oil hidden deep below the surface in certain parts of the world, provide the setting for the popular love affair by many people, of living on floating cities called cruise ships, turning port stops into Mall of America-type shopping sprees.

Not all tourism, however, thrives on the consumptive value of mass tourism that burns through resources or exploits people for the benefit of pleasure seekers. A small, but rapidly growing segment of the tourism industry, “ecotourism” has emerged which now accounts for as much as 4 to 7 percent of the industry, depending on definitional terms. While the academics debate these definitions ad nauseum, the industry and number of ecotravelers are growing at double digit rates according to The International Ecotourism Society.

After studying ecotourism for several years while completing my M.S. at Penn State University, I’ve settled on my own definition of ecotourism:

Ecotourism: Travel that sustains, enhances or restores diverse ecological systems, preserves the economic and social well-being of the local and global community, and fosters a greater understanding on the part of the traveler of nature, culture or the community visited.

In many ways, it’s the “triple bottom line of profits, planet and people” applied to the travel industry.

On many occasions in my global journeys — captured in my first book The Least Imperfect Path — I traveled through slash-and-burned rainforest to reach pristine wildlife preserves or active conservation areas. My journey funded stewardship, preservation and conservation efforts through my park entrance fees and payments made for local porters or guides. By frequenting locally and native-owned lodging establishments and restaurants, my travel dollars helped provide viable livelihoods to community residents who might have otherwise been forced to destroy exactly those cultural and ecological features that attracted me to the area to start with. As I’ve written inE Magazine, Mother Earth News and Natural Home, among many others, ecotourism can be both a tool for conservation and restoration, but also guide more socially responsible and ecologically sound business practices.

Studying and traveling as an ecotourist wasn’t enough for me to feel qualified to write about it. My wife and I have operated the award-winning Inn Serendipity for over a decade as an ecotourism accommodation and destination. We’ve seen how the business of sustaining the Earth can be effectively accomplished through ecotravel. We write about our journey in both practical and inspirational ways in Rural Renaissance and ECOpreneuring. Our guests underwrite our organic gardens and soil restoration efforts, the implementation of renewable energy projects, and in myriad other ways help in the healing of the planet and preservation of cultural heritage. We saved our corn crib/granary by transforming it into a strawbale greenhouse. In terms of marketing, our customers search us out. They are also among our most enthusiastic marketers, telling their friends who might likewise enjoy the experience we provide that helps restore the planet at the same time. We’ve even managed to figure out ways to help offset our carbon emissions related to our operations, a big issue all businesses should address by how they operate.

This is the first of a series of blogs related to ecotourism. Future blogs will also include dispatches from the field, based on recent trips and innovative approaches taken by ecotourism businesses to leverage the power of travel to preserve and restore the planet. Please let me know what you’re doing, if you’re an ecotourism business. What businesses do you know that have embarked on a journey to participate in a restoration economy through the promotion of ecotravel?

Back then, my connection to my work ended at the end of my 3.5 inch business card. No purpose, no passion, no desire to do anything other than fill a job description someone else gave me and pay my mounting credit card bills.

Flash forward to today, as I say hello from my 5.5 acre organic Wisconsin farmstead and bed & breakfast Inn Serendipity. Passion for the diversified entrepreneurial “hats” I now wear long ago replaced my former grindstone approach to a job. I truly love what I do, from writing to innkeeping to consulting on various green projects, and that passion keeps me fueled into the night, long after my am caffeine buzz wears thin.

For me, finding purpose in my work paralleled finding a sense of place. Living and working where I can see stars and silos, I found my creativity started to bloom. As I planted zucchini and found 100 post-consumer waste paper options, I realized we can create businesses that enhance — rather than exploit — the earth. As I left that staid job description that fit on a business card and entered the world of self-employment, I discovered I actually possessed an entrepreneurial soul — despite my former cookie-cutter corporate career path. And as I juggle a daily schedule of writing deadlines, B&B guests, farm duties, homeschooling our young son and an array of other fulfilling endeavors, I realized you can have it all and do good for the planet — if you call your own shots.

As my husband, John Ivanko, and I write about in our book Rural Renaissance and our forthcoming book ECOpreneuring: Putting Purpose and the Planet Before Profits, find the joy in the journey of continually learning, innovating, evolving and creating. Ideas bloom, doors open mentors appear if you follow your heart. I look forward to sharing my ecopreneuring experiences with you on this Ecopreneurist site. Where are you on your journey right now? Still needing to escape on a Friday night — or working with purpose?

Rather than spend most of my life in a carpeted cubicle, earning-and-spending and, in my case, pimping for the culture of consumption at a large advertising agency in Chicago, my wife, Lisa Kivirist, and I exited corporate America. We resettled on a 5.5 acre small farm in southwestern Wisconsin, endeavoring to learn how to grow our own food, generate our own electricity and in various other ways reclaim the ability to meet our own needs without depending on Corporate America to provide all that we need, for a price. That goes for providing a job as well. The business school I attended as an undergrad primed me for a “successful career” earning income from a Corporation, paying taxes to the government and owing much to the banks that would one day own my home, car and credit worthiness.

By exiting the fast track overflowing with Lattes and legions of consumables (remember, you have the look the part of an Advertising Executive), I’ve settled into my own skin, weeding our bountiful gardens, harvesting more solar and wind energy than Lisa and I can use on our farm, and raising our son with the Earth in mind. Our business, Inn Serendipity Bed & Breakfast, when paired with our other enterprises like writing, speaking and “green marketing consulting”, provides a lifestyle and workstyle that’s sustaining to us and the ecological community in which we’re inexorably linked. Our journey is reflected in the pages of our book, Rural Renaissance: Renewing the Quest for the Good Life. What we now do about our nourishment is captured in Edible Earth. And how we live well, on less and without the need to grow bigger and bigger, is found in the pages of Ecopreneuring: Putting Purpose and the Planet Before Profits. Our business and our life is devoted not to growth, but making things better: for our community, the environment and future for our son (and the Seventh Generation). These issues guide our daily experience and practical resources I’m eager to share through my contributions to Ecopreneurist (they won’t be taught at most business schools or found in the pages of the Wall Street Journal).

In a nutshell, ecopreneuring, as Lisa and I have come to define it, will change the way you perceive money, the role of business in solving some of today’s most pressing problems and the responsibility we must seize to reclaim the commons of commerce and cooperatively — not competitively — restore our planet in peril. For many ecopreneurs, it’s a return to family scaled, local, nature-based enterprises where quality of life is the barometer of “success”, not size of bank account or year-after-year growth in net income. We have a ROE (return on environment) not just a ROI (return on investment).

I welcome your ideas, your enthusiasm and your commitment to making the world a better place, be it through organizations you start or work for, profit-based enterprises you launch, or in a lifestyle you’ve created that helps sustain all the inhabitants of the planet.

If you already operate an ecopreneurial business in either the for-profit or non-profit sector and would like to share your story on the ecopreneuring.biz website we’re developing with inspiring and practical success stories, I’d welcome hearing from you. This website created around our Ecopreneuring book will provide support and resources for finding purpose, living well, and restoring the Earth through your business. While the politicians are talking about making the world a better place, millions of ecopreneurs already are. Are you one?