Green Options

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:

Last week I wrote about how much of my hard work when I toiled away for a large advertising agency (definitely NOT sustainability-minded) ended up contributing to the problems facing humanity. It didn’t get me much further ahead financially, either.

When I think about sustainability, I’ve come to the conclusion it needs to be something that’s holistic and inclusive of both my life AND my career, livelihood, or, if you must, “job.” It doesn’t make much sustainability sense [...]