Incredibly prestigious, the Goldman Environmental Prize is considered the environmental Nobel Prize. It is the world’s largest prize honouring grassroots environmentalists. This trend of Ashoka Fellows winning the Goldman holds significance for both the Ashoka Foundation as well as the social entrepreneurship industry in general.

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/05/12/ashoka-fellows-awarded-the-goldman-environmental-prize/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/03/25/sustaining-the-stimulus-why-van-jones-should-work-with-the-small-business-administration/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/03/25/sustaining-the-stimulus-why-van-jones-should-work-with-the-small-business-administration/#comments Thu, 26 Mar 2009 06:04:01 +0000 Scott Cooney http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/03/25/sustaining-the-stimulus-why-van-jones-should-work-with-the-small-business-administration/ Right-wing criticism of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) largely centers around the short term effect versus the long term cost.

In 2 years the dust will settle and we will have data that will either vindicate the bill as an effective strategic move to really get the economy going, or condemn the action as another in a series of Band-Aids of short term ’symptoms’ strategies that fails to cure the disease.

Barack Obama could lose significant allies in congress in his midterm elections, much like Bill Clinton did in 1994, if this bill does not deliver the kinds of results we hope it will.  To avoid this fate, Obama and Van Jones would be wise to work to make green jobs into green businesses and green careers.

Green Jobs are great, don’t get me wrong.  We need them now more than ever, and I respect Mr. Jones’ work tremendously.  His group managed to convince the city of Oakland to spend resources to get a green jobs training program going by making it a win-win argument:  local jobs created, infrastructure updated, kids stay out of jail, and the city saves money in the long run fighting drugs and crime while becoming less dependent on distant and polluting energy sources, keeping more money in the city.

With this approach, Jones will likely have great success with the participants of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which over 500 cities have joined.  The agreement states that by 2012, these cities will reduce their carbon emissions to 7% below 1990 levels.  These cities will more than likely join the green jobs revolution with Jones in the lead, due to the success he had in Oakland, not to mention the potential for federal dollars for these programs.

But if the ARRA is going to be a success, that is, if it is going to someday be seen as truly more than a short term stimulus package, it MUST create self-sustaining businesses and great green careers. What happens in two years, if a person gets some specific job skills around weatherizing homes, when there are no more homes in his area that need weatherizing?  If the person doesn’t have the resources to perhaps branch out into remodeling or carpentry, they’re right back where they were 2 years before, hoping someone will help them get a job.

So I have put together a petition to Karen Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration, to encourage her to work with Mr. Jones so that the SBA becomes a green business resource.  Please read and sign the petition here. When you are done, please pass it along!

Why is the petition necessary?  After browsing the SBA website, I found very little regarding sustainable business practices or green businesses.  The SBA provides assistance to small business owners and has an affiliate network of Small Business Development Centers that help countless thousands of entrepreneurs get their start.  They don’t review loans directly, but can help someone get their materials organized and business strategies together in order that they might have a better chance of procuring funding.  They also provide mentoring, education, and resources for entrepreneurs and managers.  But what is an aspiring eco-entrepreneur to do if they need mentoring?  And what about all those would-be eco-entrepreneurs who don’t think about green, but would love to hear about it if their local SBA affiliate had materials about it available?

For example, what if someone walks into an office and wants to start a dry cleaner,because his or her parents ran a dry cleaner, and it’s a business they feel comfortable running.  They could get all the resources they need and be out the door ready to go in a few hours, ready to type up their business plan.  If the SBA had a green business slant, they would have a list of alternatives to just about any kind of business out there, just in case that entrepreneur might be interested in having a perc-free facility.  Without that impetus, Mr. Drycleaner would be using perc and buying perc for the next 20 years.  Mr. Drycleaner and his employees would be inhaling fumes for years, as would residents, customers, and passers by.

After calling the SBA to inquire about what green resources were available, I was passed from person to person (all of whom were extremely nice and heard me out, but if I had video-phone, I would likely have seen the ‘deer in the headlights’ look several times).  Finally, I was able to reach someone in a department they called “Advocacy”, where someone was knowledgeable of environmental affairs.  As I asked him about if the SBA had any plans to incorporate green business resources and work with Van Jones to create a program to ensure the best possible long term success of ARRA, there was a bit of a pregnant pause, so I stopped and waited.

“Now who is Van Jones?” he asked.

A mean, green SBA would provide all the resources and tools needed not just for entrepreneurs, but for the network of affiliates associated with the SBA so that each region (there are 1400+ Small Business Development Centers in the country) would be able to hone its message regionally but with support from the parent organization.  It could offer webinars, downloadable documents, podcasts, and trainings to SBDC’s, who in turn could offer eco-friendly alternative business plans, mentorship, sustainability consulting, education about efficiency tax credits and other incentives, green business networking with other eco-entrepreneurs, and consulting on applying for and procuring funding.

Giving standardized training to these regions that is sanctioned by the SBA would allow an aspiring eco-entrepreneur as good a chance of getting good help whether they lived in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, or San Francisco.  Well, as good a chance as possible.

Scott Cooney is the author of Build a Green Small Business:  Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur (McGraw-HIll), and looks forward to the day where the green economy is simply referred to as…the economy.

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Photo credit:  www.VanJones.net

A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to create a venture designed to have a positive impact on society. Ecopreneurists are, simply, social entrepreneurs focused on the environment.  While a social entrepreneur’s business may be a for-profit enterprise, the driving force behind it is the desire to do something meaningful.

Generally speaking, social entrepreneurs are not involved with greenwashing (at least not blatantly or intentionally). However, being an ecopreneurist does not automatically give you immunity from scrutiny. The fact that so many companies have jumped onto the green bandwagon has created an environment of skepticism among potential customers that any company claiming to be green must overcome.

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SC:  As for running your organization, even though it’s a non-profit, there’s a lot of similarity to the corporate world.  What advice do you have for social entrepreneurs looking to start a group like yours?
JN:  You have to find something that is really needed and that other people want to donate to make happen.  I see a lot of people start projects that are really difficult to get funding. You have to find something that people are really passionate about. 

SC:  And people are truly passionate about veganism and vegetarianism.  Now, I find it interesting how people respond to their personal approach to sustainability.  Many are willing to give up the SUV for a Prius, but fewer are willing to give up their burgers for vegetarian options.  It’s a matter of marketing, I guess.  So what do you tell people concerned about their personal footprint about their diet, without turning them off to the cause?

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Ecopreneuring:  Putting People and Planets Before Profit, by John Ivanko and Lisa Kivirist. 

“One of the biggest ironies of our growth model is that we’re coming to relize that it has failed to make our society particularly satisfied–indeed, the number of americans who say they’re very happy with their lives was higher in 1956 than it is today, though the standard of living has trebled over that half century.”
Bill McKibben, in the Foreword. 

In Ecopreneuring, Ivanko (a writer for Ecopreneurist) and Kivirist give us an inside view of what it’s like to be a social entrepreneur.  There are frequent interviews with other social entrepreneurs, as well as an in-depth look at the Inn Serendipity (Ivanko and Kivirist’s green bed & breakfast), as models of social entrepreneurship lifestyles and business models. 

If you’re wondering who these social entrepreneurs are, how they operate, how they think, and what their values and lifestyles are, this book demystifies it all–and replaces the conventional American Dream along the way. 

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It didn’t happen right away. Aldivar was searching for a way to give women an earth friendly way to generate income, and encouraged them to cultivate loofah, that grows easily there, to be dried out and made into cosmetic products. But they found that a certain portion weren’t up to export standards, and 30% of the quality material was being shaved off while making mats, slippers, insoles and the cosmetic tools.

So she wondered what use/value could be created from these. Material for house walls and roofs, she decided. After extensive trial and error, she and Padros devised the perfect combination of loofah, recycled plastic, and things like cotton netting and corn husks, all of which would otherwise be disposed of. At less than $3 a square meter, competitive with wood.

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Putting those two together, Llamadas Heladas, a  company that offers among other things a phone booth on wheels, partnered up with TecnoSol, a local renewable energy company, to promote the use of CFLs during Earth Month. Yes month, they don’t mess around  down there. The joint campaign was called No Apagones. Basically, it’s reframing these lights to be a source of less blackouts, due to reduced energy use. They may cost four times a regular lightbulb, but they last 10 times as long, and use less energy, saving you both money and the headaches of power outages. A simple, compelling argument. Watch the video on their site. No Espanol needed, the message is clear.

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Young leaders from the Middle East have called on their business and government leaders to implement reforms immediately and transparently if they are to fulfill their potential by 2025. “We need faster change to keep pace with what’s happening in the rest of the world,” said Amira Abdel-Aziz, a masters student at Cairo University.

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Spoken like a true social entrepreneur, I told Jacob when I spoke with him this week.

Ecolabeling.org addresses the challenge that many of us have: What do all of these certifications, seals of approval, standards and verifications actually mean. Is it truly green or is it just greenwashing? The independent database of over 300 labels (and growing) seeks to provide a one stop site for information on all types of green labels.

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My personal introduction to the growing menu of green business podcasts came while searching for strategies to make my commute time and gym visits more productive. Ranging from four minutes to forty-five minutes in length, these concise audio feeds speak directly to ecopreneurs through a mix of interviews, international news, trend analysis and expert commentary on the emerging green economy.

I’ve pre-screened the front runners and highly recommend these five favorites:

• The Global X Series on SocialEdge
• Ethical Corporation
• GreenBiz Radio
• Social Innovation Conversations at Stanford University’s Center for Social Innovation
• IdeaCast from the Harvard Business Review

(descriptions after the jump)

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