Green Options

I had the opportunity to be a sustainability coach to some of the Clean Tech Open semifinalists last week.

The Annual Business Competition provides green mentoring and sustainability workshops to help clean tech entrepreneurs integrate sustainability into their business plans. And I found myself stressing the business case for why integrating green made business sense.

While some of the companies we met with were very committed to sustainability, others seemed to be going through the motions because it is required by the competition.

I understand CEOs of start-ups have many competing issues to focus on.

I thought it might be helpful to review here the three key reasons why it is makes good business sense to invest in sustainable business practices:

• It will save you money
• It will provide better access to capital
• It will drive top-line revenues

We all have old shoes lying around the house, no longer suitable for athletic activity, but seemingly too decent to be sent to a growing landfill. Now you can recycle your athletic shoes with the Nike Reuse-A-Shoe program and they could become a basketball court, track, field, playground, or consumer product.