Green Options

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Treasure Island is a 400 acre island built from fill dredged from the bay for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. It is connected to land by the Bay Bridge on both sides leading from San Francisco to Oakland. Loosing money due to the depression and WWII, it was converted into a naval base in 1940. In 1996 it was decommissioned and opened to public control. Today San Francisco’s Department of the Environment is transforming it into the most sustainable community in the US by 2020.

The streets are going to be reoriented at an angle to maximize solar and minimize wind. It will include 6,000 units of high-density housing, without any single detached residences. Thirty percent of the housing will be affordable.

Part of planning a new business venture is figuring out how you will manage day-to-day operations and make decisions. One thing ecopreneurs like myself should consider when faced with a business decision is sustainability. And I don’t just mean the long-term viability of your business (although that’s an important consideration as well). I’m talking about the impact your business decisions will have on the environment.

It’s important for green businesses to be exactly that: green. This means you go the extra mile to examine the environmental consequences of every aspect of your business. That’s a lot of responsibility, so it requires careful consideration every step of the business planning process. Before you even open your doors for business, you should have a plan in place for running your business as sustainably as possible. Green businesses may even want to include a sustainable development section in their business plans.