Principles of ecopreneurship

Sustainable business

Sustainable business, or green business, is enterprise that has no negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy—a business that strives to meet the triple bottom line. Often, sustainable businesses have progressive environmental and human rights policies...

leaders and environmental entrepreneurs or ecopreneurs, come from a mindset that embraces and adapts to the dynamic changes both in the natural world and the global marketplace. They recognize that environmental challenges can be addressed through the development of environmental products and services that provide both business opportunity and environmentally sustainable options. EcoPreneurs are able to utilize green issues as a competitive advantage for their enterprise through energy and resource maximization, waste reduction, utilization and respect of ecosystem services, and an understanding of the Natural Step Principles, among other means.

There are some basic principles and measurements that can help guide the practice of ecopreneurs and provide some basic standards of principle to this emerging group.

Energy and Resource Use Efficiency and Maximization

Best described by Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute

Earth Policy Institute

Earth Policy Institute is an environmental organization based in Washington DC in the United States. It was founded by Lester R. Brown in 2001...

“In nature, one-way linear flows do not long survive. Nor, by extension, can they long survive in the human economy that is a part of the earth's ecosystem. The challenge is to redesign the materials economy so that it is compatible with the ecosystem.”

By minimizing waste production and maximizing reuse of waste streams, sustainable business can potentially significantly increase profits. Key aspects to measure include:

Reduction in solid waste
Reduction in liquid waste
Reduction in wastewater
Reduction in air pollution
Reduction in energy usage
Reduction in carbon emissions resulting from reduced transportation
Reduction in hazardous chemical usage
Reduction in excess product supply
Reuse of industry waste as enterprise raw material
Sustainability of raw materials (ability to consistently source raw material without reducing raw material supply or negatively impacting ecosystem)

Ecosystem services

Nature is a storehouse of raw materials. We use these materials as the base of the products and services that we trade as human beings, and they are therefore valued in our current economic system. However the global ecosystem

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

provides additional services that are indispensable to economies, such as mitigation of droughts and floods, soil generation, and waste detoxification and breakdown. Though these services are critical for ongoing economic sustainability, they services do not traditionally have monetary value in the economy and therefore have not been considered in business finances. In recent years economists have begun to recognize and explore the value of nature’s services, as more and more frequently businesses and economies are losing income and growth potential due to environmental degradation

Environmental degradation

Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife...

. This has resulted in the development of markets for carbon, biodiversity

Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...

, and water. These marketplaces provide opportunity for small businesses to gain income from protecting local resources and preventing environmental damage, a service that helps ensure our continued economic well-being. On a more individual, entrepreneurial level, reflecting upon the ecosystem services in our lives and in our community can be inspiration for a green business idea and/or green business practice.

Natural Step Principles

The Natural Step framework provides a way for leaders to see "risks" as new opportunities for success. These include the following, and you can read more about each at The Natural Step Website

In order for a society to be sustainable:

Nature's functions and diversity are not systematically subject to increasing concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth's crust.
Nature's functions and diversity are not systematically subject to increasing concentrations of substances produced by society.
Nature's functions and diversity are not systematically impoverished by physical displacement, over-harvesting, or other forms of ecosystem manipulation.
People are not subject to conditions that systematically undermine their capacity to meet their needs.

Eco-Efficiency and Eco-Effectiveness

Eco-efficiency

The term eco-efficiency was coined by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in its 1992 publication "Changing Course". It is based on the concept of creating more goods and services while using fewer resources and creating less waste and pollution.The 1992 Earth Summit endorsed...

was initially coined by the World Business Council on Sustainable Development to describe methods of decreasing waste while increasing productivity. William McDonough’s design firm, MBDC, takes that a step further to reflect cradle-to-cradle thinking of waste equaling food. Under this model, eco-effectiveness refers to “industrial systems that emulate the healthy abundance of nature” so that the waste of the production process and the product itself can be the raw materials of a new product or service.