Ecopreneurship is the new norm for achieving sustainability in business

The prominent question of sustainability remains as relevant as ever. Even in today’s world, we are conceptually struggling to reconcile profit-making with prioritizing the environment and working out combinations which can support business as well as the planet. Therefore, instead of going the old route of asking entrepreneurs to think of sustainability as they embark on their missions for growth and rewards, we need a conceptual shift, which merges both these concerns at the foundation.

In other words, instead of entrepreneurship which separately makes an effort to care about the environment, we can move to “ecopreneurship”, or a model of entrepreneurship that is built on the very commitment to be sustainable.

The Encyclopaedia of Corporate Social Responsibility, published by Springer, defines ecopreneurship as “deliberate human innovation to expand the supply of natural resources and improve environmental quality.”

Ecopreneurship engages all aspects of sustainability like social, economic and environmental, while ensuring that human resources are optimally utilized in this project. Countering financial skepticism towards it, several studies have proven that it can indeed be commercially viable.

Mark DesJardin, writing for Network for Business Sustainability noted how a study from the Kingston Business School found a direct link between profitable and environmental entrepreneurialism. DesJardin, in the same article notes how ecopreneurs succeed, citing the example of Green-Works, a UK-based furniture redistribution company which secured funding worth £115,000 in donations, grants and sponsorships, a benefit not available to other companies without a sustainability a, and won accolades for its socially and environmentally sensitive endeavours, leading to widespread promotion.

The relevance of ecopreneurship is established by a number of factors. As is well-known today, the need for climate action is more urgent than ever as humanity stares at irreversible climate change.

The United Nations has declared the decade from 2021 to 2030 as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, in a bid to bolster efforts to secure its environmental goals. At the same time, innovation today has unprecedented opportunities for driving social and environmental change and has to respond to humanity for maximizing its impact. Ecopreneurship, therefore, can be a master response to several urgencies. Promoting ecopreneurship and carrying out such businesses successfully, however, requires a great deal of strategizing.

A piece published by the World Economic Forum rightly notes, “For ecopreneurship to become the new norm we need to rethink training, education, capacity-building, and promoting business and technical skills. […] We must recognize and invest in young ecopreneurs in early-stage projects, building a robust support system for these young people to engage in ecosystem restoration over the long term. Ultimately, the success of the upcoming UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration should not only be measured by the number of trees and forests, but by how many young people have been able to build successful professions, organizations and livelihoods around ecosystem restoration.”

Ecopreneurship is, therefore, based on an educational, conceptual and practical shift where entrepreneurs deploy business models which are committed to going green. These business models can involve proactively engaging communities, self-assessing rigorously through sustainability indicators and fostering company cultures that celebrate ethical approaches to accomplish business missions. Ecopreneurship, by default, has to prioritize socio-environmental concerns while innovating while interweaving sustainability into the core values of doing business.

Ecopreneurs are also set apart by the challenges they face and their ways of fighting their battles itself. Cristina Santini, writing for the MDPI journal Sustainability, quotes R. Edgeman who contends that ecopreneurs must face “wicked global challenges” ranging from climate changes to food availability issues and must have the ability to employ several tools to deal with them and “perform a critical analysis of information”.

Ecopreneurship thus is not just about embarking on a green mission but also doing business at its most deft, skilful and strategic. The rewards and opportunities, as data quoted earlier shows, are abundant.

Carving a future of tremendous prosperity will require us to let go of paradigmatic entrepreneurships and make sustainability an indispensable element of business. This worthy transition must lead us to ecopreneurship, a step which will lead us to not only employ the best our skills can offer but also to contribute to building a better society, a healthier planet and an infinitely glorious future. It is time to seize the day, brighten our tomorrows and embrace ecopreneurship.

(The author is Founder Upsurge Global, Venture Partner Silverneedle Ventures and Adjunct Professor EThames College)