What Environmental Entrepreneurship Has to Offer For Sustainable Development - Essay Example

WHAT ENVIRONMENTAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP HAS TO OFFER FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT s of submission: Environment is extremely indispensable for sustainable development. Raw materials for industrial and economic growth are found in natural resources. It is therefore imperative to preserve the environment for future growth and development. There have been debates over the significance of environmental entrepreneurs to sustainable development. According to environmental entrepreneurs, environment is the central objective of their business1. At times, it is exceptionally complicated to define and identify environmental entrepreneurs. Environmental entrepreneur come out in different forms and involve themselves in different activities and businesses thus making it exceedingly complicated to identify a typical environmental entrepreneurship. However, there is a general agreed definition of the term environmental entrepreneur. Environmental entrepreneur is individuals or an organization that views the environment as the core purpose of their investment. Environmental entrepreneurship is an actor who distinguishes, produces, and utilizes any market opportunity available in ecological innovation. Environmental entrepreneur is as a result expected to make a living through preserving the environment. On the other hand, sustainable development entails innovation and development that will meet the needs of the present generation without diminishing the ability of the environment to meet the needs of future generation. To facilitate sustainable development, it is important to preserve the environment to cater for the needs of the future generation. However, there are some challenges faced by environmental entrepreneurs in contributing toward sustainable development. The essay will analyze the contribution of the environmental entrepreneurs to the sustainable development. It will incorporate the case in which two social and environmental entrepreneurs (Jan Cameron the founder of Kathmandu and Graeme wood the creator of wotif) bought a woodchip mill and turned it to eco-resort in 20112. In 2011, the Jan Cameron the founder of Kathmandu and Graeme wood spent $ 10 to buy the Tasmanian woodchip. This created fear among the country economist over the future of the state industry. They feared the country economic will go down and many people will loss jobs. The community members also condemned the initiative. Since Cameron and Graeme were environmental entrepreneurs, they intended to convert the woodchip mill into an eco-resort. The pair also aimed at ensuring the future sustainability of the industry is assured. They were more concerned with the future of the country native forests. The pair wanted to protect more than 400,000 hectares of native forest. Cameron and Graeme are popularly known for their campaign of investing and preserving environment for sustainable development. Spending $10 to buy Tasmanian woodchip was one of their initiatives. According to them (Cameron and Graeme), turning the woodchip mill into an eco-resort was one of the brightest idea in enhancing the country sustainable development. As witnessed from this case, environmental entrepreneurship is exceptionally significant in enhancing sustainable development3. Referring to the case under study, some of the main offers of the environmental entrepreneurship to sustainable development are as explained below. To start with, environmental entrepreneurs’ offers environmental management services for future economic sustainability. By doing this, environmental entrepreneur utilizes the environmental merit for economic competition. Through managing the environment, the environmental entrepreneurships make sure that they protect the environment in all their activities to facilitate sustainable development. During their preparation, execution, and control initiatives, environmental entrepreneurs’ aims at decreasing the environmental overload as well as accomplishing their long-standing corporate purpose. On the other hand, through providing the environmental administration services, the environmental entrepreneurships take the responsibility of environmental accountability, consultation, and communication. By relying on the existing legislature provision they offer legal services if the situation demand. Jan and Graeme bought the Tasmanian woodchip to ensure they have full management and control over the native forest which was used by Tasmanian in their activities. This followed the fear from community members over the extinction of native forest in the near future. The pair plans to provide environmental management services to native trees was therefore extremely significant for sustainable development since it was expected to reduce chances of misuse of the forest for future development. Appropriate management of the natural resources as provided for by environmental entrepreneurs is relatively significant in enhancing sustainable development4. The commercial activities carried out by environmental entrepreneurships have a constructive consequence to the environment and other natural resources. Their activities aim at moving toward a more sustainable future. Their commercial activities are designed in a way that their outcome has an affirmative or a neutral impact to future development. However, this does not signify that all activities conducted by environmentalist entrepreneurships are 100% unadulterated to the environment. There are some wastes from their activities which degrade the environment. Nevertheless, environmental entrepreneurs ensure their activities are pure to the environment for future development. To counter the negative impact of their activities to the environment, environmental entrepreneurs come up with projects that provide positive net impact to the environment. This can be illustrated by Cameron and Graeme scheme of converting the Tasmanian woodchip mill to eco-resort. Eco-resort is has more helpful effect to the environment more than cutting down trees for timber. Creating a tourist site entail preserving the environment to appear attractive to the prospective tourists. Although it is not 100% effective to the environment, eco-resort is more advantageous to the environment than woodchip project. The environment entrepreneurs’ endeavors to preserve the environment for future generation have a significant constructive impact to sustainable development5. The production of environmentally friendly products is another most important offer of environmental entrepreneurship to sustainable development. Some of these products are driven by the market demands. For them (environmentally friendly products) to be marketable, the customers have to be aware of their significant in the environment. Customers should be willing to pay extra cost as environmental premium. The introduction of environmentally friendly products in the economy has a considerable contribution to sustainable development. In their entrepreneurships, Jan and Graeme intend to provide products that were environmentally friendly. Developing tourist site was exceptionally an environmentally friendly initiative as compared to cutting down of native trees for timber. Eco-resort will as a result preserve the environment for future generation. The site will be effective in the modern economy as well as future generation6. The certainty and intentionality posed by environment entrepreneurs is incredibly significant offer to sustainable development. A good number of environmental entrepreneurs have a strong value and aspiration in protecting and preserving natural resources and the general environment for future sustainability. Their imperative objective is to protect the environment to necessitate movement toward sustainable future. Although different environment entrepreneurs have other aims in their investment, protection of the environment for future sustainability is paramount. Their intent and beliefs regarding the surroundings is far above the financial returns of their investment. Even though it has some good outcome, the environment entrepreneurship is not the best investment in business quarter. However, due to environment entrepreneurs’ intentionality and their belief of the environment in future development, they spent a lot of their resources in ensuring the environment is attractive to enhance future development. Cameron and Graeme as environment entrepreneurs have an exceptionally instrumental desire and intentional for environmental preservation. Despite of the critic brought forward due to their intention of investing in Tasmanian woodchip mill, Cameron and Graeme sturdily forged ahead in their attempt of ensuring the woodchip mill is turned into eco-resort. On the other hand, eco-resort was not one of the most productive investments space. But due to their desire of facilitating environmental preservation for sustainable development, they went ahead to invest on the investment. The strong desires for environmental sustainability among the environmental entrepreneurs have a credit for sustainable development. They exploit a good number of their resources and time in investing for future development7. Environmental entrepreneurship fights for policies appropriate in boosting sustainable environment and development. It is sometimes unfeasible to protect environment without apposite policies and laws. As a result of this, environmental entrepreneurs serve as policy maker in environmental matters. They are always involved in economic development policy making process. The presence of favorable environmental policies facilitated Cameron and Graeme plan of buying the Tasmanian wood mill and converting it to eco-resort. They as well got support from some government officials who understood the relevant of the environment for economic sustainability. This was despite of frequent critiques from economist who feared the plan would have an unpleasing effect on the country economy. Favorable policies and rules which were brought about by environmentalist policy makers necessitated Cameron and Graeme environmental entrepreneurship which was very relevant for sustainable development. Some of the environmental policies are very crucial in enhancing sustainable development. Environmental entrepreneurs contribute to sustainable development through coming up with policies required in guaranteeing sustainable development8. The invention of pertinent environmental technology is an incredibly a prolific contribution of environmental entrepreneurs to sustainable development. Some technologies are brought about by the pressure from industrial enterprises and community. Community pressurizes environmental entrepreneurship to come up with inclusive technologies to reduce overload on natural water, soil, and air. The public insight on environmental entrepreneurship is defined by the existence of an intended environmental technology. Community members have preference on investments that are environmentally friendly. The natural legislatures have a considerable role in ensuring the required environmental technologies are put in place to enhance sustainable development. Nevertheless, some community members are more concerned with market-based development in expense of environmentally based initiatives. The community members who were more concerned with market based development resisted the Graeme and Cameron plan to buy Tasmanian wood mill. According to them (market-based community members), the initiative would reduce job opportunities. They were less interested in future development. Contrary, there were some community members would welcomed the plan. According to the supporters of the plan, the introduction of eco-resort would reduce the pressure brought about by the wood mill in their natural forests. The Graeme and Cameron environmental technology was extremely effectual in reducing the overload of more than 400,000 hectares of native trees in the area. The preservation of native trees in the area was therefore very effective for future development of the area. The environmental technology developed by environmental entrepreneurs is therefore particularly effective in enhancing sustainable development9. Environmental entrepreneurs are popularly known in coming up with nature-oriented entrepreneurships which are exceedingly useful in sustainable development. Environmental entrepreneurs are more concerned with investing on eco-resorts, wildlife protections and other facet of investments that uses human resource and economic resources to advance environmental status. Environmental entrepreneurs make their living through appropriate utilization of natural resources. The investments they engage in are suitable to sustainable development as they preserve raw materials for future use. Apposite utilization of raw materials guarantees sustainable development. In their initial investment stage, environmental entrepreneurs offer voluntary services to the community. As true environmental entrepreneurs, Cameron and Graeme invested on eco-resort which was nature-oriented enterprise. Their main intention in the investment was to preserve the native trees for future development. They intended to earn their living through preserving native trees. In their initial stage, they opted to continue with the usual Tasmanian business of cutting timber before they embark on their actual business. Nature-oriented entrepreneurs have very positive impact to sustainable development. Although some of the investment do not have immediate positive outcome to the economic, they have the potential for future positive outcome. Nature oriented entrepreneurs’ helps in preserving natural resources which are very appropriate in future economic sustainability. Nature-oriented entrepreneurs help in preserving natural raw material which can enhance future development10. Conclusion Investment and management of environmental entrepreneurship have proved to be exceptionally complicated exercise to initiate and implement. This is because of some very obvious challenges. As observed by environmental entrepreneurs, some of the main challenges entail; the market creation challenges. In reference to market creation challenge, it is sometimes extremely difficult to develop environmental awareness among community members to necessitate marketing of the invested project. This was witnessed in Cameron and Graeme initiative of investing on eco-resort. Community members complained that the initiative would diminish job opportunities in the area. The other main challenge is the financial complication. Investing on nature-oriented enterprises is sometimes exceedingly expensive. On the other hand, it is very complicated to locate an investor who has the mind of investing on nature-oriented entrepreneurs. This is due to the fact that nature-oriented entrepreneurs do not have instantaneous profit. Buying a woodchip mill for $10 was very expensive for Graeme and Cameron. Taking into account the significant of environmental entrepreneurship to economic sustainability, all the players in the economic development have a role to play in shaping its conduct. Other players such as NGOs, Lobby groups, and community based organization have a responsibility in effecting environmental entrepreneur initiative. Regardless of the challenges and limitation in environmental entrepreneurship, the initiatives have very relevant contribution to sustainable development. Policies appropriate in sustainable development have an immense contribution to environmental entrepreneurs. Future raw materials are also preserved by environmental entrepreneurs. As a matter of fact, an economy without appropriate mechanisms to address its future development is domed to fail. The Cameron and Graeme idea of investing in environment is an idea which should be welcomed by every individual who have an aspiration for future. Community members should consequently be informed about the long term effect of the investment. For that reason, understanding the environmental entrepreneurship phenomenon and using it to develop a sustainable future is exceedingly relevant to the world economy and development. References Cohen, Winn. “Market imperfections, opportunity and sustainable entrepreneurship”. Journal of Business Venturing 22, 1(2007):29–49. Craig, Dibrell. “The natural environment, innovation, and firm performance: a comparative study”. Family Business Review 19 (2006), 275–288. Dixon, Clifford. “Ecopreneurship — A new approach to managing the triple bottom line”. Journal of Organizational Change Management 20,3(2007), 326–345. Hall, Vredenburg. 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