ENTREPRENEURSHIP
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
THE KEY TO SWITCHING ON
CLEANTECH INNOVATION
Gavin D. J. Harper

CO REN UR HIP
EC PR NEURSH
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
ECO
PRESENTATION AT:
INSTITUT SUPÉRIEUR DE COMMERCE INTERNATIONAL À DUNKERQUE
MARCH 2009

The Three ‘Spheres’ of Sustainability
Spheres
Environmental
No Unsustainable
Environmental Degradation
Sustainable
Sustainable
S i bl
Living
Economy
Environment
Social Economic
C it Fi i ll
Community Financially
Equitable
support for viable
Social
initiatives Structures

The light-bulb moment is now dead.
Grossly i ffi i
G l inefficient, no longer will a
l ill
filament illuminate our ideas.
L.E.D’s use far less power!

“An entrepreneur whose business
p
efforts are not only driven by profit, but
also by a concern for the environment.”
lb fh i ”
Schuyler (1998)

An entrepreneur is an individual who…
•Conceives a new business opportunity
•Assumes personal risk to transform that idea into reality.
•Identifies new commercial ventures “Thinking outside the box”.
•Approaches an idea from a different p p
pp perspective to the status q
quo.
•Incubates the idea and champions its adoption in wider society.
•Brings together the money, people and technology.
•Launches and grows the business venture
Launches venture.
An agent of change… a Schumpeter (1934) would say…

p p
•Sustainopreneurship
•Environmental Entrepreneurship
E C i li
•Eco-Capitalism

•Global Population Growth
p
•Increasing Life Expectancy
•Climate Change
Cli Ch
•Resource Scarcity
Resource
•Lack of Equity in the World
•Human Right

•In 1971, Harvard Business Review runs and article (Quinn 1971)
saying that the “ecology movement” could provide new business
ecology movement
opportunities rather than being a “drain” on economic activity.
•Early 1990’s a more nuanced examination of ‘ecopreneurialism
emerges’, with the term being used more widely (Bennett 1991),
(Berle 1991) & (Blue, 1991)
•Small but growing body of literature – especially now the “issues”
issues
are recognised in the mainstream.

•Technology Lock-In:
gy
•Automotive Company (Detroit and the Internal
Combustion Engine)
g)
•Not Invented Here
•Dyson vs. Conventional Vacuum Manufacturers
vs
•“Stale”Thinking

Traditional Business Model
Linear System
•
Externalises Resource Extraction
•
Externalises Wastes
•
Environmental ‘costs’ discounted
•

Sustainable Business Model
• Cyclical System
• Acknowledges Resources Must Come From
The System (Maybe Even From Waste)
• Acknowledges Wastes Are ‘Fed Back’ Into The
System
y
• Environmental ‘Costs’ Included And Accounted
For

Sustainable Business Model

•Coined by the World Business Council on Sustainable
Development.
D lp
•Eco-efficiency is about “Decreasing Waste” whilst
“Increasing Productivity”.
“I i P d ti it ”
•Could also be extended to “Cradle to Cradle” thinking,
where waste from one p
h tf process, b
becomes the raw
th
materials for another.

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

Reducing
•Reducing Wastes
•Solid Waste
•Liquid Waste
Liquid
•Energy Waste
•Reducing Emissions
ed c g ss o s
•Carbon Emissions
•Air Pollutants
•Reducing Use of Hazardous Chemicals
•Reuse of Industrial Waste as a raw material.
f
•Sustainable Raw Materials
•Sustainable Energy Use
gy
•Reducing “Excess” and Waste

Founded in Sweden in 1989, be Swedish Scientist Karl-
•
Henrik Robert.
Developed through “consensus process”, definition of
•
sustainability.
bl
Follows “Brundtland Report” in 1987 – by Gro Harlem
•
Brundltand – where the definition of sustainability the
sustainability,
ability to “meet the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generation to meet their
p g y ff g
own needs” was coined.

y y y
1. Nature's functions and diversity are not systematically
subject to increasing concentrations of substances
extracted from the earth's crust.
2. Nature's functions and diversity are not systematically
subject to increasing concentrations of substances
produced by society.
3. Nature's functions and diversity are not systematically
impoverished by physical displacement, over-harvesting, or
other f
h forms of ecosystem manipulation.
f i li
4.
4 People are not subject to conditions that systematically
undermine their capacity to meet their needs.

Abrahamsson, A “R
Ab h A. “Researching S
h Sustainopreneurship – conditions, concepts, approaches,
h d h
•
arenas and questions”, 13th International Sustainable Development Research
Conference, Mälardalens Högskola,Västerås, 10-12 June, 2007
Schaper, M. (2002) “The Essence of Ecopreneurship”, Greener Management
•
International, 38
Schuyler, G. (1998) “Merging Economic and Environmental Concerns through
•
Ecopreneurship”, Digest Number 98-8, Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial
p p, g , p
Leadership Clearinghouse on Entrepreneurship Education.