Green, most calming of colours, has many shades. It is the colour of money. It is also the colour of the environment. For too long, the twain have not met. However, with global warming and an energy crunch, sustainable environment friendly businesses have begun capturing the world’s imagination.

1. Green Entrepreneurs
-By Khushbu Malara
Green, most calming of colours, has many shades. It is the colour of money. It is also the
colour of the environment. For too long, the twain have not met. However, with global
warming and an energy crunch, sustainable environment friendly businesses have begun
capturing the world’s imagination.
When we talk about Green Entrepreneurship, or GreEn as we call it, we think of it as being
green to the power of action. GreEn is a mind-set which can best be encompassed by the four
Ps:
Planet, (resources)
Personal, (individual/Passion)
People, (social)
Profit (commercial)
Across India, entrepreneurs are investing talent, technology and loads of cash to kick start
green businesses.
Wind turbines hum in mad whirls in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. Jatropha farms have sprung
up on barren land to provide raw organic matter for ethanol in Rajasthan. A business of Rs
1,000 crore in annual revenues has arisen from machinery that converts sugarcane to fuel in
Pune, Maharashtra. Eco-tourism that recycles waste and measures your ecological impact is
proving a big draw in Kerala. An Indian-Chinese collaboration is betting big on solar power
in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. A firm is investing Rs 1,500 crore on the latest solar
technologies in Noida, near Delhi in Uttar Pradesh. And you can plug your electric car as if
it’s a cell phone for a recharge just off busy Brigade Road in Bangalore, Karnataka.
A new definition of entrepreneurship
Green Entrepreneurship is not primarily about starting a business but about taking
responsibility for your life choices. Once you feel responsible for your environment, who you
are and what you do, you might discover an opportunity or an opening in a market or you
might just find a more sustainable process at work.
Sustainability and Long Term perspective in Business
A successful business has typically been judged by its “bottom line” – i.e. profit in total
disconnect of the broader environmental and social cost of production and consumption. For
our new sustainable and long term enterprise we need to expand this bottom line to include
the four Ps.
Some case to understand Green Entrepreneur
WIND BENEATH THE WINGS
Worldwide, wind energy is in infancy as an industry. At Suzlon, it is reaching maturity. This
Pune-based company is the world’s fifth largest wind-turbine maker, with 14 per cent of the
world market to itself. In India, its market share is 57 per cent. And to think that it all started
in Gujarat out of a necessity that Tulsi Tanti, the firm’s founder, turned into a virtue—and
later a fortune.
Tanti wanted power for his textile business, fed up as he was with power cuts. Being an
entrepreneur, he did not wait for the state to solve his problems. Instead, he set up a wind
energy farm. Since then, Tanti has been setting up windmills at a furious pace. “We are now
looking at growth,” he says. We aim to go global in a big way, taking wind power to the
world as Asia’s largest international wind-turbine maker. Suzlon currently has operations
across 21 countries and five continents, and will reach over 40 countries in the next two to
three years.” Its acquisition of RE power is part of its global game plan.

2. GOD’S GREEN COUNTRY
That first step in Lakshadweep, an archipelago in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Kerala,
began his eco-friendly journey. His flagship destination, however, is a lake resort in Kerala
called Marari Beach. It’s a resort alright—there’s the sun, the sand, and the breaking waves
amidst the calm Kerala coastline. It’s an interesting experience for the first-timer.
The beach resort is considered one of the most environment friendly tourist sites in Asia. It
has investments in pollution control, waste management and water recycling, all of which
combine to reduce the carbon print of guests to almost zero. The resort grounds also host
India’s largest butterfly among 100 odd species of these winged beauties. It has a water
purification plant that recycles and purifies 80 per cent of the water used. There is a
sericulture area with three pits that recycle organic waste into manure for a 30 acre organic
farm that provides the kitchen with vegetables
THE SWEET SMELL OF A NEW FUEL
Two products that defined the modern age of industrial production, the Ford Model-T car and
the Nazi V2 rocket, were both designed to use ethanol as part of their fuel mix. The idea has
been around awhile, clearly, but mass adoption is recent. Tucked away in Pune, Praj
Industries is projecting a huge switchover to ethanol-mixed fuels. With a turnover of Rs 108
crore and an order book of nearly Rs 950 crore, this company was once a supplier of
equipment to India’s alcohol industry. Now, promoter Pramod Chaudhary foresees demand
swelling as petrol ‘doping’ catches on, which involves blending fossil fuels with ethanol. This
makes sugarcane, corn or jatropha a substitute for crude oil. Praj supplies equipment to
manufacture ethanol.
CHARGED UP WITHOUT PETROL
Bangalore: Chetan Maini is a man in a hurry, though he doesn’t always look it. At his
automobile manufacturing plant located just outside polluted and congested Bangalore, he is
busy talking to engineers at the assembly line. His electric-powered car Reva has already won
awards at motorcar shows around the world. “Reva is not just a good idea,” says Maini, “with
the worldwide concern for global warming, it is a real alternative.” With crude oil given to
price spikes of the kind seen last year in the international market, “It is also economic sense”.
Oil price levels may have cooled significantly since their 11 July 2008 peak of $147 per
barrel, but the volatility is enough to give Maini confidence in his project. The company is set
to expand production capacity from 300 to 30,000 units a year.
Reva is a genuine wonder. At 40 paise to the km, it is the world’s most cost-effective motor
vehicle. The only hitch is the life of its battery. The car’s range is 80 km, much too less for a
metropolis with traffic jams as part of the motoring routine. With enough recharging points, it
could become the eco-conscious choice. It’s already a hit of sorts in London, where if you
drive one you do not have to pay the dreaded car tax in central London. If you go green, you
go free.
Joining up the dots
Finally, how can we all come together as individuals and green entrepreneurs to co-create our
new socio-economic model and join up the dots?
There are many wonderful initiatives working to bring about a mindshift and guide concrete
actions towards a sustainable society. We have created the GreEn Forum, as a platform where
we can all meet to exchange best practices, co-create partnerships and enable others to join
and themselves become passionate changemakers in their own communities.
This is a call for partnership, a quest to collaborate, to jointly bring about and co-create this
empowering future.