75 Green Businesses You Can Start to Make Money and Make a Difference. Glenn Croston
most envision a clean divide between the for-profit and nonprofit worlds, others are blurring the worlds of business and organizations advancing environmental causes. Google.org is a for-profit philanthropic enterprise, investing in startups rather than granting money. Operating as a for-profit means that Google.org is subject to taxes but allows a greater range of activities. If an investment is successful, Google.org can create a business around it to ensure that the investment realizes its environmental, social, and financial value.
Renowned venture capitalist Vinod Khosla has decried the whole idea of charity, insisting that a for-profit enterprise is the only effective route to making a difference. The competing models pursued by social entrepreneurs will uncover the process that works best, and others can follow.
GREEN LEADER
For more about GiveWell’s story, how it is working, and the latest news with its projects, see givewell.net.
The opportunities include:
• Forming a nonprofit organization that rates green nonprofits based on their performance and makes grants based on these rankings
• Establishing a business that researches the effectiveness of environmental nonprofits and sells information for a fee
• Working as a consultant for environmental nonprofits, helping them adopt best practices in business and environmental fields
• Working as an auditor of reports from environmental nonprofits, verifying their environmental impact claimed in reports
• Integrating analysis of nonprofit performance with other financial services as part of estate and tax planning
The scale of environmental problems can seem overwhelming, but there are great opportunities to improve our world. Ultimately, the greater the effectiveness of those fighting environmental challenges, the greater donor confidence and the greater contributions will be in the future, making it in everyone’s best interest to make sure this happens.
OPPORTUNITY 14 Green Lobbyist
| The Market Need | Businesses and society need green interests represented for reg ulation and legislation |
| The Mission | Ensure effective government action on the environment |
| Knowledge to Start | Government, law, environment |
| Capital Required | $ (as a job); $$ (to start a small independent lobbying firm) |
| Timing to Start | Weeks to months (to find or create a position); months to start a business |
| Special Challenges | Making connections, getting your voice heard |
Our government and the environment are inextricably linked. Landmark legislation in the United States, such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, has helped protect the public from pollution and slow the rate of degradation of our natural resources. How governments regulate food, pesticide use, transportation, energy, water, and parks affects all of us. With the upswing in concern over environmental issues, support for groups lobbying the government on behalf of environmental causes also has surged.
A 2007 BBC poll showed 76 percent of Americans would make significant changes to their lifestyle to help prevent climate change. State and local governments have enacted climate-change legislation, with California passing AB-32, The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, to mandate reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to control greenhouse-gas emissions from cars. In response to these changes, it is commonly believed that the U.S. federal government will soon act on climate change. Lobbyists are helping to shape the important steps that are being taken.
Now endorsing federal action toward climate change are representatives of many industries, including the United States Climate Action Partnership (us-cap.org) with industrial members such as Ford, GE, and DuPont working together with environmental organizations, such as the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). While there has often been an adversarial relationship between industry and the environmental movement, representatives of both are coming to view the other as an essential partner in dealing with environmental problems and are working together to find solutions that work for everyone. Both sides share the desire to do the right thing and, perhaps, a practical desire to simplify the developing patchwork of inconsistent state regulations across the United States. If climate-change legislation is inevitable, companies want to influence the action to ensure it does not hurt their business.
Karen Wayland is the legislative director at the NRDC, working to steer government toward environmental solutions that work for everyone. “We are comprised of lawyers, scientists, policy-specific experts, and some economists,” Wayland says, describing the variety of backgrounds of those working at the NRDC. However, additional skills may be even more important. “To be effective in shaping policy, one needs an understanding of the policy process, politics, and Congress itself,” Wayland says. “Astute people skills are a must, as is the ability to be a persuasive speaker.”
GREEN LEADER
One of the groups the NRDC works with is Environmental Entrepreneurs, or E2, a nationwide group of businesspeople who believe we can protect the environment and build a strong economy at the same time.
With increasing concern about climate change and other environmental issues, support for groups such as the NRDC and receptiveness toward their messages have increased dramatically. According to Wayland, the NRDC staff uses a variety of strategies to get their message across. Approaches include direct lobbying, promoting a message through the media, as well as mobilizing activists and influential individuals on the NRDC’s behalf. These efforts seem to be working. Wayland cites a discussion with a senior staffer in the Senate who has worked with a 20-year senator: “He had never seen such a dramatic shift on an issue in such a short amount of time. [The] NRDC is much busier on [Capitol] Hill than it has been in years.”
Not ready to move to Washington, DC? Look closer to home, lobbying your state and local governments. Not so well-connected to start your own green lobbying firm? Join with someone who is, and your network will swell quickly. Those who work at lobbying may start their own firm, building on their experience and connections. There is no license or certification required to be a lobbyist, although registration with the government is required.
ECO-TIP
Green lobbyist Roger Ballantine has offered advice for green advocates of climate-change legislation: Don’t over reach. The fear is that by going for the most aggressive legislation, green efforts may backfire and get nothing at all.
Once climate-change legislation is secured, the work is not over. Climate change will require consistent action for decades and even centuries, work that cannot be abandoned with changing political events. And, while climate change is the uber-environmental issue of today, it is far from the only challenge we face. What will be the government’s future role in other environmental issues, such as waste disposal, auto efficiency, home-building standards, renewable energy, habitat preservation, and oil exploration? Whatever happens with climate change, the government will keep legislating and regulating, and green lobbyists will make their clients’ voices heard. That’s what I call job security.
Opportunities for green lobbying include:
