Sustainable Business

Looking for a new career? Try thinking green, as in sustainable business. Wall Street might not exactly have caught onto the concept yet, but it's only a matter of time. Business schools across the country are offering classes in sustainable business practices, and some offer MBAs in the field. The Presidio School of Management situated in San Francisco's Presidio National Park integrates social and environmental values into every one of its courses.

Being mindful of your impact on society and on the environment is what sustainable business is all about. And MBA programs as well as sustainable business alliances are showing that incorporating environmentally and socially sound practices into a business can also be profitable. In fact, so many people of all stripes are concerned about preserving our environment right now that using sustainable business practices to run your venture is actually becoming a selling point in itself.

What sorts of businesses are taking care of the bottom line while also helping to ensure that our future society and environment are healthy? All kinds. Farmers employing organic methods, importers who purchase commodities such as coffee from cooperatives that farm in such a way that their environment is not harmed in the process, builders who use materials that are healthy for humans to live and work in and around as well as materials that do not deplete our natural resources. These are just a few. And the list is growing every day.

There's also the whole field of renewable energy. Imagine what life would be like in the U.S. if we weren't so dependent on foreign oil, or any oil for that matter. (The supply going to run out, after all.) There are existing alternatives such as biodiesel and ethanol that are renewable fuels. Most autos in Brazil run on ethanol. Funny, we don't hear much about that in the news, do we. Their government has a mandate requiring that their fuels contain 25% alcohol. They make their ethanol from corn, which they grow anew each season, and their autos, vans, trucks and other vehicles aren't spewing toxins from oil into the environment day after day. That means they all breather easier than those living in the U.S.

There are many opportunities to establish a fuel-related sustainable business as well as in the solar power and wind power spheres. All it takes is the will to get involved and the ability to communicate to others why your product or service will be more efficient, less expensive, and better for the environment.