Cultivating the Garden of Eden: environmental entrepreneuring

Abstract

Presents a discussion on the nature of environmentalism and the nature of enterprise. It argues that while, superficially, these concepts might appear to be contradictory, on examination key communalities become evident. Crucially, both are recognised to be social processes which are based on the notion of value. In environmentalism the value of economic growth per se is questioned. It challenges ideas about what society should consider to be valuable; about whether quality of life is more important than standard of living. Entrepreneurship is argued to be about the creation of value, first at a social level in terms of new products or services, and second, at an individual level in terms of the production of idiosyncratic values, such as self‐satisfaction and gratification. The paper proposes, and demonstrates, by examples, that changes in social evaluations, brought about by “greening”, mean that new entrepreneurial opportunities have arisen to develop new businesses. Consequently, these new businesses are embedded in, and valorised by, the emergent social values. Given that they are also energised and motivated at a personal level they are seen to be both viable and environmentally sustainable.