Environmental Business

Business Loans, Angel Investors, Venture Capital and Start Up Capital for Environmental Businesses

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When it comes to new construction techniques, grants are often a way to cut costs. Federal grants for green construction are plentiful with billions literally available.

A federal grant is an award of financial assistance from a Federal agency. It is intended to carry out a public purpose or support or stimulate a purpose that is authorized by a law of the United States. Federal grants can be found and applied for electronically. The site Grants.gov is the central clearing house for Federal Grants.

There are twenty six different agencies that offer over 1,000 grant programs. The grants that apply to green construction are mostly offered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

photo credit: tanakawho

In these rough economic times, anyone making the choice to be a consultant should first investigate a segment that is not already filled with rampant competition. Consider how many business coaches are out there. There is a lot of turnover in coaches and consultants, so why not avoid the businesses that lack serious promise? One of the best areas of consultant is the exploding needs of emerging Green businesses.

The problem is that most businesses are busy making business happen. Going Green is often relegated to paultry offerings such as installing CFL bulbs or more technical thermostat.

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Here’s the problem! No one really knows what “Green” stands for. Just ask around, and you will hear answers about saving the earth, using less oil, installing CFL bulbs, or installing Green roofs on a building. None of these are Green issues in the truest sense of the word, and that is where you education is going to start. Not only are most cleaning services ignorant, Corporate America is woefully ignorant while giving lip service to the need for environmental issues.

How about “Carbon Offset?” Are they real or a scam? Where does the money go when you purchase Carbon offsets?

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There is growing evidence showing that green cleaning provides benefits not only to cleaning staff, but also to building occupants. Across the country more building owners are switching to green cleaning products and techniques or are asking that their cleaning service provider use environmentally sound cleaning techniques.

What does green cleaning mean? The federal government’s Executive Order #1301 defines green products as “environmentally preferable” products and services that “have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing products or services that serve the same purpose.”

photo credit: Neville_

SIn addition to the recent attention that elevated it to the American mainstream, the Green Jobs Industry has been a developing field for the past few decades. Patrick Heffernan’s 1976 study Jobs for the Environment – The Coming Green Collar Revolution informed congress on the importance of environmental awareness in business and government. Alan Durning’s book Green Collar Jobs first introduced the term to America. Focusing on the post-logging towns of the Pacific Northwest, his work examines the shift from an economic dependence on the natural resources of the land to an awareness of environmental and ecological preservation. This opened the doors for the green collar industry and such fields as sustainable forestry, natural resource conservation, and ecological restoration. And, in 2006 Dr. Raquel Pinderhughes of San Francisco State University defines green collar jobs as “blue collar jobs in green businesses – that is, manual labor jobs in businesses whose products and services directly improve environmental quality,” finally offering a concrete definition of the term.

Today, with environmental awareness at an all-time high, we are seeing an increase in employment opportunities across the board. Scientists are needed to analyze, protect, and monitor the environment and society’s interaction with it.

photo credit: woodleywonderworks

The market for Green Collar Jobs is growing despite the credit crunch and financial turmoil that is hitting markets around the globe. Green Collar jobs are usually found in areas of sustainable engineering, renewable energy and social responsibility. The skyrocketing prices of oil, concerns about global warming and just general uncertainty about our resources all have contributed to a boom in green collar jobs. Below are some of the hottest areas for green jobs in today’s marketplace.

* Travel and Tourism – While tourism is the world’s largest sector, ecotourism is growing at a rate of three times the regular tourism industry and there is an increasing need for workers knowledgeable in this area
* Urban Planning – With society becoming increasingly more and more urbanized, the need is great for planners to assist local governments with ecofriendly planning and design solutions.

photo credit: hueesI

t’s More Than The Environment!

INCREASED REVENUE

• Client base

Clients and prospective customers prefer to do business with companies with common values. Client retention will increase while the base of new clients will expand. Public and private sector purchasing practices will increasingly consider a company’s environmental policies in the selection process.

• Reputation and public image

Employees, executives, business partners, clients, shareholders, family and friends want to align with an environmentally responsible business

• Industry trends & competition

Being aware of industry trends is smart business. The marketplace rewards best practices, separating leaders from laggards.