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11 minutes read

Is Entrepreneurship The Answer To Saving Planet Earth?

By Robert Kazmi
By Robert Kazmi
Other
11 minutes read

We are living in a very special and dangerous time in history.

Scientific breakthroughs. Advanced technological innovations. All of these things are being generated at an all-time high velocity.

And they’re creating opportunities which truly make this time in history remarkable to be in.

Today’s technologically advancing and new standard in communication has created the most transparent world the world itself has ever seen.

From power hungry governments being knocked down a peg to threats of nuclear and chemical warfare, our smart technologies have advanced human rights through its powerful connectivity.

The global transparency social media provides creates a powerful voice for startup businesses with world-changing ideas.

It’s strange to see what happens because these tech innovations made by entrepreneurs have the power to disrupt systems set in place in ways to benefit society and our planet.

But there is one thing to note. This world is also, right now, a very dangerous place.

Humans pose one side of the threat.

And then there’s “Mother Nature”.

Natural Disasters have the potential to wipe out our entire human species using a single Earth-shattering meteorite or perhaps the supposed inevitable world devastating polar shift.

The list of natural disasters and catastrophes, caused by humans and nature, is long. And I don’t mean to sound pessimistic because, at the same time, we’re seeing startups and entrepreneurs creating positive change for the world at a time when no one else will do it.

Lets look at a few ways entrepreneurs are helping save the planet:

1. Entrepreneurs Help Earth’s Environment:

Here’s a few entrepreneurs and startups making positive impacts on Earth.

Example #1: Uber

Uber is a special example as it has a multi-fold impact. The environmental benefits include a reduced carbon footprint with less cars on the road to burn fuel. It also affects big businesses worldwide.

This OptimalHQ article excerpt further explains Uber’s impact on our environment as well as on society:

“Uber, while disrupting the taxi industry as we know it, also presents broader goals of lowering carbon footprints through reduction of owned cars and carpooling. However their real mark on business and societies is the hard yards they undertake to disrupt a highly regulated industry and exposing the hypocrisy of protective laws brought about through years of lobbyist efforts via establishing a dialogue via social media – so we all know the ridiculous strong hold cab drivers in France have over their government for instance.”

This is one example of the power mobile app developers have when innovating apps such as Uber, that change the way people commute to work and school.

From less DUIs to less damage to the ozone layer, Uber is one entrepreneurial startup business that is doing its fair share in saving our planet.

Example #2: CO2 Australia

Entrepreneur Andrew Grant believes that we as a human population need to absolutely stifle our current emission usage.

In a bid to help save our Planet Earth, Grant is on a mission to reduce CO2 emissions that are said to affect the ozone layer and be a cause in climate change.

While businesses keep going on there ways and government keeps slow to move on environmental travesties, it’s entrepreneurs like Grant and startups like Uber who are creating hope for a bright future.

The business power index on Crikey.com describes Andrew’s position on business, the enivornment and their actions to reduce emissions.

“He thinks capitalism holds the key to tackling climate change, a problem that, one could argue, it created in the first place.”

If big businesses won’t use it, Grant will. He is leveraging his business weight for the greater good.

Grant’s company, CO2 Australia, “takes money from companies to plant swathes of eucalypts on marginal farmland. The company has planted 26,000 hectares of forest.”

Example #3: Simple Energy

At first, Yoav Lurie tried making a positive impact on the Earth with a thermostat device that would help conserve energy.

Selling people another product to make a change didn’t work though.

Because unless people want to change, they won’t.

And so Yoav did what the best entrepreneurs always do. He pivoted to the better direction and kept on.

Yoav ditched the physical product plan and went straight to the source; people’s minds.

This article on the BizJournals website describes nicely what Yoav’s company, Simple Energy, now does to make this positive mindset change with virality potential:

“Simple Energy works with utility companies to change customers’ energy-use behaviors. The company uses data science, behavioral psychology and energy analytics to build software “that makes saving energy fun, social and rewarding … to create a more sustainable future.”

Simple Energy’s platform is similar to social gaming platforms, with consumers competing with each other publicly to conserve energy.

Between Uber and these 2 innovative minds leveraging entrepreneurship skills to make positive worldwide impacts, you can see how entrepreneurs truly are saving our planet.

No one else is doing it. These guys are.

2. Entrepreneurs Create Earth-Saving Ideas, Jobs And Movements

IncomeDiary features an article showing different ways entrepreneurs are saving the planet. Job creation within positive industries was one of them.

Here’s how entrepreneurs are helping:

“At the very least, each entrepreneur creates one new job. But very successful entrepreneurs, like Larry Page and Steve Jobs, have helped create tens of thousands of new jobs. Today, Google employs about 33,000 people and Apple employs about 60,000.”

Thanks to these entrepreneurs, millions worldwide now have easier access to mobile smartphones and their multitudes of apps.

3. Grassroots Communities Can Change The World

Together, communities, charities and foundations are so very powerful. Few things are more powerful than a purpose and a worldwide network of people to take action on it.

Space.com recently shared an article titled, “Why Entrepreneurs and Citizen Scientists Hold The Key To Saving The World.”

In this article, Mike Caprio, member of the global organization of innovators named StartupBus, described the scenario from five years ago when a nuclear plant went berserk and destroyed lives and the surrounding environment with repercussive damages.

The hurricane that followed the meltdown made the disaster 10x worse.

Do you know who helped these people in dire need?

It wasn’t the local corporations with big pockets able to aid and create positive change. It wasn’t the government aiding their people with full relief squadrons. Not even close. Coupled with the horrible fortune of one-two punch nuclear hurricane attack, this was a desperate and horrid situation.

But it was people who saved the day. It was the power of community that saved lives during this time. People who were concerned about their loved ones and about long-term effects worked together to supply victims of the disaster with radiation detectors and to generate mapping data to guarantee their safety.

That work led people to organize further, raise funds, make plans and recruit hundreds of volunteers to create the organization known as Safecast.

This global project works to empower people with data, primarily by mapping radiation levels and building a sensor network, enabling people to both contribute and freely use the data collected.

Poorly run corporations usually move too slow. Entrepreneurs inspire problem-solving communities, charities and foundations to be born.

These groups act fast. And they’re making a difference.

Charities and Foundations

Thanks to individuals with entrepreneurial spirits, we have massively beneficial charities, foundations, and communities fighting for our planet right alongside other entrepreneurs and startups doing the same thing.

Bill Gates has a take on this:

“When your companies have made you a billionaire several times over, what’s next? For many of today’s most successful entrepreneurs, the answer is to create a charity or non-profit. It’s a way to apply their organizational experience to solving the world’s biggest problems – instead of just lining their pocketbooks further.”

The future is in grassroots organizations who run “crowdsourced” groups. Mike Caprio mentions the relief group forming the Safecast organization.

This grassroots organization is what is saving the world. Groups like these are what will make a lasting, positive impact – and already are.

The International Space Apps Challenge is a perfect example of a grassroots organization doing its part on saving our planet Earth.

Space.com further describes exactly what these Space App participants are capable of and how they’re doing it:

“We set up the Space Apps NYC site in a matter of weeks, and we had only 40 attendees — but those few passionate folks made incredible progress in just 48 hours. They built systems that could access and display exoplanet data from the Kepler telescope; send text messages to alert people when the International Space Station was above them; and inform remote, rural farmers hundreds of miles out in jungles about crop prices, weather patterns and planting conditions. A single person — a one-woman team — put forth an amazing effort to create a standard-font library of weather-related symbols for meteorologists. Before, they were forced to rely on hand-drawn scribbles on paper maps!”

The best part about this, is that it’s catching on. Not only for Space Apps, but for all positive entrepreneurial ventures. Our time in history is ripe for people to make positive impact.

Space Apps is growing. It has spread throughout 6 continents. These yearly meetings of positive creation were numbered at 20 in 2012.

That number went up by 60 the next year and then was up to triple digits worldwide in 2014.

4. Entrepreneurs Battle To Make World A Better Place

Entrepreneurs and environmentalist are in no way synonymous, but when drastic change is needed, and no one is going to do it but you, it’s this environmentalist mindset that entrepreneurs take hold of to help tackle these massive world problems.

Extreme poverty and climate change are 2 of Earth’s massive issues which now have support of entrepreneurs and the people.

Here’s the UnfoundationBlog describing the situation:

“Roughly 1.2 billion people don’t have access to electricity, which means children don’t have light to study at night, business owners don’t have electricity for their shops, and health clinics don’t have power to perform life-saving surgery at night. At the same time, our current energy use is causing the climate to change in ways that threaten the air, land, and water we rely on.”

There is a solution. And entrepreneurs and startups alike are doing their part to make it better.

The solution is “Sustainable Energy”.

It can power everything, even cars eventually. And it’s very kind on our planet. It’s up to them, not big businesses to make it happen.

Here’s another quote from the article titled, “Energy Entrepreneurs Building a Brighter Future.”

“Entrepreneurs are helping lead the way to a sustainable energy future. The United Nations Foundation has seen this close up, as we work daily with entrepreneurs on the cutting edge of energy innovation to help them scale their solutions and services.”

These are 2 current entrepreneurial sustainable-energy ventures:

  • “Energy Access Practitioner Network are using off-grid solar powered solutions to provide electricity to homes and health clinics.”
  • “Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves are developing cleaner and more efficient cookstoves so women don’t have to cook over open fires that emit toxic smoke.”

Is Entrepreneurship The Answer To Saving Planet Earth?

The list of startups, ventures and companies that entrepreneurs are coming up with that have potential for long-lasting positive impact is staggering.

You know, like planting thousands of acres of trees to soak and bottle up Earth damaging CO2 before it has a chance to inflict its damage.

Or, securing a power team of scientists and innovators (including Stephen Hawking) and ample exclusive time on the SETI microscope in search of extraterrestrial life that could in fact have a solution to life itself for us.

Entrepreneurs today are making bigger impacts than any other government or business combined. And Entrepreneurship holds the power to save our planet.

Are you looking to create a positive change through business?

If you’re in the market for a mobile application, this is what we do at Koombea. From retail to healthcare and automotive, we work with you to develop, design, and build your custom mobile applications. If you have questions feel free to email us at [email protected].

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