AUT - Ecopreneurs
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Ecopreneurs
Ecopreneurs - setting the example for tomorrow's graduates
The ecopreneur is the 21st century child of the industrious and profiteering entrepreneur and the social and environmentally passionate eco warrior. They’re riding the new wave of reduce, reuse, recycle business consciousness.
Model ventures
AUT University’s business school wanted to be at the forefront of teaching environmentally-sound business practice but a dearth of resources saw them tracking down their own live business case studies. Belinda Nash meets the ecopreneurs setting the example for tomorrow’s graduates.
You could say ecopreneurs are making rights of wrongs committed by entrepreneurs. And you’d be close to the mark. The millennia are littered with entrepreneurial endeavour, literally, so today’s new eco-entrepreneurs are choosing to cut a new path to lessen their environmental and social footprint, and still make a profit.
But when three academics decided to teach students about what’s happening in the ecopreneurial marketplace, they hit a wall. There were no resources, so they created their own.
AUT Business School senior lecturers Professor Kate Kearins and Dr Helen Tregidga, and the University of Waikato School of Management’s Dr Eva Collins banded together. They sought current and relevant case studies which could inform students of the challenges and breakthroughs of start-up eco-aware businesses.
Today, less than six months after their launch, the case studies have been taken up by other New Zealand universities and as far afield as the US and Europe.
The academics chose three New Zealand start-up companies based on both their similarities and differences, but primarily because all three businesses identified with the natural environment. They are alternative funeral business State of Grace, healthy fast food outlet Kapai and established fashion and homeware label Miranda Brown Limited.
The three researchers say the New Zealand brand is built on iconic ‘natural’ foundations and most Kiwis identify with their natural surroundings, so finding emerging businesses meant refining their criteria.
Dr Tregidga says despite being this century’s most fundamental talking point, there is scarce research and even fewer current teaching materials in the area of ecopreneurship.
“Today’s curriculums draw on out-of-date, overseas corporate social responsibility and sustainability examples,” she says. “We identified the gap and researched local case studies which are now available as a global university business teaching resource.”
Says Professor Kearins, “We chose three businesses in very different industries with an express interest in sustainability, that are small in size, all at different organisational life-cycle phases but within their first five years of business and each with a clearly stated growth ambition.”
These were critical factors in the researchers’ case study choice, she says.
“Very small businesses with two to 20 employees mean the owners’ influence is usually very strong,” she says. “Young businesses are most likely to be responding to the wave of interest in sustainability given its increasing prominence in New Zealand since 2002. And businesses that plan to grow to a significant size probably experience tensions between their desire to grow and issues of sustainability.”
She adds that living in New Zealand we have an interest in what is happening in our communities and what local businesses are doing.
Local Auckland-based State of Grace is an alternative family funeral business. Its services include sustainably managed wood caskets polished with bees wax, willow weave caskets using unbleached calico and cornstarch plastic, caskets made from cardboard, and on-selling baby caskets at cost.
“After just one year of operation State of Grace won a regional sustainable business award at the Sustainable Business Network’s 2007 ‘Get Sustainable Challenge’.”
“But as the business grew, the owners were faced with the challenge of balancing how much and how fast to grow and at the same time staying true to their sustainability values and maintaining family commitments,” says Professor Kearins.
Wellington operation Kapai New Zealand Limited was born when two young men’s quest to become All Blacks meant they had to fill their pukus with greens not fish ‘n’ chips. While they haven’t made the squad they have created a healthy and socially sustainable alternative to typical fast food outlets – with plates you can eat.
“They launched two build-your-own salad restaurants in 2005 and have two more on the way.”
“To grow the businesses, they chose to franchise but this raised the question ‘could they achieve growth through franchising and maintain their businesses environmental and social sustainability?’. Whatever they did needed to be good for business but reflect their business principles,” says Professor Kearins.
Global fashion brand designer Miranda Brown was committed to sourcing her short-run production locally and selling her ranges domestically and overseas. This sparked rapid growth and Brown was determined that her business practised what it preached.
“Miranda Brown creates two fashion and homeware collections per year,” says Dr Tregidga. “Her lines combine traditional with modern and use safe, natural fabrics such as New Zealand wool and organic cotton.”
Dr Tregidga says the three case studies shed new light on the emerging way of doing business
“Many small New Zealand businesses are tackling difficult environmental and social sustainability issues head on,” she says. “We’ve chosen just three of them and their stories will inform future business practice through the classroom.”
The cases are designed for use in business schools teaching strategic management, entrepreneurship and small business, as well as specialist classes in sustainability and tourism.
Professor Kearins adds that case studies are an effective teaching tool because students get to engage in real business dilemmas and live decision-making.
“This is where theory and class discussion meets real business context,” she says. “The use of live businesses has many advantages. You are working with real people who face real issues. This lends credibility to the cases.”
“Students react well to live businesses,” explains Dr Tregidga. “They can visit their premises, access their website, and know that they are dealing with issues that they themselves may experience in the future.”
Dr Tregidga warns that the concept of ecopreneurship and sustainability is so important it shouldn’t be limited to just one paper but be integrated across the curriculum.
“We want to trigger thinking in our students in the areas of sustainability and business values. It needs to become integrated in the minds of the future business leaders that universities are creating today.”
“It’s not about teaching students what sustainability is but it’s getting them to think about the relationship between business, society and the environment in all areas.”
Dr Tregidga cringes at the mention of sustainability being the buzz word of the new millennium.
“I’ve seen so much written about this. The question should be what are we sustaining? What are we trying to achieve in this thing called sustainability?” she asks. “We need to think about what businesses are creating in their business output such as waste by-products.”
“It’s not enough now to simply recycle or reduce pollutants. If we’re talking about a company that needs to heavily pollute to be in business and potentially produce a product we don’t need, they may need to shut down to be sustainable.”
She says the focus for business needs to be reduce, reuse, and, as a last recourse, recycle.
“Sustainability is complicated and is further challenged because it tends to be thrown up as being easy,” she adds. “It may need to come down to consumers realising the impact they are having on the environment and start using the collective power of their spending dollar.”
“Everyone needs to think about their purchase decisions. We want students to come away thinking about how their own actions contribute to keeping an otherwise non-sustainable businesses in business.”