ENTREPRENEURSHIP, A PATHWAY TO SOLVING  EVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS.

By: OLUSOLA GEORGE

Aside the millions of backyard small scale industries operating illegally within residential premises especially in Africa, there were estimated 213 million registered and easily locatable businesses operating worldwide in 2020, the dire consequence of which is environmental pollution, a burden shared by both developed and developing nations. The growing rate of industrialization has generated undeniable environmental concerns, every now and then hot and heavy metal lead in effluents, especially those from the textile, farmery and paint industries are discharged directly into open drainages and water channels constituting direct dangers to water users downstream, while global giants are showing no signs of attaining the net-zero carbon emission and still leverage on unrenewable energy supply all of which have for decades resulted in loss of biodiversity, destruction of natural ecosystems, environmental degradation and pollution and are brutally ravaging our collective sustainable development via their negative effect on man, microorganisms, plants, and animal species on this planet.

To rewrite this narrative, start-ups  as well as business giants should incorporate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and ensure that activities that result in development must not only meet the needs of this present generation but also not compromise earth’s ability to meet the needs of future generations. In light of this, reusing and recycling are major undeniable essentials that pave a pathway for not just proper waste disposal mechanisms but also for entrepreneurial activities by  bringing about the zero waste policy since nothing will end up in land fills. Reusing plastics collectibles and recycling waste from trash cans into new materials either through chemical, energy or mechanical methods are both eco-friendly and entrepreneural. 

Furthermore, partnering with businesses that center on supplying renewable energy via solar, wind and hydro are not only cost effective for consumers but also profit intensive for entrepreneurs. This will assist in reducing the indirect greenhouse gas emissions. It is an  eco-friendly waste and sewage disposal mechanism. Entrepreneurs who engage in waste and sewage collection choose the waste type they require and then transform the collected waste into energy. Transforming waste to Energy by entrepreneurs help replace fossil fuels and recover energy from waste via plasma gasification process, Incineration, thermal depolymerization, pyrolysis, fermentation, anaerobic digestion, and other new technologies.

To reduce excess motor vehicle exhaust in the air, buses, trains transportation systems should be made available by entrepreneurs to solve a slice of air pollution, provide a better economic alternative to transporters and create huge profit for entrepreneurs.

Thomas Paine in a letter addressed to the Abbe Raynal on the affairs of North America opined,” The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark”. The internet provides mankind with tons of information daily, therefore environmentally conscious entrepreneurs will kill two birds with a stone by publicising articles on environmental issues as well as making environmental podcasts readily available to millions of individuals across the world, this will keep people informed, proferring sustainable solutions to the raised issues and provide income for writers of articles, bloggers and podcasters.

Green application developers are not left out. The undeniable increase in smartphone penetration has fueled the perfect recipe for application developers in general. Since applications exist for everything, it is totally entrepreneural for a potential entrepreneur with eco-friendly Initiatives to develop green applications that track carbon and ecological footprints, reveal the quickest legal route transporters should use to move from location to location, analyse road conditions and caution transporters who engage in environmentally unfriendly driving habits.

Creation of green spaces by entrepreneurs in organisations, homes and work spaces will provide solutions to our numerous environmental concerns. A study from NASA in the 1980s revealed humble house plants successfully remove chemicals such as benzene, trichloroethylene and formaldehyde from indoor air. Plants absorb the carbon dioxide we (humans) breathe out and release fresh oxygen into the environment, which cleanse the air.

Environmental conservation and sustainability are no longer considered a niche, therefore the effects of the business ventures we harness today must be effects we can live with tomorrow, always bearing in mind that we did not inherit the environment from our ancestors, we borrowed it from our offspring’s. These eco-friendly initiatives will help address the sustainable development goals as well as create new business models to boost finances of participants