75 Green Businesses You Can Start to Make Money and Make A Difference [Paperback]

Glenn Croston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2008

Take the Lead in the Green Revolution

With environmental concerns a top issue for consumers everywhere, the green market is the next big boom industry for entrepreneurs looking to make money-and make a difference.

"Kermit is wrong! It's easy being green...just read Croston's book. He provides a terrific guide to an amazing array of business eco-opportunities, and tells you how to take advantage of them!"
-Ray Smilor, Executive Director, Beyster Institute at the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego, author of Daring Visionaries: How Entrepreneurs Build Companies, Inspire Allegiance, and Create Wealth

"75 Green Businesses gets you quickly up to speed on the fast-paced trends propelling the green economy and shows you where to find the opportunities. If you're considering starting your own green business, Croston's book has practically written about half your business plan for you. A terrific resource."
-Josh Dorfman, founder & CEO, Vivavi and author of The Lazy Environmentalist

"Browsing through these pages will inspire some directly toward a new career and prompt others to invent new business models. Expect to see a dog-eared copy sitting on every shelf of the next generation of entrepreneurs."
-Eric Corey Freed , Principal, organicARCHITECT and author ofGreen Building & Remodeling for Dummies

"The biggest opportunities of the 21st century are green businesses. This wonderful book offers people who want to get involved a very comprehensive listing of those many opportunities as well as numerous links to more information. Read it and get inspired."
-Greg Pahl, author of The Citizen-Powered Energy Handbook: Community Solutions to a Global Crisis

Discover 75 green startup ideas in multiple industries, including eco-tourism, small wind power, green schools, water conservation landscaping, green investment consulting and more. For each business, Croston shows you the market, product to be delivered, resources needed, major hurdles ahead, competitors and strategies for success.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Kermit is wrong! It's easy being green...just read Croston's book. He provides a terrific guide to an amazing array of business eco-opportunities, and tells you how to take advantage of them!"
-Ray Smilor, Executive Director, Beyster Institute at the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego, author of Daring Visionaries: How Entrepreneurs Build Companies, Inspire Allegiance, and Create Wealth

"75 Green Businesses gets you quickly up to speed on the fast-paced trends propelling the green economy and shows you where to find the opportunities. If you're considering starting your own green business, Croston's book has practically written about half your business plan for you. A terrific resource."
-Josh Dorfman, founder & CEO, Vivavi and author of The Lazy Environmentalist

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

Glenn Croston, Ph.D. is a green scientist, author and entrepreneur. He has written five biology and chemistry books and is involved in developing entrepreneurial businesses with a focus on green research. He lives an environmentally-friendly life in both business and at home.

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: Entrepreneur Press; 1st edition (August 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599181800
• ISBN-13: 978-1599181806
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #93,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Glenn Croston is a PhD biologist and the author of multiple books exploring ourselves and our world. Humans are about the most interesting thing around, in his opinion, even if our actions are hard to understand. But by understanding our actions, and ourselves, we can better manage our actions and our role in the world around us.

Looking around, it's not hard to find examples of the strange ways we respond to the risks of our world large and small. Curious about this, Croston talked with people in all walks of life, from risk experts to skydivers, from anthropologists to entrepreneurs. And what he found lead him to write "The Real Story of Risk: Adventures in a Hazardous World" (www.realstoryofrisk.com) looks at our strange responses to risks we face every day in our work and our lives. Our responses evolved over millions of years and we are well suited to the risks of the ancient world, but we no longer live in this world. Instead we live in a new world of our own creation, and one we struggle to deal with. We're still worried about snakes but seem clueless about the risks of financial bubbles and white collar crime. Going all the way back to our roots as humans, and back again, Croston arrived with fresh insight into how we got here and where we might be going.

Croston is also the author of "Gifts from the Train Station: the Healing Power of Helping Others" (www.giftsfromthetrainstation.org). Talking to a friend recovering from leukemia, he started looking into people around the world who had run into great challenges in their lives but found that by working for the greater good, connecting with a higher purpose, they healed themselves and built fresh rich new lives for the future.

As a father, Croston has also worried at times about the direction our world is headed, particularly with our stewardship of the environment of planet Earth. Deciding to do his part and to focus on solutions rather than problems, Croston wrote "75 Green Businesses You Can Start to Make Money and Make a Difference", outlining a slew of opportunities to get involved in delivering solutions, and build a great business in the process.

"Starting Green: An Ecopreneur's Guide to Starting a Green Business from Business Plan to Profits" picks up where "75 Green Businesses" leaves off, providing a nuts and bolts guide to the steps and strategies to start and grow a successful green business.

Croston is also the founder of Starting Up Green, giving green entrepreneurs the strategies, communications, and consulting they need to start and grow a successful venture.

A Ph.D. biologist, Croston lives in San Diego. As a father, it's important to him to not just be an observer, but someone who lives the change we want to see in the world.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Variety of Green Jobs July 30, 2008

By Norma Lehmeierhartie VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

75 Green Businesses You Can Start to Make Money and Make a Difference, by Glenn Cruston, is a terrific guide to get you started in a green career.

The 75 businesses are divided into 11 larger segments, like "Fueling Green Energy", "Finding Business Solutions in the Living World," and "Green Farms."

The reader is encouraged to view the 75 careers as a starting point, and Cruston encourages mixing and matching them and thinking creatively about more opportunities. This makes a lot of sense, as we are in the infancy of the green movement, and many other green work choices will soon develop.

For each career opportunity, Cruston provides information on what the market need is for the service/product, the mission, any special challenges, what education is required to do the job, the capital required, the timing, resources and examples of actual businesses.

Here are some examples of green businesses:
* small wind-turbine installer
* Green chief sustainability officer
* Philanthropy management
* Building green homes and businesses
* fab green prefabs
* Green building certification
* Paperless office consultant
* Sell or manufacture reusable shopping totes
* Eco-friendly and healthy fast food
* Home food safety testing kits
* Green bed & breakfast
* Green car dealership
* Gas free gardening
* Green cafes

This book is loaded with great real life examples of green businesses and includes lots of resources. As Cruston notes, these 75 job opportunities are just the beginning. A careful reading of the book can motivate and be a great starting point for a successful green entrepreneurial career.

Highly recommend.

By the author of the award winning book, Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify and Energize Your Life, Your Home and Your Planet.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A "GREEN" SUCCESS April 6, 2009

By J. Torre

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

My husband and I are more than half way through this book and we highly recommend it for anyone wanting to start a green business, work for a green business and/or invest in a green future. Each business venture is broken down with a chart to understand any start-up costs/skills involved and puts it a "reader friendly" perspective. The book is loaded with referral websites and it's apparent the author has done his homework.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Green Is The New Black February 10, 2009

By Curtis Tyree

Format:Paperback

75 Green Businesses is a terrific jumping off point for anyone thinking of starting a venture in the ecological economy. Dr. Croston (full disclosure, I attended graduate school in the same laboratory as Glenn, he remains a close friend even though he didn't use my suggestion for the subtitle of the book: "Green Is The New Black") has outlined 75 business opportunities in 11 categories with a wide range of requirements with respect to training, interest and capital.

The review boxes are very helpful in making the reader aware of capital and special challenges right off the bat. But just because a particular opportunity isn't for you, keep reading- every page has several cool nuggets of information. The insets serve to break up the text nicely, making this book very easy to read.

With the government pouring billions into the green economy, there are a myriad of ways to get a business off the ground. Dr. Croston has provided 75 good ideas. Maybe green really is the new black.