To help mother Earth and turn it into a business is an excellent advocacy to start a business with. It is a promising niche, since more people are becoming conscious of environmental changes, the waste produced, and how they could be a part of the solution. In fact, many consumers are willing to pay extra for a product or advocacy they support.
There are several ways on how you can start your own eco-friendly business, depending on your interest and funds. So whether you’re environmentally-conscious or simply passionate about using sustainable materials and methods, here is a list of green business ideas that startup entrepreneurs can venture.
Organic Food
Organic food is grown without the use of synthetic chemicals. With today’s rise in obesity and lifestyle diseases, people are becoming more conscious of their food choices. If you can grow food in your home, you can start by selling it to family and friends, then consider expanding to a stall or store with other product variants.
Eco Restaurants
Restaurants who practice Farm to Table (greens) or Farm to Fork (meat) source their ingredients from local farmers and hoggers, guaranteeing freshness. It also helps small-scale entrepreneurs and producers cut down on extra costs on transportation and storage fees.
Organic Body Products
Our skin is the largest organ of our body, and we use different products for our hair, face, body. In addition to the chemicals present in our surroundings and the food that we eat, these chemicals, despite being present in small amounts, can build up inside our bodies over time. Ingredients commonly included in products are parabens, fragrances, artificial colors, and alcohols, giving scent, improving the appearance, and prolonging shelf life. Using organic body products minimizes irritation and is less likely to trigger allergies and other skin conditions. Moreover, the ingredients are grown and produced using sustainable practices.
Green House Cleaners and Soaps
Cleaning supplies generally have numerous chemicals which can be harmful when inhaled or absorbed by the skin. Some of the best ingredients with antibacterial properties are common ingredients we can find in the kitchen. Instead, you can substitute synthetic chemicals with natural materials such as white vinegar, baking soda, and lemon, to name a few. The good thing about it is it does not involve complicated chemistry and machines and is safe for kids and people with health conditions.
Recycled Crafts and Household Items
Recycling different materials for crafts just needs a little bit of creativity. Instead of buying, consider the repurposing items, such as bottle caps, egg trays, empty cans. You can get these items almost for free, and you can decide how to redesign them so you can make them into something useful.
Pre-loved Items
The culture of consumerism leads to people purchasing items that exceed their needs. In many people, buying things became a form of therapy, known as retail therapy. Not only does this give us a false sense of happiness, but it also contributes to the growing pollution produced in manufacturing these items. Buying second-hand items not only spare you money but helps reduce items wasted in landfills as well.
Eco-Friendly Fashion
Next to oil, the fashion industry is the largest polluter in the world. Since textile production and disposal require lots of energy and resources, it leaves an enormous environmental footprint. In addition, the rise of fast fashion left tons of unused clothes and cutouts to end up in the dumpsters.
Making clothes from sustainable materials such as natural fibers—organic/ recycled cotton and synthetic vegan fabrics can be pretty costly compared to fast fashion retailers. The materials used contain little to no chemicals, so they decompose naturally.
Upcycling Furniture
Depending on durability and size, the construction of a piece of furniture needs several materials. The most common material used is wood. Unfortunately, we know that we cut down trees faster than we can grow them, posing a significant problem for our forests. As a furniture seller, you can reduce this negative impact by utilizing old or scrap pieces and using other recycling materials during construction and assembly.
Composter
Composting is simple and cheap; all you need is three materials—browns, greens, and water. The browns include dead leaves, branches, and twigs, and the greens can be vegetable waste, fruit scraps, and coffee grounds. Since composting requires a decent amount of area to mix and store, it is ideal to have space outside with open air. It’s a little to no-cost investment, since these are materials that often end up in our trash cans. The finished product can be sold to local plant growers and gardeners.
Green Vlogging & Content Creation
The popularity of video content paved new opportunities for social media influencers.
For entrepreneurs that are more focused on writing, you can start a blog about environmental topics and then make money through advertising or selling green products of some kind.
Solar Panel Installation
With the rise of electricity consumption, there is an increased interest in harnessing renewable sources of energy. The initial installation of solar panels may be costly, but it can help reduce pollution, mainly from fossil fuels, and significantly reduce electricity bills.
If you’re starting and profit from a project basis only, consider a new face of the workforce, where you can hire people only when needed. It can save you the costs of employing full-time for seasonal work.
Green Architecture
Involves designing new homes or buildings using methods that advocate sustainability and energy conservation. It also aims to minimize the harmful effects of the construction project on both human and environmental health. Depending on the project scale, consider the types of materials used, location, timeline, and how to pay contractors.
Bottom line
The improvements in technology and industrialization resulted in massive waste by-products, and we are starting to feel the effects of climate change. For example, the increase in global temperature causes iceberg meltdown in the polar regions, leads to coastal flooding; the frequency of wildfires and increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere all contribute to the rise in temperature. Pollution ultimately affects our health and food supply. As our global population rapidly grows and is expected to balloon over the next few years, all of us need to take part in preserving our planet for the next generations to come.
About the Author:
Bash Sarmiento is a writer and an educator from Manila. He writes laconic pieces in the education, lifestyle, and health realms. His academic background and extensive experience in teaching, textbook evaluation, business management, and traveling are translated into his works.
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