Environmental Entrepreneurs

By Kethaki Nair

If you are interested in social change, but still haven’t found a job that excites you, social entrepreneurship could be worth looking into. As a social entrepreneur you can devise your own innovative solutions to your community’s or the world’s biggest environmental issues. Here are two inspiring examples:

Rafael Cancel-Vazquez: As founder of the National Environmental Law Association (ANDA), the first environmental law center in Puerto Rico, Rafael aims empower the community with the resources to use environmental law to protect the local environment. The organization uses a combination of public awareness, training, and free legal representation to accomplish its mission. Rafael graduated from the University of Puerto Rico School of Law in 2008. He says he was inspired by, “The imagination of the citizens that ANDA will serve, since they continuously challenge traditional legal solutions and help us to forge out-of-the-box dreams.” http://www.echoinggreen.org/fellows/rafa-cancel-vazquez

Iftekhar Enayetullah and Maqsood Sinha: These residents of Dhaka were troubled by the inadequate solid waste disposal systems offered by the government. Together they started Waste Concern, an organization that promotes the composting of organic waste in Dhaka’s slums. To involve the poor residents in the project they encouraged them to look at their waste as a resource. The compost-based bio-fertilizer was sold to local nurseries and local participants got a share of the income. Waste Concern is helping clean up Dhaka’s slums while creating new jobs and income. http://www.ashoka.org/casestudies

There are many organizations out there that fund and train social entrepreneurs to help them realize their dreams. Rafael is an Echoing Green Fellow. As part of the fellowship program Echoing Green provides both funding and training. Iftekhar and Maqsood are Ashoka Fellows and part of Ashoka’s Environmental Innovations Initiative. They provide similar support as well as attempt to bring environmental leaders across the world together.

In case you’re not quite ready to be a social entrepreneur, both Ashoka and Echoing Green offer summer internships that can give you an overview of the field.