Creating Environment-Inclusive Organizations: An Integrative Ecopreneurial Approach

Abstract

The impact commercial ventures have on society is large in terms of economic, environmental, and social impact. Threat to ecological systems can impact economic as well as social systems. As a result, there is a growing debate about what and how business ventures can genuinely contribute to building an ecologically sustainable society (Jackson, Prosperity without growth—Economics for a finite planet, London, 2009; Milne and Gray, Journal of Business Ethics 118(1):13–29, 2013). One of the greatest challenges facing business leaders is the need to develop business ventures that balance ethics, employee well-being, social and sustainability objectives with the business objectives of revenue and profitability. Can we build an environment-inclusive organization which can balance the ecological objective with the profit objectives? In this chapter, we propose a model of how business organizations can create and nourish environment inclusivity. We draw from the emerging fields of ecopreneurship and bricolage. Research conducted with ecopreneurs in India is used to build the template for environment-inclusive organization.