Greentrepreneur

Entrepreneurs, the business people who are making bold courageous moves to become in charge with their own business. Here in America, entrepreneurs are seen as a hero who will bring work and prosperity to the community around them. Heroes such as Steve Jobs, Mark Cuban, and Elon Musk come in to mind because they made such a huge impact on a majority of people's lives. 

Many people go into entrepreneurship for many different reasons. Reasons from pursuing passion to trying to make a quick buck, these people all risk it to gain some sort of power. Some do morally great with this power, others not so much... but it is important to keep in mind what that entrepreneur should do with the power they wield. To make a pop-culture reference, Spiderman's Uncle Ben makes the iconic statement that entrepreneur's aught to carry with them when their business throws them into power. "With great power, comes great responsibility."

If there is underlying value that I have been learning from MKTG 474, it is that we as humans need to be responsible with the earth. We have put ourselves in power, yet forgoing many of the responsibilities that come with ruling the earth such as taking care of the earth itself. 

That's why I really applaud the efforts of Universities like Boston University who offer programs such as GREENtrepreneurship. This program gives prospective entrepreneurs the  tools and know-how to go into the clean energy sector, and start taking on that responsibility the power our energy sector wields. 

According to Paul McManus, managing director of the Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship & Commercialization (ITEC) at Boston University, “The program addresses a simple but acute problem: a lack of experienced entrepreneurs and seasoned executives in the clean energy sector. Our goal for this program is to help individuals accelerate their transition into the clean energy sector.”

Here is a quote from a student who took the greentreprenuer program "“This group really helped accelerate the iterations in the business, gave me access to new relationships, finding resources, being exposed to funding sources and ideas. I made some new contacts that will be valuable through the entrepreneurial journey."

Although Western's business is making strides into creating majors in areas such as sustainability, would it be a bad idea to consider programs like greentreprenuership as well? Many student's in the business school have expressed their interest of opening up their own shops one day. Western has the opportunity to really feed this interest of business students with the right tools to open up a green-conscientious shop.