By Allison Duncil
What is green entrepreneurship and why is it important in our world today? Green entrepreneurship refers to a business that’s actively addressing environmental or social needs—like global warming and climate change. These businesses are often coming up with unique ideas, that may have a high level of risk, to help solve these issues in a long-lasting way. With the COVID-19 crisis and the rise of extreme weather conditions, we’re noticing that people are even more supportive of green businesses and looking for more solutions to these rising problems.
So, how does New York City support green entrepreneurship? It does in many ways—and in fact, it’s becoming one of the top cities for these types of businesses to boom. For example, the OneNYC environmental plan is a strategy that was put into place to overhaul the city’s recycling systems. Established in 2015, the goal was to decrease waste output by 90% by the year 2030.
New York City’s Green New Deal
In efforts to continue fleshing this plan out even further, the New York City Council passed OneNYC2050, also known as New York City’s Green New Deal. It’s a comprehensive strategy that’s encouraging businesses in New York to work towards carbon neutrality by 2050, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by the year 2030. Backed by $14 billion in taxpayer money, it’s a long-term plan that aims to build New York as a strong and fair city and include every New Yorker while doing it.
The #WearNext Campaign
New York is also home of the #WearNext campaign, which is an initiative aimed at uniting local fashion industry players in efforts to keep clothes in use and out of landfills. The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) teamed up with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Make Fashion Circular initiative to help establish a circular fashion economy by working with renewable and recyclable materials for upcoming couture events. The campaign also partnered with larger, well-known brands—like H&M, Gap and Asos—to add drop-off points around the city for used clothes (which could be donated to the cause).
All for the Green Cause
As a result of these initiatives and more, New York City has actually seen a recent rise in the creation of limited liability companies (LLCs) that comply with the city’s green policies. One example is Greensulate LLC, which uses sustainable materials for all of their insulation services. Another local LLC company is Green Guru LLC, which focuses on sustainable lawn care. The New York State Department’s Corporations Division is very much willing to help new entrepreneurs—especially when they’re supporting a green cause.
With more policies and plans aimed at raising awareness of local environmental issues, New York is on the path to becoming one of America’s greenest cities—and it will continue to succeed by supporting green entrepreneurs in the process.
Interested in learning more about how New York City is staying green? Check out our upcoming October Monthly Forum event to learn more.