Business Ideas in Romania

Blog Action Day

• Posted by Steve on October 15th, 2007 filed in Environment

Today is Blog Action Day and the theme as Clarisa noted in her post is The Environment. I thought we could do our part by discussing the opportunities in aligning environmental protection with future profits.
We have posted on this many business opportunities already including:

Metering and Pre-Paid services
Energy Audit Services and
Renewable Energy projects and available funds
At the risk of repeated ourselves… the environment and all business activity related to protecting it can be the opportunity of the next decade. The seriousness in which previously reluctant players have embraced the importance of energy supplies, climate change, and other environmental issues cannot be overstated. I worked back in 1993 for one of the first “socially responsible” financial brokerage where we advised people to select investments based on social and environment criteria in addition to the potential financial performance of the stock, bond or mutual fund. Companies that were either indifferent or considered mortal enemies of the Socially Responsible Investment movement have now whole-heartedly adopted the need to adopt their business models to protecting the environment(”SRI” was the pre-cursor to the investment aspects of “Sustainable Development”) . When GE, DuPont, Goldman Sachs, Citibank and their like see good business in green (and not just the color of the dollar)…it is time to take note. Even big oil companies now see their role as delivering energy to consumers, not just delivering oil - an important shift in mentalities.
Two very influential groups that include top political and business leaders, the World Economic Forum and the Council on Foreign Relations, are discussing these issues with urgency placing climate change and the environment as a prominent and continuous point of discussion. Add to that… an Oscar award winning movie and a Nobel Peace Prize for the guy whose Earth in the Balance book in 1992 was viewed then as a political liability.
From a business perspective, this should not be underestimated. A true green revolution has started - supported by devoted environmentalists, powerful business persons, and governments (at the nation, state and local level). I have heard more than a few people tell me this will not happen in Romania anytime soon. I have also heard, however, from many more people interested in doing something and only hesitating because they think they are the only one thinking of it.

Sure… we will have to endure some nauseating moments as undeserving companies try to convince us they are green because children play in meadows in their advertisements… But there will also be hundreds of thousands of small, medium and large business opportunities created through the need to shift a planet to new thinking, methods, technologies, etc. within Romania, the region, and beyond for the foreseeable future.

Recent events tell me that our early enthusiasm wasn’t optimistic enough.