Andre Joseph Gallant

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My brain has been rattling over small business, green entrepreneurship and how to build a lifestyle that’s both rewarding to the earth and myself. 

My co-workers and I trade ideas, jabs and dreams that concern these ideals on a daily basis. They’re often hair-brained and unoriginal, but the discussion and subsequent research the talks inspire are vital and necessary. 

I thought that I’d share a bit of my Saturday morning’s surf with y’all.

The Triple Bottom Line method of business refers to people, planet and profit. 3BL is a marketing term used by corporations in discussing the sustainability of their globe-scraping business practices.

But the concept isn’t for suits alone.

John Ivanko, author of Ecopreneuring, writes  ”challenge the stereotype that ‘big’ equals ‘better;’ you don’t need to grow large to be exceptional.” Basically, that’s a polite version of one of my favorite mottos: you don’t have to f*&k people over to survive.

Also, I feel the people part is often overlooked in our national discussion on commerce and environmentalism in the new century. We focus on job loss in economic sectors now demonized as poisonous to the earth; we make fun of eco-warriors and living wage activists, calling them anti-business and anti-american; the self-righteous point fingers at the suburbanites and their consumption.  

A sustainable business model must include treating people with respect, paying a living wage, health care et al.

The triple bottom line is therefore surely in line with the neither big nor tall lifestyle.

I picked a bit of Ivanko’s wisdom from the newsociety.com:

Keeping business small inspires personal attention to detail when it comes to caring for your staff and subcontractors. For example, there is such a thing as a free lunch at Wildrose Farm Organics in Breezy Point, Minnesota. Owners Chuck and Karen Knierim provide a free, healthy lunch for the dozen seamstresses of their organic clothing line using organic vegetables from their garden and eggs from free-range chickens. (originally published at ecopreneurist)