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Here you can see the articles our team has written about eco-entrepreneurship for NEETs
Eco-preneurship has a transformative approach to business. The approach sets social impact, innovativeness and of course environmental sustainability among its top priorities. As a result, directing individuals with periods of disconnection form the workforce towards eco-business practices in our attempts to reintegrate them in the workforce benefits us all.
Perhaps the best way to understand how NEETs should go for this means, rather than any means of entrepreneurship, is to address why NEETs are out of work and opportunities in the first place. These same reasons are the reasons why they can be the best harbingers of social change.
NEETs tend to be in their situation due to challenges with Mental Health, Social Isolation and Economic Instability. A sense of purposelessness and exclusion from the workforce of course will often lead to disengagement from traditional labour pathways entirely.
These issues make NEETs more sensitive to these issues, and therefore more attracted to businesses which show purpose above profit. Social well-being, a key tenet of eco- preneurship, is naturally prioritised by those who lack it. This can be done through community-led ventures and businesses. The environment is also a noble purpose in of itself and so desirable to those feelings a sense of purposelessness.
Eco-preneurship also presents an opportunity for self-discovery, as it will encourage collaboration and networks, something which NEETs often desperately want, but also something that entrepreneurship desperately wants.
Within these networks, skill development, resilience and adaptability all begin to thrive, all of which are highly employable skills. These entrepreneurs will face many natural business challenges like market fluctuations, regulatory hurdles, and resource constraints. The journey itself in being an entrepreneur is very similar to that of reintegration. We must, as those seeking employment or seeking to start a business, embrace resilience and adaptability as core skills.
There have been many great examples of all this coming together, like the Upcycled Artisan, a Michigan based Eco-preneur. Not only is this business a great example of entrepreneurship, where the business person has seen an opportunity to turn discarded materials into home décor items and sell them through an online store, but it is also massively helping the environment and their local community.
Taking courses in eco-preneurship skills, like those materials developed by Eco-Neets, helps to begin development of the core competences that will jump start the next eco- preneurship venture, helping the environment and generating jobs at the same time.