EcoSector is working to expand society’s commitment to ecosystems to equal its commitment to other essential infrastructure systems like transportation, communications, and health care. As part of that expanded commitment, we propose the creation of a cabinet-level Department of Ecosystems in the U.S. federal government.

The creation of a Department of Ecosystems will offer many benefits. It will:

• Promote and symbolize society’s recognition of the importance of ecosystems to peoples’ lives and health, and our role in assuring their vitality.
• Increase and solidify access to the President for our nation’s top environmental official.
• Improve intra- and inter-governmental relations.
• Enhance international relations.

Promoting the Importance of Ecosystems

Our society and our government invest greatly in many important large-scale systems, including highways, agriculture, telecommunications, etc. By comparison, we pay very little attention to the health of our ecosystems, systems on which all life depends.  That the U.S. government has Departments of Transportation, Interior, Agriculture, etc., but no Department of Ecosystems illustrates society’s gap in its commitment to ecosystems compared to other interests.

Protecting public health and the environment by assuring the vitality of ecosystems is a mission of at least equal importance to the missions of other cabinet-level departments. Recognizing this, and undertaking a serious commitment to ecosystems will create a fundamental shift in our society and our economy.

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I finally sat down and put all my best advice for starting and growing a green company in one place.  Why?  I got tired of billing people to teach them the basics.  Check out the Method section.

Hi Folks,

Finished renovating the site for “Phase II” in EcoSector’s mission to launch bunches of green companies.

Check out the Green Startup Club - if a lot of people donate $1, we can grow a lot of green businesses.  Tell me what you think!

Cheers,
Mark

Back to green business, who’da thunk you could sell solar-panels to the poor? http://tinyurl.com/6zv37l Meredith did!

I love to backpack, but couldn’t find a light, thin wallet, so I invented my own: http://butterflywallet.com. What do you think?

Tony’s tacos are greener than the chiles! http://tinyurl.com/67q4zd

I really like reading new Public Profiles when they post at the EcoSector Portal.

Twitter’s 140 character limit inspired me to start writing little “elevator pitches” about these neat ecopreneurs so you can get the maximum cool factor in the minimum number of words.

You can share my fun via EcoSector’s Twitter site.

Also, thanks to a nifty integration by Alex King, these “tweets” will show up automatically at this blog - example.

Sorensen’s “bubble pump” flows your solar shower without electric power: http://tinyurl.com/62hgbu

Here’s a nit-picky issue that makes a huge difference for the potential success of a green start-up business.

A common mistake of first time green entrepreneurs is to price their goods and services based on “mark-up” instead of “profit-margin”. The fact is, a 50% “mark-up” is a lot less money than a 50% “profit margin”.

Let’s look at the difference…

Profit Margin is calculated as a percentage of the sale price. So, if you make a 50% profit margin on a $100 sale, your profit is $50 and your cost to produce the product or service is $50.

Mark-up is added to the cost to produce your product or service. If we were to price the same item mentioned above with a 50% mark-up, we’d add 50% of the production cost, or $25, to that cost to get the final price of $75.

In the mark-up example, the profit is only $25 on the total sale of $75, which is equal to a profit margin of only 33%.

Using mark-up to instead of profit margin can lead to chronic underpricing of goods and services which makes it much harder to succeed in business.

Also, investors consider profit margin, not mark-up, when judging the financial potential of a business, so it’s important to align your business processes to the interests of investors from the start. Even if you don’t plan to seek outside capital, you’re still the primary investor in your green company, so do right for yourself.

Here is how to calculate the price your product or service using the profit margin approach:

Take the cost to produce your product or service and divide it by the desired profit margin to get the sale price. Using our same example item, divide the production cost of $50 by 50% or 0.5 and you’ll get the sale price of $100 with a 50% profit magin.

this is cool - Zach turns sewer grease to fuel: http://tinyurl.com/63jqmm