Since everyone reading this blog is really a leader in society, I would greatly appreciate it if you would download this short (8-page) ebook and provide me with your feedback to make it better as I expand marketing to reach a much wider audience.

Some of you might have specific strategies I could add to the Guide, in which case it might make sense to include your thoughts and also add your name as a co-author or contributor.

Mark Winstein
EcoSector
Download the Green Economy Action Guide

On Friday, I spoke with Dave Lavinsky, co-founder and President of Growthink. If you don’t know Dave, he is a major “guru” when it comes to raising capital.

(Dave and his company Growthink have helped over 2,000 clients raise over $1 Billion over the past decade, and he has also taught over 250,000 other entrepreneurs how to raise funding).

So, anyway…in August, Dave is organizing a virtual Capital Raising Bootcamp to help entrepreneurs like you raise money to grow your businesses. And, as part of this program, he put together a really cool report called “The 12 Insider Secrets to Raising Capital.”

Here’s the neat part – I asked Dave, and he said I could share this report with my readers for FREE. So here it is:  12 Insider Secrets to Raising Capital – Download Now.

Being an “insider”, I already got my copy and was really impressed at how much good, useful info Dave was willing to give away for free.  So, I figured you’d like a chance to see it too.

I think you know how this stuff works.  The free report is great – really valuable stuff you can use right away.  If you get the report, Dave will also send you a few more emails inviting you to take the capital raising course, too. My recommendation is, if you want to raise capital for your company, take the course.

Yours Truly,
Mark

P.S. A month ago, I took another course from Growthink called “Dave’s Ultimate System for Raising Venture Capital”.  That was an amazing course.  Look, there are a lot of capital raising “gurus” out there, and I always take the time and expense to test drive anything that might give you a leg up when it comes to capitalizing your company.  I am 100% satisfied with the course I took.  Dave told me this new “Bootcamp” course includes all of information I got and a whole lot more, especially in the area of super-early stage capital, which is the hardest to raise. So, definitely check out the free report. I got a lot of great new ideas just from the free report.  Here’s the link again – 12 Insider Secrets to Raising Capital – Download Now

P.P.S.  I know business capital raising can be really challenging.  I’ve been studying it and doing it myself for nearly a decade now.  So, I just wanted to throw in another special offer – if you end up taking Dave’s course, I’ll also give you 3 half-hour personal capital coaching sessions myself, on top of all the good info and personal attention you’ll get from Dave.  Just let me know.

Last week, I got another call from the Census Bureau.  What I’m told is that revisions to NAICS are being researched by several agencies.  As I was talking, I recalled many other interesting links that can help people understand the already huge size of the “ecosystems sector”.  I’ve included them at this end of this post.

My point in all this is that taking care of the health of ecosystems is already so big that it should be included at the highest level of the NAICS system.  If the Federal government will make this change to the system, it will have a significant impact on the economy because the NAICS category system is used so broadly in everything from job listing sites to investment indexes, and simply seeing that the “ecosystem sector” is top-tier in NAICS will reframe the global dialogue about economy and ecology.

Here are some examples of infrastructure-scale projects that rely on the health of ecosystems for their economic function:

• The restoration of the Catskills watershed that provide drinking water to New York City allowed the city to save billions of dollars compared to expanding their mechanical water treatment system: http://www.epa.gov/Region2/water/nycshed/protprs.htm
• Many huge water-related ecosystem projects like the multi-billion dollar ecological restoration of the Everglades water system in Florida are listed at http://dels.nas.edu/water/eco_restor.php

Environmental Business Journal has a wealth of reports on US and global economic activity in this space: http://environmental-industry.com/

The website Ecosystem Marketplace documents how globally, ecosystem markets and incentives are increasing rapidly to help grow this new ecological economy: http://ecosystemmarketplace.com

The “Rise Report” published in 2003 showed that over $2.6 billion was invested in “double bottom line” Private Equity strategies focused on environmental and/or social benefits: http://www.riseproject.org/uzrise_capmkt_rpt_03.pdf.  This number has grown considerably since then.  The latest “green” private investment figures are available from http://cleantech.com

In April 2009, I submitted my formal comment to the process which you can read about in my last post on this subject. I figured that would be the end of it, but a few days ago, I got a call from a researcher from the Bureau of Labor Statistics who was charged with the task of following up and researching the merits of my proposal.  We had a nice talk, she asked me if I could provide additional names that would be able back up my wishes with some hard facts on the scope and scale of the green economy.

I suggested she contact Dr. Robert Costanza, founder of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont, Storm Cunningham, author of The Restoration Economy, and Lester Brown, author of Eco-Economy.  I also pointed her to the EcoSector Bookstore for more experts & authors on the green economy.

If you have the names of any other experts in the macro and practical size and scope of the green economy, please post them here and I’ll make sure the researcher gets the info you provide.

Mark

This may seem trivial, but it has widespread impacts on the way vast numbers of people think and spend money. For example, since “Environmental Health” is not a top-tier industry category in the U.S. Government’s system, this same ommission gets spread throughout job sites, investment services, news media coverage, etc.  It’s as if our industry doesn’t exist.  In the economy, lack of attention equals lack of money, and the result is that spending and investment dollars don’t get directed into the green economy at the level needed to address our global eco-challenges.

Now there’s something you can do about it!

The other day, I got an email from the Chief of the Economic Classifications Development Branch, Bureau of the Census, informing me that the department is now accepting public comments about proposed changes to the NAICS category system.

The dealine for comments is April 7, 2009. To comment, go to the U.S. Government’s official comment site for the NAICS revision process and press the “Add Comments” button. From this web page, you can also download a PDF that describes the NAICS revision process in more detail, along with the email, fax, and phone for Mr. John Murpy, Chair of the Economic Classification Policy Committee.

Here’s what I wrote:

Dear Mr. Murphy,

I would like to request that you add a top-tier category for “Ecosystem Health Care and Assistance” in your upcoming revision to the “North American Industry Classification System” (NAICS).

This would reflect the importance of healthy ecosystems to the health of people and begin to recognize the economically valuable activities of millions of Americans working in the Eco-Sector toward these objectives.

I posted a article on this subject at http://ecosector.com/blog/?p=31 that describes my reasoning in more detail.

Thank you for your kind consideration.

Mark Winstein
Founder
EcoSector Industry Association
208-596-6500

The department reviews and proposes changes once every five years.  I’m not exactly optimistic we can make these changes this time around – I think it will take growth of the EcoSector Industry Association to accomplish a sea change like this.  However, with your help, we can at least get this idea planted and then water it so that we can eventually complete this much needed structural transformation of our economy.

Mark Winstein