Green University®LLC - Our Ultimate Mission:
To Create a Sustainable Economy and Change the World
"Prosperity in the 21st century will be created by those who seek profit in making the world a better place. Ecopreneurs will out-compete inefficient, abusive industries by starting green businesses that close the loop on wasted materials, energy, time, money and labor.
"They will heal wasted ecosystems and restore biodiversity at a profit while delivering useful goods and services to the public. Home-owners too, will profit by seeking ways to eliminate everything from high energy bills to mortgage payments--even eliminating the need for a regular job.
"But there is no need to wait for such a future to come, for the revolution has already started. The door is wide open, and anyone can walk the path to green prosperity, changing the world every step along the way."
--Thomas J. Elpel, author of
Direct Pointing to Real Wealth
To create a truly sustainable economy, we must transform our economic, cultural, and political models from old paradigms to new ones:
Old Economy: In the old economy businesses profited by exploiting people and the environment. The more money that changed hands, the more damage that was done.
New Economy: In the new economy businesses make money while making the world a better place. Making a profit translates directly into increasing environmental health and social welfare. You can make the world a better place with every dollar you earn, and again with every dollar you spend.
Old Culture: People processed information in black-and-white, right or wrong terms (i.e.: conservatives), gradually evolving towards more sequential processing, essentially understanding issues in many shades of gray (i.e.: liberals).
New Culture: People learn integrated, or interconnected, essentially holistic information processing, understanding complex ideas in web-like models. It is no longer a question of "jobs versus the environment", but rather of how we can "have our cake and eat it too" --achieving a high quality of life with meaningful work, in a way that is totally environmentally sustainable.
Old Politics: Legislation was passed in a haphazard fashion with each piece of proposed legislation chasing goals or non-goals that are unrelated or conflicting with other goals.
New Politics: Legislators define a positive vision or goal with a quality of life statement, generalized production statement, and an outline of how the economy must function to be perpetually sustainable. All proposed legislation is tested against the vision through a series of holistic guidelines.
Assembling a Team to Change the World
We do not need to reach every person to change the world. We only need to shift the controlling minority in business and politics from those who harm the world to those who will work towards holistic solutions. Specifically, we need a small army of highly motivated ecopreneurs to demonstrate that green business is good for the environment, good for people, good for the economy, and good for politics.
These movers and shakers need to be backed up by investors and vocal supporters. Investors will lend their money to green enterprises to cash in on the new economy. Vocal supporters will espouse the vision, even if they are not physically doing much to bring about the vision.
Green University® LLC is intended to serve as a center to assemble a team to change the world. On a campus with an apprenticeship-like structure, students may serve as volunteers in established and developing green businesses, where they can acquire job skills and learn green business strategies. Gradually they will transition from apprentices to journeymen, innovating their own green enterprises with the aid and advice of their mentors. Upcoming classes of student apprentices will be available as volunteer labor to assist in the research and development stages. Students graduate when they have successfully launched a new business "in the green."
Here on the internet Green University® LLC will showcase successful green business models for others to learn from. This website will function as an open forum to facilitate the exchange of ideas between ecopreneurs around the world as they seek to launch or improve their own green businesses.
Economics & Ecology Articles by Thomas J. Elpel
