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As a result of an increasing population and growing personal wealth, there’s more of us who can afford buying more products and then throw them away alongside the non-biodegradable packaging.
Since the China ban from 2018, we have fewer options in terms of where to send our waste, putting further strain on our ever expanding landfills, which has turned Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from voluntary action left to the decision of each individual organization, to a mandatory strategy imposed by regional and national authorities.
Consumers are also becoming more aware of the harmful effects of pollution and this shift has given rise to a wide range of eco-driven business opportunities.
You can start your own green enterprise either offering eco-innovative services for different sizes of businesses or selling environmentally safe products to interested customers, especially on Etsy.
Organic Home-Made Beauty Products
According to research done by the Soil Association, in the UK alone, sales for natural beauty products have been growing steadily for the past eight years.
Consumers nowadays are afraid of the potential risks they associate with using conventional products and show a strong preference towards more natural ingredients when it comes to their skin-care routine.
If you already enjoy making your own natural beauty products and have become quite knowledgeable on the topic, this might be a great business venture for you. Success stories like Botanicals, Burt’s Bees and Neal’s Yard Remedies can serve as inspiration for your development plan.
Another option is to become a beauty vlogger and focus on finding the best organic products to recommend to your viewers. Tutorials on how to make your own face cream, body lotions or hair conditioner are becoming very popular, with some Youtubers amassing millions of views on their channels.
Online Store with Eco-Friendly Packaging
Right now, there’s a growing global trend aimed at reducing the use of non-biodegradable packaging so if you have innovative ideas on alternative packaging or how to sell products package-free through a reusable container strategy, this might be a good chance to profit from your skills.
You can also hire a consultant to help you develop a business plan or you can collaborate with suppliers that have already minimized their packaging or have developed bio-degradable solutions.
Become a Green Publisher with and Environmentally Friendly Blog
If you enjoy writing and are well versed on the topic of environmentally safe trends and practices you can start your own blog or website, informing the public on how to correctly recycle, how to repair or upcycle things they would normally throw away and on currents trends regarding pollution and go green strategies.
Bloggers usually make money by selling ads which you can do through Google AdSense, you don’t even have to negotiate with the advertisers yourself, you place the banners and Google will choose what’s most relevant to your content.
Affiliate links are another great tool for monetizing your blog. You provide a link to a company that sells eco-friendly products, for example, and you get a commission for every sale that results from someone clicking the link on your page.
Furniture Repairs and Upcycling
Maybe you’re good with your hands and passionate about DIY projects. In that case, you can make some money by fixing furniture for your clients or creating interesting pieces from left-over parts. You simply go to second-hand furniture stores or you search online and you buy low-priced items which you spruce up for a profit.
You could even offer interior decorating services and created a YouTube channels in which you document your projects thus increasing your exposure and revenue.
Sustainable Fashion
In case fashion is more your area of interest, you can design and make interesting pieces from items you get at thrift stores and sell them online. Just like in the previous idea, you should blog and vlog your process in order to get more advertisement and hence grow your business and also make extra revenue from these different platforms.
Another method of selling your clothes is by collaborating with already established sustainable fashion boutiques or handmade shops.
Develop Eco-Friendly Apps
Since we have become so reliant on our smartphones it only makes sense that we would want to use to figure out how to live more environmentally friendly lives.
You could develop an app that helps users find recycling centers, look up if a package or product is recyclable and how to go about it, find out if a brand is selling environmentally safe products and so on.
Some of the apps we already have and from which you can take inspiration offer services such as finding people nearby to carpool with, finding farmers’ markets with directions and schedule and tracking your lifestyle habits to calculate your carbon footprint.
Sell Organic Cleaning Products
Much like in the case of beauty products, more and more consumers are becoming wary of the potential health risks associated with the strong chemicals found in conventional cleaning products, especially if they have kids.
You can research and develop effective, home-made cleaning solutions made from natural ingredients that you can market and sell online.
You can also sell products for a more well-known eco-friendly company and get commission. If you manage to sell the products to bigger clients such as kindergartens, schools or medium sized companies, you can make quite a comfortable sum of money each month by renewing their supply.
Offer Bicycle Tours
Do you live in a touristy area by any chance? In that case you can start a side-venture giving visitors bicycle tours. You could invest in a tandem bicycle or simply work with a company that rents bikes and that will recommend your services to their customers.
As long as you do your homework and come up with an interesting itinerary and entertaining information you can give about the various landmarks, you’re bound to make a few friends and build up a good reputation which will give you a steady supply of additional income.
The nicest part is they’re bound to get tired before you do, since they get less practice and you’ll most probably end up having a nice cold lemonade or light beer at the pubs you recommended which might mean that the owners of those fine establishments will give you an open tab.
