Imagine a business that acts with an awareness of carrying out its duties in line with sustainable development principles. This business also pursues the shared interests of the whole system in addition to its own interests in the industry in which it operates. It knows what \u201cstakeholder\u201d means and also that a business belongs not to the board of directors and shareholders but to all stakeholders involved, notably the employees, supply-chain and the society. This awareness can be felt in all the decisions made by this business. It even views its competitors and future generations as stakeholders and works to create long-term added value with every step it takes. It establishes a balance between economic return, environment and social impact, giving priority to saving based on the assumption that any investment may have both negative and positive environmental, social and\/or economic impact. It makes environmental and social impact measurable rather than viewing them as external economic components. It creates an infrastructure for all input and output which is in line with its sustainability goals and which is accountable to its stakeholders. In addition to accountability this business puts into effect uncompromisingly the principles of transparency, fair governance and responsibility as required by corporate management. It fiercely advocates principles such as ethics, honesty, \u201chuman first\u201d and environmental respect not as tools for marketing or gaining favour but as values it genuinely believes in. This business refuses to put money over these principles regardless of the circumstances. It makes sustainability a part of its mission, integrating it with all its business operations and corporate management.<\/p>\n
To what extent do you think a giant corporation which has been following a completely different path for years can adapt to a corporate sustainability approach?<\/p>\n All on one airplane, which all mistakenly believe is a treasure<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSustainable entrepreneurs seek to transform social and environmental problems into business opportunities to benefit and create added value to the environment and society. However such a process should take into account not only the interests of the entrepreneur but also that of the whole system.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n This indeed is where the notion of \u201cSustainable Entrepreneurship\u201d comes into the picture as an answer to the despair caused by such a threat. One of my favourite definitions of entrepreneurship is as follows: \u201cThe entrepreneur is someone who sees the difference between opportunities and threats and can turn both into opportunities.\u201d The sustainable entrepreneurship on the other hand starts off on the assumption that social, environmental and economic impact should co-exist in equilibrium. The Sustainable Entrepreneur generally focuses on the root sustainable added value rather than how the economic return is yielded. Accordingly sustainable entrepreneurship encompasses a wide array of entrepreneurship types from non-profit social entrepreneurship that aims to create social transformation to ones that develop sustainable business practices. In short, sustainable entrepreneurs seek to transform social and environmental problems into business opportunities to benefit and create added value to the environment and society. The key here is that such a process should take into account not only the interests of the entrepreneur but also that of the whole system.<\/p>\n Ananias, Yunus, Moser, Kutluca and Others\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n There are many Turkish and international examples of sustainable entrepreneurship that have led to transformation and managed to create social and environmental benefits…<\/strong><\/p>\n Bu\u011fday Association, founded by dear Victor Ananias to create ecological awareness and encourage nature-friendly life is a perfect example of sustainable entrepreneurship. The Association became the pioneer of such great transformation in our lives with a broad spectrum of initiatives which ranges from contributing to the making of the organic agriculture law to setting up organic markets.<\/p>\n The \u201cmicrocredit,\u201d which was introduced to the world by Muhammad Yunus, is being used in many countries for various projects. Do we know how many million women in Bangladesh only were able to access work through this lending project? Would it be possible to say that the creation of the crowdfunding system was inspired by the microcredit? Support from all over the world via websites such as http:\/\/www.gofundme. com\/<\/span>, https:\/\/www.kickstarter. com\/<\/span>, https:\/\/www.causes.com\/<\/span>, or http:\/\/www.firstgiving.com\/ changes the lives of many people, allowing a large number of projects to be implemented. Is not change.org<\/span> proof that we can create collective impact with the people who think alike when it comes to the things that we believe are done incorrectly?<\/p>\n Do we know how many lives are being illuminated in Brazil or in the Philippines by the plastic bottles half-filled by water, invented by Alfredo Moser in Brazil in 2002, to provide light illuminate his workplace, or by the \u201cLiter of Light\u201d project carried out by My Shelter Foundation?<\/p>\n![\"Circles_of_Sustainability_\"](\"http:\/\/izellevicoskun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Circles_of_Sustainability_.jpg\")
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\n<\/b><\/i>\u201cThe man going off of a very high cliff in his airplane, with the wings flapping, and the guys flapping the wings and the wind is in his face, and this poor fool thinks he’s flying, but, in fact, he’s in free fall, and he just doesn’t know it yet because the ground is so far away, but, of course, the craft is doomed to crash.\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/i><\/div>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n