Abstract

Ecopreneurs are entrepreneurs whose business efforts are not only driven by profit, but also by a concern for the environment. Ecopreneurship, also known as environmental entrepreneurship and eco-capitalism, is becoming more widespread as a new market-based approach to identifying opportunities for improving environmental quality and capitalizing upon them in the private sector for profit. It is defined as entrepreneurs using business tools to preserve open space, develop wildlife habitat, save endangered species, and improve environmental quality. Most ecopreneurial endeavors begin at the local level, addressing a community environmental problem or need. An example is the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch, which has a mission to foster peaceful and productive coexistence between wildlife and ranching. Another example is a Chamber of Commerce that has set up an operation to clean for free the paddlefish local fishermen catch in the Yellowstone River in return for the paddlefish eggs the fishermen had usually discarded and left to rot. Half of the proceeds from