Does the Path to a More Perfect Union Include Eco-Entrepreneurism?

Greetings from Washington, D.C. where, like all American communities, our fair and multi-cultural city and the municipalities that lie within and just beyond The Capital Beltway are reeling.

The grief we feel, as a result of the horrific events of the past week, is indeed palpable.

Few of us are sleeping well or at all. Conversations with our children about the news of the day are best described as necessary, but difficult. We who are parents lack an acceptable explanation to offer as to why things like this still happen in America. And, African-American dads we know, who prepare their adolescent sons with the talk, must certainly feel an added sense of dread that this stern, but proactive, parenting moment may not be enough to keep their precious young men from harm.

But, as happened Friday morning at a car wash in our multi-ethnic neighborhood, we greeted and were greeted warmly by our neighbors and local law enforcement. We wished one another peace, understanding, and above all, personal safety.

The week that passed, which should have been a days’ long celebration of all that binds Americans, turned to despair.

E pluribus Unum — from many, one — feels like an odd and utterly naïve description of our nation on this, our 240th birthday.

As we mentioned in our earlier posts, 2016 is a revolutionary year. Some aspects of the revolution at hand are quite positive; we have disrupted the old order through exciting new technology. In our clean and green space, we are sparing Earth’s precious resources with clean energy. And in particular, the rooftop solar business is scaling at a dramatic pace.

We are empowering people, too, by making our companies, organizations, and institutions more responsible and accountable to the communities that they call home.

Yet, even with all the important strides our business sector has achieved — such asemploying more than 2.5 million Americans in bona fide clean energy jobs — we have not achieved nearly enough to empower our American talent.

As a business sector, and as a community of passionate clean energy professionals, we alone cannot stop violence from marring daily lives or disturbing peaceable protest. The things we do, the noble ideas we stand for, will not protect our peace officers nor will it shield from harm those who our peace officers are duly sworn to serve and protect.

But, does the path to a more perfect union include eco-entrepreneurism?

Hell yes.

As a fast-growing industry and as a community of brazenly ambitious but also purpose-driven professionals, we must be the catalyst to encourage Americans in our hard-hit and long-forgotten urban, rural, or rust-belt cities and towns to pursue their American Dream of noble work and success as business owners — eco-entrepreneurs — in the New Green Economy

This will not happen easily, for we are just one constituency at the stakeholders’ table. But, we must lead the table by pushing our elected representatives and centers for higher learning to make it easier for talent in our hardest-hit places to gain the skill and experience they need for enduring career success. Especially in our worst-off communities, we must partner with them to bring STEM instruction to classrooms, and to do so no later than sixth and seventh grade. Then, we must adopt STEM classrooms to encourage all bright and ambitious kids to dream of a lifetime of success in our clean energy, sustainability, and social good fields. That means bringing them to job sites to see how their STEM skills can be employed to do great things.

The kids who are in middle school now are part of our youngest and soon-to-be largest American demographic cohort. The Plurals are digital-natives who have grown up with mobile technology. We all know that. But most important — and the reason they are called the Plurals — is that their world-view is post-ethnic and post-cultural.

Plurals’ friends are not black, or white, or gay, or gender-transitioning. Plurals’ friends are simply…their friends. The gender and race-identity of their parents’ generations are disappearing. Surely, this kind of revolution has frustrated many; for sure, it has made the process of collecting American censuses extremely difficult.

However, we will become a more perfect union when our differences are not determined by what our eyes see, but rather by what is in our hearts.

I remain ever hopeful that we will get through 2016 better than our parents and grandparents did in 1968 when tear-gas burned their eyes and whole city blocks of burning buildings broke their hearts. My hope is squarely invested in our young people and especially with our future eco-entrepreneurs who will help us scale the New Green Economy while they enjoy steady paychecks and purposeful work.

Our dream for them and us is the American Dream. And, when such dreams come true, our best days lie ahead.

We wish peace, purpose, and prosperity to you all.

DAN SMOLEN is executive producer and host of the new professional career empowerment podcast, Green Suits Radio (COMING SOON). He is author of Tailoring the Green Suit: Empowering Yourself for an Executive Career in the New Green Economy and member ofEnvironmental Entrepreneurs (E2). He is also Founder and Managing Director of The Green Suits, LLC, which provides talent recruitment, workforce planning, and success management to green business and social good enterprises.

Photo credits: Protesters embrace in front of Minnesota’s Governor’s Mansion, July 9, 2016, St. Paul Pioneer-Press; Protest blocks I-94 in St. Paul, Minnesota, July 9, 2016, St. Paul Pioneer-Press.