“Voices of the Entrepreneurs” is both a celebration of what New Ventures has achieved so far and a springboard to its future. This report highlights the experience of 32 New Ventures entrepreneurs and provides valuable insights into the challenges that hinder the growth of environmental enterprises in emerging markets. It also illustrates how business accelerators like New Ventures can help them scale their small businesses, with a recognition and call for more support to help move the environmental entrepreneurship industry forward.
After 13 years of building support for environmental entrepreneurship, the World Resources Institute will conclude its role as coordinator for the New Ventures global network at the end of 2012. WRI recognizes that the New Ventures Local Centers have built strong, distinct programs in their respective countries, and we are confident that greater local and regional independence will allow New Ventures to move into its next phase of development.
This piece originally appeared on the New Ventures website. It was written with New Ventures intern Kevin Short.
The 2011 New Ventures China Investor Forum showcased the potential of environmental entrepreneurship on a larger scale than any previous forum in the program’s eight years of operations in China.
Houses crudely constructed from sheets of cardboard and aluminum start to appear just south of the Mexico-United States border and stretch across the Mexican landscape. These homes, which are often overcrowded, unstable and made of dangerous materials, provide stark visual evidence of Mexico’s severe housing shortage.