ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the environmental aspects of social entrepreneurship. It explores the challenges and opportunities for the social entrepreneur to create and build an environmentally sustainable organization. The chapter also provides a sustainability framework that can be used to develop an environmental sustainability strategy for new and existing firms. Over the past several years, there has been an increase in entrepreneurs who are focused on the environmental aspects of social entrepreneurship—alternative energy, clean technology, environmental protection, sustainability in our food systems, etc. The Tragedy of the Commons refers to the depletion of a shared resource by individuals acting independently and rationally according to one's self-interest, despite knowing that abusing the common resource is contrary to those individuals' long-term, best interests. The Tragedy is often applied to a discussion of environmental issues and is a model for a great variety of society's current resource-based problems, including overirrigation, habitat destruction, over-fishing, and traffic congestion.
