ABSTRACT
Globalization has decreased the leverage of governments in effecting environmental issues, shifting power to big businesses. And the big businesses most aware of environmental issues are those who are likely to lose the most if the market goes green. Building green from scratch is the basic starting point. This is what school children must be brought up to desire to do. Ecopreneurship starts at home, in the house, in the car, in the school, at work, in the local and regional economy. The ecopreneur is a symbolic, even existential, change agent who gives meaning and direction to social interactions. Entrepreneurial innovation and job creation may be stimulated by the free-market environmentalism school of thought. ‘Freedom first’ is a seductive siren call which may, however, ultimately bring the same dangers of distraction as did those classic sirens that tempted Odysseus—if freedom comes without the restraints of responsibility. The competitive pressures of globalization undermine the social market economy.
