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A Commitment to Sustainability

It’s been two years since we devoted an issue of Enterprising Women to going green and so much has changed in the world since then.

More women business owners than ever have come to the realization that building a sustainable business makes great sense on every level, and they are taking bold steps to make that happen.

We’ve devoted 20 pages of this issue to exploring many aspects of greening your business, and we take a close look at several women-owned businesses that have green at their core — from a company marketing deep-water wind energy systems to a business that helps its customers recycle everything from computers to lamps.

Every woman-owned business can be a sustainable business — no matter what industry you serve. It all starts with your personal commitment. We hope the ideas in this issue will inspire and motivate you down that path.

The summer of 2010 has been a busy one for me — attending many conferences for women business owners and making plans for the year ahead. I look forward to introducing you to many of the women I’ve met along the way through profiles and features in upcoming issues.

Enterprising Women has a strong commitment to the international women’s business community, and some of my recent travel has had an international focus. I had the honor of being a delegate at the Global Summit of Women in Beijing, China in May (a gathering of a thousand women entrepreneurs and government and corporate leaders from around the world) and expanded my network of friends who are running dynamic businesses throughout Asia and every continent.

The Enterprising Women community has become a global community, and we look forward to expanding the exchange of information that will benefit women entrepreneurs everywhere. We will be sharing stories from Beijing in our global issue this fall and reaching across borders every way we can.

As a strong supporter of the Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women (IEEW) and its Peace Through Business program, I also had the honor of hosting two Afghan women entrepreneurs in my home for a week in June in the mentorship component of the program. Sakina and Parinaz (pictured here) joined with other women entrepreneurs from Afghanistan and Rwanda in an extensive program that included leadership development and high-level business training, culminating in a mentorship week with a U.S. woman entrepreneur.

Look for more extensive coverage on the Peace Through Business program in our global issue this fall or visit the IEEW Web site to learn more at www.ieew.org. Involvement with this program has been life-changing for me and the dozens of other women business owners around the country who have been a part of it. Congratulations to Enterprising Women Hall of Famer Terry Neese and her team on the continued growth of Peace Through Business.

Finally, we’ve given brief coverage to The Roadmap to 2020: Fueling the Growth of Women's Enterprise Developoment in our News section this issue (see page 21), but look for an entire issue of Enterprising Women devoted to The Roadmap at the close of 2010.

The Roadmap is the product of an unprecedented collaboration of the nation’s major women’s business organizations and entrepreneurial thought leaders, and the recommendations in this report have far-reaching implications for the growth of the women’s business community over the next decade.

2010 Enterprising Women Hall of Fame inductee Virginia Littlejohn, CEO and co-founder of Quantum Leaps, the nonprofit that mobilized Roadmap participants, invited me to serve on The Roadmap Editorial Board, and it was a fascinating process. We look forward to sharing the full implications of this important document with the readers of Enterprising Women in our December issue.

Stay tuned for a busy and informative second half of 2010 as we all work hand-in-hand to grow our businesses and move the women’s business community forward on an exciting path.

Monica S. Smiley
msmiley@enterprisingwomen.com

Afghan women entrepreneurs Parinaz (left) and Sakina.