Entrepreneurs for Sustainability, abbreviated as E4S, is a

business network A business network is a complex, enduring, and interdependent web of business relationships among market and non-market actors that allow firms to co-create value in their business environment. Firms influence their markets by managing and signa ...

in the

Greater Cleveland The Cleveland metropolitan area, or Greater Cleveland as it is more commonly known, is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Cleveland in Northeast Ohio, United States. According to the 2020 census results, the six-county Cleveland, OH ...

area oriented towards

sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

and

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneu ...

. The organization was founded in 2000 by Holly Harlan, owner of a business consulting firm in

Cleveland Heights Cleveland Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 45,312 at the United States Census 2020, 2020 census. One of Cleveland's historic streetcar suburbs, it was founded as a Village (United States), village in ...

, with the goal of encouraging economic development and startup businesses oriented towards positive change and addressing environmental issues. Meetings are hosted by Great Lakes Brewing Company. The organization is growing, with 5800 members in 2008. Sustainability-oriented startup companies associated with the group include BioDiesel Cleveland, Sustainable Solutions, a green building consultant firm, and Good Nature, a sustainability-focused lawn care service. Non-profit organizations associated with the group include EcoCity Cleveland (which has merged into the

Cleveland Museum of Natural History The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum in University Circle, a district of educational, cultural and medical institutions approximately five miles (8 km) east of Downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The ...

as the GreenCityBlueLake Institute), Green Energy Ohio, and the Cleveland Green Building Coalition. The organization awards a "Champions of Sustainability" award to regional leaders who have implemented principles of sustainability.

Services and programs

In addition to their regular monthly meetings, Entrepreneurs for Sustainability provides a number of services to its members. One such program is called the Sustainability Implementation Group, which is oriented towards small and medium businesses, and gets companies to visit each other's facilities and learn about new technologies, with one goal being the formation of new revenue streams associated with sustainability. The group also received grant money in 2004 from the state of Ohio to hold workshops on energy efficiency in counties throughout northeast Ohio. In 2006, the organization received $20,000 from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation to build and strengthen its programs."FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES GRANTS, TRUSTEES OF BURTON MORGAN APPROVE 16 AWARDS TO PROMOTE ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND FREE ENTERPRISE", ''Akron Beacon Journal (OH)'', Oct. 7, 2008, B2 B.
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References

External links

E4S Homepage
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105183516/http://e4s.org/ , date=2009-01-05
Green City Blue Lake
- A sustainability-oriented event calendar for

Northeast Ohio Northeast Ohio is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that comprises the northeastern counties of the U.S. state of Ohio. Definitions of the region consist of 16 to 23 counties between the southern shore of Lake Erie and the foothills ...

. Sustainability organizations Environmental organizations based in Ohio Economy of Cleveland Organizations based in Cleveland Environmental organizations established in 2000