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Green Jobs and Entrepreneurship?
Why does BEI center Green Jobs and Entrepreneurship?
Green jobs and green businesses are a central pillar of BEI’s long-term strategy.
Green employment and entrepreneurship can create tangible benefits that communities can see, experience, and build upon. They can also help address persistent financial insecurity, barriers to employment, and limited access to economic opportunity.
We believe environmental solutions are strongest when the people most affected by environmental and economic challenges are also involved in designing, implementing, and governing those solutions.
Our Green Jobs Strategy
To date, BEI’s green jobs strategy has focused on four interconnected pathways:
Green Construction and Skilled Trades
Creating accessible, well-paying employment opportunities for community members who have historically been excluded from higher education and skilled trades, and who may face barriers to employment. This includes newcomers, people living with disabilities, youth at risk, previously incarcerated people, and others who have experienced systemic barriers to employment.Environmental Policy and Governance
Supporting community members to participate in the decision-making spaces where environmental policies and actions are developed locally, nationally, and globally. This ensures that lived experience helps shape environmental priorities, policies, and solutions. It includes creating pathways for community members to work within environmental and social organizations, governments, and other institutions involved in environmental decision-making.Climate Science and Technical Careers
Building pathways for community members to become architects of climate solutions by developing scientific knowledge, technical expertise, and innovation. This includes promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) within our communities and challenging persistent stereotypes about who can become a scientist, engineer, technologist, or climate expert.Nature-Based Employment
Creating pathways for community members interested in working on the land and in nature-related sectors to access meaningful, well-paying employment and build careers connected to the environment.
While BEI focuses specifically on creating green employment opportunities for Black communities, our programs are designed to benefit other equity-denied communities that experience similar barriers and forms of exclusion.
Our focus on Black communities is not about preferential treatment. It is a response to a persistent and often underrecognized reality: Black people continue to experience significant barriers to economic opportunity and employment. By addressing these barriers, BEI also helps create employment pathways and models that can benefit communities experiencing similar forms of exclusion.
BEI is committed to ensuring that green career pathways are accessible to people who have historically been excluded from them.
Green Entrepreneurship
BEI’s green entrepreneurship strategy focuses on helping people from our communities move from ideas to viable green businesses.
We support community members to:
Develop skills and knowledge in green entrepreneurship.
Explore, ideate, and develop green business ideas.
Connect with a community of peers, mentors, and other green entrepreneurs.
Access the resources, networks, and opportunities needed to develop their projects.
Build and strengthen an ecosystem of connected green businesses.
A particular focus of our green entrepreneurship strategy is connecting Black youth who are at risk of economic and social exclusion with opportunities to develop and launch their own environmentally focused businesses.
Through green entrepreneurship, BEI aims not only to support individual entrepreneurs, but also to build a connected ecosystem of community-based green businesses that can create employment, generate wealth, strengthen local economies, and contribute to a more sustainable future.
Why should we invest in Green Jobs and Entrepreneurship for Black communities?
While talent is evenly distributed across the world, access to opportunity is not.
Within the environmental sector, one that historically has not been designed with the realities, priorities, or lived experiences of Black communities in mind, Black people interested in environmental careers often face structural barriers that make it difficult to enter, advance, and thrive.
At the same time, many job-seekers in Black communities could benefit significantly from opportunities in the green economy, yet they are rarely the focus of green jobs outreach, training, or recruitment efforts. Youth facing systemic barriers, newcomers, and formerly incarcerated individuals are among those who could most benefit from intentional pathways into meaningful, stable employment connected to the green transition.
Green jobs and green entrepreneurship can be a source of economic stability, dignity, and collective healing.
What have we done so far?
Building on Our Experience
BEI’s approach to green employment and entrepreneurship is grounded in experience.
In 2021, BEI partnered with a skills trade organization to support the development of green construction training for immigrant workers. Through this collaboration, we received significant interest from both jobseekers and potential employers. The experience highlighted an important gap: training alone is not enough. Jobseekers also need a comprehensive suite of supports, including job placement, subsidized training and certifications, mentorship, and connections to employers.
This experience reinforced our belief that successful green employment pathways must address the full journey from skills development to sustainable employment.
Entrepreneurship has also been part of BEI’s culture since our inception. Over the years, we have mentored and encouraged Black young professionals to launch their own initiatives while supporting community members who were already pursuing green entrepreneurship.
For example, some of BEI’s early interns went on to establish their own nonprofit organization, Black Eco Bloom. We have also intentionally created space for our own staff to be entrepreneurial, develop new ideas, and pursue initiatives that align with their skills and passions.
BEI has also welcomed entrepreneurs onto our team and created opportunities to promote their businesses and organizations through our networks and events. For example, Program Coordinator Fatoumata Kane was able to promote her eco-business, which sells products made in Senegal, through BEI events. Former employee Cheyenne Sundance joined BEI during a period of transition in her farming activities, bringing her experience as an entrepreneur and farmer into our organization.
These experiences reflect a broader organizational culture: BEI has always valued entrepreneurship, initiative, and the ability of community members to create their own solutions. Going forward, we are committed to investing more energy and resources into structuring and strengthening this approach.
Building the Ecosystem
BEI is well positioned to build on this experience and help develop and coordinate a more comprehensive green employment and entrepreneurship ecosystem in partnership with sector leaders, employers, training institutions, entrepreneurs, and community organizations.
Such an approach can connect people to the full range of supports they need to succeed—from training and certification, to mentorship and job placement, to entrepreneurship development, financing, networks, and long-term business support.
By building these pathways, BEI can help increase economic security and well-being in Black communities while ensuring that talented individuals have meaningful opportunities to access stable, dignified livelihoods and build businesses within the growing green economy.