September 4, Phnom Penh, Cambodia – The Global Green Growth Institute Cambodia, in collaboration with the U.S Embassy in Phnom Penh and Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI), organized a knowledge sharing session on “Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development” with Dr. Linda J. Cox, Community Economic Development Specialist from the University of Hawaii. Under GGGI Cambodia’s “Greenpreneur” initiative, local entrepreneurs, start-ups, students, non-profits and impact investors were invited to discuss problems and solutions relating to social and environmental entrepreneurship.
Dr. Cox shared models for community-based social and environmental product and service design and marketing, aimed at promoting local entrepreneurship. Drawing on examples and models used in Hawaii and the Pacific, Dr. Cox presented her ideas on nourishing entrepreneurship, retaining and expanding business and attracting investment steered by community goals. She presented some available tools for measuring market and non-market values in business strategy.
Dr. Cox is a Community Economic Development Specialist from the University of Hawaii. She has authored and co-authored nearly 200 publications on the economic relationships between agriculture and tourism; landscape services; agricultural product marketing; business and natural resource management; and related topics. She has taught graduate and under-graduate courses, workshops and seminars on business management, entrepreneurship, and sustainable development.
Greenpreneurs is a global business accelerator program and business plan competition by GGGI, Student Energy and Youth Climate Lab, designed to support entrepreneurs in taking a green growth idea to a viable, green business plan. Selected businesses benefit from mentoring, coaching and online training modules. The program offers a diverse range of incentives – seed funding, conference bursaries and an international network – to steer participants towards a strong business plan that will positively impact their community.
In Cambodia, GGGI also runs a national Greenpreneurs initiative, whereby local waste recycling businesses and start-ups receive coaching on business readiness, financial planning and sales strategies. The program enables the entrepreneurs to start-up or scale-up recycling businesses and demonstrate business solutions for a circular economy.