A new wave of business incubators are beginning to spin-off green–and profitable–business ventures.

If you’re old enough to remember the dot com bust, you may associate “business incubators” with small online companies with a cool idea and a lousy monetization strategy. While past incubators may have given life support to start-ups that may not have deserved it, a new generation of these organizations (both for- and non-profit) are springing up to support eco-minded start-ups.

While we’ll have to wait to see if this model ultimately works for green business, the marriage of these two concepts seems almost ideal: the concept of a community of entrepreneurs that share resources — capital, knowledge, space, and equipment — fits quite nicely with the values of green business.

What is a business incubator?

According to the National Business Incubation Association,

Business incubation is a business support process that accelerates the successful development of start-up and fledgling companies by providing entrepreneurs with an array of targeted resources and services. These services are usually developed or orchestrated by incubator management and offered both in the business incubator and through its network of contacts.

The association distinguishes incubators from coworking arrangements and research parks by the element of assistance tailored specifically to emerging companies.

Are business incubators always green?

Not necessarily in focus, or in the companies they support. By offering material, financial, and knowledge support, however, incubators ideally maximize resource efficiency for new companies, allowing them to focus on building financial sustainability. Business incubators are often also focused on broader community economic development.

So, what makes a green business incubator green?

In general, green business incubators focus on supporting the development of start-ups built around a sustainable/triple bottom line business model. In a number of cases (New York’s Green Spaces, Chicago’s Green Exchange), the incubators work to insure a green space, whether a building constructed to LEED standards, reused/reclaimed office furniture, or even renewable energy sources.

Are business incubators non-profit organizations?

Often, but not always. Green Spaces and San Francisco’s Virgance are among the 4% of incubators that are for-profit. (Disclosure: I’m a stockholder in Virgance.) In about 25% of cases, incubators take an equity share in the companies they support, according to the 2006 State of the Business Incubation Industry report.

Where can I find out more about green business incubators?

There doesn’t appear to be a central repository of information on sustainable business incubators, so the best sources of information I’ve found are NBIA and green incubators themselves. Others not mentioned above:

• The Sustainable Business Incubator at Farleigh Dickinson University
• The Clean Energy Incubator, a part of the University of Texas’ Austin Technology Incubator
• Rhode Island’s Gordon Avenue Business Incubator

I’ve also run across several good articles on green incubators, including

• “NYC incubator helps green companies grow” (Crain’s New York)
• “New Incubators Will Nurture Green Business” (NJBiz.com)

Of course, if you’re in any way involved with a green business incubator, let us know more…

Other green community posts: This post is a part of a multiblog series on green community models. I’ll link to new posts as I get them written and published:

• Ecovillages
• Cohousing
• Coworking
• New green development

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg is the founder and editor of sustainablog. Follow him on Twitter @sustainablog

Image credit: equitus / CC BY 2.0