INTRODUCTION

Many new businesses arrive at innovative ideas and products in response to threats to the environment. The development of such businesses, whether they provide curbside recycling in a town or rainforest-grown products to the whole world, calls for vision, analytical skill, and effective and inspirational communication. How can planning a "green" business engage students in the use of a wide range of skills in real-world contexts? What can they learn from close collaboration on the complementary and interrelated tasks that are required by such a project?

PROJECT OVERVIEW

In this project, students work in groups to plan the development of an enterprise that combines sound business practices with protection or enhancement of the environment. Groups create business plans and marketing materials, and then present their plans in an effort to persuade their classmates to invest venture-capital "greenbacks" in their ideas.

Phase 1: Mixing green dreams and greenbacks

With the whole class, discuss various threats to the environment, classifying these as local, regional, and global. Then introduce the idea of "green" businesses: enterprises with products or processes that have real market value, but that also conserve resources, reduce pollution, or improve the environment in other ways.

In groups of four, students use World Book Encyclopedia and the Internet (using EdView) to research global warming, toxic waste, air pollution, or other issues identified in the initial discussion. Then, each group uses Inspiration to organize the results of its research, arranging problems, solutions, and interesting facts to reveal ideas and opportunities that can be creatively exploited by a green business start-up. Each group uses AppleWorks to write a brief description of the business idea on which they settle, including the ways that it will contribute to improving the environment.

Phase 2: Planning to change the world

The whole class begins by reviewing the standard elements of a business plan (see Facilitation Tips). With business plans in mind, groups then continue their research, collecting information about the technologies and processes that may be important to their prospective businesses, and about the market sectors in which their businesses will compete.

Each group, with members taking on different roles, uses the AppleWorks Business Plan Template to draft the four initial sections of its business plan. The Chief Executive Officer writes the Business Competency section; the Chief Financial Officer (using an AppleWorks spreadsheet document) works on the Prospective Financials; the Vice President of Marketing drafts the Marketing Analysis section; and the Vice President of Operations (using TimeLiner) creates the Implementation Timeline.

When these sections are drafted, each group is paired with another group for an initial plan-review session, in which the assumptions and research underpinning each group's plan are questioned and refined. Groups then finalize their first four business plan sections, write the four secondary sections (Organization Chart, Operating Budget, Marketing Strategy, and Key Risks), write Executive Summaries, and create tables of contents.

Phase 3: Creating marketing materials

When the business plans are complete, groups explore the Advertising project in the Design Studio of The Writing Trek to learn about effective advertising.

Groups then use their new knowledge to create their initial marketing materials. After collectively designing a company logo using the AppleWorks drawing tools, each member assumes responsibility for one of the following marketing elements: a Web page (created with Netscape Composer or another Web page editor), a printed brochure or magazine ad (created with AppleWorks), a radio advertisement (created with mPOWER), and a TV ad (created with a digital camcorder and iMovie).

Phase 4: Making the pitch

Groups use mPOWER to prepare ten-minute presentations for potential investors. Each presentation covers Business Concept (Business Competency section of the business plan), Technical Innovations and Considerations (Implementation Timeline), Marketing Strategy, and Financial Projections.

Groups pitch their businesses to the whole class, with students in the class acting as potential investors, each with $100,000 to allocate to the various start-ups. At the completion of the presentations, student investors list the choices that they have made on slips of paper and give these to the teacher, who calculates the total investment that each start-up has garnered using the Investment Allocation Spreadsheet. Which group has attracted enough funding to meet or exceed its initial requirements?