The New Entrepreneurs

March 14, 2011
Canadian eco-businessman Heintzman (Food and Fuel) argues that the "unparalleled growth and prosperity" of the past hundred years is just a temporary phase in human history and has created "a new opportunity to work together... a green economy." Heintzman describes the attributes of entrepreneurs needed to lead this new era as including "the innovation of the inventor, the persuasion of a salesman, the leadership of a politician, the practicality of an investor, the vision of an artist, the nerves of a fighter pilot and the faith of a priest." He reviews mainstays of the Canadian economy (paper milling, fisheries, hydro, mining) and their relatively unchecked depredations of the nature economy, while more optimistically noting progress in the use of large-scale wind turbines. His most innovative suggestion is a battery swap that would replace gas tanks with exchangeable, fully charged car batteries, obtainable at service stations of the future. As co-founder of the first exclusively environmental Canadian investment firm and Chair of Premier's Climate Change Advisory Panel, Heintzman certainly practices what he preaches and provides an interesting look at possibilities of the not-so-distant future, told with a specifically Canadian slant.