BY PHUMELELE GAMEDZE
MBABANE– The future of the economy may not be found only in boardrooms and large corporations, but in the hands of young entrepreneurs turning environmental challenges into innovative business opportunities.
Across the world, young people are increasingly being recognised as important drivers of innovation, sustainable development and economic transformation. This vision is reflected in the United Nations’ Pact for the Future, adopted by world leaders in 2024.
The Pact calls for greater investment in young people and encourages governments and other stakeholders to support youth entrepreneurship and innovation, including helping young people turn their ideas into viable businesses.
For green entrepreneurs, this creates an opportunity to look at environmental challenges differently.
Instead of seeing waste, climate pressures, energy challenges and resource shortages only as problems, young innovators can identify opportunities to create businesses that provide solutions while protecting the environment.
Green entrepreneurship can take many forms, including recycling and waste management, renewable energy solutions, sustainable agriculture, environmentally friendly products, water conservation and technologies that help businesses reduce their environmental impact.
The importance of this approach extends beyond protecting nature. A successful green business can also create jobs, develop skills and introduce new products and services into local communities.
The UN Pact recognises young people as critical agents of positive change and calls for meaningful youth participation in shaping decisions that affect their future. It also highlights the importance of science, technology and innovation in building a more sustainable and prosperous world.
For young EmaSwati, the message is particularly relevant.
A young person with an idea for turning agricultural waste into a useful product, developing a recycling initiative or creating a solution that saves energy is not simply thinking about the environment. They could be developing part of the economy of tomorrow.
However, ideas need support to become sustainable businesses. Access to skills, finance, technology, markets and mentorship can help young entrepreneurs move from an idea on paper to a product or service that creates real value.
The Pact for the Future therefore presents youth not merely as beneficiaries of future economic opportunities, but as participants in creating them.
Green entrepreneurship offers a powerful way to connect economic ambition with environmental responsibility. It challenges young people to ask a different question: What problem around us can become an opportunity to build a better future?
The answer could be the beginning of the next business, job opportunity or innovation.
The future economy is already taking shape and young green entrepreneurs have a place at the centre of it.
#GreenEntrepreneurship #YouthInnovation #PactForTheFuture #Eswatini
(Courtesy Pic)
