proposed model for a greening (inspired by the new yorker article on samsø, the danish island that produces more energy than it uses): start your startup, and work to make money.  try to break even, but don’t just think of that in terms of traditional startup costs; add in the cost of making your office, your employee’s commutes, your business as a whole carbon neutral before you consider yourself breaking even.  just make that a line on the p+l, and just like you wouldn’t slash utilities, don’t cut it.  once you reach a point where minimising environment impact is not costing the company additional money, don’t erase that line item – keep it in the budget, and use the money to move up: make the office next door, or somewhere else in your community, carbon neutral.  successful startups bootstrap all the time, only using money that they have made in their efforts to grow; and while it’s not analogous per se, i like the notion that you can start by greening your life, and then grow in concentric circles of influence.  samsø is proof that it can actually work, albeit with a little help from geography.