Sustainable entrepreneurship: A new way of doing business

COVID-19 has reshaped the way people interact on a basic human level, and with that the way we do business. Although the pandemic has brought innumerable hardships and challenges to the business world, it has also brought new possibilities and opportunities to reevaluate priorities, especially with regard to climate change and sustainability. Sustainable entrepreneurs have been promoting environmental responsibility among businesses and consumers for many years; however, businesses were initially slow to change. Given that the world as we knew it was turned upside down in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses now have the opportunity to change their business models to respond to both the economic crisis and changes in consumption. Along with this analysis, the article provides an explanation of sustainable entrepreneurship and identifies successful examples in Latin America and the United States. In particular, this article focuses on the work of Smartly, a cutting-edge firm that promotes the United Nations’ sustainable developments goals in the United States and Latin America, in engaging with public policy discussions and urban legislation to aid in the global transition toward sustainable business. Smartly recognizes that public policy steps must be taken to generate long-term sustainability and scalable change after the pandemic, and therefore is actively engaged in lobbying initiatives to support the creation of a new sustainable legal framework.