Sustainable Enterprises Media, Inc. (GreenBusinessOwner.com) strives to facilitate the creation and growth of mission-driven companies. We succeed by providing business owners and managers with online resources, interactive classes and one-to-one coaching and consulting to develop and implement success strategies that drive profitable and sustainable growth while making the lives of our clients more manageable. Most of our clients are small business owners that deserve but can't afford big agency consultants.

Our Team

Scott Cooney, Founder and Principal
Scott is the principal of GreenBusinessOwner.com, advising entrepreneurs on executive strategy and implementation of sustainable principles as a driver of business success. Scott is an author, professional public speaker, sustainable strategy advisor and serial eco-entrepreneur who has started, grown and sold several green businesses. Scott's book, Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur (McGraw-Hill), has been hailed by green business professionals, including Horst Rechelbacher (founder of Aveda), as a great starting point for aspiring eco-entrepreneurs to understand the wealth of opportunities available in the green economy for entrepreneurs, no matter what level of formal education or startup capital they have.

Scott was strategic sustainability advisor for Wells Fargo's Small Business Insight Series and was interviewed on sustainability in business for BusinessDegreeOnline. He has given keynote addresses for multiple conferences (including North Coast Green and the Santa Fe Alliance Earth Day Conference), workshops, and academic events, and conducted social entrepreneurship workshops for a wide variety of audiences. Scott worked as project manager for global sustainability consulting firm Saatchi & Saatchi S, whose clients included Johnson & Johnson, NBC Universal, Frito-Lay, Wal-Mart, a Public Utility, and the City of Tallahassee. Scott brings this wealth of knowledge implementing sustainability tools on a Fortune 5 level to the small business community, where his heart truly lies. Scott is a Phi Beta Kappa who holds a double Master's Degree (Business Administration and Conservation Biology).

Scott also feels it is very important for businesses and their owners to 'walk the walk.' Scott is an avid cyclist, a vegetarian for his entire adult life, owns a biodiesel powered car, has an organic garden, and conducts free or low cost educational workshops like the Bay Area Green Business Meetup group.

Glenn Croston, Principal
Glenn is the author of 3 books on sustainable entrepreneurship: 75 Green Businesses (Entrepreneur Press 2008), Greening Your Business on a Budget (Entrepreneur Press 2009), and Starting Green: An Ecopreneur's Toolkit for Starting a Green Business from Business Plan to Profits (Entrepreneur Press 2009). He is also a blogger for Fast Company and a contributor to Entrepreneur.com. Glenn's writing focuses on how to make green business dreams a reality, providing the path for planning, marketing, raising money, and other business fundamentals for the hottest green business opportunities today.

Glenn's writing has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Fast Company, the LA Times, New York Times, BusinessWeek.com, TheStreet.com, and hundreds of blogs and websites across the internet. His coaching and consulting work focuses on sustainability training, marketing help, and PR for sustainable businesses in many different industries, including many startups and several larger companies, such as Volcom. Croston received his Ph.D. in biology from UC San Diego and lives green with his family in San Diego with solar panels, a compost heap, and energy efficient lighting.

Eve Cowen, Principal
Eve has spent her career founding & growing institutions and programs that aim to better the world through education and environmental endeavors. Most recently, Eve Founded and served for more than five years as the Executive Director of The Future Leaders Institute (FLI), which to date has opened the door for thousands of students at dozens of high schools to be real-world social entrepreneurs through her accredited Passion to Action™ curriculum. Through FLI, young people combine their personal passions and concrete visions for a better world to create measurable, sustainable change. Eve is a regular speaker on panels and conferences such as Bioneers. FLI was regarded by Van Jones as "one of the best kept secrets in education, and a powerful answer to some of society's most vexing problems, including dropout rates, poverty, community engagement, and childhood obesity." Eve has served in a leadership capacity on startup and growth initiatives within many visionary change-making companies, including The Student Conservation Association, Revolution Foods and Outward Bound, and she currently serves on the School Board of the charter management organization, Community Learning Center Schools, where she serves as the Board Development Chairperson. Eve joins GreenBusinessOwner.com to help create an increasingly responsible corporate sector and to expand social entrepreneurship globally.

Elli Sharef, Associate Strategist
Elli has broad experience in management consulting working for McKinsey and Company in New York, Sao Paolo, Sydney and Munich. Her clients have included major retailers, railroad companies, banks and non-profits. Elli is a graduate of Yale University and the winner of the 2005 Yale $50,000 Entrepreneurial Competition. She started her own small business in 2003 and is most interested in helping start-up owners transform their dreams into concrete and profitable businesses through fact-based planning and analytical decision-making. Elli is currently working on helping a major university expand its outreach program to underserved communities and diversifying its offerings to help meet the needs of the new economy. After working with large companies for the majority of her career, Elli is happy to be finally working on her true passion, sustainable entrepreneurship.

Danielle Garland, Associate Strategist
Danielle consults with food-based businesses on implementation, strategy, communications and operations for improving the sustainability and profitability of their offerings. Danielle has worked with restaurants, cafes, caterers, and food delivery services on projects ranging from applying for green business certifications to creating pitch materials for potential investors to communications strategies to social media operations and maintenance.

Danielle is also a writer, contributing to GreenBusinessOwner.com's sustainable food blog, and assists with coordination and green business sponsorships for GBO events, such as the Social Entrepreneur Boot Camp and the Business to Business Speed Networking event.

Vegan for over four years and car-free for three years, Danielle is passionate about living an environmentally conscious lifestyle and encourages others to do the same. Danielle graduated Magna Cum Laude from San Jose State University with a BA in Creative Arts. As a professional, Danielle endeavors to help nurture the green economy and to educate people on ways to live more sustainable, rewarding lifestyles.

This site is owned and published by Sustainable Enterprises Media, Inc.