Earthkeepers: A Circlewood Podcast on Creation Care and Spirituality · Forrest Inslee

Environmental Entrepreneurship: The Business of Earthkeeping, with Cassinia’s Paul Dettman | Ep. 125

·48 min·3 clips

Paul says First Peoples’ environmental wisdom holds that “land is lonely without people.”

Earthkeepers opens by speaking to listeners who want better ways to love and care for the Earth. It ties environmental concern to community and, for many in the Earth Keepers community, to spiritual life as well. Forrest Inslee introduces Paul Detman, founder of Cassinia in Australia, through a connection made by Ben Lowe of A Rocha USA. Detman comes across as a creative, risk-taking Earth Keeper working outside familiar nonprofit patterns. The conversation centers on environmental entrepreneurship. Cassinia is described as a for-purpose business and a registered social enterprise rather than a nonprofit. Detman says he had long wanted to do entrepreneurial work and had founded another business before Cassinia. He explains that the environmental world has often been the domain of nonprofits. Starting a for-purpose company in the early 2000s meant finding practical ways to make it work, hiring innovative people, and moving carefully. He describes a redemptive entrepreneurial lens for markets such as nature and carbon. The goal is not to exploit those markets for profit, but to bring social entrepreneurship into environmental work. Cassinia has never relied on philanthropic grants. Its projects have to cover their own costs, which keeps the organization nimble and able to respond quickly when opportunities come up. Detman says most profit goes back into the cause or to charities serving the larger mission of people and nature flourishing. The episode leaves room for the value of nonprofits while making a case for flexibility in the marketplace.

As heard by us

A practical look at environmental entrepreneurship and how a for-purpose business can connect land, biodiversity, and people.

Paul Dettman and Cassinia come across as a straightforward example of environmental entrepreneurship done with some discipline. The episode keeps its focus on the practical side of the model: a for-purpose business that tries to pay its way while keeping purpose at the center.

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Why you'd press play

You want a concrete case for making Earth care work as a for-purpose business.

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