There's a buzz around green business in and around Oxford that is reminiscent of the chatter that surrounded the emergence of the internet, says Martin Chilcott, the founder and chief executive of Meltwater Ventures, an environmental business incubator. “We sometimes talk about a green valley effect from Oxford to London. Like Silicon Valley,” he says.

That’s not the Silicon Valley of today, home to corporations such as Google and Microsoft, but of the days when these superbrands were little more than people with knowhow and good ideas. Here in the UK, the University of Oxford, its Saïd Business School and the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford Brookes University and London universities such as Imperial College, are fostering research and development. And attracting social and environmental entrepreneurs in the process.

There are 3,500 high-tech companies in Oxfordshire, according to Fiona Reid, the director of Entrepreneurship Saïd. “Starting your own business is no longer considered such a risky option [for MBA graduates]. It’s a career choice,” she says. From how to write a business plan to finding a mentor and linking in to business networks, the internet has given a new generation of would-be entrepreneurs who want to make a difference the tools to go it alone.

One such independent-minded MBA graduate from Imperial College is Terry Pollard, who works in business development at Oxford Catalysts, a spin-out from the University of Oxford, which is developing catalysts for clean fuels. The firm was valued at £65 million when it floated on the stock exchange. In the process, Pollard learnt that writing the perfect business plan is only the first step. “Really, you’ ve got to ask: what is the problem that you’ re solving?” Talking to would-be investors, potential customers, even the competition is the best way to develop your business model, he says.

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Background

• The message is clear

• Business takes the green route

• How to... be an active eco-worker

• How to be a responsible leader

Background

• Rapid growth in green jobs

• It is cool to be green

• Busy saving the world

• Oxford cultivates green valley effect

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Sagun Saxena, the co-founder and chief executive of CleanStar Energy, an Indian biofuel project, is another MBA graduate on a mission. The idea started out as a business plan for a project at Saïd Business School and was brought to life when Saxena moved to India to develop it.

“What we are talking about is planting trees – a model we developed at Oxford,” he says. “[Local people] plant trees that produce seeds that are very rich in oil.”

Saxena hopes that such a crop will help India’s small-scale farmers who are struggling to grow food crops because water is scarce. Listening to farmers – as well as local investors, agricultural economists and the like – has been crucial to the project’s progress thus far. So, what advice would he give to other entrepreneurs?

To survive long enough to make a difference, a company has to make sound commercial sense, he says. “The most important advice is to focus on the bottom line. Where is the profit going to come from? Is it inherently viable?”

David Mott, the investment director at Oxford Capital Partners, a venture capital firm, is practiced at spotting good ideas. But, he says, “what we really back is people. Do the people have the knowledge and the expertise to execute their business plan?”

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