When Alessandro Leonardi began his graduate degree in forestry a decade ago at the University of Padova in Italy, forestry students rarely came near a business school classroom — courses in business administration, finance or marketing weren’t part of the curriculum. In 2011, after completing his degree, Leonardi and some fellow students decided to start their own environmental consulting firm, ETIFOR. They found themselves facing a steep learning curve.

"I really didn’t have any marketing or business knowledge when I started my company," Leonardi said. "I had to acquire this information by myself. This took more time to develop my business and create an impact."

Today, ETIFOR provides technology transfer services linking scientists with market players. But Leonardi’s passion project is an ambitious effort to help burgeoning entrepreneurs in the environmental sector.

Business is booming in the arena of "nature-based business," which includes ventures ranging from ecological restoration companies to ecotourism to sustainable commodity production. One study estimates that ecological restoration in the United States is a $25 billion-a-year industry that directly employs 126,000 people and supports 95,000 jobs indirectly — more jobs than logging, coal mining or iron and steel. Globally, a recent survey of businesses specializing in reforestation and tree-planting found that some companies are seeing revenues grow as much as tenfold each year.

If you’re an entrepreneur in the tech sector, there are literally hundreds of acceleration programs and thousands of investors to tap as you hone a business model and pursue growth.

If you’re an entrepreneur in the tech sector, there are literally hundreds of acceleration programs and thousands of investors to tap as you hone a business model and pursue growth.

"There’s a general gap in support for any business that’s not tech," Luni Libes, a longtime entrepreneur and founder of the Seattle-based "conscious company accelerator" Fledge, told Ecosystem Marketplace. "There’s way more help, programs and funding if there is a software component to the business."

Enter the ECOSTAR Nature-Accelerator, a collaborative effort between ETIFOR, Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace, mentor companies Forest Design (Romanian), NEPCon and Ricardo Energy & Environment, as well as the University of Padova, Polytechnic University of Madrid, University of Manchester and Transilvania University of Brasov, and powered by Fledge.

This month, ECOSTAR selected its first cohort of eight startups to attend its inaugural acceleration program in Padova this summer. The startups will receive seed funding, an intensive mentorship and training program and access to ECOSTAR’s global network of investors and mentors. Take a look:

1. Central Park Bees (Tanzania) 

Central Park Bees Limited is a social enterprise that partners with smallholder farmers and beekeepers to strengthen their income through sustainable beekeeping by giving them access to free beekeeping training, equipment loans, extension services and guaranteed markets that offer competitive prices for the honey and beeswax they produce.

2. Crické (United Kingdom)

Crické‪ is a food-innovation start-up based in London that produces and markets healthy,‬ eco-friendly and tasty insect-based food products. It combines traditional Mediterranean recipes with cricket powder — a great low-impact source of protein, vitamins, minerals and fiber.

3. Green Charcoal (Uganda)

Green Charcoal uses discarded palm kernels to extract the true value of an otherwise wasted resource. Its principal product comes from milling the husks themselves where it creates a more efficient and heat-radiating briquette. It also sources other abundant, otherwise discarded agricultural waste such as coffee husks, maize (corn) cob and rice husks to make a briquette. The remaining nuts are milled to get cold pressed vegetable fats and palm kernel cake. It solves many problems with its circular economy approach to business, but its main focus is on solving the problem of fuel scarcity for local populations.

4. iGreengo (Italy)

iGreengo is a platform for sharing and improving open green spaces and the environment while seeking to collaborate with the owners of these spaces. iGreengo understands the essential and individual needs of nature and green spaces for the general public, offering something unique, removing the chaos generated by the local mass tourism hotspots. iGreengo proposes an experiential or emotional tourism where tourists can immerse themselves in beautiful exclusive places.

5. iNergy AgTech (Romania)

iNergy AgTech brings the benefits of sustainability and innovative technology to the grassroots level, for smart producers, cities and communities, making healthy food and nature available and accessible. It offers value through iNergy’s holistic approach and product mix, empowering everyone to take control and re-vitalize their crops, greenhouses and, even any kind of space. That means more productivity for growers, more nature and healthy food in urban areas — all with less input.

6. OBRI Tanzania (Tanzania)

Modeled behind the concept of co-operative social enterprises, OBRI Tanzania is an edible oils processing company that works with sunflower growers in Tanzania to produce and supply quality, low-price African flavor cooking oils to consumers in Africa while conserving the environment.

7. Oxyn (USA)

Oxyn is a blockchain infrastructure and cryptocurrency driven by environmental incentives that can be used in everyday life. It offers a fast, secure and low-energy blockchain technology that enables it to handle payments between businesses, conscious consumers and environmental organizations.

8. Sintala Design (Spain)

Sintala Design creates products made of solid wood without cutting down trees. The company works with wood that has been collected from fallen trees, prunings and remains of other manufacturing processes; Sintala Design stated, "Our finishes are highly ecological and respectful with the environment."