This conceptual article focuses on the environmental dimensions of sustainable developmentwhich are essential for satisfying current and future human needs. It assesses ecologicaleconomics (EE) as an alternative base for a “strong” version of sustainable entrepreneurship(SE). EE recognizes the biophysical base of economic activity, critical natural capital (nonsubstitutability)and limits to market valuation and exchange. Contemporary entrepreneurialdefinitions, however, as well as recent SE framings, pre-suppose that functioning marketswill achieve sustainable development. As discussed in this paper, natural processes are nonlinearand critical, and as thresholds are impossible to anticipate, markets are unreliable andprincipally at odds with the objectives of sustainable development. Our proposed alternativeconstitutes a way forward.