Are ‘conventional’ business models systematically linked to problems like the overload of human and natural systems and the excessive exploitation of resources? And, to ask for the opposite, are ‘alternative’ business models better able to promote positive effects—positive in terms of an ecologically and socially sustainable corporate behaviour? If the current conventional structures tend to harm man and the environment, what is the role of the underlying business models, i.e. the business logic of earning money related to possibilities of promoting corporate sustainability? The approach at issue seeks to find out how innovative enterprises and their business logics may contribute to mitigate central sustainability problems. The pillars of this research are: (i) sustainable entrepreneurship, including sustainability innovations; (ii) the business case for sustainable energy, including its realisation as viable business; and (iii) a focus on local or regional production systems. The research interest is to open the ‘black boxes’ in which sustainable entrepreneurs discover and capitalise on business cases for sustainable energy and the theoretical and empirical ways these business cases can be realised. While the applied concept of distributed economies helps to identify quality driven development strategies of local or regional production systems, sustainable entrepreneurship and the business model perspective allow for focusing on the business management aspects.