Green Options

“Go Green.”   It may have started out as a catchy slogan, but people everywhere are realizing it’s not just a nice idea, or even an option.  It’s necessary to preserve our way of life.  Businesses are not only heeding this message and providing ground-breaking support, they’re keying into the profitability factor as well.  Helping the environment, simply put, can have an immediate ROI.

“Consumers are thinking about it, and therefore retailers think they need to think about it as well,” said Mary Brett Whitfield, senior vice president at consultant TNS Retail Forward.
“Retailers have woken up to the idea that not only is this going to be good from a public-relations perspective but also from a profitability perspective“.

Public awareness of global warming is at an all time high.  People are looking for ways to make the world a better place.  In fact, “83% of Americans would choose products and services with environmental benefits over similar non-environmental alternatives.”

Businesses are noticing this trend, and stepping in to provide their customers with the resources and the opportunity.  As The Wall Street Journal’s Livemint.com notes,

“ …for the corporate world, “green” can be a mantra with a dual advantage: it’s the right thing to adopt, not just as an environmentally responsible entity, but also — more important — as a profitable proposition”.

I’m Krates Ng, cofounder of mokugift. I’m delighted to become an occasional contributor here on Ecopreneurist.

I have always considered myself environmental. I care. I drive a hybrid car. I recycle religiously. I minimize the use of electricity, paper and water. I even cut down the amount of meat I eat (started with no meat 2 nights a week) with the intent to reduce the amount of live stock it takes to support our lives.

However, I hadn’t thought about pairing business with the environmental initiatives until we started mokugift the end of 2007. In this post, I’ll write about how we transformed from entrepreneur to a ecopreneur.