Green Options

How does a small company compete against the big guys in the toy industry? In particular as pointed out by Wendy Johnson, with Birchtree designs writing on the contest Facebook page:

I know I’ve been a bit like a dog on a bone about the fact that print is not necessarily the enemy, but I think it’s important. Marketers are being hit like a locomotive with the idea that e-mail and other electronic media are green because they don’t use paper, but there is a lot more to environmental friendliness than cutting tree. Like . . . energy use.

This week, the print industry will gather in Chicago at Print 09 (September 11 - 16), one of its largest annual trade shows. There, the The Print Council will promote a new position paper titled, “Why Print Is Green.”

“Our industry is a leader in recycling, sustainability and pollution control,” says Ben Cooper, executive director of The Print Council. “In fact, we pioneered putting those concepts into widespread practice over the past three decades. But we did so quietly, to the extent that there is a lack of awareness regarding the environmentally responsible nature of print.

“Why Print Is Green” describes ten specific ways in which print is green, from the responsible products used, renewable energy sourced, increased recycling rates, to improved design and delivery methods. The report is intended to demonstrate why print media is the environmentally sound choice for communicating with the audiences they want to reach.

• Among the facts the white paper documents:
• In 2008, more than 57% of paper consumed in the U.S. was recovered for recycling, more than any material.

Yet again, a LinkedIn question (asking for top 10 greening tips) got me thinking.  Is there really a thing such as a generic list of top 10 tips for greening? I don’t think so.

As a start, the foundation of a green program lies in what a business is already doing. Do you recycle? Do you use CFLs? Do you have a programmable thermostats? Do you leave their PCs on all night? How much water do you use? What are your transportation needs? Depending on the answers to these and other questions, you will be able to identify the areas where the top green opportunities lie.  Even if you business practices are not very green now, you will probably find that you’ve adopted a green business practices already, and that you can implement others with no cost or change in business performance.  As an example, for most small businesses, changing to high efficiency lights or using recycled copy paper will have no direct impact on your core business operations.

So how do you know what the top 10 things you can be doing to green yourself are? One way to determine which greening practices will yield the most bang for the buck (a.k.a. be a top 10 tip) is to focus on the largest expense areas. There is often a correlation between expenses and volume of use. If you cut back on what you spend, you will likely reduce what you use.

So, whether reducing paper use or switching to high efficiency lights is a top 10 tip depends, well, on how much paper and electricity you’re using.  A business may want to target all expense areas over a certain threshold amount. You can measure this in dollars or as a percentage of overall expenses, such as any expense on which you spend over $500 a month, or that represent 10% or more of total expenses. A list of business expenses can guide the planning process. Start with the areas of the business that will have the greatest financial impact. You may not be able to change things as dramatically as you’d like, especially at first. Look for actions that are achievable and cost effective to implement. If staff leave lights on in unoccupied rooms (bathrooms, storage sheds), you may want to make turning off the lights in unused areas a priority. That step may be as simple as posting signs on light switches. If, on the other hand the lights are generating significant added costs, they may want to install motion sensors or bi-level light switches.

The FedEx logo has a hidden message. Does it matter?

In a blog post called “25 logos with hidden messages – Amazing Graphic Designing tricks!” Charlie Johnson, the author, talks about what makes a logo a good marketing tool. He says:

…make your logo look more conceptual and clever using the graphic designing tricks. As it is said, a logo should not be a plain looking symbol…it should reflect you and your company’s personality.

PACT underwear launched this week with a campaign that demonstrates choosing wisely doesn’t have to accompany images of melting ice caps and flooding deserts

Sustainability will not be an over night phenomenon. In fact I would argue a sea change is taking place but have barely begun to see the ripples. With a new administration, government has demonstrated that they will be playing an instrumental role on the compliance and technology side.

Mokugift is enabling attendees of the Blazed & Confused concert tour (headlined by Snoop Dogg and Slightly Stoopid) to voice their opinions and fight climate change through the power of online video.

How to Use Twitter to Engage Green Consumers Slide Show given at The Cool Twitter Conference

I just read about the People’s Stimulus Package and am impressed.  Started by an Alabama pharmacist who thought his little town need its own stimulus, he gave his employees $700 bucks each ($300 to part timers) in $2 bills.  All he asked is that they give 15% to a charity and to spend the rest locally in independent stores.  Now, Turman Commercial Painters has formalized the program and are hoping it spreads across the country.

I hope it does, but I would add one more requirement: Make the spending green.

Buying local is itself an excellent greening strategy, in part because of evidence that there are significant social, environmental, and economic benefits to creating local economies. Beyond that, a local green stimulus is a great opportunity to educate staff about what they can do with a few extra bucks.

Here are twelve easy, low-cost things you can do to stimulate the local economy green-ly:

1. Join the locavore movement and buy produce, bread, food stuffs and crafts made within your home town .
2. Buy some high efficiency bulbs.

The opportunity for San Francisco’s composting effort will be to imaginatively engage us in a herculean effort to educate AND motivate compliance.

Yesterday, I blogged about the reasons marketers are choosing “green” as a marketing strategy. But for companies that pursue this strategy, it becomes clear pretty quickly that just marketing a green product isn’t enough. The company has to be sincere in its own commitment to environmental sustainability and show genuine sensitivity to the needs and concerns of its customer base. This has to be more than lip service. It’s got to be the real deal. 

So who are these green consumers (or LOHAS or lifestyles of health and sustainability consumers) and what are some of their demographics and psychographics that will help marketers to relate to them effectively? Collette Chandler of Keyboard Culture (Green Marketing), describes them this way:

• Leading-edge thinkers
• Higher-than-average education
• Average incomes (this may be a surprise to many who thought their incomes would be higher, but it’s no surprise to people with PhDs!)
• Among the least price sensitive consumers
• Expect good value (they expect green products to perform equal to or even better than equivalent non-green products)
• Extremely brand loyal
• Tend to write blogs
• Influence others, particularly their family and friends
• Early adopters
• Influenced by brand image

What drives LOHAS consumers to make the purchases they do?