Green Options

Concept Eco offering a Made in the USA 50% polyester from post-consumer recycled clear plastic Bottles (PC RPET)/ 50% waste cotton t-shirt. You have to see them to believe.

Here’s an idea that comes from outside the green business world, but has much to offer us and I think should be repeated all over.

In London, KiosKiosk is a simple, powerful, powerfully fun idea: Create an attractive temporary space for upcoming (but ready to sell) businesses to be at, in a high traffic area. At no cost.

Backed by the London Sustainable Development Commission, businesses just need to submit a brief form describing what they’d like to use the kiosk for, [...]

A Green Printer interview with Carmen Spagnola, entrepreneur and owner of m.

1. What made you want to start m?
I started m because I was a frustrated consumer.  I decided that  if I want to have access to smarter, more beautifully designed, more  responsible products and amenities for my home and family, I was going
to have to create more demand.  Markets are a bit of a chicken-and-egg  relationship.  Many retailers will tell you that they only provide  what their customers want.  That is only part of my modus operandi.
I want to showcase the possibility of a better performing future, so  much of what I sell and promote is currently considered ahead of the market.  But how will the market know what it wants if we don’t inspire it to want more?

Mobile phone service, kajeet, innovates by rewarding customers for choosing refurbished phones by planting trees. Win-win for kajeet, customers, and our planet.

So you have an interest in sustainability, particularly when it comes to your home environment. You know enough that your friends seem to flock to you for advice. They say, “You should open your own store!” You think hmm, they might be on to something. But you’ve never opened up a store, and it’s a tough economy these days for doing so.

g Green Design Center may be just the ticket.

One of the glaring absences in the discussion of how to use social media to achieve marketing goals is the lack of established marketing terms. Since green businesses are big users of Twitter, I think we need to have this conversation!

With all the talk of green clothing these days, one thing seems to be missing from the conversations: Sustainability. The old fashioned kind. As in how long it lasts. Yes, you can make clothing last by repurposing it into something else, but what if you’re just not that crafty, or don’t want to spend the time doing it?

If you’re like 50%-60% of businesses in America you may be thinking about sending customized holiday cards this year.  If so, there’s still time and you have lots of excellent green options.

1. The greenest option is to forgo printed cards and use an eCard.  American Greetings has a wide selction of eCards with minimal advertisements and is free for the first month.  They even have an option to include a virtual gift card good for use at over 100 participating merchants.

2. ReProduct Zero-Waste custom photo holiday cards and envelopes are created using environmentally friendly materials and are completely recyclable—100% of these cards and envelopes are reused in the manufacturing of Shaw carpets. Cards and envelopes are made from synthetic ‘paper’ (virgin polypropylene) which is a treeless alternative. According to Rachel Derby of ReProduct, unlike paper which can only be recycled a limited number of times, plastics can be used again and again without losing any material quality, in a true Cradle to Cradle manner. Recipients follow simple return instructions detailed on the postage paid envelope that comes with the card.

3. Minted has beautiful digitally printed eco-friendly cards. All their holiday cards are printed on 100% PCW recycled 130lb matte card stock. Minted is powered by wind power and the cards are FSC and GreenSeal and Green-E certified. If you order today you will receive your cards by December 15.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of hearing Van Jones, author of The Green Collar Economy, talk about his vision for a green economy at The Center For American Progess.

It was an oversubscribed crowd and Jones sat comfortably on an arm chair on a slightly raised platform, giving the impression of a living room chat. He started by talking about how the floor on America has been torn out, [...]

Maybe the title should instead read “How to Fail at ‘Greening’ Your Business”. Often times companies seem to approach “green” or eco-friendly as just another product attribute that can simply be added to packaging or website to reach the “green” consumer segment. In the rush to be eco-friendly, and due to the typical structure of many organizations, the marketing team will take the lead of the greening effort and, in the interest of time & energy, they’ll create a brilliant plan to communicate “green” to a target consumer group, but no internal alignment.

The sustainability and marketing strategies of a typical entrepreneur are often times based on the same model - the shotgun approach. Typically, entrepreneurs start to think about marketing after at least 6 months of hitting the pavement, and then sustainability appears as part of a new “marketing plan” or is seen as some kind of charitable giving / community relations campaign. Sustainable business is neither part of a marketing campaign nor a community relations effort. Neither is it about shifting revenue, but rather how revenue is generated.

I often have email exchanges with ecopreneurs, non-profits, NGOs and various business folks that don’t necessarily end up as a blog post. Sometimes I start in one direction and end up in another. That’s what happened here when I received an email from Rob Wallace at Keep America Beautiful.

Rob had one of those ironic moments. He sent out an email and press release to us asking:

How can recycling wireless phones support the new administration’s energy policy?  Our recycling partner, ReCellular, is a reuse-oriented recycler of cellular equipment, and we’re confident that their structure and operations support zero-waste wireless recycling.

Great email pitch. Bookmark this page for next time you send out a press release. However, this pitch landed on my screen the day after I wrote this post on 60 Minutes and Executive Recycling. I immediately asked Rob if he’d be interested in commenting on the whole issue of dumping of e-waste in China instead. And he was and here is what he had to say: