Green Options

How do you create effective organizations focused on sustainable social impact? For those who believe in combining social mission with the efficiency of a market-based approach, the answer is: “Social Enterprise.”

“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”.

In my last post, I talked about the ecological and social outcomes one might wish to support via green investing. But what about the financial return on investment (ROI)?

Financial ROI (profit) is vital to green investing. This can sound jarring to green-minded folks because for quite a long time, the profits of most businesses have come at the expense of human and ecological health. Yet the underlying system holds much promise. I’m seeing a new generation of green businesses that align profits and green objectives to create powerful engines for economic transformation. These businesses are building the reality envisioned by a previous generation of green non-profit leaders.

Financial ROI is important because it impacts the rate and scale at which this new reality can unfold.