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4 Ways to Be More Authentically Green
Feb 7th
Business owners are often natural sales people. They love to talk about their successes – and yes, occasionally glaze over their setbacks, their shortcomings. It’s human nature, in fact.
But when it comes to green business, there are risks to downplaying your weaknesses or only trumpeting achievements:
- One, your customers will see through it.
- Two, they’ll trust you less.
- Three, they will feel less loyal.
Another problem is that there are many companies these days guilty of “greenwashing,” or plastering green leaves and vague words like “natural” and “pure” on their packaging when there’s little substance behind them. This only makes consumers more mistrustful of all green messaging. They have to look more closely to find out if it’s for real. To really make an impression on consumers anymore, a business’s environmental sustainability efforts need to feel genuine, transparent and earnest.
Here, then, are four ways to improve the authenticity of your green efforts:
1. Dig for data. Sustainability leaders are focusing more and more on tracking and analyzing data. They know how many gallons of water they’re saving each year, or how much emissions are created transporting their products from a factory in China to their U.S. distribution centers. Communicating real numbers and targets to your customers adds credibility and brings your initiatives to life.
2. Don’t overplay “green marketing.” Don’t fall into the trap of thinking being green is all about image and messaging. In fact, it might be better to not think about your green efforts as marketing at all. Think about them as something you want to communicate to customers. But when it comes to actual marketing, focus on other benefits of your products – whether it’s their design or usefulness. Research shows most consumers consider eco-friendliness a secondary purchasing concern, anyway.
3. Increase transparency. Give consumers more substance about your green initiatives. Write a sustainability plan and track your annual progress. Devote a part of your web site to your green efforts, so consumers can easily find it if they’re interested.
4. Expose your challenges. As you talk about your green successes, don’t forget to discuss the challenges. Let your customers know when you miss a sustainability target – and why. Explaining the hurdles involved with reaching your goals only adds legitimacy and shows you’re truly committed to reducing your environmental footprint.
100% Natural Photo via Shutterstock
4 Ways to Be More Authentically Green
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
What’s the State of Green Business?
Jan 24th
What are corporate sustainability leaders worrying about these days? Are businesses still investing time and money in green initiatives like they did a few years ago?
GreenBiz recently unveiled its State of Green Business 2012 report. The 84-page report goes into great detail about the current climate for business sustainability and outlines some emerging green business trends.
Though there’s a general perception that it’s been a grim few years for sustainability given the down economy, the report says that’s not exactly true. Companies continue to “make, meet and even exceed” their sustainability goals, it says, and invest in clean energy.
That said, it points to some disconcerting signs: Carbon and other toxic emissions continue to climb worldwide, despite efforts to curtail them. E-waste, the recycling of electronics, continues to pile up in landfills.
The report looks at what’s happened to a wide range of key sustainability indicators over the past year or two.
Here are some of the interesting findings:
- Clean-tech venture capital investments dropped by one-third in 2011 over 2010. (This was partly due to the economy, but also the high-profile failure of solar panel maker Solyndra that caused political backlash, the report says.)
- Prices of solar panels are falling, installations going up.
- Clean energy patents grew by 24% in 2011, up to 2,331.
- Nearly half of all S&P 500 companies now report their non-financial environmental indicators.
- The percentage of people carpooling and taking public transit to work fell slightly in 2011, according to U.S. Census data.
- People working from home at least three days per week grew slightly, to 8.6 million, accord to IDC Research.
- Energy use per dollar of U.S. gross domestic product rose by 4.5% in 2010 – the first increase in more than half a century of declines – according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. (The reason? The bad economy in 2010 led to fewer companies making energy-efficiency improvements to offset the growth in energy consumption.)
- 2.44 million tons of electronics were discarded in 2010, and only about 25% of that was recycled.
- The number of building owners pursuing LEED in 2011 dropped slightly from 2010.
Though the tough economy has certainly made it more challenging to devote resources to sustainability efforts, the report says companies would be hurting themselves by not trying:
“For companies, the risks and potential costs of doing nothing are rising … Addressing sustainability issues is no longer an optional, nice-to-do activity. It is an expectation, no more PR-worthy than safety, quality, employee retention, or customer satisfaction.”
Green Photo via Shutterstock
What’s the State of Green Business?
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
4 Ways to Boost Your Green Business Efforts in 2012
Jan 6th
It’s that time of year when everyone is making New Year resolutions to improve their lives in the months ahead, from health to relationships to finances. Another worthy consideration is how to make your business (and life in general) eco- friendlier in the year ahead.
Last month, I featured some green business trends, such as eco-packaging and nonprofits helping businesses with sustainability, which might offer some inspiration. But here are four steps to getting your green business initiatives off to a strong start:
1. Write an annual sustainability plan. Writing down plans, like hashing out a budget, helps you define your goals and better determine how you’ll achieve them. It’s also demonstrates to your customers your commitment to reducing your environmental footprint. It doesn’t have to be 100 pages, or even 10 pages. But it forces you to think in detail about your green goals and can help motivate you to get started. Review the plan at least once or twice throughout the year to see whether you’re on track to fulfilling it. Read more about sustainability planning.
2. Prioritize your goals. As they say, don’t bite off more than you can chew. You realistically may only have time to concentrate on one main goal for the year on top of everything else you do. Decide what that goal should be – whether it’s installing energy-efficient lighting, moving to a paperless system or conserving water. Whatever that goal is, break it into sma steps in your sustainability plan to make it more attainable and make sure you’ll realistically have the time and money set aside to achieving it.
3. Utilize free help. A growing number of nonprofits, Web sites and even smartphone apps have cropped up to help businesses achieve their green initiatives. Don’t turn away free help – embrace it. Consider joining a local business networking group devoted to green practices. Also check into services offered from your city or gas and electric utility, if you haven’t already. Many offer free energy audits and other environmental-related services.
4. Offer your customers a role. Your sustainability efforts are a natural place to involve your customers and can even engender more loyalty. Make this the year that you take your green initiatives to the next level by better engaging your customers– whether it’s through recycling or donating a small share of your profits to a good cause. Little measures can go a long way to building a better reputation as an eco-friendly firm.
Did you include sustainability in your business plans for 2012? What’s your top green resolution?
Sustainability Photo via Shutterstock
4 Ways to Boost Your Green Business Efforts in 2012
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Green Business Trend: Giving Customers a Bigger Role
Jan 3rd
Customers are no longer just passive witnesses to businesses’ green efforts – They’re joining in. Many companies are moving away from conventional cause marketing – just donating dollars to charity — and creating their own environmentally focused campaigns that encourage customers to be part of the solution. These initiatives can engender more goodwill from consumers because they’re offering a genuine avenue to make a difference.
Much of this change is being fueled by the growing influence of social media, which allows a company to make its green efforts more transparent and creates a two-way conversation. Telling people you’re environmentally friendly isn’t good enough anymore; you have to have to discuss it with them and engage.
Retailer Old Navy, for instance, collected used flip-flops this past spring in a partnership with Terracycle so they could be recycled into playground equipment donated to schools and community groups. Best Buy recently dropped its $10 electronics recycling fee, Reuters reports, to encourage customers to recycle more old computers and monitors through its stores.
For many small businesses, turning customers into participants may be as simple as asking them to schlep reusable shopping bags to the store or to sign up for electronic delivery of newsletters or billing statements. But the most effective campaigns often take it a step further and get a little more creative: They come up with a unique initiative that inspires customers to want to do more to help the planet and feel really good about it.
One particularly interesting campaign I found: Swing Salon, a New York City hair salon, donated customers’ hair clippings to Matter of Trust, a San Francisco nonprofit that used the hair scraps to create mats that soaked up oil from the Gulf oil spill in order to protect wildlife.
These kinds of initiatives — even if they require little or no extra effort on the customers’ part — can be particularly effective and create more loyal customers in an age when consumers are seeking more authenticity and socially responsible behavior from the businesses they patronize.
In his book We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World, branding consultant Simon Mainwaring cites a 2009 Edelman survey finding that 83 percent of consumers would change their consumption habits if it could help make the world a better place to live – and 61 percent have chosen to buy a brand that supports a good cause even if it wasn’t the cheapest one. Sixty-six percent of respondents believed corporations need to do more than give money to a good cause – they also need to incorporate causes into their business.
Mainwaring writes:
“Many consumers, especially those of the Millennial generation, are no longer willing to tolerate corporations and brands that neglect purpose or prevaricate about their efforts to be responsible citizens.”
Eco Grocery Bag Photo via Shutterstock
Green Business Trend: Giving Customers a Bigger Role
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Green Business Trend: Aiming for Carbon Zero
Dec 30th
Being an eco-conscious business once was impressive enough. But now more businesses are taking their green efforts to a whole new level: trying to completely erase their footprint.
It’s often called “carbon zero” or “carbon neutral.” The idea is that a business lowers its carbon footprint (along with other noxious gas emissions) created by its operations and then takes extra steps to counteract what footprint remains – typically through buying carbon credits to offset the pollution they cause. Offset dollars can be used to plant trees or fund other projects intended to lower pollutants in the atmosphere.
Several large companies have announced initiatives in recent years to become carbon neutral within the next several years, and Federal Times reports that the U.S. government plans to have all federal buildings “net zero” by 2030. (It’s doing so by relying on renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, to power buildings and harvesting as much excess heat as possible so it doesn’t need to use fossil fuels.) But now the concept is trickling down to smaller companies seeking ways to impress their customers with their green initiatives.
Some companies are even rolling out carbon neutral products as a way to entice and educate consumers. (Check out U.K. clothing retailer Marks and Spencer’s “carbon neutral” bra.)
The trend toward achieving carbon neutrality is spawning an ever-growing list of nonprofits and consultants devoted to helping small and big businesses attain carbon neutrality and get certified for doing so. SFGate reports that CO2 Neutral Seal, one such organization, recently unveiled a project that helps websites measure their carbon footprint using traffic data from Google Analytics and then sells them credits to offset it.
Some companies, such as yoga mat maker Gaiam, are getting customers involved by letting them buy carbon credits to offset their shipping.
While it’s admirable to want to minimize your business’s footprint, it’s not necessarily wise to jump quickly onto the “carbon zero” bandwagon. Green business initiatives should be well-aligned with the rest of your company’s goals and initiatives. It’s easy to flock to carbon credits as a way to offset your pollution rather than finding more authentic, impactful ways to make your company environmentally friendly. Moreover, you must be careful about buying offsets and where you buy them from: Some studies have found that only a fraction of some programs’ offset dollars actually go toward emission-reducing projects.
The best way to go “carbon neutral” is first to examine your organization on all levels and find cost-effective ways to be more energy efficient and deploy practices, from better shipping and travel management, that generate long-term environmental benefits. Once you’ve explored everything you can realistically do, then consider whether it makes sense to spend money to offset the rest.
Green Business Trend: Aiming for Carbon Zero
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Green Business Trend: “Eco-Packaging” Takes Off
Dec 23rd
As you wrap, and unwrap, gifts this holiday season, you may notice they’re a little lighter than usual. It might be because more companies are easing up on the packaging – or at least using eco-friendlier alternatives.
As the green movement grows up, there’s a new movement among businesses to find new, more planet-friendly ways to package their products. Some companies reduced their packaging footprint years ago by eliminating unnecessary plastic and cellophane or replacing non-biodegradable Styrofoam with paper and cardboard. But packaging technology has gotten more sophisticated, and there are higher-quality alternatives these days, from compostable plastic to recycled wood to biodegradable packing peanuts.
Earlier this year, several big companies– including Coca-Cola, Kellogg and Dow Chemical – banded together to start the American Institute for Packaging and the Environment (Ameripen), an organization that will lobby for evaluating the impact of packaging on the environment and reducing its toll. And some product makers have pledged to stop using pollution-causing PVC plastic in their boxes.
Some of this shift might be due to pressure from major chains: Walmart and Target have put more pressure on their suppliers to use eco-friendlier packaging through their sustainability scoring.
For small businesses, though, determining what kind of packaging alternatives will work isn’t always easy, While there are lots of new, “eco-friendlier” materials to choose from, small businesses need to be careful and do some research.
Here are a few of the considerations:
- True environmental benefit. Even though a company may claim its product is offering an eco-friendly alternative, such as “biodegradable” or “recyclable,” that doesn’t necessarily mean its environmental footprint is much less than anything else. You need to know how much energy is used to produce it and transport it.
- Cost. Many eco-friendlier materials are more expensive than ones that are more environmentally harmful. You either have to suck up the extra cost or be able to pass it along to your customers – which isn’t always realistic. Be sure to understand the cost impact before switching to new packaging.
- Feasibility. Eco-packaging may sound good, but will it actually be a good replacement for what you already use? It’s possible it won’t be as durable, so it’s important to get samples and test any prospective packaging before adopting it.
Given all these potential pitfalls, what do you do? Talk with other businesses in your industry or other businesses that have explored green packaging options. There are some nonprofits that help businesses adopt eco-friendlier packaging and can provide helpful research. Check out the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, for one.
Eco Packaging Photo via Shutterstock
Green Business Trend: “Eco-Packaging” Takes Off
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Green Business Trend: Turning to Nonprofits for Help
Dec 9th
Becoming an environmentally responsible business isn’t an overnight process. It can take weeks of research and data analysis to make wise decisions that help both the environment and the bottom line – time many business owners don’t have to spare.
To cope with this challenge, more nonprofit programs are springing up to help businesses achieve their green goals.
Sure, there have been environmental groups for years that have assisted businesses. But more are now focusing on specific green business initiatives, whether it’s disposing of old equipment, finding environmentally and socially responsible suppliers or reducing water use. Many established environmental nonprofits are also extending their services for businesses, big and small, and offering more rating services and actionable guidance. (As this interesting Bloomberg article points, some environmental nonprofits don’t look that different from for-profit sustainability consultants.)
Costs differ across organizations: Some charge businesses fees for services, while others are funded through foundations or donations.
While there are many organizations helping businesses with sustainability these days – including many local groups — here’s just a small sampling of what’s out there:
Good360 – Some big corporations, including Hilton Hotels and Home Depot, have partnered up with this organization, which collects new and gently-used goods from businesses and donates them to charities in need.
The idea: Instead of throwing products away or trying to find a worthy cause to donate them to, Good360 helps find it a good home. It works with companies of all sizes. Good360 provides tax documentation to the donor company.
Rainforest Alliance – This nonprofit got its start in the early 1990s working with Chiquita to improve its banana-growing practices. But in recent years, Rainforest Alliance has introduced more programs that help a variety of businesses certify their products and source sustainable materials.
Sustainability Consortium – Membership fees are high, starting at $10,000 for businesses with 500 or fewer employees. But this high-profile group, spawned from the development of Walmart’s Sustainability Initiative, is developing standards for a variety of product categories, including paper towels, TVs and yogurt. It provides members with in-depth research on sustainability trends and networking opportunities with some of the biggest brands working on sustainability, from Coca-Cola to 3M.
Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) – This national nonprofit has expanded quite substantially in recent years adding “Sustainable Business Network” chapters in cities and regions across the country. These local chapters help their business members pursue a variety of green initiatives, whether it’s renewable energy production or sustainable agriculture.
Image from alphaspirit/Shutterstock
Green Business Trend: Turning to Nonprofits for Help
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Green Business Trend: Moving Beyond Green Marketing
Dec 6th
Throughout December, I’ll be looking at green business trends that can help business owners lower their environmental footprint and engage their customers in their sustainability initiatives in the New Year.
It used to be a business could stand out simply by being environmentally sustainable. But that’s changing: Now companies of all sorts and all sizes are playing up their efforts to save energy, reduce carbon dioxide, use more sustainable materials and streamline their packaging. Being green is not such a unique thing anymore.
Not that green marketing ever helped out that much anyway. Joel Makower, founder and editor of GreenBiz.com, said it well in a recent article:
“For more than 20 years, consumers haven’t been willing to vote with their dollars. The reasons are many and complex, but the result is clear cut: With the exception of some energy-saving devices, no green product has captured more than a tiny slice of the marketplace, at least in the U.S.”
If you look at environmentally friendly products that succeed, Makower says, it’s not because they’re eco-friendly. Consumers choose them for more self-serving reasons. They buy organic foods for their health benefits, Toyota Priuses because they save gas dollars, and energy-saving products because they lower utility bills.
Green marketing on its own doesn’t drive sales. Makower adds:
“Too often, green marketers have attempted to prod consumers to act by relying on guilt or by encouraging people to ‘save the Earth,’ neither of which has turned out to be particularly aspirational or appealing.”
People are actually less interested in buying environmentally friendly products in the aftermath of the Great Recession, according to a recent survey from Grail Research. The survey found the diehard “dark green” consumer segment grew slightly from 8 percent to 9 percent from 2009 to 2011, but the overall percent of consumers buying green products declined from 84 percent to 69 percent during that time. The report said:
“As opposed to previous years, growth will come from green products being comparable on value and having superior product performance.”
So, what can be gleaned from all this?
The ubiquity of green products and services is making it more challenging than ever for sustainable businesses to communicate their greenness with consumers in a way that actually produces sales. And it’s becoming far more difficult for consumers to wade through the choices. One walk down a food aisle turns up a crop of phrases like “all natural,” “sustainable” and “organic.” How do we decipher the legitimate from the greenwashing?
The answer may lie in supplying consumers with details – and authenticity. Companies can support their green claims by providing customers with more numbers and information about how they’ve lowered their environmental footprints. Many do so by writing sustainability plans and devoting sections of their websites to them. They show how much money they’re spending on sustainability – and how much money and natural resources they’re saving – by being more eco-friendly. And they can engage their customers by compelling them to get involved, whether by donating money to environmental campaigns or taking action.
It’s also important to realize that consumers won’t buy your products just because they’re green. They will buy them for other, less-idealistic reasons. So it’s essential to know what those reasons are and make that the central thrust of your marketing. Environmental good deeds are often just the icing on top.
Image from Arkady/Shutterstock
Green Business Trend: Moving Beyond Green Marketing
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
What’s the Green Benefit of Telecommuting?
Oct 29th
Many small businesses already participate in an easy and low-cost way to be environmentally friendlier: letting employees work from home – either every day or just on occasion. But how much of an impact does that really have?
You must account for several factors, but the heftiest savings comes from taking cars off the road. Let’s look at the numbers:
- The average U.S. commute is about 32 miles round-trip, according to a 2005 poll by ABC News, analyzed by Gary Langer. That’s about 7,840 miles per year, assuming an employee works five days a week, 49 weeks per year (with 3 weeks of vacation).
- If the employee drives a standard midsize vehicle — which typically emits around 0.9 pounds of carbon dioxide per mile — he or she would emit 29 pounds of carbon per day commuting, adding up to a commuting footprint of about 7,100 pounds of CO2 per year.
- Have five full-time employees? That’s nearly 35,500 pounds of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere each year – the equivalent of what an average American four-person household generates annually. (See CO2 emissions of various things here.)
However, the calculation isn’t quite so straightforward. When employees work from home, they generally use extra electricity and heating fuel to keep their home office lit and climate-controlled and to power their computers and other peripherals. (The extra emissions created by using a furnace to heat the home during the day, for instance, can nearly offset the CO2 savings from not commuting, a 2003 study found.) If you’re able to turn off the equipment and close the office because nobody’s there, however, the savings will be more significant.
Though the total green benefit may not be quite as powerful as it first seems, it can be quite impressive depending on the circumstances. And keep in mind there are other non-green benefits that come with telecommuting. For one, surveys repeatedly find that telecommuting make employees happier by providing them more work-life balance and less time on the road. Moreover, businesses can save money by reducing their operational costs. Studies have also shown telecommuting leads to higher employee productivity.
Do you or your employees often work from home? Do you think there’s a big environmental benefit?
What’s the Green Benefit of Telecommuting?
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
“Green Biz Opp” Offer – New
Sep 5th
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