Green Business

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.
-Cree Indian Proverb2001 was when it first hit him. He was in a public rest stop on a highway in upstate New York using the men's room. While there, he noticed a big poster on the wall saying "Proud to be cleaned by Lysol".He thought to himself, "They're proud to be using Lysol? That's horrible!" [Note: Lysol has known carcinogens- chemicals quite toxic to humans.] Cleaners in public spaces should be all natural and non-toxic for all involved. Including the planet.Shortly thereafter he started Ecologic Solutions, Inc.in his apartment. Eight years later it is one of the most successful all-natural commercial cleaning supply companies in the country with 100% annual sales growth for the past three years. Rejecting a corporate buyout offer, they are wrapping up a multi-million dollar round of investment financing.The man who started the company is my baby brother, Anselm.People frequently ask me "Can a business really thrive in being 'green'?" I tell them about Anselm and several of my clients whose companies are all growing at similar rates in their "green" companies.They often also ask, "Is 'green' business just another modern-day gold ...

In the summer of 1989 I was taking a subway home with some friends that I co-founded an environmental non-profit with here in Brooklyn. I remember complaining about how tired I was of having to search and buy eco products in mail order catalogs (this was pre-internet days).Basic eco-products like toilet paper made from recycled and non-chlorine bleached paper.Back then there were no stores in NYC that sold it. In order to get it, you had to buy a case via mail order. A case of 96 rolls.I remember complaining, "What am I going to do with 96 rolls of toilet paper in my small apartment!"And that is when it hit me. What about having a retail store that screened all its products for their environmental impact? The task of researching and learning about the environmental (and social) issues that go into making products can overwhelm most customers.I asked them, "So what if we created a store that did that for the customer? And you did not need to buy 96 rolls of something to get it."At the age of 25, that was the beginning of Earth General, which opened two years later in 1991.Within six years Earth General grew to being one of the largest environmental retail stores in the country ...

GREEN Signage and Display Solutions for BusinessDid you know?Many people do not realise the impact to the environment that a simple sign, display or graphic has to the environment. Let me start by saying that i am not a scientific expert and have no collected data, but i will tell you what i know and what practical steps and questions you can undertake the next time you advertise. WHY? because the Earth is OUR HOME!What Impact?For an Example, let's start with a basic product that is used commonly in nearly every store in nearly every part of the world. A Perspex board sign with vinyl lettering.Ok, so at the factory in Malaysia, they will use acrylic resin (a byproduct of oil) which may be useful instead of putting it in the ground. Each sheet has a low tack PS or PE mask to protect the sheet (please use PE or plastic masked as it can be re-cycled and is easier to peel off).Next we come to the vinyl lettering, A real environmental disaster. Most advertising signs use this product which involves a wax coated liner and a pre-mask that gets thrown away and can't be re-cycled. On top of that, eventually the actual signs get thrown away and the vinyl itself can't ...

With the environment being a hot topic these days, any business would do well to see how it could reduce its carbon footprint. Customers are currently seeking out greener companies and there is a demand for greener products.Even as a small business, there is a lot any manager can do reduce waste and be more energy efficient. Going green does not need to be a chore.One easy solution is to switch to energy saving light bulbs wherever possible. Energy saving bulbs last longer, which means you are saving money and reducing waste. They also do indeed save energy, which will have a positive impact on the company’s electricity bill.Any business, even a small one, tends to go through a lot of paper per year. A lot of paper is used just for the scribbling of notes and reminders. This amount can be reduced by using the backs of paper thrown away because of failed print-outs and faxes. If the printed material is not of a sensitive nature, it will do just as well as using a whole new sheet simply to note down a thought or to scribble down the time someone called. Afterwards, the paper can be shredded like always.In the long run, this will save on paper and is therefore ...

The present version of Green business is generally very motivated to promote any Green virtue to the buying public. Thousands upon thousands of businesses have learned the popularity of Green marketing is working, and yet the quality of the environmental commitment supporting those Green claims is often very shallow. This is why the phrase Greenwashing has become a backlash issue that will continue to embarrass more and more companies as the buying public looks a little closer only to discover that they have been deceived.Take for example, the purchasing department of the ostensibly Green-promoted company. Regardless of the boasts made by the Green company, it is interesting to scratch the Green surface to see if it is more than a Greenwashed coat of marketing hype. Does the company asking the public to "Buy Green" also "Buy Green" when the public is not watching? In most cases, this breach of Green ethics is completely ignored, and that is more than unfortunate.In order to perpetuate a Green marketplace, vendors must do more than sell Green, they must also buy Green. Buyers must have sellers as certainly as sellers must have buyers. This cycle of market integrity cannot be ignored. Any company that cannot sell its goods or services will go bankrupt. This is a ...

I had occasion today to encounter a question that was very simple yet profound. It was "What is the standard for Green?" The EPA has recorded the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry, but these are not universal. If you ask a person interested in the biosphere type of Green, the phrase "Sustainable" is the major issue, questioning whether will an item's use will be depleted or can it be sustained naturally. Sustainability is a big issue in a world of consumerism, but does not encompass the definition of Green for other areas of Green concern.Those interested in the oceans are concerned about "Marine Life" and how man has impacted the animal life in the oceans. It looks at the discharges poured into rivers, lakes, and the oceans asking if we are harming the animals that feed us. If mercury goes into the water, will it return to us in the tuna we eat at lunch? So, the pollution of the water is a part of the Green definition."Green House Gases" seem to preoccupy those concerned about the atmosphere. In an industrial world, the manufacture of the things we wish to market creates a lot of waste that we need to dump somewhere. The EPA has long fought the dumping of chemicals from ...

Go Green, this subject is becoming familiar to everyone, and as well it has created an impelling buzz all around! Getting started with a green business can also be a way to make good money. Green business is not only a profitable practice, but also it pays attention to the many needed environmental awareness issues of today. While a lot of businesses are adapting this principle, there are still a few others who are having trouble on getting started in terms of going green. Manufacturing businesses, for example, will have higher cost for the reconstruction of their daily operations. However, they have to understand that the benefit of going green will far outweigh the cost in the long run. You will be able to serve happier customers and at the same time, live in a healthier planet.If you are planning to start your own business, make it a green business from the initial stage of your project. The first thing you have to do is to devise a well thought and well researched plan. It is important to put the plan in writing so it will serve as a guideline for you and your business.Know your target market. Once you know what target market you want to service, you will then find ...

Green Innovation can be incremental, an effort to embed environmental attributes in existing products, services, or business practices. It can also be radical, developing entirely new markets based on being completely green.Either way, the process to find the opportunity and understand how to capitalize on it is the same. Start by understanding the market, look for unmet needs or emerging trends, identify solutions for problems engendered in either, test them in market, and refine/enhance them until ready for rollout.The first step is to understand the market. If your innovation is incremental, you can rely on tried and true market research methods. However, if your intent is to be radical, the process itself must be innovative. Traditional inputs plus traditional methods yields incremental results. Creative inputs plus cutting-edge methods yields transformative opportunities.Examples of creative inputs include: conducting ethnography studies in markets where your product or service is utilized very differently, and looking at different industries and how they address analogous issues.Cutting-edge insights techniques are those which get at root psychological issues, needs, and cognition. Thus, look to state of the art cognitive and behavioral psychological research techniques and apply them in business. Be careful who you employ to conduct the research to ensure the techniques are executed properly and the findings are valid.Once ...

Since the beginning, we have understood that there is a great deal of leeway given to those who tout their products or services. Advertising hype has likely been around from the earliest times when merchants came to town to sell their wares. Frankly, the public is not ignorant about the product hype that precedes the sale of nearly everything. We are not pleased with the snake oil salesman, but frankly we like to be charmed by what he has to say. Recently, a show called "Pitchmen" relates how people get an idea to market where we learn that how you present is frankly more important than the product itself.The disconnect from reality is easily shown by placing a beautiful girl in a bikini on nearly any advertisement. The girl may have no relevance to the product, but it will produce heightened results. The psychology of marketing actually goes much further than sex appeal, and businesses employ a variety of techniques to grab a market share for their product.Greenwashing at its best is still the hype or over-exaggeration of the benefits of a product or service. At its worse, greenwashing is a premeditated and intentional desire to mislead people knowing that the product or service is not as represented. Wikipedia defines Greenwashing as ...

Green is in! The environmental movement is at the forefront of every major trend right now. Cities, businesses, and homes are all going green. We even get tax breaks for buying green cars and building green houses. And, we should! With global warming, pollutants, and environmental conditions being responsible for mutations and birth defects this is the best movement we could ask for! So, how do you capitalize on it in your home based business or MLM? Go green and use this movement to your advantages. Here are the top 4 advantages to going green in your home based business or MLM:Advantage #1: Going green in your home based business or MLM sends an important message.Having a positive influence and using and providing quality, healthy products is highly valued by others. MLM's and home based businesses create networks - networks of people who use a service or product and like it enough to tell others. Those people use the service or product and like it enough to tell even more people. And, so the cycle goes of promoting, using, and believing in products and services that are good for us, for our businesses, and for the Planet. We are creating behavior and habits that will be around for years to come. It will influence the youth ...