I have strong opinions, and I rarely suppress them (just ask my husband). During political campaigns, I show support for my candidates with buttons and yard signs. I have plastered my car with progressive bumper stickers. Before I have even started sipping wine at parties, I am already loudly proclaiming the beliefs I hold on important current issues. Lately, I have been taking my strongly-held opinions to the next step: I am becoming a green business proselytizer. Like a lot of people who become religious missionaries, I can not help it. I believe that I have found my calling.
My preaching, my free advice to business owners, my reaching out to people who never consider their carbon footprint–it all happens spontaneously. But it keeps happening, and it feels like the right thing to do. A few months ago, while shopping and talking to the owner of my two favorite women’s clothing boutiques here in Evanston, IL, where I live, I started explaining to Kelly how she could make her businesses greener. I gave her standard advice: install compact fluorescent lights, change to low-flow plumbing, get a more efficient heating and cooling system, recycle more. Even though I have no official training in how to green a business, the ideas popped into my head, and the conversation flowed naturally. As I presented the options to her, she listened.
More recently, during our annual trip to Charleston, SC, to celebrate Passover with my husband’s family, I found myself in the position of teaching far less enlightened small business owners how they could make their restaurants and businesses more environmentally friendly. We stopped for lunch one day at a small restaurant that serves tasty home-made soups and salads. Though the owners of Ladles are proud of their homemade soups, and they used some local ingredients, they serve all of their sit-down meals on disposable plastic plates, bowls, and cutlery. When I asked the manager if the restaurant recycled any of these products, and she told me that they did not, I pointed out that investing in some reusable serving items would be a much more environmentally friendly option.
The next day, while having a shared breakfast at the inn where we were staying, I met a couple who sold kayaks in North Carolina. In town for a boat fair, they also got some free advice from a green business advocate: me! One of the owners explained that they sold some kayaks that were made locally when I asked if they had a green business, the concept of a carbon footprint was completely foreign to him. I explained the concept of fossil fuel usage and greenhouse gases to him, discussed ways in which he could minimize his carbon footprint, and then finished my breakfast.
Striking up green business conversations seems to be happening more frequently in my life these days. I guess I am on a mission.
Image credit: zorilla at Flickr under a Creative Commons license
Wow! How inspiring! Makes me think we should all be out there like you are encouraging people to be greener.
Preach the word Sister! You are not alone. The Green Soapbox is the one place we can all make a difference and we all benefit!
I think we need converts, but they need to be convinced, not preached at.
In setting out to persuade people, a direct approach has the attraction of getting to the point rapidly. However, businesses are in the business of selling TO others & may not welcome the reverse. A more effective way of persuading people is to appeal to what is in the other person’s (the persuadee) interest rather than the interest of the persuader. Takes more effort but may be more effective.
Thanks for your missionary work – I am listening too. Very interesting!
(what’s a carbon footprint?) MS