Ecopreneurist

Another study reveals/confirms that consumers want to know more about the environmental activities of the companies they patronize. A new study from the Natural Marketing Institute reports that consumers are “interested in learning about what companies are doing to…”

• Recycle - 62%
• Reduce waste - 60%
• Reduce air pollution - 59%
• Reduce energy consumption - 56%
• Use more recycled content on products -52%
• Prevent global warming, reduce greenhouse gases - 51%
• Use less packaging - 50%
• Use materials from renewable sources - 49%
• Increase use of renewable resources - 47%
• Reduce water consumption - 44%

Now, I’ve never heard of the for-profit Natural Marketing Institute (and they weren’t particularly forthcoming when I called them) and so I cannot vouch for their methodology, but if accurate, and I have no reason to doubt it isn’t, this data reinforces something I have discussed before: sharing your green activities with your customers is key to building customer loyalty and creating a competitive advantage. To not do so is a missed opportunity. So, if you do any of the activities listed above, and I’m betting you do, let your customers know. They are interested.

Photo: Renato Cardoso at www.sxc.hu.

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While twentysomethings may be the cheerleaders of the green movement, a new report from i-com reveals that the ranks of actual users of green products are grey haired and wrinkled.

Both male and female groups 55 years and over reported above average usage of environmentally friendly home goods. Leading the way was the 55-59 year-old female demographic, who was more than twice as likely as the average consumer to use green products. Males 65-69 years old were second, more than 1.7 times as likely to use than the average American.

I don’t find this terribly surprising for a number of reasons including what the survey found out: 50% of non-adopters cited high prices as the main factor behind their decision not to purchase green products. As is well know, the bulk of this country’s wealth is concentrated in the baby boomer generation. If you were lucky enough to be born in the first half of the boom (and now find yourself wondering why your kids have such trouble getting ahead in a vastly different economic landscape than the 60s and 70s) then you know what I mean. Read the rest of this entry »

As consumers become more jaded about claims of greenness, companies that care about communicating their sustainability activities are looking for ways to credibly stand out. When done thoughtfully, the marketing of carbon neutralizing offset programs can be an excellent way to get your point across.

The travel industry has been a big adopter in the marketing of carbon neutrality. Expedia.com gives consumers the option to purchase TerraPass carbon offsets for the carbon emissions of flights. Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car also provide similar options for car rentals. But these program are no-brainers as the consumer bears the cost of the offsets.

The newest generation of offsets marketing includes the integration of offsets into the product itself — no opt-in necessary and at no additional cost to the consumer. This new wave of marketing often involves on-packaging communication of the company’s offset programs and there are a few standouts. Bloomsberry & Co. has partnered with TerraPass to create Climate Change Chocolate, an incredibly tasty chocolate bar that includes in the price of every bar 133 lbs of verified TerraPass carbon offsets (133 lbs being the average American’s daily carbon impact.)
Read the rest of this entry »

Straddling the middle is how I might describe the trend in green products. Ecopreneurs have been producing green and eco friendly products for the home and office for years. This trend, is of course now in high gear. The smaller segment, those aimed at parents of infants and young children has taken off recently driven by the scary news out of China and the growing awareness of the toxins in baby products.

Marketing for baby products has focused on the purchaser…the parent, rather than the purchase influencer, the child…for obvious reasons. But, a whole new niche is opening up - targeting green kids.

A new study finds:

More than half of kids age 6-8 encourage their parents to buy green products, according to the report from Packaged Facts, a market research firm. Nearly three-quarters believe people should recycle, and 40% think they should buy recycled-content paper products.

What about those kids? Will they fall for the latest green gimmick? How aware are they about greenwashing.

“What’s interesting about the green trend among kids is that the kids themselves are fueling it,” says Tatjana Meerman, publisher of Packaged Facts. “Environmental awareness, even at the youngest ages, is acute.”

And they’re savvy about what it means to be green. With more and more schools, parents, television programs and media dedicated to spreading the gospel of green, kids know chemical names that leave parents tongue tied and exactly which materials are petroleum derivatives. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

Debco - one of the larger manufacturer’s of promotional items in North America - recently posted a new all green catalog. The catalog is available on their website at www.debcosolutions.com under the downloads tab.

One of the things that Debco did in this catalog which I wish more manufacture’s would do is they produced a glossary of terms.

Thought it would be useful to reproduce that glossary here for our community.

Glossary of ECO Terms

Corporate Sustainability: implementation of strategies that meet business needs while concurrently seeking to protect, support, conserve and enhance the human and natural resources needed in the future. Read the rest of this entry »

Growing a successful brand is much like growing a garden. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it.

When it comes to branding a green business, it’s becoming harder and harder to stand out in a sea of companies claiming to have green products and ethical practices. While it’s wonderful that green is going mainstream, it makes good, original branding even more important for green businesses.

How do you set your business apart and attract new customers in a competitive marketplace? You work on your image, your public face, and your reputation. In a word, your brand. Read the rest of this entry »

Want to be on the cutting edge? According to Trendwatching.com its time to start leveraging the online into your offline promotions. The following five “Off-On” trends are hot:

1. Online symbols turned objects: merging well-known digital visuals (from pixels to logos to black-and-white QR compositions) with physical objects such as outdoor fencing, to google-branded products only available to google toolbar subscribers (in Japan) to iconic “pixel” fabric to my personal favorite, the incredibly beautiful jewelry made from precious metals and ethernet plugs by Jana Brevick.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

The Verve line of organic cotton promotional t-shirts from Vantage Apparel seems to be going for the title of most green t-shirt available.

Like many other organic shirts in the promotional items industry Vantage starts with a non-bleached t-shirt made from organic cotton (i.e. no pesticides or petroleum fertilizers used to grow the cotton). At this point the shirt is similar to other organic shirts, like the AnvilOrganic line from Anvil Knit Wear (which by the way does come in different colors than just “natural”). Read the rest of this entry »

Advertising. It’s a part of the scenery, just about anywhere you go these days. Like it or lump it, it’s here to stay. But what if it could do something more, or different then sell you things, end of story? What if it educated about the environment, and eco friendly behaviors? What if it went further than that and 50% of proceeds from advertising went to local community greening efforts, the use of which was advised by diverse, knowledgeable green organizations?

It can, and it does, via EcoMedia. The NY based company originally started by an LA surfer turned environmentalist to protect local watersheds from pollution has now expanded to find ways to improve and protect the air, energy, and green space of places across the US. This happens via partnerships with CBS and Worldwide Pants.  Between the three of them, they cover national and local markets, online, and also produce original green oriented content such as the Daisy Fuentes hosted TV show The EcoZone Project.

It comes down to this - Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been spending a lot of my time these days checking out the wide variety of social networking tools available for growing green business. In particular tools for the B2B market have been springing up and taking hold across the web.

I found this interesting slide show about greenwashing and was struck by the slide above. This says it all in my mind. As green becomes the new “normal” ecopreneurs need to work to position their products beyond just being green.

Check it out.
The Six Sins Of Green Washing

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: terrachoice grant)

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