Ecopreneurist

Maybe the title should instead read “How to Fail at ‘Greening’ Your Business”. Often times companies seem to approach “green” or eco-friendly as just another product attribute that can simply be added to packaging or website to reach the “green” consumer segment. In the rush to be eco-friendly, and due to the typical structure of many organizations, the marketing team will take the lead of the greening effort and, in the interest of time & energy, they’ll create a brilliant plan to communicate “green” to a target consumer group, but no internal alignment.

The sustainability and marketing strategies of a typical entrepreneur are often times based on the same model – the shotgun approach. Typically, entrepreneurs start to think about marketing after at least 6 months of hitting the pavement, and then sustainability appears as part of a new “marketing plan” or is seen as some kind of charitable giving / community relations campaign. Sustainable business is neither part of a marketing campaign nor a community relations effort. Neither is it about shifting revenue, but rather how revenue is generated.

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I often have email exchanges with ecopreneurs, non-profits, NGOs and various business folks that don’t necessarily end up as a blog post. Sometimes I start in one direction and end up in another. That’s what happened here when I received an email from Rob Wallace at Keep America Beautiful.

Rob had one of those ironic moments. He sent out an email and press release to us asking:

How can recycling wireless phones support the new administration’s energy policy?  Our recycling partner, ReCellular, is a reuse-oriented recycler of cellular equipment, and we’re confident that their structure and operations support zero-waste wireless recycling.

Great email pitch. Bookmark this page for next time you send out a press release. However, this pitch landed on my screen the day after I wrote this post on 60 Minutes and Executive Recycling. I immediately asked Rob if he’d be interested in commenting on the whole issue of dumping of e-waste in China instead. And he was and here is what he had to say: 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.

Norwood has launched two new tumblers under their Evolve line, the Evolve(TM) Traveler Mug – 16 oz and the Evolve(TM) Infinity Tumbler – 16 oz.

Both units come in a variety of colors, both are Prop 65 compliant, both are top rack dishwater safe, both are microwave safe, and both are packaged in eco-friendly packaging for shipment.

The Evolve line is also made in the US and is “designed to biodegrade within 1-5 years in a managed landfill” according to the Norwood website. With one color imprint the units both run under $2.75.

I wanted to write about the Norwood Evolve line because, if you look again at the bullet points offered in the sales material, it seems Norwood developed these mugs to specifically address issues that Ecopreneurist has raised regarding eco-friendly promotional items. 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.

Proforma Green got our samples in today of the new 8650 V Natural™ Organic Cap by Vitronic Promotional Group, one of our manufacturers.

These caps are great. The 8650 V is a casual unstructured cap made from 100% organic cotton with a Velcro closure and a 3.25″ crown.

The bonus is that they come in multiple colors – Green, Natural (as shown), Soft Blue, Soft Pink and Soft Yellow – and Vitronic can use a sustainable process for dyeing and finishing on these 100% organic cotton caps, so you can show your commitment to the environment. Read the rest of this entry »

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

I like beer. I like pubs.

I guess that is why I am still talking about eco-friendly coasters. As I mentioned before we are doing some research on eco-friendly coasters for Intrepid Travel and now that research has lead me to cork coasters.

And this is the thing, cork has been around forever. According to the dictionary the origin of the word itself dates from between 1275–1325 AD.

This is an old material, but how many of us think of it as a green material? Hemp and Jute have also been around for a long, long time and they are considered green. Why not cork?

The thing that got me thinking about this are these core coaster from Americanna. When I asked Americanna if they had an eco-friendly coaster they immediately came back with cork. Read the rest of this entry »

The following is guest post submitted to me by the ecopreneurs over at Grow and Make – The Sustainable Living Store.

When MC Milker at Ecopreneurist asked me to consider sharing some of the writing we had been doing at Grow and Make with her readership, I reflected on what it means to be an entrepreneur in this emerging era of sustainability and the  dilemma that we face as both responsible stewards of the earth and successful business people. Grow and Make was founded on the premise that we should create a business which encourages and enables consumers to return to the consumption habits of the 19th century when, through necessity, individuals and families would ‘grow’ and ‘make’ more of their everyday essentials.

Individuals and businesses wishing to adopt more sustainable practices must recognize that minimizing consumption is key to living in a more sustainable manner. Moreover, it is critical for consumers to understand the life-cycle of the goods they consume recognizing that all products leave a significant environmental trail from the cost of conception and production, through the supply chain and into the hands of the consumer, until it’s ultimately discarded and placed in landfill and/or the atmosphere.

While each of these links in the chain can be offset by responsible manufacturers and consumers to some degree, there is no substitute for the benefits of a decision to not consume a product at all.

As an entrepreneur, business owner and consumer, this does presents a dilemma. How to continue to encourage and enable production of goods for consumption while simultaneously discouraging and raising awareness about the perils of consumption?

I believe that the best way to overcome this dilemma is to create best practices for both manufacturers and consumers to consider when creating and consuming goods. Read the rest of this entry »

An interesting article in The Wall Street Journal, Six Products, Six Carbon Footprints, highlights the next trend in green marketing, calculating and promoting the supply chain carbon footprint.

Never mind that the average consumer isn’t actually aware or at least has a pretty fuzzy grasp of what exactly a carbon footprint is, manufacturers are busily calculating away. And, they are finding some fairly interesting facts.

Leather, milk and meat from cows pack a pretty big carbon footprint: The average dairy cow produces, every year, an amount of greenhouse gas equivalent to four tons of carbon dioxide, according to U.S. government figures. Most of that comes not from carbon dioxide, in fact, but from a more-potent greenhouse gas: methane.

The recipe for a low-carbon load of laundry: Use liquid detergent instead of powder.

… a six-pack’s carbon footprint was about seven pounds. The real surprise was where the bulk of that number came from: the refrigeration of the beer at stores.

I actually found some of these things pretty interesting too, but as a marketer, I have different questions. I’m wondering if this will be the next wave in green marketing. I’m wondering if we will really be able to educate consumers that much about the manufacturing process. I’m wondering if they will care.

At this point my gut feel is that this WILL become a trend. Consumers will react to carbon footprint information. Leather will be out. Mothers will switch to soy and rice milk (even more than they currently are). Powder detergent will become passé. 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.

JournalBooks is doing stunning custom work with nearly 100% total recycled materials in their notebook and spiral journal products.

Really some of their stuff is just flat amazing and a great way to take green printing and marketing to a whole new level.

For printing JournalBooks uses plant based inks which they claim are better than soy based inks for reproduction quality and are harmless to the environment.

JournalBooks compares the impact of their plant based inks to that of vegetable oil.

The JournalBook Classic journals have 100% recycled covers. Even the poly covers – recycled milk cartons – in the classic line are completely recycled. 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.

There were a number of green and eco-friendly flash drives on display at the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) event in Fort Worth last weekend including the T530 Riclado made from 100% Recycled PVC and show at the event by Hirsch Gift.

Hirsch lists these items as being made from post-consumer materials that have completed their life cycle and would otherwise have been disposed of as solid waste.

Hirsch also points out the T530 casing is manufactured with post-consumer recyclables collected in commercial & residential recycling programs. That is a nice touch for Ecopreneurists looking for a local tie-in.

Of course I am assuming the PVC is a fungible commodity so although the PVC comes from commercial & residential recycling programs there is no telling if they come from your local commercial & residential recycling programs.

Like most flash drives the T530 is RoHS compliant.

Hirsch was also showing off their cherry wood and bamboo drives. Read the rest of this entry »

We have a number of loyal readers of this blog in the green apparel industry and its rapid growth is yielding rewards for ecopreneurs targeting the variety of consumers that I mentioned in my post, The 4 Green Fashion Consumers – Which One For You?

The Living Green consumer, who has embraced the whole concept of the environmental lifestyle

The Core Fashionista, “who is looking to build up the green in her fashion portfolio,”.

The Walking Green consumers, “driven by wanting to belong to a greater community. These are trend followers.”

The Spending Green profile, the shopper who buys green clothes because “that sense of exclusivity and entitlement are important to her.

The green fashion industry is exploding. More and more companies are entering the field every day and still, the consumers’ voracious appetitive for eco fashion seems to be not even close to be satiated. Read the rest of this entry »