As a consultant to a number of start up companies and as a friend to many more talented, educated, otherwise stellar founders of companies, I have observed a significantly high number of missteps around human resource issues. Whether the result is a costly lawsuit or just hurt feelings, HR mistakes are easy to make and enormously costly, if only due to hundreds of hours of lost productivity.
I bring this up to Ecopreneurist readers because I feel it is particularly easy for there to be miscommunication between employees and employers in a mission-driven business. In any startup, most employees make near-term financial sacrifices to be part of the team. In environmental startups, many employees join, at least in part, due to a desire to make a positive impact on the planet.
“We’re All In It For the Cause” (and other Signs of Potential Trouble)
Be careful when people feel they are sacrificing. One day, they might feel slighted over a promotion not received or a plum project assigned to someone else, and they might look back at the time they have Read the rest of this entry »
Despite what you may think, times like these are perfect times to reassess your shipping and transportation practices. High fuel costs, increased freight rates combined with the demand for shorter delivery times and reduced inventories can lead you to a new way of thinking. There are ways to green your transportation and shipping practices by improving fuel and operational efficiencies, which in turn will also save you money.
Fuel prices cannot be controlled, but transportation costs can be cut by eliminating waste. For example, according to the National Private Truck Council Benchmarking Survey, approximately 25% of trucker miles are driven empty without cargo on return trips instead of being filled with another company’s outbound transport. Backhauling, using an empty truck’s return route to carry cargo, has long been used by recyclers, for example, since the cost of transportation often outweighs the value of the cargo. There’s no reason why any business cannot use backhauling as a shipping strategy for deliveries that are not very time sensitive.
Environmental Research reports that Cause Marketing can Make a Difference which is good news for social entrepreneurs. A recent survey conducted on consumer packaged goods found that, yes, consumers do prefer and purchase products associated with a charity or cause.
74% increase in actual purchase for a shampoo brand when associated with a cause
(47% of participants who saw the cause-related message chose the brand while only 27% of those who saw the generic corporate advertisement chose the brand)
28% increase in actual purchase for a toothpaste brand when associated with a cause
Triple bottom line entrepreneurs, of course, already know that, or at least have hoped that their efforts to give back will make a difference in sales. But, just giving back isn’t always enough.
Qualitative consumer responses showed that the issue, the nonprofit and the inherent nature of products were key factors in making cause-related purchasing decisions and helped explain why movement in (some) categories was not significant.
In other words, choose well and choose wisely, not only in the non-profit you plan to support, but in how you promote your connection and how you market your product. Read the rest of this entry »
Ecopreneur Toby Foster’s organic vodka is made from locally grown Alaska potatoes and glacier water and marketed under the name Permafrost vodka. The Glaciar Creek distillery is Alaska’s first licensed distillery and Foster hopes to cash in on the increased interest in the last frontier.
Or does he?
Alaskan entrepreneur Foster has been working on his pet project, an organic vodka for the past 5 years. His eco friendly operation uses only locally harvested product and plans to use the ethanol extracted during the distilling process to help run the plant’s electrical generators. The unused potato parts will be composted for use in plant side gardens planned for the future.
So what does this have to do with Sarah Palin? Not much until a few months ago. Ecopreneurs in Alaska have benefited from the increased interest in all things north of the lower 48. As reporters bundle up and head for Anchorage, coverage of all things Alaska pop up in mainstream media sites and blogs across the web.
But will it last? Will investment dollars follow? Will consumers suddenly start noticing and purchasing goods from the frozen north in an effort to be hip? What impact will the results of the election have…if the GOP wins or loses? 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.
It is estimated that six billion pens are thrown away every year in the US. BIC, one of the largest pen producers in the United States seems to have decided to do something about that and has entered the eco market in a big way with their new line of BIC Ecoluctions pens.
Like other companies BIC is taking the designs they already have in house and pairing them with new materials to make pens like the Clic Stic Ecolutions which is an exact copy of the standard click pen seen in offices the world over, but now made with 67% pre-consumer recycled material. (BIC’s green website offers a lot of info on these item, though it is a little vague on what the pre-consumer materials are, also there is no mention if the pens themselves are recyclable).
For Ecopreneurist working within or with main street businesses that are not big on change, the ability to offer branded BIC eco-friendly pens is very helpful as it is so simple and painless a change to make.
One of the issues a lot of us have is gaining creditability for green products and green thinking. Sometimes when shopping going green ideas to established businesses – like banks for example – there is strong resistance to our ideas because it is assumed we want the CEO to start coming to work in a hemp suit and that green means throwing away common, accepted business practices.
Well the Ecoluctions pen is not going to rock the boat. It is just a pen, but it is also an example of the types of minor changes companies can make in an effort to go green. And as I have written before small changes add up. Read the rest of this entry »
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 »
Since last night’s presidential debate, all I have heard from everybody around me is ‘What about Joe the Pumber’? Clearly, the most talked about man in the U.S. presidential election is now a 34-year-old Ohio resident otherwise known as Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher.
Joe was referenced more than 20 times in Wednesday night’s presidential debate, and has quickly found himself caught in a deluge of media attention, political parody and personal scrutiny. Obama and his running mate, Biden, both criticized Joe as a false idol of the Republican cause. Read the rest of this entry »
Carbon offsets are a great idea, in theory. Buy an offset, which goes to renewable energy or carbon absorbing projects, and increase the health of the planet, right?
Not so clear cut, unfortunately. The path from offset purchase to impact made has been muddied by lack of transparency on how much of your money paid goes to purchasing actual offsets versus to the company you bought them from, does it actually help further already happening projects, and might it actually be going towards an offset that’s already been purchased by someone else, or is expired?
It’s this smoke and mirrors that’s both made people distrustful of these schemes, and in the process missed out on more actual impact being made. Village Green, a company that previously had declined to start an offset program for just these reasons, is now launching one of their own, tomorrow, with complete transparency and at a much more affordable price. Read the rest of this entry »
Last week marked the official launch of The Global Partnership for Sustainable Tourism Criteria (STC Partnership), a coalition of 27 organizations that has developed Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria. About a year ago, the group came together to form the criteria having reviewed more than 4,500 criteria from more than 60 existing certification and other voluntary sets of criteria.
One of the primary challenges of consumer and business travelers is translating the various sustainability practices of travel suppliers exactly because there is not good certifying organization for the travel industry. Without a common playing ground its hard to make educated consumer decisions.
Ecopreneurist provides news and advice on sustainable and social entrepreneurship. Learn about new green products and services for the LOHAS demographic, and get marketing and branding assistance for your green start-up business.
I bring this up to Ecopreneurist readers because I feel it is particularly easy for there to be miscommunication between employees and employers in a mission-driven business. In any startup, most employees make near-term financial sacrifices to be part of the team. In environmental startups, many employees join, at least in part, due to a desire to make a positive impact on the planet.
Ecopreneur Toby Foster’s organic vodka is made from locally grown Alaska potatoes and glacier water and marketed under the name 
