While it is incredibly important for consumers to support brands that promote environmental sustainability, determining which companies are taking that call to action seriously is an increasingly murky proposition. There has been a clear trend of marketing experts using ‘green’ or ‘natural’ claims that aren’t grounded in reality to lure new customers to their brands. Now the federal government is getting involved more involved, and legal action could be the eventual result. The FTC put out an announcement this week that it has completed its “green guide”, formally known as the Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims. Read the full story

Going green is not an easy undertaking for most businesses. Not only do you have to examine every aspect of operations in order to pinpoint areas of waste and pollution, but a responsible business owner will also check out the supply chain for harmful practices and then try to implement eco-friendly standards along every step of the way. In short, it’s a process. And while some companies never make it beyond installing recycling bins around the office or switching to recycled paper products, there are plenty that go the extra mile by conserving energy and water, using chemical-free products and processes, working with eco-friendly vendors, and even securing a LEED certified office space. If you happen to be interested in finding ever-increasing means of making your company sustainable and environmentally friendly, you might be interested to know that even your marketing efforts could be greener. Here are just a few approaches that are bound to be effective.

When it comes to marketing your business, paper advertising is pretty old school. While you may not be able to escape it entirely just yet, you could actually save a lot of money by going paperless and there are all kinds of avenues for marketing that are only beginning to be explored. For example, you likely have a business website, and this is a great place to begin your paper-free marketing experiment. You might even list with directories and use ad-sharing as a way to market your business for free (or at little expense). But if you’re not using SEO (search engine optimization) to ensure an influx of visitors and build up your page rank for certain searches on engines like Google and Bing, you’re not making the most of your online presence.

You should also be using social media to your advantage. It’s not enough to set up accounts and let them stagnate. You must be vigilant about utilizing your Facebook, Twitter, and other profiles or they are virtually worthless to your business. This means posting frequently, engaging your followers, responding to questions and comments, and giving people a reason to interact with you and ultimately visit your website (or go to your physical location) and make purchases. Not only are these practices great for your business but they may save you a lot over traditional marketing schemes and they are also better for the environment than littering a parking lot with fliers or paying beaucoup bucks to get ad placement in paper publications.

You should also find ways to insinuate yourself into online communities. You might start an on-site blog, contribute guest posts to related blogs, or even send out products for online reviews. And instead of hiring an ad agency to make commercials (necessitating the use of an air conditioned studio, energy-sucking lights and camera equipment, and/or trailers that are pumping carbon emissions into the air for hours on end), why not arrange for a low-budget viral campaign that can be shot on a hand cam, guerrilla-style? You don’t have to be a master of communication management to know that there are greener ways to reach the public with your marketing campaigns. So start thinking about what you’re currently spending your ad budget on and how you’re getting your name out there. If creating a brand that is associated with eco-friendly ideals is a priority, there are plenty of ways to go greener in all of your marketing efforts.

Thankfully, we live in an era where environmental awareness is becoming more and more popular of an idea. Whether it’s by way of irritating trend-following or programs and legislation that enacts legitimate change, it’s a good thing that people are realizing how important the environment is. Especially given our track record over the last few hundred years or so. Not only is this good news for the earth (and by extension, humanity as a whole), but it’s also great news for you, the green business owner! Read the full story

On his blog, “How to Change the World: A Practical Blog for Impractical People,” (May 24, 2007), Guy Kawasaki asked Margie Zabel Fisher, President of Zabel Fisher Public Relations and www.thepresite.com to provide her Top Ten reasons why PR doesn’t work.

Number one? Read the full story

Method Home offers home cleaning products that are biodegradable derived from natural ingredients such as soy, coconut & palm oils, and they come in environmentally responsible packaging. In 2006, Method products generated $85 million in revenues. According to the market research firm Kline, Method realized a 140% increase in sales in year 2006. Method is the seventh fastest growing company. Click here for the podcast on environmental entrepreneurship featuring Method. Read the full story

(Hint: They are everywhere.)

Arguably as recently as 20 years ago, the so-called “green consumer” fit into a certain demographic that many companies considered a narrow one and not necessarily an economically viable “target” for advertising and marketing dollars. If, however, you are still thinking that today’s “green consumer” is a narrow segment of the population, you are operating in the past, and more importantly, missing out on a very important, very broad market for your products and services. For example, in a recent study commissioned by retailer Plow and Hearth (a subsidiary of 1-800-Flowers.Com Inc.), it was reported that 55% of women and 45%of men intended to purchase green products during the holiday season. (“Holiday Shoppers Plan to Spend More on Green Gifts.” Portland Business Journal. November 24, 2008). Likewise, in a recent report released by Green Seal, an independent nonprofit product certification organization, and EnviroMedia Social Marketing, four out of five people reported that they are still buying “green” today, notwithstanding the current tough economic times. (“Green Purchasing Up, Despite Economy.” Livescience.Com. February 7, 2009.)

In fact, it turns out that some very good, very reputable, and very profitable companies have evolved their business plans to target, or at least to include, today’s green consumer, with the knowledge that today’s green consumer is young and not-so-young , male and female, stay-at-home parent and career professional.

Method: Bringing Green to the Mainstream & Earning Green

Take Method for example. Method was started in 1999 by two young entrepeneurs, Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry. Essentially Ryan and Lowry sought to market household cleaning products that not only appeal to today’s green consumer’s green conscience, but also to his/her aethetics, convenience, and pocketbook. The Method philosophy is that by creating a product that is stylish, consumers will be attracted to the product, and by creating a product that works, consumers will stick with the product once they try it. By creating a product that is effective and looks good (but is environmentally sound in its composition, effect, and packaging), Method seeks to reach a broader audience than other household cleaning product companies.

As a panelist at a 2007 New Yorker Magazine Conference Program entitled: “Solutions 2012: Stories from the Near Future”, Adam Lowry described how his company is all about “bringing green to mainstream.” In fact, Lowry left his work as a climate scientist in the public sector because he felt that his work was only “preaching to the converted” and he was dealing primarily in an area that separated – rather than integrated – ecology and economics. Lowry was certain that it was possible to work in the business sector and still align ecology and economics, and the success of Method has proven his point. In fact, in 2002, Method obtained a distribution deal with Target Corporation, a move that has really led the way for Method to reach mainstream green consumers.

However, unlike the “converted” that Lowry previously targeted in his work as a climate scientist, Lowry acknowledges that today’s mainstream green consumer is not likely to be willing to make sacrifices in order to purchase a green product. Thus, in order to effectively target and include today’s green consumer, Method focuses on “total quality” of which green is certainly a component, as is efficacy and design. Method focuses on creating household cleaning products that work without harsh toxic chemicals, but instead are made with naturally derived, biodegradable ingredients. Their products apparently work by absorbing dirt rather than chemically degrading it. Method also maintains a green corporate philosophy, pledging to reduce “carbon emissions by planting forests and by buying electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind energy”. The packaging is natural too; for example they make recyclable bottles from 100% recycled plastic. [Source: www.methodhome.com]

Method consumers have responded positively to the company and its products, and Method has a name for its most passionate consumers: People Against Dirty. The company provides a forum on their website for People Against Dirty and tries to encourage them to disseminate the corporate message by arming them with company information and samples. It is a grassroots movement of sorts and at the 2007 New Yorker conference, Adam Lowry was quick to credit the success of the company in part upon this movement, noting that it is often more effective than a 30-second commercial.

TerraCycle: Eco-Conscious and Profit-Driven

Another company targeting the mainstream green consumer is a company called TerraCycle. Also the brainchild of young entrepeneurs, TerraCycle was founded in 2001 by two Princeton University students, Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, who created TerraCycle Plant Food, an all-natural, all-organic, liquid plant food made from worm waste and packaged in reused soda bottles. TerraCycle Plant Food is now sold in Home Depot, reaching a broad audience of consumers, including today’s green consumer.

TerraCycle, like Method , evolved from the founders’ notion that a company could be financially successful while still being ecologically and socially responsible. Like Method, TerraCycle has its own corporate conscience and even grassroots movements, including recycling programs established with various schools that collect bottles for TerraCycle’s packaging, in return for school donations. TerraCycle also has instituted several “Sponsored Waste” programs, whereby corporations pay TerraCycle to collect their waste products (such as candy wrappers, juice and yogurt containers) and “upcycle” them, that is, create a new usable product. Examples are pouches, shower curtains and totebags that TerraCycle sells on its website and in stores such as Wal-Mart and Target.

Method and TerraCycle: Sustainable, Innovative & Successful

As described above, Method and TerraCycle share several main attributes in common, attributes that any small business would be wise to emulate, as these practices have not only made the companies better companies, they have arguably helped them to broaden their customer base and increase sales.

• They both market products that are environmentally friendly.

• They both package the products in recycled and otherwise environmentally friendly packaging.

• Both maintain a corporate conscience as evidenced by their corporate participation in environmental and social programs.

• Lastly, both companies have fostered grassroots movements that both complement their corporate conscience and help to advance their marketing aims.

But the similarities do not end there. Both companies recognize that today’s green consumer will not always make sacrifices to buy green. This means that the price point, aesthetics, and most importantly – quality – cannot be ignored in creating and marketing your “green product.” Put simply, while companies like TerraCycle and Method were founded on the belief that ecology and economics need not be segregated to market to the green consumer; these companies have prospered due to the realization that product quality and the environment need not be segregated – indeed cannot be segregated – to effectively market to today’s green consumer, who is – did I mention? – everywhere.

By Amy K. Impellizzeri

The Wall Street Journal reported that many of the US emissions problems could be “cured” by individual Americans. This runs contrary to the popular view that the emissions problem is more a function of big business than individual habits. The Journal cites McKinsey research that “US consumers have direct or indirect control over 65% of the country’s greenhouse-gas emissions.”

The implication is that – unique to the United States – individuals need help in curbing their emissions. There are scattered resources for helping consumers. Lightbulb replacements are easily found. Home Depot can talk you through energy efficiency activities for your home. And there are a growing number of companies that are appearing to help you make your home more energy efficient.

Yet the activities of consumers – according to my recent survey – are as of yet being fully supported. At a neighborhood party, a group of us got involved in talking about our interest in doing something to become more energy efficient. But almost none of us were doing anything of significance. Of the group, not a single person had more than a few CFLs installed. No one had brought a company in to evaluate the energy efficiency of their homes. No one was looking at fuel efficiency as a major determinant of which car to purchase. And there was almost no awareness of the rebate program offered by the local utility for reducing energy costs.

While this represents an obviously small sample, it just seems that there is enough pain in helping to motivate consumers. Pain = Opportunity.

It seems that a small business could find ample opportunity by solving this pain. This would require a business who can take Apple’s view of usability and bring consumers solutions that busy homeowners could act on quickly. In other words, someone has to make it much easier for people to save money. The world of energy savings is still big and confusing and dominated by small players who are more skilled in doing the work, and less skilled in making it easy for consumers.

And with 65% of the greenhouse emissions in the hands of individuals the world can gain as well.

Seen any businesses that make it easy for people to save money?