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How To Green Up Your Small Business
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Article 5: Promote Your Good Stewardship
In an April 2007 poll by the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, 47 percent of small-business owners surveyed said they are already taking steps to show customers they are environmentally friendly.
So how do you get the word out to customers and potential employees that you care about your impact on the environment?
To start, if you’re using renewable energy or purchasing offsets to neutralize your greenhouse gas emissions, promote those acts on your Web site, business cards or via stickers on your door. If you consider green practices to be a big part of your company’s operations, or even if you are simply moving your business in that direction, include that information in an environmental mission statement and post it online.
Getting publicity for your eco-friendly efforts is a bit tougher.
On the upside, publications big and small are running stories on individuals and businesses that are going green. But, the threshold for newsworthiness has gotten higher.
“Editors are really looking for new green angles,” says John Rooks, president of Dwell Creative, a green ad agency in Portland, Maine.
His suggestion: Establish a relationship with an editor at a local publication and find something new to do that’s green – a task he admits isn’t easy.
Of course, not every green thing you do should be promoted, says Joel Makower, the Oakland, Calif.-based executive editor of GreenBiz.com.
“A lot of companies [have eco-friendly practices] because it’s good business sense and don’t talk about it because it’s not worth it. Sometimes when you talk about what you’re doing right it may inadvertently bring attention to what you’re not yet doing right.”
Some hypothetical examples of eco-inconsistencies: a dry cleaners that recycles hangers but still uses environmentally-toxic cleaning agents on clothes, or a pizza place that uses organic ingredients but delivers its product in non-hybrid vehicles, says Anna Clark, president of EarthPeople, a Dallas-based sustainability consultancy.
But Clark also notes there is little scrutiny and criticism that fall on small businesses, so any change is perceived as a good thing.
“Small businesses need not worry about not doing enough when they can benefit so much from one or two small changes for the better,” she says.
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How To Green Up Your Small Business
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