Pure Growth!

No matter how you decide to green your business, always keep two goals in mind: 1) to do business in a manner that reduces environmental impact as much as humanly possible, and 2) to sell products and improve your bottom line.

While this may seem obvious to some, many businesses have an imbalanced approach to going green. They might concentrate on reducing their environmental impact while neglecting their desire for business growth, or they might concentrate on profits without paying enough attention to socially-responsible practices.

Finding a balance when going green is key. You may start out with an improved product and market it as green, or you can change the way you do business by focusing on sustainable operations without necessarily needing to market the end-product as “green.”

No matter which method you choose, successfully greening your business will always benefit both your bottom line and the environment.

You’ll find that these three benefits most commonly improve your profitability:

1. Increased market share. There is a rapidly growing demand for green products, as well as a demand for environmentally-conscious companies, even if their products aren’t marketed as green. An authentic green business will attract eco-conscious consumers to your brand and give you a better percentage of this expansive market.

2. Reduced operating costs. By examining your manufacturing process, supply chains, or even daily office routines, you will find ways to cut unnecessary waste to make your business more efficient. Trimming this unnecessary excess is like removing money-sucking leeches that you never even realized were affecting your profit margins! Find ways to eliminate waste, and watch small amounts of saved cash accumulate into big savings.

3. Intangible benefits. Increased market share and extended profit margins are easy to see, but greening your business can also provide less tangible benefits that are equally important for a healthy and profitable company. Increased employee participation, improved morale, and a strong company image within the community are some examples of less obvious benefits.

Greening your business should always come from a place of authenticity. Saving and making more money is a great reason to institute eco-friendly practices, but marketing your business as green without making any genuine back-end changes is a recipe for failure. Not only is this extremely unethical, but it will have disastrous effects for your company image (read: profits), when consumers discover you’ve been duping them (and they will).

Every once and awhile, I come across a special principle — one of those golden, shimmering standards that seems to be true no matter what corner of reality you apply it to. There aren’t many, but one of the most important ones, especially when it comes to green marketing, is authenticity.

Authenticity may mean many things to many different people depending upon what angle you view it from. Here’s my angle:

au·then·tic: true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character.

As consumer response to marketing and advertisements matures and evolves, the demand for sincerity of intention has become one of the minimum prerequisites for doing business — and rightfully so. This isn’t simply an educated guess or a logical assumption. It’s the truth, and the growing significance of user-driven watchdog organizations such as The Greenwashing Index and CorpWatch provide some hard evidence. These groups are dedicated to holding businesses accountable for the green claims they make. They are validators of authenticity.

What happens when you betray the trust of the people you rely on to keep you in business? Let’s ask Goodyear. When the well-known tire company released their Eagle LS2000 tire alongside lofty eco-friendly claims, it’s clear that someone in the marketing department wasn’t thinking very far in advance. Claims that the tire had a “minimum environmental impact,” and that it was manufactured using a special process that reduced carbon dioxide emissions turned out to be completely baseless. But the marketers at Goodyear didn’t stop there. On top of their hefty pile of lies, they decided they might as well throw in the arbitrary claim that special technology also increased the lifespan of the tire and improved fuel economy! All lies.

Now Goodyear finds itself in a difficult position. First of all, they must compensate the victims of their twisted claims with partial refunds (which should be complete refunds, if you ask me). But a much larger problem looms for the tire giant.

It’s becoming clear that sustainability is the future of industry. Adapt or risk being phased out entirely. Intelligent companies have the vision and the foresight to realize that without compliance, they will either have no reason to market anything (because of the permanent implications of climate change or other environmental crises), or they won’t be able to keep up with more profitable, sustainable competition.

Now what will happen the next time Goodyear tries to make a claim about the environmentally-friendly aspects of its new products? Aside from being investigated at the end of every sentence, I’d venture a guess and say those who truly value authenticity will simply take their business elsewhere. The tire industry certainly isn’t immune to the potential for innovation. Goodyear must now defend its position against companies that are willing to remain true to their claims. And Goodyear has nobody to blame but themselves.

If you think an image overhaul is all you need to connect with a green audience, you’re going to end up doing more harm than good to your company. Be authentic about your intentions, or don’t speak about them at all. In an economic world of increased accountability and transparency, authenticity will always remain king.