I was reading a great article by Thomas Friedman, columnist for The New York Times, yesterday. Here is a link to the article that is publicly accessible through the International Herald Tribune.
The point of the article is that people want to "Go Green", but without pain or sacrifice. I think Friedman has a great point.
Right now, awareness has been raised for global warming, a.k.a. global climate change. However, awareness isn’t enough. Awareness won’t solve the problem; action is what is needed. Not just from citizens, but from governments and corporations.
The question for marketers is how can they position their companies as being eco-friendly even if senior management doesn’t see direct benefit from doing so. Or, if the company doesn’t have a plan to convert their efforts in sales and profits, how can this idea still be realized?
I did some brainstorming and came up with a few easy things any office can implement today. These items can save companies money and create a connection with environmentally conscious consumers. The monetary and environmental benefits are listed in parentheses after each item.
- Install compact flourescent light bulbs in every fixture possible. ($20 per light bulb per year. 100 lbs. of carbon dioxide per year).
- Buy post-consumer recycled paper. ($0.80 per ream. 5 lbs. of carbon dioxide per ream).
- "Carpool to Work Day" once a month. (400 pounds of Carbon Dioxide per year per pair of employees…$ depends on the car model).
The statistics provided above are from StopGlobalWarming.org.
* An interesting thing to note is that Simple, an eco-friendly shoe, sandal and bag manufacturer, produces a sandal called the Toepeeka. For each pair of these sandals sold, Simple donates $5.00 to StopGlobalWarming.org.
The above items require, as Freidman would put it, no pain or sacrifice.
