Green

There’s all this “green” talk. But there has been no clarification or standardization of the term. The talk twitters across geopolitical borders, with even China trying to make the Green Leap Forward, a feat infinitely more difficult than it sounds. Many multi-national corporations across the globe have actually been busted for "greenwashing" - saying their products are green when they are not.

Everybody wants to be green but nobody seems to agree on exactly what that means. However, most in the business sector agree that there is such as thing as a “green strategy” for a business. Joel Makower, an author who stops at calling himself the authority on the science of carbon footprints, wrote a book called, Strategies for a Green Economy. He strongly advises all businesses to formulate and implement a green strategy into their best practices.

But first, what is “green”? What does that really mean? And then, why should a small business care about having a green strategy? If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that green is a “mash up” of climate change, global warming, renewable energy, pollution, toxic chemicals, food, the environment, the earth, toys, safe products, air, water, biodegradable recyclable ingredients, plastics, carbon foot prints, deodorant and everything to do with life, business, culture, and prosperity… Yes, I know. That was a lame answer.

The truth is, I don’t exactly know what the term “green” means. But I do know that all the experts like Markower seems to agree that a green business, including a green small business, is a less wasteful and polluting entity that, based on their business practices, “can reduce costs, risks, and liabilities by cleaning up their act” and as a result of these business practices, routinely experiences higher profits and enjoys an enhanced reputation, and higher customer satisfaction.

Even car makers are on the green planet. Honda and Toyota are competing to see who can make the most eco-friendly cars in the marketplace – cars that are smaller in size, guzzle less gas and curtails emissions. Homemakers are constantly on the look out for safer products to use in their homes, safer toys for their children, safer food to feed to their families.

So it is not just about cutting costs, but greening up opens up new highways for small businesses to travel as they search for innovative ideas to not only curb the harm that has already been done to the environment, but to create products and services that could possibly turn back time. Within this challenge, obviously, is the opportunity for heightened profitability with these economies of scale from cars, to bespoke, to eco friendly building materials, to light bulbs, to literally the engineering of devices that can stop the caps from melting, to non-toxic toys for our babies.

The Federal Trade Commission is very much aware and awake and involved with the green movement. As a small business owner, you better believe that the Federal Government will eventually standardize the term and lay out the ground rules for how businesses must conduct themselves in a new green world and economy.

Until then, a small business owner should understand fundamentally that his/her ability to sustain innovation as far as the quality and distribution of products and services that are perceived by consumers as sufficiently “green,” will, in the long run, determine the sustainability of that business.

But companies need to be careful as consumers are very savvy and are fully aware that they have often been duped by various industries such as the food industry and others who claim to be selling green products when in fact they are guilty of “greenwashing” – pretending that products are greener than they really are.

In the final analysis, whatever green is, be assured that this trend is not going away anytime soon, the federal government will eventually standardize the term, and force all businesses to comply to these standards. So make this eventuality a part of your planning from the start.