Marketing Your Morality
Business Sustainability and the Green Revolution
By Budda Oliver
Increasingly, a business' success is determined not only by the products it creates and the efficiency of its productive apparatus, but by the symbols it can attach itself to and the community in which it is a part. Principal in this new wave of business marketing is the emergence of 'Green Politics' and the environmental revolution. The 'Green Revolution' started in the 1960s alongside the sexual revolution and the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement with the publication of Rachel Caron's Silent Spring, a book which would eventually become required reading for any environmentalist. Since then, the 'Green Revolution' has splintered and has turned into several unique and often competing factions. There are of course, still the extremists who tie themselves to redwood trees to prevent the destruction of a forest, but in recent years, a moderate line of environmentalist thought has come to prominence among Hollywood stars and media elites and has seeped into the playbook of modern entrepreneurs. To say it simply: Green sells. The sooner that a business is able to get in on this revolution the quicker they will see returns on profits and growth in general. Additionally, 'Going Green' has the added benefit of being metaphorical glue among workers and is an excellent way to improve employee morale.
Only a few years ago the publication "Entertainment Weekly" began its annual 'Green Issue', featuring the likes of Leonardo Di Caprio and other famous Hollywood movie stars telling their stories of environmental consciousness and sharing their own personal tricks and tips to conserve energy and improve the environment. One need not cite such marketing staples as brand awareness, sexuality, and action to point out that what sells in Hollywood sells in the business world at large as well, and perhaps for this reason alone it is worth taking note of the steam that the Green Revolution has been building. The secret to going Green as a company is to know how to correctly sell your morality. It is not cynical to say that a business is in the business of making money, and that from this standpoint, any amount of environmental ethics is meaningless if it is not recognized and appreciated by the consuming public. This is to say, a building with energy efficient air-conditioning and a firm that cuts down on the amount of paper that it consumes will not see returns in their profits if they cannot properly inform the public of their environmentally conscious ways. One should seek to combine both the cold, profitability of a greening business with the imminently marketable fact that a energy efficient venture, known to the public, is a 'good' business.
Furthermore, an energy efficient company boosts employee morale and contributes to a sense of oneness with the community. More than their parents, this generation of workers is concerned with so-called 'extra-economical' issues such as environmental morality and human rights issues. Take full advantage of the opportunity to unify your employees and provide a spark of life into the work place by taking the time to fully inform your employees about the reasons and methods that your company will undertake to become more environmentally sustainable.
While there are certainly a wealth of reasons to 'Go-Green' for profitability's sake, the true and underlying impetus for a sustainable venture is found in the spiritual uplift that it will have on the community and in the world at large. By itself, a business may not be able to change the face of environmental destruction, but it can certainly make a start.
