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Earth Day and The Business of Green

Guest post by: Richard Matthews

Article Overview: Earth Day started as a grassroots movement, now environmental advocacy organizations are being sponsored by corporations and this is helping to change social behavior. Smart businesses are responding to consumers asserting their right to greener products and demanding more sustainable business practices.

Earth Day and The Business of Green

The first Earth Day was in 1970, it was a grass roots movement by people seeking to protect our environment. Now many leading environmental advocacy organizations accept sponsorships from corporations and these partnerships are helping to change social behavior. On Earth Day, businesses large and small play varying roles supporting the transition to more sustainable commerce.

Many companies are using Earth Day day as a premier marketing platform for selling a variety of goods and services. Businesses are using Earth day as an opportunity to inform their customers about their environmentally friendly initiatives but the business community is also increasingly leading the way in environmental innovation.

The Earth Day Network and Proctor & Gamble are collaborating on social networks. With the launch of the Billion Acts of Green^TM Facebook and iPhone applications, friends, family and followers are being asked to issue pledges of at least one "act of green" and share it with their Facebook network.

Greenpeace is working with technology giants like Cisco and Google to disseminate information on technologies like videoconferencing and "cloud" computing that can reduce a company's carbon footprint.

With the help of PepsiCo. NYC is reducing its impact on the environment in partnership with Keep America Beautiful, a nonprofit organization, that is introducing "dream machines," recycling kiosks. These machines are meant to increase the recycling rates for beverage containers, which is estimated at only about 36 percent nationwide.

Other smaller enterprises are also taking part. Fore example, across the US gardening businesses went into schools to encourage children to grow vegetables or plants as part of the Earth Day celebrations.

Most businesses arekeeping an eye onthe demand for environmental offerings. Smart businesses are responding to those seeking greener poducts and more sustainable practices.

Although we still have a far way to go, increasingly consumers and business are being drawn together by the kind of free market capitalism that will build a more sustainable world.

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Article Tags: 2010, Business, capitalism, Cisco, consumer demand, Dream Machines, Earth Day, Facebook, free market, Google, Greenpeace, iPhone, Marketing, Pepsi, Proctor and Gamble, sustainable



Related Forum Posts
Re: Are you a Blue, Red, or Green? - Hum... a lot of reds responding... Business owners must be a very aggressive community. Now, I was surprised when I took the course personally to find out I was a Green, secondary Blue. Of course, not believing this, the first thing I did was turn to those around me to get their opinions on my colours (typical Green!). The only thing I can really say about STRUCTOGRAM is that it was fun to explore the depths of my social and physiological make-up... I did this a over a year ago now and still use it in my daily interactions (always be on your toes with Reds).
Re: 10 ideas to make you money in 2010 - I think Education would be hard to break into. Baby Boomers, Life Support and Trading Down, however, seem like good markets. As for Green technology goes, I don't think the business has to be entirely based on Green ideologies, but rather a business that embrace Green philosophies and use that as a marketing tool.
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: Are you having plans for Earth Day? - Hi Anelly Can't say that I have thought of doing any special for Earth Day but I do try to do something each and every day that will help to save the planet, even if it is only something small like using less plastic bags and saving paper for recycling etc. MichelleJ
Are you having plans for Earth Day? - This year we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. Have you thought to a plan on how could you and your company contribute to saving the planet? Have you any ideas on how your business can "go green"?


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