Teach don’t preach.

Scientific American magazine reported that a baby crawling on conventional carpet inhales the equivalent of four cigarettes a day.   When helping a natural floor covering company, we didn’t have to say much more than that to stop people in their tracks — especially mothers thinking of decorating their baby’s room.  

On our eco-podcast, America the Green, we started each show with an Eco Wake-up call such as, “If we recycled all of the newspapers printed in the U.S. on a typical Sunday, we would save 550,000 trees or about 26 million trees per year.  (Source:  California Department of Conversation).

What can you teach your potential customers about your green product or service that has stopping power?   One that lays out a solid “because” that’s not necessarily attached to a cause?   Hint:  Tell them something they don’t know.

For an organic winery, we helped spread the message about the heavy pesticide load of grapes found in conventional wines.  Here was their wake-up call, “The EPA considers that 60 percent of all herbicides, 90 percent of all fungicides and 30 percent of all insecticides are carcinogenic.   In California, where 90 percent of domestic wines are produced, grapes receive more pesticides than any other crop.” (Source:  Californians for Pesticide Reform). 

A green building store in Florida created shelf talkers, little signs strategically placed on the shelf underneath their products.  These signs conveyed the benefits and “green facts” of their environmental products versus the conventional choice.   This was her version of an Eco Wake-up call.

Tell your potential customers something they don’t know and tell it in a simple, effective way, backed up by reputable sources, and you’ve come a long way in making your green message reach not just preach. 

What’s worked for you?  We’d like to know.   Send us your views, stories or wins. 

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