Roll up your sleeves and bite into the green business revolution at this hands-on conference.  Co-op America is hosting its annual Green Business Conference in San Francisco, November 12-13, at the Hotel Whitcomb in San Francisco.

Irv and I will be featured speakers on November 12 presenting “The Ten Commandments of Green Marketing.”  Other Speakers include Roxanne Quimby, founder of Burt’s Bees, Seth Goldman of Honest Tea, Tom Szaky, founder of TerraCycle, Miranda Magagnini, co-founder of IceStone, Sharon Rowe of Eco-Bags Products, and dozens more socially responsible business pioneers and marketing experts. Workshops cover everything from responsible sourcing of raw goods to cutting edge marketing strategies.

You will:

•  Learn cutting edge marketing strategies to stand out in a field of green
•  Get the coaching to succeed in this growing marketplace
•  Grow your green business with innovative financial models
•  Find out how becoming climate neutral is good for your community, your customers, and your business
•  Network with green businesses like yours
•  Get inspired by innovative business leaders
•  Discover the powerful business case for going green
•  Hold up a beacon of authenticity in the age of greenwashing

Perfect Balance of Work and Play

• After a full day, relax and enjoy the company of your peers with great entertainment and fine organic cuisine

Seventh Generation CEO, Jeffrey Hollander, says, “When it comes to green business, this conference is as good as it gets… the best collection of green business leaders you’ll meet anywhere.”

What others are saying:

“This conference is the leading forum for honing our business skills and inspiring each other to ever-greater success.” — Jan Bruce, Publisher, Body + Soul Magazine

“Green Business Conference is a forum to explore and launch sustainable livelihoods for all, where businesses embrace green collar careers and create pathways out of poverty.” - Van Jones, President/Founder, Green for All

“I can’t tell you how inspiring the last three days have been.” — Phil Baum, Green Exchange and Baum Realty

“Thank you, thank you to everyone for such an excellent, well-planned wonderful green conference. I was really impressed with the speakers and workshops. I’ve heard nothing but great comments from everyone at Clif Bar who attended.” — Elysa Hammond, Ecologist, Clif Bar, Inc.

This conference won’t break your budget

Registration includes all keynote speakers, workshop sessions, entertainment, and organic meals for the entire conference.  To register now for the low price of $450 (a $200 discount) and learn more, visit: http://www.coopamerica.biz/ | 202-872-5330

Right after the conference, stick around for the largest green festival in the country, held just one mile away, Nov. 14-16, at the San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center. http://www.coopamerica.biz/ | http://www.greenfestivals.org/ .

– Carolyn

Transparency is everything.   It’s seeing through what you say to what you do.  It’s having business practices you want, and don’t want the world to see.  

The mission statement of Patagonia, the California-based outdoor equipment and clothing maker, is:”To make the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”  One of the ways Patagonia puts its mission where its mouth is is by implementing a self-imposed “Earth Tax.”  A sum founder, Yvon Chouinard, feels is owed for being a polluter and user of the planet’s non-renewable resources.     

More recently, they created the Patagonia Footprint Chronicles:  An interactive mini-site that allows you to track the impact of five Patagonia products from design through delivery.  It’s part of a new enviro-section called “Leading the Examined Life.” 

That’s transparency in action.

On the other side of the fence - when Ford launched its “Kermit the Frog” advertising campaign a couple of years ago for their Ford Escape Hybrid, they tried to convince the public of their commitment to the environment. One print ad read, “Green vehicles.  Cleaner factories. It’s the right road for our company, and we’re well underway.” 

Meanwhile back at the plant, Ford only planned on producing 20,000 of its Hybrid SUV’s per year, while continuing to produce almost 80,000 of their gas guzzling F-series trucks per month.  Well, the campaign backfired in their face, and the term “Greenwashing” became synonymous with their name.   

Greenwashing is a term describing misleading instances of environmental advertising.  But as more and more corporations are stretching their eco-efforts, the term is expanding to include a wider range of corporate activities, like environmental reporting, distribution of education materials, event sponsorship and more.

Green talk has to exist side-by-side with green walk.  You have to be willing to let the green consumer know not only what goes into the products you make but what goes into the values you uphold.   How you treat your employees, the health of your plant and business offices.  Do you provide fair wages?  Do you employ subcontractors who use child labor or toxic working conditions? 

Green is more than a slogan.  It’s actions that speak louder than words.      

There’s one thing you need to know about the green consumer.  They want to know.

According to the Roper Green Gauge, over 50% reported they would do more if they only knew what and how.  So moving your communications to educate and inform can do a lot to grow your green business.  

While representing an eco-friendly paint company, we raised the issues of indoor air pollution which is caused in part by the out-gassing of toxins in conventional paints, stains and cleaning products.   We built into their quarterly consumer catalog an educational component called “Did You Know?”   Sprinkled throughout the pages were various statistics that enlightened consumers.

For instance, using EPA statistics, we informed them that “indoor air pollution is two to twenty times worse than outdoor air pollution even in a heavily industrialized city.”    A few pages later, a statistic from Scientific American stated, “A baby crawling on a conventional carpet inhales the equivalent of four cigarettes a day.” 

These eye-opening facts broadened their audience considerably, bringing many mainstream people into their consumer base who now understood the close-to-home benefits of their products.  Then we launched the branding line for their non-toxic paints, “Beauty without the Beast.”   We struck the balance between the reasons people buy their products:  To beautify their homes AND avoid unnecessary toxins - the real reason for that “just painted smell.” 

Most of us trust the marketplace to bring us products that are safe, useful and effective.   Consumers have not trained themselves nor felt the need to examine everything that’s out there before they purchase.   But that’s beginning to change.  

The thousands of recalls of everything from children’s toys to chopped meat are beginning to wake up and energize a more informed consumer.   They’re demanding to know more before they buy and that has profound implications for marketers.  

You  can build a viable base by telling an educational story.   By informing how your product or service does the job well and helps the environment at the same time.   That way the message is not just about saving the planet out there but improving their life right here.  

No one, whether they’re an environmentally-conscious consumer or not, wants to bring unnecessary toxins into their homes, or buy unsafe toys, or use potentially harmful products.  They just didn’t  know they were.  

When you educate, you marry emotion to intellect, the heart to the head, the planet to the person.  The more you educate your customer, the more you build trust.  The more you build trust, the more likely you are to win their business.