Celebrate Earth Day by watching The Story of Stuff

It's Earth Day and to celebrate I'd like to share a link to a noteworthy video, The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard. It explores the linear system of the materials economy and its impact on humanity. The message is important and the production is incredible. It features Annie Leonard narrating the story amongst a background of ever changing hand drawn animations.

I'm intrigued by the video on two levels. The message resonates with my desire to not only do my part to reduce my footprint, but also to find more meaningful ways to get involved with environmental initiatives. And, from a marketing perspective the message is creatively delivered, it's engaging and it's fun to watch. There's information to challenge us as marketers to identify new consumer needs/wants and to more thoughtfully produce products to meet those needs.

I hope you'll give it a watch. If not for the message then for the inspiration in creating your own presentations and videos.

image credit: The Story of Stuff website

Commentary on the green game

I’m a big proponent of being green. When I’m not utilizing public transportation I drive a hybrid, I try diligently to bring along canvas bags whenever I’m out shopping and I’ve stopped buying bottled water for my home and office (instead I drink tap). In short, I’m making behavior modifications – and I don’t pretend there isn’t more I could be doing. But one thing I will not do is buy my way into responsibility via purchasing carbon offsets. IMHO carbon offsets are the lazy person’s road to good consciousness. And it seems like they’re becoming corporate America’s answer to environmental friendliness. It’s great that so many organizations are trying to reduce their carbon footprints and invest in sustainability (or whatever other buzz phrases they’re using today). Even tradeshows are getting into the action. The Consumer Electronics Show which purportedly created some 20,000 tons of carbon was planning on using carbon offsets to make good on the pollution it was causing. Carbon offsets represent big money. According to a recent New York Times article the US spent more than $54 million in 2007 purchasing offsets. While it can be argued that purchasing carbon offsets is better than doing nothing I’m not sure that we should be praising corporations for taking the lazy way out. Wouldn’t it be more constructive to reduce the behavior creating the carbon? One blog (I would love to give credit but I can’t remember which blog I read it on, sorry…) recently suggested not participating in trade shows, instead communicate your lack of a presence. It’s a strategy that would probably gain more exposure for a fraction of the cost of participating. Or invest in new technology to solve old problems. Stock your store with Badgerland Poly’s biodegradable plastic bags (though Whole Food’s ban on plastic bags is a better approach). The point is, don’t rely on carbon offsets as your participation in the “green” arena. Make the conversation honest and your buyers are more likely to respond. For some inspiration on what your company can do read Marketing Green’s Corporations Foster Dialogue on the Environment post for some good examples of companies speaking honestly about their investment in being green.

10 Simple Ways to Make an Environmental Impact

I was inspired to write a Top 10 list after reading The Bad Pitch Blog’s Media Relations’ Everlasting Gobstopper post. My Top 10 subject was born out of inspiration found earlier in the week via Stan Rapp’s post on Jaffe Juice and further inspiration came from my looking forward to attending The Green Goat’s holiday party tonight. With that, I introduce my Top 10 Simple Ways to Make an Environmental Impact:

1. Carry your groceries in stylish canvas instead of plastic.
2. Clean the green way.
3. Say no to bottled water – if that’s too much opt for an eco-friendly bottle.
4. Support your local farmers.
5. Support businesses that invest in eco-friendly business practices.
6. Take public transportation, just make sure to carry a bottle of hand sanitizer.
7. Stop the junk mail madness.
8. When you print, print on both sides of the paper. If you work for a company that has their printers set to single sided printing (and the company will not switch to double sided), bring home the paper you would normally throw in the recycle bin and use the clean side in your home printer.
9. Plant a tree, or donate to an organization that will plant one for you.
10. Stop using disposable cups, plates and flatware. If you own your own company give your employees a company mug instead of supplying them with an endless supply of disposable cups.

Also of note, as I was putting together this post I came across an article in the Austin Business Journal announcing that Whole Foods will be banning plastic bags from their stores by early 2008. Kudos to Whole Foods for doing their part.