The economy continues to battle through troubled times. Unemployment is near an all time high, wages are down, uninsured numbers are on the rise, housing prices continue to fall, and trillions of dollars in wealth has evaporated. On top of this, we in California are facing one of the worst droughts we’ve seen in years. The only bright stop is the recent rise in the stock market.
During these times, I’ve heard people are trading in being green for some extra green. When it comes to putting food on the table or keeping a roof over your head vs. buying products that have are green (and more expensive), it’s tough to argue which one wins.
However, keep in mind that being green often means living a smarter and more frugal lifestyle. For example, turn off lights and appliances when you’re not using them. Take shorter showers. Use cloth towels instead of paper towels. Combine trips when you need to go out and run errands. Bring a reusable shopping bag to the market - it doesn’t cost you a thing, and you may even get a little green back from the store. In fact, doing many of the things we’ve been discussing in ThingsThatMakeYouGoGreen will help you save green.
If you have ideas and tips on green things that save green, let us know. I can be reached at greenhl [at] ttmygg [dot] com. I would personally love to hear your ideas!
I just came across an interesting study performed by AMP Agency, which found that green behavior and perspectives are less of a fad and more of a general movement. Of the 3,200 people surveyed, 19 percent of respondents were defined as influential or “Green Evangelists”. This means after these people learn a particular company or product is eco-friendly, they are very likely to recommend the company or product to colleagues, family, and friends. According to AMP Agency’s survey, these influential people tend to be in the 18 – 30 year old range, without 57 percent being female.
What is fascinating about this study is that industry standards usually find that 10 percent of a sample is considered influential. This particular study found nearly double that for the eco-friendly movement, indicating an extremely strong market penetration.
For a company, getting such “Green Evangelists” on their side is not only important, but it can offer huge returns to their bottom lines. As one can imagine, this particular group of people, especially those in the 18 – 30 year old range, can have strong influence in online social networks, offline social networks, and also amongst peers. In addition, if a company is able to capture such a demographic, the company can potentially have a customer for life! How’s that for a return on your green investment?
Of course, the flipside is that if these “Green Evangelists” find our your company and / or products are simply full of hot air, their influential effects can be just as devastating. It’s time to go green so you can add some green to your bottom line.
Raise your hands if you own one of those nice flat-screen TVs? My hand is up. I replaced my old tube television about six month’s ago, and opted for a large, flat-screen LCD. It turns out these TVs are really bad for the environment in a couple ways.
First, these TVs contain nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), the same environmentally harmful gas found in the new 3G iPhone. This gas is estimated to be 17,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and there will be about 4,000 tons of it will be produced per year.
In addition, large, flat-screen TVs use much more energy than traditional tube television sets. I was a bit suspicious when I felt the huge amount of heat my LCD TV emitted when compared with my old TV set. Next time you think about getting a new TV, you may want to think twice. I was going to replace another old TV of mine, but now I think I’ll hold off on doing so.
Not to be outdone by Toyota’s announcement of the plug-in hybrid Prius and Toyota’s Lexus hybrid and the small Toyota iQ, Honda has recently announced a new hybrid. Unlike the Civic hybrid, Honda’s new hybrid will be designed as a hybrid from the ground up. The recently captured spy pictures above show exactly what Honda is going after – Toyota’s popular Prius hybrid.
Honda’s new hybrid appears to be based off the FCX Clarity fuel-cell concept car. Rumors say this new hybrid will replace the Insight, while others claim this will be the new Civic hybrid. Honda is targeting this new hybrid as an entry-level car. Estimates are that Honda will produce 200,000 each year, with half of those sold in the U.S. Some say the price may be as low as $19,000 – no matter what the price is, look for it to be competitive and lower-priced than the Prius. The car will be a five-seater, 4 door hatchback, also similar to the Prius. This new model is not expected to use lithium ion batteries, and gas mileage is expected to be well above 40 mpg. Rumors have the car arriving in the U.S. late 2009. I’m crossing my fingers for it to come even sooner!
I won’t write about the vices of smoking (we all know what they are) or the fact that the amount of money people spend smoking could end poverty (I’m exaggerating). I wrote a couple months ago how bad smoking is for the environment. Smoking isn’t just bad when people light up, but rather, it’s environmentally detrimental throughout the entire production supply chain.
In what was an extremely controversial move, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a law last week banning the sale of tobacco products in most pharmacies within city limits. San Francisco, the first city in the U.S. to pass such a ban, hopes this will spur other cities to action. Marin County has already taken notice and is thinking about a similar ban.
San Francisco spokespeople mentioned the law was to promote the idea of health in a pharmacy. They mentioned pharmacies should be places where people go to get healthy. Rite Aid and Walgreens spokespeople expressed concern about limiting customer choice in their stores, and noted people buying cigarettes in their stores could use also pharmacists as a resource to stop smoking. They also mentioned the law lacked basic fairness.
As much as I dislike smoking and as bad as smoking is for the environment, I’m a little torn. I would love for everyone to stop smoking, but I’m not sure bans like this are productive or fair, especially when they seem to single out certain types of retailers. What stops San Francisco from banning potato chips and other products?
