Go Green and Get Green

Businesses everywhere are getting the hint from consumers, “go green and we’ll come back for more.” Just type into Google “Green Certification” and you will see a barrage of low cost certification options for business owners looking to improve their image. It seems everywhere we look these days businesses are marketing their products and their company’s overall green karma to the consumer. Logos and certifications, whether made up or official, about how green your business is are fast becoming essential to competing in the new marketplace of eco-conscious companies.

The really sad thing about certifications is that they often are not really a testament to how well the company performs business. It is often a testament to the cleverness of their marketing group instead. Plaques and certifications are available to anyone who decides to change out their office light-bulbs, but unfortunately this does a disservice to the green consumer who thinks much more would have had to have been done to get a certification. Granted that changing light bulbs is definitely a way to change a business, but sadly, this should not be enough to earn a business the right to call themselves “green”.

The eco-conscious consumer knows that there are many factors to making a business green and not just one thing that does the trick. Factors include such things as…

• Energy efficiency – Does the business use the latest energy saving concepts like changing out their old inefficient lightbulbs?

• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – Does the company encourage its employees to make less trash and recycle?

The best judge of how green a business is will not be determined by a certifying body or a self-endorsed seal. It’s becoming more and more important for the consumer to do some of their own research and read up about a company before doing business,