Brett Macfarlane

Almost Green, a Book and a Crusade

There is no shortage of writing on the subject of green these days.  Though coverage generally falls under militant, cynical or fluffy.  None of it particularly applicable to the life of a normal human being with a day job, bills to pay and families or friends to attend to.  So it was a real breath of fresh air reading Almost Green by journalist/author James Glave.

Glave lives on Bowen Island and is slated to speak at Interesting Vancouver.  In advance of the event he kindly sent a copy of his book which arrived just in time for three days holed up in our cabin on a Labour Day long weekend of uninspiring weather.

In a nutshell, Almost Green is a a practical guide to the trials, tribulations, and satisfactions of making one's life a little more green as told through Glave's experience building a writers studio appropriately names the Eco Shed.  It's a well written, revealing and personal tale of all the little things, equations, and choices it takes to live a life slightly less demanding on the planet we call home.  At a time when skepticism and general fatigue is starting to kick in around the green space Almost Green is a refreshing post-modern-green tale that brings the issue home, literally.

Carbon Shame

An emerging annual rite on the blogosphere is the past year self carbon shame.  Using Great Circle Mapper I came in at 49,248. 

Time to buck up for a Terra Pass.

Here and here are some other carbon shame audits.

buy one get one tree

This is a smart promo.  At a time where 10% off is nearly meaningless and the Wal Marts of the world have crushed prices beyond the point of diminishing marginal returns I believe the next era of sales promotions will be one of adding value to the purchase, rather than discounting price.

More importantly this is the holy grail of driving sales while building the brand.  Traditionally, there has been a tenuous balance between driving sales without eroding the perception of value.  If you cut prices or offer regular discounts people perceive the brand/good as lesser value ultimately becoming less willing to pay full price, or worse yet put off purchases until sales or a competitor drops their price.

What is also important to note is that this specific promo wouldn't work for most brands.   Innocent can for a few reasons.

1. Credible - innocent has demonstrated their role as good corporate citizens.
2. Inelastic product - it would be safe to generalize that Innocent smoothies are a somewhat inelastic product.  Purchase decision is driven my more factors than price, such as health, badge value, likability and of course taste.  Therefore cutting prices probably won't attract new customers and isn't going to lead a regular drinker to buy more.
3. Timely but not shallow - Obviously green this and that is at the tip of everyone's tongues.  The oil companies for a long time have been talking about it, but Innocent in a very simple and easy to understand way is doing something about it.  Nothing more, nothing less.

But other brands can just as easily look to driving sales while building the brand.  The BK Xbox games are a great example.  And again relevant to who they are and what the brand stands for.  Buy a Whopper and get a tree... that would not be such a good idea.  Wouldn't come across as sincere.

If Innocent deems it a success it will be interesting to see whether the campaign incarnates itself in different forms.  Next summer maybe it's buy a carton get a ball.  A Right to Play kind of thing.  Or some other promotions+ rather than price subtraction.

iBill

It's tragic that something so sleek as the iPhone, comes with something so clunky as this monthly AT&T invoice.

Greeni$m

A cool thing about the modern green movement is that it is focused around real change.  Not just greenwashing. And whether it is as simple as you turning off a light in an empty room or an empowering as developing your own marketable green business models, there are so many actual and tangible ways for people to participate.  The PICNIC green challenge is just the latest.

If there is one area that is going to fully see the fruits of all those new fangled things and mentalities folks are banging on about these days (you know like the wisdom of crowds, always in beta, consumer participation in brands, etc..) my money is that is will come to fruition in the greenspace.  Change is in the DNA.  Most big companies can adopt components of these new thought models and approaches, but it's just not in their DNA to act and live them.  Profitability through generosity just isn't in the business model.

This isn't a critique of them, the big companies are very good at what they do and are big because of the systems and mentalities they have developed over the past 50+ years.  And they will generally continue to be big and good at what they do.  Just the pie continues to get bigger as new business models become viable and are added to the mix.  This article in Fortune on the newspaper business notes how many times they have been "dead" over the past century. Newspapers will likely continue in a very similar for for decades to come, though they may not have the influence they once did.  But their core product wasn't selling dried wood pulp, but "news" which is something that can be delivered through many mediums.  They just haven't figured out a model as successful as printed newspapers.

So, maybe there will be a green news company with a model we've yet to see.  One who's only pressure on the environment is sending reporters to cover events and the electricity you electronic viewing device consumes.  Far less demanding than the thousands of trees your daily paper requires.

That's just one example.  Given the fact greenism touches every industry, I can't wait to see the new ideas and models that arise.