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The Complete Road Map to Launching a Green Brand Online

lorna li — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 05:30:03 +0000

Never has there been a better time to launch a green business. With more and more people becoming aware of climate change, consumers are increasingly seeking out more environmentally sustainable products. If your products or services have been designed to be low impact or environmentally sustainable, it’s important to communicate these benefits to your target audience. Establishing a memorable green brand will help you stand out in the crowd. Here is a road map to help you with your green branding process from concept to finished website.

Keyword research. A really good starting for the branding process is doing some keyword research using a free tool like Keyword Discovery or the Google Adwords Keyword Research tool. This will help you understand what your customers are looking for when they are researching your product in search engines. It will also help you understand how many searches a month are performed for your products or services, which will help inform your branding and messaging.
Brand name and tag line. Brainstorming a name for your company or product is fun and creative, but one fatal mistake that many business entrepreneurs make is the failure to include a search keyword in their brand name. For example, if you are an organic chocolate company, consider including “organic chocolates” in your brand name or tag line. This way your customer will make the association between your unique brand name and the product you sell. Bear in mind that once you’ve established your brand, its a pain to turn back re-brand, so be sure to do your keyword research in the beginning.
Domain name. At times it’s not possible to include your search keyword in your brand name or tag line. Maybe it’s too awkward or long. If so, that’s OK, but definitely do your best to make sure that your keyword is in your domain name. Having your keyword in your domain name will help with search engine optimization (SEO), as it indicates to search engine spiders that your website is about that keyword.
Messaging. You will need a mission statement and a clear laundry list of what makes your product, service, and or company more green. What makes you unique? What products do you offer? What makes them better? Why buy from you rather than from the generic product manufacturer. Once you’ve fine tuned your messaging, be able to distill the essence of your company’s unique value proposition into a 30 second elevator pitch
Website architecture. Now that you’ve got your company & product messaging nailed down, you will now need to think about how this will map out onto a website. Of course you will need your utility pages, like the About page, Contact us page. Most importantly, you will need to think about how to organize your product pages and what keywords you need to optimize those pages for. For example:

www.greenyogacompany.com
www.greenyogacompany.com/yoga-mats/
www.greenyogacompany.com/yoga-mats/brand1
www.greenyogacompany.com/yoga-mats/brand2

The more organized your product pages are in terms of semantic themes and hierarchy, the better this will be for SEO. Try mapping out your web pages in Excel.

Web platform. As a small business entrepreneur, you are busy growing your business. The last thing you want is to get bogged down by the minutiae of website maintenance, or have to pay someone each time you want to update your site. Therefore it’s critical you choose a platform that is the least amount of work to manage and maintain, such as a content management system that allows you to edit your content in an easy to use interface, rather than in html. You can easily set up a free website on a number of platforms like Blogger, Weebly, and Wordpress.com. However, for more control and flexibility in appearance and functionality, getting a self-hosted Wordpress.org site is great option.

Many inexpensive web hosts do one click installs of WordPress software onto your server. From there, you can install a myriad of beautiful, free, WordPress themes. You can select a website theme, or a blog theme, or a theme that incorporates both. For example, the free Green Stimulus theme for green business enables you to select whether you want a website option, a website plus blog, and it will even allow you to publish your blog posts to the home page. Watch this video demo of a San Francisco multimedia agency installing Green Stimulus.

While most people know WordPress as a blogging platform, it can be used just as easily to power your small business website. All this involves is choosing the right WordPress theme for your business.

Website copy. Now that you’ve selected a web platform and your website architecture has been established, you are going to need SEO-friendly copy written for the pages. Use excel to map out your page urls and target keywords. Then, write the copy yourself or if you are too busy, as most entrepreneurs are, outsource the web copywriting through oDesk, Elance, or Textbroker. Another good reason to choose WordPress is that many writers and bloggers already know how to use it, so you can hire someone to write the web copy AND post it publish it directly to WordPress, so you are not stuck with the cut & paste & formatting job.
Logo, identity, and website design. While you’re web copy is getting written, now’s a great time to get your logo and website designed. The great news is, you can get great, professional design done very inexpensively these days through design contest websites like Crowdspring and 99Designs. You launch a design contest, and a specified cash prize amount on these sites, and dozens of talented designers from all over the join your contest. This gives you the abilility to evaluate different styles and concepts. The more clear you are in your project specifications and in your feedback, the better the design will be.
Web development. Let’s say you decided to go with a custom website design rather than use a free theme. At this point you will need to turn your design PSD from your design contest into code. This may be the most complicated part of your website launch process, especially if you are not tech savvy. The great news is, you can find web developers to help you with this process on outsourcing sites like ODesk, Elance, and vWorker.com (formerly Rent a Coder). You can also find a number of services to convert your design to html or even into a Wordpress theme. Try XHTMLChop or ShopHTML. You will still need a web developer to take these files and integrate them, but this will shave off some hours off his / her consulting time.

The “right” way to lauch build a website is to build it first on a test server, QA everything to make it works, before migrating it over to its proper address – your business domain name. That way, you don’t have visitors coming to your site and witnesssing it in an awkward stage. In the very least, slap up a site maintenance page while work is being done.

Launch & promote. Once you’ve ensured everything is working you are ready to launch and promote your site. Announce the launch of your business website to your community, and get it listed in various directories, especially local directories if you are a brick and mortar business. Be sure to claim your local listing on Google Places, Yahoo Local, Bing Local, and get listed on Yelp, BOTW Local, Citysearch, etc. To submit to several directories at once, use GetListed.org.

There you have it, the complete road map for establishing your green brand online, from scratch. Happy launching.

How to Optimize Your Green Business Website for Local Search

lorna li — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:15:18 +0000

Search engine optimization for your small business website is quite a difficult process, especially when facing competition from older, more established giants. Larger websites often have strong domain authority and many pages of content, which makes it easier for to rank higher in search engines for competitive keywords, as well as rank for a plethora of long tail keywords, enabling them to capture more search engine traffic. But there are ways in which a small green business can easily compete with the bigger and more popular websites on various search engines, especially at the local level.

Nearly 40 percent of all searches include some reference to local information. Even when the search query doesn’t ask for local information, search engines still provide local results. This is because, more often than not, when a consumer is searching for a product or service, such as “organic catering company“, chances are, they are looking for one that is local. Therefore, smaller and medium-sized businesses now have a terrific opportunity for local search engine optimization.

Now you may be asking yourself, what is local SEO? Local SEO is the art of driving geo-targeted search engine traffic to your business website. Local SEO involves whole combination of strategies and tactics that will ensure your website is found quickly and easy by potential customers in your geographic locale.

By optimizing your website to appear in local searches on the Internet, you’re adding yourself to a crucial virtual directory that millions of people access every single day.

How to Optimize Your Green Business Website for Local Search

As with regular SEO, local SEO is comprised of on page factors and off page factors. In other words, you need to add content to your website that tells search engines where your business is located. In addition, you need to get your business listed in search engines, directories, and linked to by other websites in a way that clearly indicates your business location. On page optimization is within your control, however, for it’s still possible to rank well in local search with low optimization. In highly competitive markets, however, on page factors are more important. Off page SEO are where you will need to spend most of your time and energy if you want to rank for local search.

Below are 7 steps important steps to optimize your green business website for local search:

Claim your local business listing NOW. Claim your local business listing on Google Local, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local, and. For branding purposes, you want to make sure that you control what’s yours – your own business profile - and protect your geo-listing from getting hijacked by competitors.
Optimize your local business listing. Now that you’ve claimed your business profile, make sure you indicate your address, local telephone number (NOT 800 number) and associate your business listing with keyword rich catogories. Making sure your target keywords are in your business title and description also help.
Add your business to web directories. Adding your business to web directories like Yelp, SuperPages, infoUSA, CitySearch, BOTW Local etc, increases the number of address citations around the web that contain your business name, your address, your telephone number, and your website. Every citation you get from a reputable source on the web is another vote of confidence that your business is indeed in that specific geo-location.
Include your address on every page. It’s a good practice to include your business address and contact information in the footer of your website. This simple step is not only great for user experience, as it eliminates visitors having to plumb the nether regions of your website to find out where your business is located and how to contact you. It also tells search engines where you are as well. If you cannot, for some bizarre reason, include your contact information in your website footer, in the very least, make sure your address appears on your home page, in your your about section, on your press page if you have one, and your Contact Us page.
Localize your title tags. Make sure your title tags include your target keywords, as well as your locale. For example, you have a green landscaping company in Lagunitas, California, your title tag should read something like this, “Green Landscaping & Design | Company Name | Lagunitas, CA.”
Get local links. Get listed on local business directories, in your local chamber of commerce website, and solicit local business owners to link to your website from theirs.
Get good customer reviews, often. Frequency of customer reviews appear to be increasingly important for local search. A steady stream of good reviews will also be great for your business.

If this all seems like a lot of work, you may want to first hit up GetListed.org, a service that allows you to submit to several search engines and directories at once. GetListed also provides great information about optimizing your business website for local search.

Local SEO for your green business ought to be high on your online marketing priority list, because it is one of of the easiest SEO and least expensive tactics to implement. As your website begins to appear in local search engine results, your business will be more visible, and you should begin to see more search engine traffic.

Why Your Green Business Needs a Green Business Blog

lorna li — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:39:48 +0000

Gaining exposure is necessary when it come to successfully starting a green business and generating new clients is also important. Keeping customers informed and having accessibility to you and your company should be a top priority. A great way to do this is by creating a green business blog. With the increase in technology information and the outlets provided to you for free, beginning a green business blog for your green business is a great way to market and gain new customers. Let’s start with this…

Exactly What is a Blog?

A blog is basically an online journal where you can write, read, edit, publish and share personal or business information. Stemmed from the words “web log,” a blog is a website that incorporates regular entries written by an individual, including event updates, and other material that you want to share, i.e. pictures, videos, announcements, links, etc. Blogs can be easily maintained without prior knowledge of the technical aspects of web design. The many free blogging platforms make it possible for anyone to make one. Sometimes blogs can be made for personal use to write about your days, similar to a journal. Other people utilize blogs to write about certain themes or areas of interest. They also allow for users and viewers to comment on any updates you publish. If you’re running a business, utilizing these blogging tools and technology to promote your message of going green is an efficient and promising way.

I Already Have my Green Business Website, Why Do I Need a Green Blog too?

While having a website with your own personal URL for your green business is great to have, establishing a green business blog will help you succeed just as much, if not more.

Websites are great because they show an amount of stability and a concrete place for establishing your internet presence. Blogs, however, will generate traffic and can bring new customers into your website. Usually blogs are generated or hosted by a main website such as WordPress.com or Blogger.com. Like Facebook or Twitter, there are already users plugged in and skimming other people to be “friends” or “follow.” Blogs are just a free way to give you more accessibility to your customers or new customers, and at the same time, they can have easy access to you. Spreading the green message about your business is already something that needs promotion in its own; the tools necessary to do this are out there and ready to be utilized. Having your green business blog will allow you to do the following:

Keep your customers updated and current with all the exciting news and things to look forward to from your business
A direct message feed on your green business blog will allow your customers to know your current special offers
Direct contact with customers and hear feedback concerning your business will be easily accessible
Allow communication of new ideas and create an outlet for sharing your experiences from having a green business
Generate traffic from your green business blog to your website

A Green Business Blog Can Benefit You in Many Ways

As stated before, blogs can be free and with a little extra time, you can have it up and running in a matter of minutes. Marketing strategies for businesses usually generate the same way. With any business, you can really utilize the internet to your advantage. Without having to print and throw away paper for flyers and other promo things, establishing a green blog is just another way to promote and market your business in a eco-friendly way. These are the key points in what a green blog can do for your business:

Creating your blog and keeping it current with new content will increase your SEO (search engine optimization) – that means, search engines will pick up your blog more and more with your updates.
When you write and publish your blogs with updates, you can fill it up with keywords like “going green,” “buy green,” “green furniture,” “green household items” – whatever your green business is about, you can utilize keywords into your updates which will increase traffic to your site
Creating a blog will also allow you to have more pages so you can interlink your blog posts and product pages, thus driving more traffic to your website
Also a cool thing, you can get more involved with your customers and be able to receive and share information about being green and possibly creating a green living blog

So if you haven’t started a blog, you should today. Whether you’re running a green business or not, it’s a free and easy way to promote and market your business. It’s easy, fun, and can make your business grow.

Justmeans Social Media for Sustainability Conference Oct 19, 2009

lorna li — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:41:37 +0000

If you’re in San Francisco on Monday and want to learn about how companies use social media for good, check out the Justmeans Social Media for Sustainability conference at Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF.

Justmeans is a social network for the “business for good” community, a place where professional do gooders of all orientations, from activists to social entrepreneurs to CSR (corporate social responsibility) buffs and green marketing fanatics, can network, share information, and collaborate on making business better for people and the planet.

The conference explores the different social media tools and platforms available to company employees and strategies around engaging stakeholders and creating a vibrant community. Important questions that will be addressed at Social Media for Sustainability include:

How can social media propel sustainability communications?
Which companies are most effectively using social media to reach stakeholders?
How do you make sure your message is heard in the new media atmosphere?
Should companies be using social media to influence the way that people act beyond the purchase of a product?

Some of the speakers on Social Media for Sustainability include:

Jeff Hollender, CEO, Seventh Generation
Bob Pearson, President, the Blog Council
Chad Boettcher, SVP Social Innovation, Weber Shandwick
Danny Kennedy, Co-Founder and President, Sungevity
Graham Hill, Founder, Treehugger
Kevin Long, Co-Founder, Justmeans, Ashoka Fellow
Ryan Mickle, Co-Publisher, Triple Pundit, LLC
Ron Gonen, Co-Founder and CEO, RecycleBank

10 Best Green Social Networks

lorna li — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:54:06 +0000

The Green web is growing. Rapidly. And it’s a good thing. Online communities, blogs and social sites aimed at connecting well meaning people with great causes (and each other) have mushroomed. Nowadays, all it takes to rally around issues like climate change, clean energy, or health care reform is an Internet connection.

At the same time, with all the Green social networks out there, it’s hard to know which online community is worth the time investment. Because, face it, social networking takes time. Whether you are an individual activist seeking to meet other like-minded people or a social change organization trying to build community around your cause, choosing the right online community can ensure that you get the most impact for your efforts.

Top 10 Green Social Networks

Here are the top 10 most influential, active, and interesting social networks for Green causes:

Care2 was started in 1998 by Randy Paynter who wanted to harness the power of the Internet to make the world a better place. Care2 originally started as a online email and ecard service that donated a percentage of revenues to environmental nonprofits. It has since evolved into an interactive online community with nearly 12M members. On Care2 you can support in a variety of social causes, from animal welfare to women’s rights, by donating to featured nonprofits, signing petitions, joining an interest group or simply staying informed.

Needless to say, the project has since outgrown Randy’s apartment and is now a company that has 50 employees, 9 million users and 400 non profit partners.

Change.org is the leading online community for social change. Originally Change.org provided a novel way for people to connect around positive social change – you would type in the change(s) you wanted to create in the world and you be able to find others in the community who were tagged with those same causes. The site has since evolved, providing daily news and information about important social issues, as well as the means for people to take action, and connect with nonprofits.

Change.org is a profitable social entrepreneurship venture based in San Francisco, CA founded by Stanford graduate Ben Rattray in 2005.

WiserEarth is a free online community space connecting the people, nonprofits and businesses working toward a just and sustainable world. It is a project of Paul Hawken’s Natural Capital Institute and built on a wiki platform that supports the world’s most detailed classification of issue areas related to social justice and environmental restoration. Here you will find the world’s largest free and editable international directory of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and socially responsible organizations (110,000 in 243 countries, territories, and sovereign islands) – wow!

In the spirit of Wikipedia, WiserEarth is open source, with content publicly available for use under the Creative Commons license.

11thhouraction.com was inspired by popular documentary “The 11th Hour” (narrated by Leonardo Dicaprio). It’s environmentally focused social network aimed at empowering inspire individuals and communities engage in planet-saving actions.

Users can sign up, create a blog, create their own environmental action campaigns, or commit to a personal action, like carpooling or recycling more. Actions get plotted on a map, so you can view the community’s environmental activism across the globe, or locate an action group near you.

DoSomething.org encourages teenagers to take positive social action, without the supervision of adults. This fun, teeny-bopperish site encourages kids to get out and do something through volunteerism, and also offers small grants to help teenagers to start their own projects. And if you want to start a club, all you need are 5 friends to apply, and DoSomething.org will provide resources, online infrastructure, opportunities to do good, and even fund your projects. Who needs grownups?

Taking It Global is another youth oriented social network with a mission to transform teenagers and young adults (ages 13-30) into young leaders of today.

Taking It Global provides a collaborative learning community that allows youth across the world access to global opportunities, cross-cultural connections and meaningful participation in decision-making. In addition to being an online social network, Taking It Global provides tools for educators, and helps facilitate research and learning opportunities through workshops and webinars for its members.

Since their inception Taking It Global has reached 14 million young people across 12 languages.

Holistic Local is a social network with a LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health & Sustainability) orientation, that focuses on connecting people who are into spirituality, health, the environment and conscious living locally. You can discover transformational workshops, participate in their holistic marketplace, access articles & e-books, and connect with thousands of crunchy-feely new age members.

The Gaia Community claims to be different from other a social networks. Firstly, you have to “apply” to join, although “applying” is no different than registering for free as on every other social network. Before you are allowed in, you must also click on this affirmation “I recognize that Gaia is creating an online sanctuary for personal development and, in the spirit of this, I commit to honoring the Terms of Use.” The Gaia Community aims to inspire and empower you to realize your own brilliant purpose and discover who you truly are. In addition to finding and connecting with other spiritually aware members, participating in conscious, planet affirming discussions, on Gaia, you may even find your soulmate.

The nag is a tongue in cheek UK based site lightens up on the earnest, do-gooder mentality that plagues environmental activists and makes eco-activism fun. First you start by ranting – get it off your chest. After you’ve let it all out, then you suggest solutions. After that, get out and do something! So while you’re ranting about the evils of bottled water in restaurants, it may actually occur to you in the midst of it all to ask for tap?

Lime.com – is all about healthy living with a green twist. The online community is operated by Gaiam, a green lifestyle company that provides information, goods and services to customers who value the environment, a sustainable economy, healthy lifestyles, alternative healthcare and personal development. Lime TV features videos from holistic health luminaries like Deepak Chopra and celebrity yogis like Rodney Yee. You can also listen to wide selection of Green lifestyle podcasts on topics such as herbal remedies, fitness, and meditation. Who would have thought that online Enlightenment was possible?

Flock Eco-Edition – Social Web Browser Goes Green for Earth Day 2008

lorna li — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:27:57 +0000

Lately I’ve taken to using Flock, the Social Web Browser, because it consolidates and simplifies my social web lifestyle. Today, Flock just got better.

For Earth Day 2008, Flock launched the Eco-Edition of the Flock browser that delivers the latest environmental and sustainable living content to eco-minded social media and web users. The Eco-Edition comes prepopulated with the best news, photos, videos, and feeds from leading eco-content partners on the Web,delivering fresh content from Grist, GroovyGreen, Treehugger, PlanetGreen, Sprig, Current and other top eco brands daily. Furthermore, Flock will donate 10% of the proceeds of the Eco-Edition browser at the end of 2008, and as a recognition of the power of community to create change, will allow users of the Eco-Edition to select the recipient of this donation.

The Flock Eco-Edition Browser, is available as a free software download for Mac, PC and Linux at www.flock.com/eco.

Why Use Flock?

If you are a social media news hound, blogger, Twitterer, are active on multiple social networks, and depend heavily social bookmarking to manage your favorite links, Flock will help you consolidate all your social web activities into a single dashboard.

You can see updates from friend on Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter in the Flock people sidebar
You can simultaneously favorite your urls to the Flock browser and to del.icio.us.
You can post to multiple blogs from the same interface
It does Technorati tags for you
You can drag and drop Flickr images & YouTube videos into your blog
Manage your favorite news feeds

[tags]flock eco-edition, flock social web browser, social media, web 2.0, blogging, microblogging, social bookmarking, lorna li[/tags]

Blogged with the Flock Browser

YouTube for Nonprofits: How to Use YouTube to Save the World…And Raise Money

lorna li — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:41:35 +0000

Last week’s Net Tuesday in San Francisco featured Maryrose Dunton, the Head of User Experience at YouTube,, who spoke about YouTube’s Nonprofit Program.The YouTube Nonprofit Program, is an in-kind donation by YouTube to the nonprofit sector that’s worth about $20 million. Currently available to established 501(c)(3)s, YouTube offers participating nonprofits:

A premium branded channel – some environmental nonprofits that have done a good job with this include Friends of the Earth and Defenders of Wildlife. The ability to upload videos of any length. Currently the limit on video length is 10 minutes.

Rotation into the “Promoted Videos” section on YouTube’s homepage.
Listing in the Nonprofit Channels and Nonprofit Video areas
The ability to collect donations using Google Checkout (with no processing fee).
The option to participate in the user partner program, which allows you to show partner ads on video – and share the ad revenue. However, there is currently no way to filter ads, which may not work for some organizations.

YouTube has 30 million visitors daily and over 100 million videos are viewed each day. By connecting nonprofits to the world’s largest online video community, the YouTube Nonprofit program will allow these organizations tap into a significant pool of potential small donors. While large nonprofits are able to receive 10-15% of donations from online fundraising, smaller organizations have the most difficulty establishing a web presence. By offering a dedicated channel on YouTube, YouTube’s Nonprofit Program hopes to empower smaller organizations to significantly expand their reach. Now its just the matter of these, often, short-staffed nonprofits finding the manpower to manage their YouTube presence.

YouTube Best Practices for Nonprofits

Maryrose recommended these tips to help nonprofits engage successfully with the YouTube community:

1. Keep it fresh, keep it short. Best not longer than 10 minutes

2. Be genuine, no public service announcements (PSAs)

3. Engage and interact with the community – have a dialogue, allow people to post video comments, be sure to respond to comments
4. Create a call to action

5. Invest in your channel – update content, make sure links and videos work

7. Do not fear comments, ratings, related videos – while you can moderate user engagement, do not disable the commenting or rating features as this tends to upset the community

New Plans for Nonprofits on YouTube

New developments coming down the pipeline include:

1. Extending the program to include international nonprofits.

2. Incorporating more calls to action that are important to nonprofits, petitions, signup forms.

3. Improving nonprofit discovery on YouTube’s website.

[tags]maryrose dunton, net tuesday, net2, youtube nonprofit program, youtube nonprofit channel, lorna li[/tags]

Starbucks Green Idea – Consumers Vote to Make Starbucks More Environmentally-Friendly

lorna li — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:41:16 +0000

Starbucks Ideas has been live for about 2 weeks and already customers have had plenty to say about what they expect from the world’s largest chain of coffee shops.

The move to launch a website that allows anyone to post ideas about how Starbucks can improve its service offering is part of an increasing trend by companies to use social networking applications to better improve communication with their customers. This move may be the best way for the struggling coffee maker to quickly turn its business around.

Starbucks Ideas is not a true social network play, rather is an an interactive forum where people can vet their best ideas in a manner much like Digg. Starbucks Ideas is powered by Salesforce.com and is the same social platform that powers Dell’s Ideastorm which won PR Innovation of the Year 2008.

Already, Starbucks has moved to implement the top two customer requests: free coffee for frequent buyers and universal free wi-fi, which is finally (woot, woot!) coming soon in Spring 2008. The thought that a multinational global corporation like Starbucks would be so responsive to the voice of its customers is encouraging indeed.

Can Customers Make Starbucks Become More Environmentally Responsible?

As I surfed through several pages of Starbucks Ideas I was struck by the number of requests for a Greener Starbucks. Below is a list of suggestions and comments that would Starbucks make a better environmental citizen, all of which I voted on:

Stop Trashing Empty Cards

We don’t need any more plastic in the trash. Rather than suggesting trashing an empty starbucks card, give people a 25 cent credit…for refilling it. To make it affordable, how about….

Re-fill your card…at $20 level…get $20.25 on the card.

Re fill at the $50 level…get $51.00 on the card.

Re fill at the $100 level…get $103.oo on the card, or get the $100…and your current single drink order free.

More on the plastic…less plastic in the trash.

Sell Reusable Sleeves

I have recently had customers who come in with their own rubber sleeves for their cups. They tell me they purchased them from Bed Bath and Beyond. They prefer to use them as the grip is more secure and they are helping preserve the trees. Starbucks should have these manufatured with the company logo and sell them for a really reasonable price point so we could also help save the trees etc

Recycle!

Recycle! Become greener!

Recycle In Stores

It concerns me that we do not have recycle bins in our stores. In Seattle, and in most large cities the opportunity to help the environment by recycling is readily available in our homes and many business. I would like to see Starbucks stores embrace this as well by providing Glass, plastice and compost waste in containers in all stores.

Recycle the Waste in the Back of Your Stores

I don’t think Starbucks has shown a real connection between environmental health and human health. Here is why: My local Starbucks produces a tremendous amount of garbage everyday and nearly none of it is recycled. Nearly all the store waste is thrown out and put in the garbage and taken to the landfill. Recycle the waste in the back end of ALL your stores. It goes beyond the polish of the front end and sales. Make it a real effort to connect environmental health and human health. Thank you.

Reusable Cups

I use my Starbucks reusable travel mug almost every time I order and this is what I often see:

- 99% of the time I don’t get the mug discount,

- some baristas have no real clue what to do with it,

- they stick a disposable cup inside it to take down the order and then throw the disposable cup away (I’ve seen stickers but they seem to be out of them a lot).

We need more people to use the mugs and reduce the number of disposable cups used. Push the sale of them (make them cheaper – why not just $5?) and then train staff on how to handle the cups!

Locally sourced (organic) baked goods

Offer locally sourced (organic or not) high quality baked goods similar to some of the baked goods Whole Foods offers, instead of the nationally consistent scones, cookies, pastries, cakes, and breads offered now. This sacrifices some of the national consistency now in place (though there is some variance already) but brings better quality, better tasting food to Starbucks, supports the local community, and elevates Starbucks above other coffee outlets (national outlets now also serving coffee) by cranking up the quality level and local community/local business tie ins. As a result, Starbucks will feel more like a local coffee store again rather than some big national chain.

Biodegradable drink and food containers – Yeah!

Replace plastic containers for cold drinks, straws, salads etc. with those made of biodegradable polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA). These are readily available and currently in use by forward-thinking entities like Paul Newman’s “Newman’s Own” products.

Fair Trade Coffee

I think that Starbucks should switch to only selling and brewing coffee, lattes … with only fair trade coffee. Fair trade coffee costs the consumer no more than regular coffee and still gives the coffee grower a fair price for their coffee. In return these coffee growers use organic means to grow their coffee making it environmentally friendly. That is why I would like to see Starbucks switch to only selling fair trade coffee.

Real Fruit Smoothies

real fruit smoothies

Porcelain Cups

When I first started going to Starbucks, they used to ask here or to go, and if “here” you’d get a porcelain mug of various sizes. Would that be cheaper than buying all those paper cups. Too much washing dishes?

Corporate Social Responsibility at Starbucks

I’ve seen Starbucks come a long way. Since 1999, when it was assailed by numerous activist groups upset with the company’s fair-trade policies, labor relations, and environmental impact during the WTO talks in Seattle, Starbucks has evolved with a commendable corporate social responsibility program.

The mission of Starbucks’ CSR program is to work daily with partners (employees), suppliers and farmers to help create a more sustainable approach to high-quality coffee production, to help build stronger local communities, to minimize their environmental footprint and to be responsive to customers health and wellness needs.

In 2005, Starbucks received The World Environment Center’s 21st Annual Gold Medal for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development, where it was recognized for its leadership in sustainable development within the specialty coffee industry.

In particular, WEC commends the company’s development of Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices, a set of environmentally, socially and economically responsible coffee buying guidelines created in conjunction with Conservation International that are designed to contribute positively to the livelihoods of coffee farmers while placing an emphasis on environmental conservation and supply chain transparency.

According to Calvert Funds’ December 2007 edition of Socially Responsible Investing News, in “Calvert’s view, Starbucks Corp. remains an industry leader with significant and progressive programs on renewable energy and the environment as well as workplace diversity and safety.”

While many love to hate Starbucks, I would point out that, over the past decade, Starbucks has proved to be more socially responsible than many other multinational corporations of equal reach and caliber. My Starbucks Idea is simply another way in which the company has demonstrated a willingness to address public opinion, even if its primary motivation is maintaining competitive advantage.

The power of social media for social innovation is evident. If consumers are vocal enough about Starbucks’ environmental impact, Starbucks Ideas may indeed be the catalyst to a Greener, more earth-friendly Starbucks.

[tags]starbucks, starbucks ideas, web 2.0, salesforce.com, corporate social responsibility, csr, social innovation, social media, social networking, green business, environmental sustainability, lorna li[/tags]

Do Tech Companies Care About Global Warming?

lorna li — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:29:02 +0000

In California we do.

As geeks and new tech enthusiasts, we depend on computer infrastructure and use a lot of greenhouse gas-emitting electricity to grok our world. Deep down inside, we hope the same breakthroughs in science, technology and innovation that make us Twitter with excitement can also help us restore our balance with Nature.

In and around the SF Bay Area, Internet companies are tackling climate change with what they know best – technology innovation and the crowdsourcing powers of the social web.

Google is probably the company with the most ambitious global warming corporate action plan on Earth. Fortunately, it has the budget to do so. Google has long indicated a commitment to addressing climate change, from both the Foundation perspective and from the standpoint of business operations. Google’s commitment to lightening its ecological footprint can result in some pretty nice employee perks such as free, mostly organic food for its 10,000 employees, and utensils made out of biodegradable corn-based plastic that can be turned into dirt in its very own composting facilities.

Google currently partially powers their huge data centers with solar power, installing 1.6 megawatts of solar photovoltaic panels at their headquarters in Mountain View. The search engine not only invests in renewable energy and greener technologies, it has made a commitment to reducing its behemoth carbon footprint to zero. That’s a lot of clicks to make carbon neutral.

Not to be outdone, Yahoo! launched Yahoo! Green an excellent Green information portal that aggregates top climate change and environmental news, in addition to a section dedicated to Y! Answers about the Environment. Other Yahoo! Green sections include Global Warming, tips on how to live a Green Lifestyle, a Carbon Footprint Calculator, a Green Gift Guide, and a section where users can pledge to Take Action. Two search engines, two different approaches to being Green. As Michael Arrington pondered, Google vs. Yahoo, who cares most about the environment?

Green websites are hot, with TreeHugger snapped up by the Discovery Channel, and Zaadz, a LOHAS social networking site, purchased by Gaiam earlier this year. Even TechCrunch’s arch-rival, GigaOm launched Earth2Tech this year, a site devoted to the business of clean technologies, its innovations and everything else.

WiserEarth, a nonprofit venture launched by Paul Hawken, founder of the Natural Capital Institute, is compelling community directory and networking forum created on a structured wiki platform. The site maps and connects non-governmental organizations and individuals addressing the central issues of our day: climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights and more.

Whether for profit or nonprofit, California clearly likes to fight global warming with technology. The state has become the nation’s biggest hub for green tech companies, attracting hundreds of $ millions in investment. In 2006, California’s green tech businesses soaked up $884 million, 36 percent of all the money venture capitalists spent on the industry within the United States.

For decades, California has led the nation with its clean and green policies. But population growth and increasing energy consumption, coupled with aggressive greenhouse-gas reduction laws mean the next stage of environmental progress will need to be stronger, faster and more innovative than in the past.

Can a handful of pioneering, VC-funded, bleeding-edge tech companies come up with solutions that will help turn the tide of global warming? I hope so.

[tags]google, yahoo green, earth2tech, treehugger, zaadz, gaiam, green tech, california green tech, greentech, wiser earth, paul hawken, natural capital institute[/tags]

35 mpg by 2020 – Auto Industry Workers Say It Can Be Done

lorna li — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 09:13:59 +0000

As environmental and student groups rally for Congress to adopt strong fuel efficiency and renewable electricity standards in 2007’s New Energy Bill, the Big Three Auto Makers in America – General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler – are spending millions to convince Congress and the public that 35 mpg by 2020 is simply not achievable.

Auto industry workers say, “Bollocks!”

A large group of auto workers and dealers have broken from the industry in order to support the 35 mpg by 2020 fuel efficiency standard. As members of the American auto industry who have designed, built and sold automobiles in this country for decades, they state that 35 mpg can be achieved, will create jobs, and can help the U.S. end its foreign oil addiction.

Spearheading the movement are Adam Lee, president of Lee Auto Malls in Maine, Gary Muenzhuber, representing Autoworkers of Minnesota, Inc, Chicago-based Chuck Frank, owner of one of the nationâ€™s largest Chevy dealerships and Kentucky-based Karen Bowen, a former Ford executive.

Adam Lee, third generation autodealer, makes this personal plea to the public to tell Congress that 35 mpg by 2020 is necessary for the survival of the auto industry.

â€œMy family has been selling American made cars since 1936. My livelihood and the livelihood of over 350 employees who work for us depend upon the success of the automobile industry. Today that strength is severely compromised by the lack of fuel-efficient cars and trucks customers want to buy. â€¦

Without a 35 mile-per-gallon mandate, Iâ€™m afraid, global warming and our dependence on foreign oil will continue to get much worse in the long run. And, in the short run, Iâ€™m afraid Iâ€™ll be stuck with a lot full of cars that no one wants to buy or even worse: This country will no longer have an American auto industry.”

Known as the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standard, the legislative move to raise mileage for cars and light trucks to an average of 35 mpg by 2020 was, in fact, passed by the U.S. Senate in June. This is the first Congressional increase in fuel efficiency in 30 years, and yet the auto industry is pushing a counter-proposal of 32 mpg by 2022.What’s the Difference Between 35 mpg by 2020 Vs. 32 mpg by 2022?A lot.

In their report titled Energy Bill Must Guarantee Real Oil Savings, the Union of Concerned Scientists calculated the difference between the 35 mpg by 2020 and 32 mpg by 2022. Here is what they found:

Barrels of Oil Saved Per Day:
- 500,000 Auto Lobby Proposal
- 1.2 Million Senate CAFE Compromise

Consumer Savings at the Pump:
- $11 Billion Auto Lobby Proposal
- $25 Billion Senate CAFE Compromise

Emissions Reductions
- 85mmt CO2 Auto Lobby Proposal
- 206 mmt CO2 Senate CAFE Compromise

As environmental organizations and student groups are lobbying for stronger legislation to deal with climate change and global warming, auto industry workers are lobbying for their livelihoods.

The math is simple.

As gas prices continue to rise, unless American auto manufacturers produce more efficient cars, they will continue to lose market share to international auto manufacturers. This will mean lots of downsizing down the road.

Rather than choose to innovate now, which will benefit both American consumers and the U.S. auto industry as a whole, the Auto Lobby would rather spend $ millions in a PR campaign that could sway the public and take this country a step backwards, all in a bid for maximum short-term profits.

As Adam Lee states, if fuel efficiency is not a long-term priority, in the short run, we may not have an auto industry.

[tags]2007 energy bill, new energy bill, 35 mpg by 2020, 35mpgby2020, 32 mpg by 2022, Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standard, CAFE standard, auto lobby, fuel efficiency, adam lee, lorna li[/tags]