Next time you have to provide drinks at a corporate event, offer your clients refreshments, or find something hydrating on a hot day, consider this: tap water provides a safe, cost-effective and environmentally-friendly alternative to bottled water. Manufacturers have worked to convince customers that paying a premium for a disposable, plastic container full of water is worth the expense. Yet a growing body of research holds that bottled water might not be worth the hype—and that your business is better off without it.

Disposable water bottles are fast becoming a serious environmental hazard. In the United States alone, 30 billion water bottles are sent to landfills every year, and every bottle takes a shocking 1,000 years to decompose. That adds up to a lot of trash. Simply producing the plastic bottles themselves generates waste: it takes 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water, the Sierra Club reports, and a United Nations study concludes that producing bottled water for the U.S. market requires 17 million barrels of oil per year.

Bottled water generates much more waste than tap water, and generates little heath benefit in return. In fact, because of the structure of federal regulation, most tap water might actually provide a safer and cleaner alternative. Regulation of bottled water is patchy at best. Between 60-70% of the bottled water sold in the United States is exempt from all FDA regulation, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) reported in a four-year study. The same report revealed that about one fourth of bottled water is actually just bottled tap water.

Switching to tap water makes sense, both for the sake of the planet and the sake of your account book. In New York City, for example, an individual’s consumption of eight glasses of tap water per day for a year costs only 49 cents. Eight glasses of bottled water per day for a year, in contrast, costs a whopping $14,000.

Whether your business is a restaurant, a tech startup or a hair salon, offering employees and clients tap water rather than bottled water can add up to big savings over time. Providing pitchers of water in elegant glasses or reusable mugs can even serve as a marketing tool, and signal your company’s commitment to environmental responsibility. If you’re worried about the purity of tap water in your area, inexpensive water filtration systems provide a safe and easy alternative to water coolers. Encourage your employees to use reusable mugs and bottles, and if not, to recycle any bottled of water they purchase. As part of a Green Business Makeover, your local Green Irene Eco-Consultant can introduce you to many other water purity and waste reduction ideas, as well as to Green Irene’s full line of business products, including a premium 10-stage countertop water filter, reusable water bottles, modular recycling receptacles, and much more.

Sustainably yours,

Green Irene

A recent Eco Pulse® survey showed that Latino Americans are not only the country’s fastest growing minority group, but are arguably the greenest group as well. In fact, results showed that Latinos are significantly more likely to be searching for greener products than other populations. When you consider that about 47 million Americans are Latino, or nearly one in six residents according to the Census Bureau, this is a market that small- and medium-sized businesses cannot afford to ignore.

In addition, according to MarketingProfs.com, buying power among the Latino population in the U.S. is also increasing at a rapid pace. Between 1996 and 2008, the median income of Latino households rose 36%, from $27,977 to $37,913, while the median for all US households increased at a slower 26%, from $39,869 to $50,303. And according to the Census Bureau and other studies, Latino buying power is expected to reach more than $1 trillion by 2011. That puts Latinos ahead of all other minority groups. In this day and age, the Latino audience carries significant purchasing power and simply cannot be ignored in a company’s green marketing strategy.

“Clients who have had a Green Business Makeover and earned Green Business Bureau Certifications may now resonate with a new demographic they haven’t previously considered,” says PJ Stafford, CEO and Co-founder of Green Irene. “This could definitely mean a growth opportunity for them!”

Latino consumers are more driven by emotion and direct experience, and less by data, than other consumers. To be successful in reaching the Latino audience, you must understand that the messages that work in the Anglo market can’t simply be transferred verbatim to the Latino market. Care must be taken to culturally adapt the message to capture its thought, meaning and feeling, not just the words.

In crafting your green marketing message to resonate with your Latino customers, keep in mind that family, especially extended family, takes center stage. Extended families are characterized by strong and close bonds that extend outside the nuclear unit to include grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and other, non-family members. Latinos buy to enhance their experience with family and community.

When developing marketing to address the Latino consumer, it takes more than the translation of your existing message to be successful. You must transcreate your message by adapting it to the cultural and community references that resonate with these consumers.  By framing your green marketing message in context that is experienced emotionally, you will open your business to new markets and enjoy the financial success that this brings.

The Eco Pulse® study, which looks at green consumer trends, found that:

• 75 percent of Latinos are looking for greener products, compared to 61 percent of Caucasians and 57 percent of African Americans.
• 25 percent said they felt “very personally responsible” to change their daily habits and purchases to positively impact the environment, compared to 13 percent of Caucasian respondents.
• 65 percent had conversations with their kids on conservation or an environmental topic, compared to 49 percent of all respondents.

We’re green! After making the investment in a Green Business Makeover and earning a Green Business Bureau Certification, that may be the message you want to spread. There’s nothing like it for attracting new business. People are becoming more eco-conscious every day, and businesses that heed this trend give themselves a distinct marketing edge.

While going green is a great story to tell – and a timely one at that – you should consider whether to use it as the main message in all your marketing.  The key to the success of your green message is to know your audience, how they’ll receive your message, and when a little green is just enough.

Know Your Audience

Face it, even though you and millions of others are concerned about the environment, some people just aren’t. Your marketing should focus mainly on customer benefits, which is why customers buy your product in the first place. While environmental benefits are important enough to influence the purchasing decisions of “deep green” consumers, they aren’t the primary reasons ordinary consumers prefer one product over another.

When deciding whether to use green as your marketing message, ask yourself – does my customer demographic make purchasing decisions based on green issues?  Does the fact that our product or company is green impact its effectiveness in meeting customers’ needs?  If the answer to these questions is “yes” or “sometimes”, then incorporate green into your message.

Know the Media

Today companies have more channels than ever to get their marketing messages to their customers.  There’s traditional print media, social media, email marketing, promotional items and many, many more.  When considering whether to use green as your message, consider how the message is being delivered.  Don’t print a green message on a media that is not eco-friendly.  Printing “We’re green!” on a single-use plastic bag or on a gas-guzzling SUV is contradictory at best and damaging to your business at worst.

On the other hand, marketing vehicles like newsletters, blogs and social media sites allow you to develop a dialogue with, and educate, your customers.  Use these media to discuss the sustainability, recyclability, compostability and other green aspects of your product.  Invite third parties such as independent research firms, trade associations, industry institutes or other unbiased voices to comment on the efficacy of your product and the validity of your claims. Take advantage of the opportunities these methods provide to engage consumers at an emotional level, thus building “green” brand equity.

When a Little Green Goes a Long Way

You may find that your consumer demographic and the way you are communicating with them doesn’t support a strong green message.  What might you do then?  As Green Irene clients who have earned Green Business Bureau Certification, you can use your seal on all your marketing materials to let consumers know about your green commitment, without being too heavy handed.  In other words, sometimes just a little green does the trick!

Places to use your membership seal:

Email signature

Business cards*

Stationery*

Vehicle signs/wraps

Brochures*

Quote sheets/invoices*

Signage/flags

Packaging

Print advertising*

Yellow pages listings

Corporate apparel

Press releases

*Be sure these materials minimize waste and environmental impact in order to avoid being contradictory. Perhaps use materials that contain partially recycled content – you can advertise this too!

I have been seeing this very interesting banner posted at job sites around NYC when a renovation is going on in the building. The banner, which seems to be provided by the bank providing financing for the renovation (in this case Citibank) indicates some great green characteristics of the renovation:

• 50% of construction waste will be recycled (why not 100%… but this is a lot more than most)
• Low VOC materials
• Water conserving fixtures only
• Energy Star appliances only

All in all, a great trend to see where companies not only adopt green practices, but PUBLICIZE them as a way to gain a marketing advantage and encourage other companies to do the same.

Citibank provides the growth capital for Green Irene LLC, so we’re fans.

PJ Stafford

Co-Founder

Green Irene LLC