Getting Your Business Green Certified
Why is it important for my business to be green certified?
If you're running a business, irrespective of a dry cleaner of a car wash, the consumer needs to be aware of your environmental and eco impact. Fundamentally, your carbon footprint. If you are operating a business and you find your consumers are satisfied with it, you will notice that if you start greening your business and you communicate that to your customers you will have a green following and that green following will trigger more people and that's why, again, given this market, giving in comparison to the supermarkets, supermarket chains are rushing to offer a green alternative section in the market. They're not doing very well. This is because the consumers are wanting to go to a green supermarket. A market that has an underlying message that they are servicing you with products and services that have a conscious, that have limited impact, and that have a zero waste philosophy. As a consumer, if you are going to operate a business the quicker you can define your green changes and impacts for your customer the better.
What is 'ecolabelling'?
As more businesses rush to stand on this platform of eco-awareness and eco-sustainability - "we're green and buy our products" - there has to be check and balance. Eco-labelling is just starting to take affect in industry. You have Green Seal, which will come out and take a look at your operation. Lohas will come out and help you to determine how green your product is and where you need to improve. LEEDs has really done a fantastic job in LEED certifying buildings by different standards. And if you haven't met their standard then they mark you. What's so great about "ecolabelling" is it gives the consumer the ability to determine, by independent third party, if the product is truly green. And what's great about that is that "ecolabelling" will be the catalyst to remove the Greenwashing companies that are taking advantage of the consumer and really leveraging their Greenwashing and sentiments for the consumer to be tricked into buying their product and service when actually it's not green, they're just putting a green wash on their product and hoping the consumer will buy it. At some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, "ecolabelling" will be looked at by the consumer as mark of a green product.
Does it cost money to get my business green certified?
Absolutely, that is one of the misnomers, that you can go online and grab a few certification seals and start putting them on your business. You can't do that. That again is a big issue, which, I think needs to be addressed by different eco labelling organizations, in particular Green Seal should address that. What it takes is leadership from ownership, and support from everybody in the company to research and analyze what they are doing and how to make a sustainable choice - make a green choice in their company. Then as you do the quick fixes in your company, the best part is that you can then go on line and find an eco consultant, again just do a query search or ask around your industry. Have that consultant come in and analyze what you need to fix quickly, what are the big tasks that you need to do. After that consultant has helped you determine what you need to change, then you bring in Green Seal and you get the accreditation, and that does cost money. But it is an investment, it is not money that is not going to come back to you, because as you green your business, not only are you servicing your existing customers, but you are adding in this whole new group of very powerful, very networked, very aware customers that again will drive more business to you because they are supporting your green initiative, by you taking the green initiative without being mandated to do it.
