IT'S EASY BEING GREEN: HOW TO GET GREEN WHEN GOING GREEN (Originally published at Beyond the Pod Blog)

Even Sesame Street’s Kermit the Frog getting in on the action! He now says, “I guess it is easy being green.”

The market trend to assist companies and consumers to go green has only just emerged as the most dominant consumer market force on the planet.
On the heels of the “Live Earth Internet” that set a new record for streaming as “MSN says there were more than 9 million streams of the environmental advocacy concert” I wanted to track down some resources that a company might use to be come or turn “green.” Consumers want to go green and they want the businesses they buy from to be green as well. To some degree, consumers want the help of their local multi-national in turning green.
Consider the rock-star status of the CEO of BP. Gordon Brown has spoken about Britain becoming a pioneer in this revolutionary sector of “green.” In fact The Guardian Unlimited has taken the lead form Gordon Brown and dominate the press in the breadth of scope of their coverage. If you haven’t seen the coverage, you should. You’ll see nothing like it in the states—at least not at the same press “status.”
But you don’t have to be British Petroleum to go green — especially not in the high growth area of responsible consumerism particularly green purchasing of electronics. Consider Earth 911, and their recent piece on Green Purchasing and Leasing.
The next obvious step it seems to me is that businesses will sprout up designed to help other businesses capture the green marketplace. Consumers have clearly taken the higher ground on the environment and other green issues—go green and you get our wallet share.
Lo and behold, with little effort, I’ve found a handful of organizations focused on this particular “green me” marketplace. Consider these resources from CNNMoney of all places:
Friends of the Earth Scotland: Their Online Audit is designed to answer office-related environmental questions and whether certain strategies are affordable for your business.
California Waste Management Board: Learn where and how to recycle your goods.
Co-op America: Founded in 1982, this not-for-profit membership organization’s mission is to harness economic power to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.
The Green Office: This online retailer offers recycled, environmentally friendly, and sustainable business products, school supplies, and paper.
Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) : Dedicated to accelerating the development and use of technologies that radically improve the quality, durability, energy efficiency, environmental performance, and affordability of America’s housing.
But also consider broader based product designers and business consultancies entering this marketplace:
Carbon Consulting
Climate Care
Futerra
Forum for the Future
Carbon Trust
My list has an EMEA lean because I used the Guardian to track down these resources so I am sure I missed at least one or two U.S. companies.
Though low value and not very beneficial to the average consumer, for the altruistic here are the EPA Approved “lease”and “end-of-life” trade-in programs.
Furthermore, take a look at what Staples is up to.
Which at long last brings me to my non-obvious point: retailers and manufacturers of electronics have difficulty making sense of this green effort. They have had some success, as I have shown above, in the “junk” business. But that is a low visibility and high cost service to the consumer.
Consider how a retailer could “help” their consumer feel good about their next purchase. The retailer could offer to “re-productize” the consumer’s old electronic device. The consumer receives an extremely high value of store credit in exchange for their device. With The Drop Spot, the consumer puts the device back into the marketplace at a lower price point for others and they reduce their own carbon footprint. In terms of biomass the purchase of a new device can be offset by offering an existing device to the secondhand marketplace.
The retailer, by offering The Drop Spot services, gets to ride the green trend upward in the marketplace — getting out of the trash bin and into the front window display: “Get Green! We pay top dollar for you to recycle your iPod and Game System.”
For the nostalgic, here’s a youtube clip of the pre-commercialized Frog Anthem: