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Deb Buxton, co-owner of New England Forest Products in Greenfield,
talks candidly about the local foresty industry and its place in the global
marketplace. To Buxton's right is Paul Lockwood of the NH Department
of Environmental Services; at left, is John Robinson, a marketing and
journalism teacher at Franklin Pierce University.
Money talks and so do marketplace buzzwords, such as “Green,” “Sustain- ability” and “Eco-friendly.” Exactly how to achieve these goals and how “greening up” affects a business’s bottom line, though, isn’t always so clear.
“How green is my company?” and “how can I profit off being green?” are questions some business leaders are contemplating these days in the search for new markets.
An Earth Day forum at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge on April 21 addressed these and other ambiguities. Area business leaders and marketing experts shared their experiences with green business practices and tips on ways to start moving in that direction.
Why go green?
“An organization isn’t an entity on its own. It’s part of the environment that it’s in,” says John Robinson, a panelist at the forum Thesday. “Organizations exist with the consent of the environment. The environment is going green.”
Robinson teaches marketing and journalism at Franklin Pierce University and is a senior copywriter at Concept Communications, a marketing firm in Nashua.
Robinson’s message is clear: If green business is “drawing greater consent to continue to exist,” as he says, it will thrive over and above non-green businesses.
While staying alive is Robinson’s rationale for “greening up,” as he put it, accountability was David Lunati’s, director of marketing at Monadnock Paper Mills Inc. in Bennington.
Sound environmental practices go hand-in-hand with good business practices, Lunati says during his keynote speech at the forum. “Sustainability is a market-driven phenomenon,” he says.
“The jury is still out,” Lunati admits, when it comes to the cost-benefit analysis of green practices for business across the board, but says about Monadnock Paper, “In our case, it’s producing dividends.”
Moving towards greener practices doesn’t have to be expensive or grand, either. “There are low-cost ways you can do this,” he says.
For Deb Buxton, who owns New England Forest Products in Greenfield with her husband, Dave Buxton, being green is the responsible thing to do for the Earth, the local economy and future generations.
“Sometimes, it’s not about the money,” she says. “Sometimes, you just have to do the right thing.”
Green labels
Savvy consumers are questioning labels on packages that make “green” claims, says Lunati. Still, sorting through the “noise,” as he put it, of marketing gimmicks and separating the green “posers” from the real deal can be tricky.
But, in the end, he says, “sound science, honesty and transparency” in labeling will win out. Don’t overstate the environmental benefit, he advises. Otherwise, he says, eventually consumers will “call you out on it.”
Since there’s no official enforcement testing the authenticity of “green” labels, he says, “the biggest consequence is [consumers] not buying the product.”
To take advantage of the marketing benefits of green advertising, Robinson says, cleaner ways of doing things has to be a priority “from the boardroomialhe lunchroom to the loading dock.” Otherwise, one of the gatekeepers — the media or consumers — will expose the deception. It isn’t enough to put “green lipstick on a pig” and call it pretty, he says.
When it’s done honestly, Robinson says, “marketing becomes an expression of the organization’s green commitment” and not a cliché. “It becomes a cliché when you’re doing things to make yourself have the appearance of caring, but you’re not really walking the walk,” he says.
Paul Lockwood a panelist from N.H. Pollution Prevention, a state environmental assistance program, says one of the best ways take advantage of the green marketing craze is to educate consumers and get them involved in the business’s green initiatives. The reusable shopping bags sold at some stores is a good example of this, he says.
Where to go for help
New Hampshire’s Environmental Assistance Programs — N.H. Pollution Prevention, Small Business Technical Assistance, Occupational Safety & Health Consultation, Small Business Development Center — are excellent resources for businesses that want to go green, according to Lockwood.
The free and confidential assistance programs, he says, have helped 250 businesses over the last 18 years with developing green business models, economic development and environmental issues. The programs don’t do any kind of enforcement, but they do offer technical assistance, consulting and manuals.
More information about the programs and resources for businesses is available at the N.H. Department of Environmental Services’ Web site under the tab “Business.” See http://des.nh.gov/business/. Also at the Web site are two documents of interest: “Making Your Business Greener Workbook” and “Planning for Profits: A Guide to Pollution Prevention for New Hampshire Businesses 2008.”
The making of a GREEN economy
Monadnock region business leaders discuss environmental transition at FPU Earth Day forum
By Priscilla Miller
Monadnock
Ledger-Transcript Staff
talks candidly about the local foresty industry and its place in the global
marketplace. To Buxton's right is Paul Lockwood of the NH Department
of Environmental Services; at left, is John Robinson, a marketing and
journalism teacher at Franklin Pierce University.
Money talks and so do marketplace buzzwords, such as “Green,” “Sustain- ability” and “Eco-friendly.” Exactly how to achieve these goals and how “greening up” affects a business’s bottom line, though, isn’t always so clear.
“How green is my company?” and “how can I profit off being green?” are questions some business leaders are contemplating these days in the search for new markets.
An Earth Day forum at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge on April 21 addressed these and other ambiguities. Area business leaders and marketing experts shared their experiences with green business practices and tips on ways to start moving in that direction.
Why go green?
“An organization isn’t an entity on its own. It’s part of the environment that it’s in,” says John Robinson, a panelist at the forum Thesday. “Organizations exist with the consent of the environment. The environment is going green.”
Robinson teaches marketing and journalism at Franklin Pierce University and is a senior copywriter at Concept Communications, a marketing firm in Nashua.
Robinson’s message is clear: If green business is “drawing greater consent to continue to exist,” as he says, it will thrive over and above non-green businesses.
While staying alive is Robinson’s rationale for “greening up,” as he put it, accountability was David Lunati’s, director of marketing at Monadnock Paper Mills Inc. in Bennington.
Sound environmental practices go hand-in-hand with good business practices, Lunati says during his keynote speech at the forum. “Sustainability is a market-driven phenomenon,” he says.
“The jury is still out,” Lunati admits, when it comes to the cost-benefit analysis of green practices for business across the board, but says about Monadnock Paper, “In our case, it’s producing dividends.”
Moving towards greener practices doesn’t have to be expensive or grand, either. “There are low-cost ways you can do this,” he says.
For Deb Buxton, who owns New England Forest Products in Greenfield with her husband, Dave Buxton, being green is the responsible thing to do for the Earth, the local economy and future generations.
Green labels
Savvy consumers are questioning labels on packages that make “green” claims, says Lunati. Still, sorting through the “noise,” as he put it, of marketing gimmicks and separating the green “posers” from the real deal can be tricky.
But, in the end, he says, “sound science, honesty and transparency” in labeling will win out. Don’t overstate the environmental benefit, he advises. Otherwise, he says, eventually consumers will “call you out on it.”
Since there’s no official enforcement testing the authenticity of “green” labels, he says, “the biggest consequence is [consumers] not buying the product.”
To take advantage of the marketing benefits of green advertising, Robinson says, cleaner ways of doing things has to be a priority “from the boardroomialhe lunchroom to the loading dock.” Otherwise, one of the gatekeepers — the media or consumers — will expose the deception. It isn’t enough to put “green lipstick on a pig” and call it pretty, he says.
When it’s done honestly, Robinson says, “marketing becomes an expression of the organization’s green commitment” and not a cliché. “It becomes a cliché when you’re doing things to make yourself have the appearance of caring, but you’re not really walking the walk,” he says.
Paul Lockwood a panelist from N.H. Pollution Prevention, a state environmental assistance program, says one of the best ways take advantage of the green marketing craze is to educate consumers and get them involved in the business’s green initiatives. The reusable shopping bags sold at some stores is a good example of this, he says.
Where to go for help
New Hampshire’s Environmental Assistance Programs — N.H. Pollution Prevention, Small Business Technical Assistance, Occupational Safety & Health Consultation, Small Business Development Center — are excellent resources for businesses that want to go green, according to Lockwood.
The free and confidential assistance programs, he says, have helped 250 businesses over the last 18 years with developing green business models, economic development and environmental issues. The programs don’t do any kind of enforcement, but they do offer technical assistance, consulting and manuals.
More information about the programs and resources for businesses is available at the N.H. Department of Environmental Services’ Web site under the tab “Business.” See http://des.nh.gov/business/. Also at the Web site are two documents of interest: “Making Your Business Greener Workbook” and “Planning for Profits: A Guide to Pollution Prevention for New Hampshire Businesses 2008.”
N.H ENVIRONMENTAL
ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
N.H. Pollution Prevention: 603-271-2956
Small Business Technical Assistance: 603-271-1379
Occupational Safety & Health
Consultation: 603-271-8590
Small Business Development
Center: 603-897-8484
click to see our native forest products available:
lumber | flooring | millwork | bark mulch | cordwood | additional products
lumber | flooring | millwork | bark mulch | cordwood | additional products
