Add Green to Your Green: Attract Customers by Emphasizing Environment

Even as little as ten years ago, if you advertised your company as an ”eco-friendly” or green business to help sell your services, it wasn’t much more effective than spray-on tan is for sunblock.   While there have always been diehard green-ists out there, most people weren’t nearly as environmentally invested as they are today. 

HVACNews recently posted a blog on their site that also reinforced this idea.  Johnson Controls, #14 of the U.S. top 500 corporations, was recently named Top Company in Green Rankings by Newsweek.  For a big fat corporation like Johnson Controls, whose history dates back to the invention of the first electric thermostat – receiving this kind of status in the Green business industry takes a lot of dedication and committment to being eco-friendly.  Staying gregariously green amidst every employee and in every facet, reach, branch, and sub-division of the corporation – is no small task.  Just think about how much effort would need to be put into the administrative side alone, for a giant like Johnson Controls – in order to be named the Top Ranking Green Company.   They would have to be – and are, apparently – careful about their eco-friendliness on all levels.  With 130,000 employees – that’s some hella committment. 

 Newsweek didn’t just pull out a few website rankings or look at a few datasheets to rate them, either.  They joined up with some pretty serious Green Energy groups and researchers to rank companies on things like performance, company policies, protocols and reputation (HVACNews.com).

So what’s my point here?  Why do we care whether Johnson Controls, maker of energy-efficient automotive batteries, auto interiors and other energy products, systems and services – was awarded this Green energy status?  Well, simply put, it’s a huge example of just how important eco-friendly, green efforts by any business, has become.  Let’s put this in allegorical format.

A guy named Tom has a small Home and Commercial remodeling and repair services business, with 4 employees.  He bids on a remodeling project, posted by Mr. Potential Customer on myServiceConnection.  The awarded job comes down to two providers: Tom’s business and one other remodeling business, by the name of Green Paint, LLC.  Mr. Potential Customer will award the very handsomely paying project based upon some further questions he’ll use to evaluate them.  One of the things Mr. Potential Customer asks is, ” Just out of curiousity, what do you do with the old paint that you scrape off before you re-paint the walls?”  Tom answers: Oh we have a weekly drop-off at a land-fill, which is where we get rid of most of our junk and scraps left-over from jobs we do.  Then Green Paint LLC responds: The paint we scrape off is recycled into latex-based materials; all handled by a company that specializes in green re-usage of industrial, trade and labor scraps and waste.”  As it turns out, environmental responsibility is pretty important to Mr. Potential Customer, especially in regards to things like turpentine, paint thinner, and other materials with potentially toxic fumes and by-products. 

Emphasizing eco-friendliness in your Home & Commercial services certainly won’t work against you, so why not start incorporating more of a green attitude?  Sure, it does take a bit more effort; more conscientiousness about what you throw away, and yes – you will have to occasionally go out of your way to dispose of waste in a green-responsible manner.  But doing so is not only more and more crucial to the world we live in, but beneficial to your business reputation.  Environmental responsibility has become a staple civil duty for everyone.  It just might clinch your next job, too.

 sources cited

www.HVACNews.com.  Johnson Controls, 10/21/10. Blog. 12/17/10.

photo source: activerain.com