It’s always been advantageous to move what your company sells and does from a commodity to a niche. This is one of the key ways to achieve a profit because you get pricing power vs. trying to underbid other contractors who don’t either know their cost of being in business or choose to disregard charging what they need to.
Green is the niche I teach my one to one consulting clients to either get into or expand their efforts. The goal is to “Go Green Themselves. Educate Others How to Green. Sell Green Products and Services.”
I feel it’s our moral obligation to take better care of this planet but beyond this higher calling it resonates with so many people as the right thing to do whether we’re talking about your staff or your customers.
One of the many steps in this process is to build your own Green Team among your staff so that the mantra of “Go Green. Educate Green. Sell Green” becomes a reality and a rallying cry rather than an afterthought.
When selecting a “Green Team”, here are just some of the good criteria to use from the book called “101 Ways to Turn Your Business Green” by Rich Mintzer:
- Get support and guidance through the green team that can research and report on various means of improving sustainability within the company.
- Get members to share their expertise about how their area of the company works today and how we can be greener tomorrow.
- Consider a company-wide survey to see what ideas they have on going green and who wants to volunteer to be on the green team.
- Consider company-wide incentives for participation.
Note: This is ONLY if enthusiasm is waning! People who are participating need to know this is what the company is all about. - Meeting logistics typically cover:
- When
- Where
- Who
- Start with a list of some common goals
- Management involvement and support
- Share with everyone that suggestions by the green team can be acted but only within budget and time constraints.
At the initial meeting we should cover:
- Announce who the team leader is
- Appoint a secretary
- Discuss overall goals such as creating a “Sustainability Plan”
- Discuss finances
- Discuss and list some general areas in which the company could become more sustainable such as reducing waste, conversing energy and water, moving toward sustainable purchasing practices and using alternative means of transportation
- Discuss responsibilities of team members to research and report their findings
- Divide responsibilities so each member knows which area they will cover
- Determine some rough deadlines for reporting on possible solutions –to be put in Outlook tasks
- Develop a meeting schedule and determine a regular meeting place
- Determine the best means of communication between members, which will typically be email
- Discuss any training that might be of benefit to the team such as Webinars, seminars, or books everyone should read.
- Finally, we want to determine when the team or team leader will discuss the proposed changes with management so they can be prioritized, budgeted for and brought to fruition.
Here’s a good way to go about energizing the team to better serve your customers and the community you serve:
“Our company and our employees are dedicated to leading the way in demonstrating good Green Citizenship by becoming known as the place to go for all things Green. Hence, we’re seeking to be known as the Green Learning Center.
Our customers and our community that we serve need to know that whether it’s about energy saving, improvement in comfort and indoor air quality or health in general with things that are sustainable and better for us and our planet, we’re their resource. To us, that means were passionate about being Green ourselves and then sharing with other how they can do things take some small but effective steps for themselves so they can be greener and as appropriate we can help provide the products and services that will make them greener still.”
Do this and the planet will be a better place and everyone will benefit by it!