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6 Fun Ways to Start a Business and Save the Planet, Too

September 23, 2014 by Rosemary Leave a Comment

By Diana Gomez

Saving the planet has to happen organically, one individual at a time. As an entrepreneur, you have the world at your fingertips to do as you please.

The decision to start your own online business is alone a huge step in the eco-friendly direction. Think of the good you’ll do by staying at home and off the road, for instance. Fewer overhead costs also means less energy used. You’re the boss, so you have the right to decide that you’ll recycle daily or send vendors paperless bills.

But beginning your own business means you can do more than using less paper — it means you can actually make your living with a green business idea. The possibilities are endless, but here are a few ideas to help get the creative juices flowing.

volunteers recycling

Recycled Clothing Shop

Why not start an online clothing store? With resources and platforms like Etsy available, it’s easy to do your part for the planet by selling used goods, turning your products into recycled ones. Whether it’s vintage clothes, designer labels, or regular modern wear, you have a market. And the best part? Besides an environmentally satisfying career, you get to shop for a living. And once you get started, you’ll find that friends and friends of friends will even give you their used stuff to sell — for free.

Upcycled Furniture

So maybe hoarding clothes isn’t your thing. Love to work with your hands? Try your hand(s) at taking old, thrifted or roadside furniture and turning it into a work of art. Take a look around and you’ll notice that more and more homes are full of furniture that’s used but endearingly rustic. Many stores are even filled with tables and chests that are brand new, but made to look shabby chic. How senseless is that when you can create the real deal? People will appreciate the heart you put into your work. And you’ll be saving a tree or two in the process.

Green Events

It doesn’t take a serious environmentalist to figure out how wasteful events can be. And whether it’s a business meeting, a wedding or a festival, bringing people together often brings up the problem of wasted materials, energy and water. By becoming a green event planner, you can use your eco-friendly know-how to make decisions that are not only mindful of the planet but also ones that clientele will be grateful for. It can be frustrating attending a concert that doesn’t recycle beer bottles or a nighttime event that’s unnecessarily lit up. By making sound decisions in your event planning, it can not only save you money, but the business image it generates can only be positive as a result.

Organic Foods

The yummiest thing you could do as a business owner is to grow your own vegetables and consider selling them at your local farmer’s market. The organic movement is in full force, and so it’s a great time to use that as a launching pad for your dream (green) business. If cooking’s more your thing, consider a baking venture. Yes, you can make it as an online baker! There are plenty of sellers on Etsy who make their living sending beautiful edible goods off to faraway places. There’s no reason you can’t get in on that, giving yourself an edge by making your products totally organic. When possible, use ingredients you can grow yourself or buy locally, like herbs and fruits.

Nutritionist

If you’re laughing at the thought of growing foods or cooking them, but you’re still interested in the notion of being good to your body, why not start an online business as a green nutritionist? The number of people needing guidance away from processed, convenient foods toward whole, real food is a growing one. Why not elect yourself as their savior? You could go the extra mile and create (or hire someone to) an app to complement your efforts by providing clients with a place to track what goes in and helps people choose what to eat next. Forget counting calories and tracking how many steps you walk in a day. Get back to the basics and help people eat more like our grandparents and less like Homer Simpson.

Green Trade Sites

Why not take the idea of renting a movie by mail further and apply it to other types of used goods, which saves money on purchasing tons of new stuff? I read an article recently about a guy who’s applying the notion to renting used ties online. Never buy a new tie again! Why not rent out a hat by mail or a set of tea cups for a special party? The creative options are endless.

What kind of online green business have you been impressed with lately?

Author’s Bio: Diana Gomez is the Marketing Coordinator at Lyoness America, where she is instrumental in the implementation of marketing and social media strategies for USA and Canada. Lyoness, an international shopping community and loyalty rewards program, sponsors the Lyoness Greenfinity Foundation, a charitable organization actively involved in sustainably protecting the environment, realizing innovative climate protection projects worldwide, and promoting the use of renewable energies.

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: bc, business ideas, environmental, green

Bikes Are Green Wheelchairs Are Not — Is the Planet More Important Than the People?

September 17, 2009 by Liz Leave a Comment

Drive Throughs and Visible Authenticity

It seems from the second that I got into the car with Hope and Theresa to the minute they dropped me off at home, my social media road trip was an experience interwoven with more social than media. My plan had been for weekend retreat focused on bringing people back into SOBCon2010, seeing more green trees and less concrete, and getting space enough to open my mind. Time to reflect while driving or sitting alone can re prioritize which ideas bubble up to get attention. Serendipity can intervene to lend light to those thoughts.

Simple conversational phrases started trending …

  • how quiet the car is … but it’s not a hybrid.
  • I didn’t bring my metal water bottle. I’ll have to buy an earth-killing plastic one.
  • look at the view at the Grand Geneva Resort — all that green!
  • I wouldn’t call this handicapped accessible … We checked two of the buildings totally are.

We’re obsessing about causes. We were just talking. But still there it was. Statements about how we cared for the earth and how we cared about the people who more around it were coming up.

At breakfast yesterday, Beth Rosen, and I discussed small nonprofits that we want to make part of SOBCon2010: BeBrightPink.org, inclusionsolutions.com, and job angels. We made a plan to find two others one that support people and the planet — one green and one that helps teachers and kids.

The conversations were all so normal for the social media crowd that they didn’t really stand out.

Bikes Are Green Wheelchairs Are Not

Then on the way home, I got an email and shortly after a phone call from Patrick Hughes about something disturbing. Here’s some of what it said.

.. I just saw some press about the company Burgerville in Oregon who is now allowing bikes in the drive thru and touting it – good for them.

However, I am frustrated.

S woman 3 weeks ago, is denied on her bike in Oregon at a drive thru and within 24 hours they have a new bike policy and are welcoming bikes with open arms. http://bikeportland.org/2009/09/15/burgerville-announces-bike-event-new-signage/

2 years ago, as you know, Karen Putz [went] through a drive thru and is denied service because she is deaf… she does the same thing and goes home and blogs about it, but because it’s a disability issue and not a “green” issue, it goes to lawyers vs the marketing dept. why isn’t disability considered GREEN? They dragged her and this issue out for 2 years … http://www.diversityinc.com/public/3158.cfm

Several weeks ago a woman went into a drive thru in Minnesota in her wheelchair and was denied and no one really came to her rescue either… she was [labeled] as a radical … [W]hen restaurants have a 24 hour policy — meaning the main restaurant is closed but the drive thru is still open — they ARE violating the ADA by not allowing everyone to be able to spend their money.
http://thecrustycurmudgeon.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/wheelchair-woman-denied-service-at-white-castle-drive-thru/

Having legal departments tell their people to just put up disability stickers is not the answer anymore!

So what i am learning after many years in this deal is that when it comes to disability issues, it goes to the legal department and unless someone is suing them, there is no problem. you can talk all day about how big the disability market is however it’s still going to be relegated to legal and not marketing…

Will the GREEN people help ALL people? What if businesses aren’t considered green unless they are also inclusive? When will disability issues go to the marketing departments vs. legal?

Does all of this make sense? How do we tell this story?

Which brings me back to the social in social media and makes me wonder whether those corporations think planet is more important than people living on it?

How authentic is a company that can’t see the problem with policies that conflict like that?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

Filed Under: SOB Business, Successful Blog Tagged With: accessibility, bc, green, LinkedIn

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