Make Hay Ethical E-Media

I recently read a great study on how consumers percieve green products and their decision making behind choosing green, or not. It got me thinking about how we as ethical businesses can reach out more into the mainstream by getting to understand the reasoning behind consumer choices.

Having the support and approval of like-minded folk is fantastic but to bring about real change we have to reach more people, especially people who aren’t yet making green/ethical steps or don’t understand how it will benefit them. I feel like its time to stop preaching to the converted and encourage widespread positive steps.

Understanding how consumers (whether that’s the public or other businesses) make decisions about where they spend their money can help us put responsible business on their radar.

Read the article ‘Colorblind: How Consumers See Green‘ on the Floov Website to find out more.

When Jez and I set up Make Hay we had two clear aims in mind. One was to do business our own (ethical) way and the other was to try to play some part in encouraging consumers to think about where they spend their hard-earned cash. Even a small business can be influential in helping consumers choose green and ethical products and services but simply existing as a green or ethical business isn’t enough.

There are many reasons why a consumer would choose a particular product over another and if we want consumers to make green choices then businesses have a very definite role to play.

I read a really fascinating report sent to me via the Floov newsletter which addressed this issue. According to the McKinsey article, called ‘Helping Green Products Grow‘, most consumers do have concerns about climate change and how their buying behaviour contributes to it but there is a definite gap between those concerns and consumer habits.

The article talks about the 5 barriers to buying green and how to break those down. They are:

• Educate consumers
• Build better products
• Be honest
• Offer more
• Bring the products to the people

Some very valuable marketing advice here…

Read the ‘Helping Green Products Grow’ report here

An issue which has come onto my radar today (articles I’ve read and conversations I’ve had) is people’s perception of green business. Whether this is positive or negative, I’ve been wondering on the whole what do you think?

In our experience of running Make Hay we’ve worked hard to demonstrate that we are genuine in our goal to provide a service which has a positive impact for people and the environment and that we’re good at what we do.

We know we’re not 100% green but we’re transparent about the practices we employ every day to be a responsible business. Similarly we talk a lot about good quality, standards compliant website design.

However, today I became aware that the perception of small ‘green’ businesses may be that they are unnecessarily expensive and may not be as ‘good’ as non-green businesses when it comes to providing a service. I wondered why this may be…

Here are a few questions that came to mind:

• Do people assume that if a business emphasises green working then their primary concern isn’t being at the top the industry that they work in?
• Do people feel that they don’t know enough about how or why a business is green and because of this assume its a gimmick which allows them to add a premium to their price?
• Have people had experiences where apparently green businesses have not ‘walked their talk’?

I have to say that in my experience dealing with small, genuine, ethical businesses has been positive. Colleagues and suppliers of ours are receptive to our needs because they’re like minded. Additionally, because they’re a small business they do not need to charge more to cover lots of overheads and they’re passionate about their industry because they know they can use it to make positive changes. I think they feel this way about us too.

What do you think? How do you view green or ethical businesses in the market place? How would you answer the questions above?

I would be grateful of any feedback you can give. Either leave a comment below or contact me. Your views will really help us to provide a better service. Thank you.

Whether its on Green Girls Global or in the Make Hay newsletters I’m always talking about ways that we can be greener at work.

The reason I go on about it so much is because its really easy yet the benefits can potentially go a long way.

I was glad to see The Big Green Switch run a feature this week on ‘Going Green in the Workplace‘. They break down the various aspects of an office based workplace and what we can do to make it greener. Check it out at www.biggreenswitch.co.uk/workplace

A few more things that I would have liked to have seen included in their feature are:

Green Electricity: Switch to a green energy provider for your office. There are quite a few alternatives available nowadays and you can find out about them on the Energywatch website

Save Water: Save water in the office as you would at home by using a ‘Save-a-Flush’ bag (or something similar) in the loo. A lot of UK water companies will send them to you if you ask.

Green Website Hosting: Although the company website isn’t strictly ‘housed’ in your office it is a large part of your business. Your website can be hosted on servers which are run on renewable energy. Take a look at our Green Website Hosting service www.green-hosting.co.uk

Write an environmental plan: It might not be easy to implement your new green practices straight away so write an environmental plan or policy along with the key decision makers and those responsible for ordering goods for the office. Using such a plan can help you commit to making green changes as well as setting more targets for the future.

Yesterday I received a message via Facebook from our friend and Greenfinder founder Kate saying:

“Interested in networking with other green/ethical/community or social enterprise groups in the Midlands?”

Are we ever?!

Kate has set up a Facebook group for like minded people in the Midlands to connect online and possibly meet up in the region for social events. There are lots of groups and networking events in London for ethical businesses but not really anything in the Midlands - until now.

So, if you have a Facebook profile look for the group ‘Green & Ethical Networking in the Midlands’ and come and join us.

If you don’t have a Facebook profile watch this space as I will add updates about progress of the group. Please feel free to contact me if you’re interested in being involved or have any queries or suggestions.