When you hear the phrase “Green Marketing”, what image pops in your mind? Some of you will think of traditional and web marketing approaches to eco-friendly industries. Others will think of strategically eco-friendly methods to marketing which can be applied to any business.
My business aims to be the former. But I get there by also being the latter. Let’s be intellectually honest at the outset: even if we save trees from being chopped because we read newspapers and magazines on Kindles, iPads, and Nooks, the energy and resources necessary to power your servers and create your computers didn’t materialize from thin air. You pay a price for living in the information age, whether you realize it or not.
Take a baby step: hosting wisely
Did you know that the average server produces the same emissions as a 15 mpg SUV? I didn’t… until this year. Now, I’m not here to tell you which hosting company to use. All I’ll tell you is that the hosting company I use, Host Gator, has a negative carbon footprint. All of HostGator shared and reseller servers are 130% wind powered! That’s right. HostGator is giving more energy back than it’s using. That’s the equivalent of protecting 551 acres of forest for a year. How awesome is that?
Not every company can go green overnight. I realize that. What started out as a perfectly acceptable business mindset 20 years ago has been turned on its ear, and business owners are scrambling to determine the best ways to make their company’s green. Not only is it the responsible thing to do. It’s going to become the norm at some point. Early adopters become brilliant trendsetters and the stragglers are seen as uncaring or indifferent.
Do you make sound business decisions that also give back to our planet? If not, start small by switching your hosting to a greener provider today.