Although BP advertising, like the one online at WSJ.com tries to portray the company as fighting 24 hours a day to clean up their oil spill mess, WSJ.com points out today that BP’s incoming chief executive said it is time to scale back the effort to clean up the spill — but stressed that the commitment to rectify problems hasn’t weakened.

Bob Dudley, who heads BP’s spill-recovery effort and will take over as CEO in October, said it is “not too soon for a scaleback” in the cleanup, and “you probably don’t need to see people in hazmat suits on the beach” in areas where there is no oil. He added, however, that there is “no pullback” in BP’s commitment to clean up the spill.

As they say on SNL—REALLY!??!!?!?! Not too soon for a pull back in the cleanup?!?!?

I find it hard to believe that there will be “no pullback” after this statement.

Just because they used chemical dispersants that sunk the oil from the surface does not mean that the oil has miraculously disappeared.

I hope Congress and the public does not let BP off the hook this easily. They have helped to destroy marine life in the gulf region and should not leave until all oil has been cleaned and the area returned to its previous condition.

Write to your Congressmen.
Boycott the company.
Get involved.

Here’s to a greener tomorrow, today.
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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

American citizens are becoming more worried with the environment. The growth in this number is evident in the 1.4 million members and supporters of the most popular and oldest non-profit green organization, Sierra Club. With greater number of people making their residences more energy efficient, driving cars which are consume less fuel, recycling waste materials and purchasing environment friendly products, this trend has led to a substantial increase in the number of self-sufficient companies on Main Street selling to green consumers.

Small businesses selling green products have become a growing business community. At the same time businesses dealing in general products are increasing the percentage of green products they are offering.

Robert Piller, President of Eco Marketing Solutions, says his company, which produces custom printed eco-friendly products for retail, has seen a record number of retailers increasing their product mix to include green products. He states, “Last year, we had many retailers, both small and independent accounts, as well as major national chains, begin to increase the number of recycled and biodegradable items in their product mix and planograms. From recycled tote bags to biodegradable and reusable drinkware—insulated tumblers, stainless steel bottles and ceramic mugs, we saw a 36% increase in same store sales to these accounts.”

The following information is designed to enable local companies to recognize green opportunities and to better market to the green consumer.

How to Identify the Green Consumer?

While the truth remains that all green consumers are not the same, knowledge of a few of traits they have in common will enable businesses to make a more careful study of the market for eco-friendly products and services.
Read more…

Budgets and hiring in corporate environmental departments are on the rise. Those are core findings of the twice-annual “Green and the Economy” survey, conducted by GreenBiz Intelligence. While the overall economy still seems shaky, corporate environmental and sustainability departments seem to be on much more solid ground.

One big finding of this mid-year 2010 survey is that “the economic downturn is no longer driving most large companies’ environmental strategy”. That means environmental initiatives are being driven more on the basis of strategic business decisions, as they should be. Chief among them, according to the survey, is that “the economic downturn has taken a backseat to growing customer requirements as the principal driver of corporate environmental strategy.”

Hiring is up, too. Large companies, in particular, are increasing headcounts for environmental and sustainability roles. In early 2009, 27 percent of large companies reported hiring freezes and only 8 percent planned to increase headcount for environmental departments. Today, only 11 percent report hiring freezes and more than 28 percent plan to increase headcount, a major swing.

Although the economy has not fully recovered, signs are positive that the green economy is no fad and is here to stay.

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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

While various businesses are resorting to sustainable manufacturing and are taking many CSR plans progress is falling way short of the challenges of change in climate, energy security and dearth of natural recourses brought about by growing economic activity.

Furthermore increased efficiency in a few regions are getting offset by increased consumption in other.

The cost of measures practiced by climate policies can be kept low in the upcoming years if the governments make clear their climate change intentions for medium, as well as long durations. Using resources and energy more efficiently, and taking part in a variety of modernizations which work towards a green economy, will also produce fresh jobs and industries in the tears to come.

The present economic crisis and campaigns to deal with changes in climate should so be viewed as a chance to move to a more green economy. Short term improvements are not good enough. The industry has to reorganized and the technologies that exist and are advanced has to be applied cleverly to realize a green economy.

Modernization has for a long time been viewed as essential to economic performance as well as social well-being. Modernizations are also fundamental to improve practices of corporation that work for a green economy.

Innovations/modernizations towards a green economy are usually similar to other innovations/modernizations but with a couple of differences:
Read more…

Sofia Ribeiro, Founder and co-owner of Kiwano Marketing, mentions that in order to be a sustainable business, an organization needs to integrate its beliefs in three main areas:  planet, people, profits.  She says that “in order to own a truly sustainable brand, businesses must integrate environmental, social and economic sustainability across the 3 brand elements:

Products/Services, Business Standards and Company Style.

Products/Services: Self explanatory, but only one leg of this tripod of ideas.

Business Standards: These would include strategies, implementation, hiring practices, and mission.

  Company Style:This would include communications, image, logo and branding, etc.

 
 She goes on to note that in order to own a sustainable brand, businesses must also practice these 5 principles:

1.    Have a policy in place, documenting all the values and standards the business stands for and acts on.

2.     Incorporate the principles of environmental, social and economic sustainability into each of the business decisions.
Read more…

Electrolux is raising awareness of plastic waste in the oceans by putting plastic collected from waters around the world into some of their vacuum cleaners.

In their new initiative, known as Vac From The Sea, Electrolux will roll out a small line of vacuum cleaners made from plastic gathered from oceans and seas, in order to bring attention to how much plastic is ending up in floating around in marine environments and harming animals.

One researcher, Charles Moore,from the non-profit Algalita Marina Research Foundation in Long Beach, California, says a patch of plastic debris weighs about 3 million tons and covers an area twice the size of Texas is floating in the oceans. About 20 percent of the plastic in the oceans comes from ships or offshore platforms; the rest is blown, washed off the land or intentionally dumped, according to a preliminary report issued April 2004 by the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy.

Plastic waste in the ocean has more than tripled in the past 50 years, This is dangerous because not only does plastic that is in oceans kill birds and other creatures, but plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces over time, which is consumed by fish and ends up in the entire food chain.

Perhaps more recognition of this plastic waste growth will serve as a wake up call to the UN and sovereign nations to begin to clean up the seas — or will it take a few more deep oil rig disasters to awaken the sleeping giants?

Here’s to a greener tomorrow, today.

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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.