The State of Green Business: Greener Lifestyles Are Trade-ups, Not Trade-offs
- Feb 17, 2010
- In Action
- Green@eBay
- Amy Skoczlas Cole
Last week, several hundred business and non-profit executives gathered in Chicago to reflect on the "state of green business.” Some would argue that last year was a pretty tough year for the business world in general, let alone the companies trying to incorporate green values into their operations, and so it was an interesting event to see what green means to companies these days. I braved a snowstorm – and a minor earthquake – in Chicago to talk about what we’re up to at eBay.
The event was organized by one of the godfathers of green business thinking – Joel Makower – and his team at GreenBiz.com. The biggest surprise for participants? Green business surprisingly thrived despite the harsh economic environment.
The conversations we had there were encouraging. It’s clear that businesses of all shapes and sizes are making real efforts to be more sustainable. And an increasing number of companies are extending those efforts to the people who buy their products and services, too.
As more and more companies seek to offer environmentally friendly products, it’s also clear shoppers are getting more and more confused. New research shows that while consumers continue to care about the health of the planet, they also have to balance that with other concerns, like tightening pocketbooks. As I was listening to the conversation, it occurred to me – not for the first time – that not everyone will think about buying green if we are asking consumers to make impossible trade-offs, or if we make it so complicated to live green that it takes a PhD to figure it out.
At eBay, we think about green shopping a bit differently
Within the eBay Green Team community, we think about green shopping a bit differently. Many of you have pointed out on this site that, often, the things that we do to save money are also good for the planet. We believe that the old environmentalist creed “reduce, reuse, recycle” pays off in more ways than one. And here, we are all about relying on a community of people who support eachother in making greener choices… and who believe that a greener lifestyle can be a trade up, not a trade off.
That’s why it was such a pleasure to be able to sit down with green business reporter/ guru, Marc Gunther, and talk about what’s going on within the eBay Green Team. The result of that conversation was a terrific article on “Why eBay is a green giant.”
The best part for me is that it sometimes feels like we’re swimming upstream with a pretty straightforward message – the greenest product is often the one that already exists – when all around us green marketing is getting more complicated and confusing. So it was nice to see the validation that we may be on to something. But what really matters is whether it makes sense to our community. So what do you think? Are we on the right track, thinking about how people can help the planet and their pocketbooks at the same time?
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