As parents and grandparents as well as global citizens, we’re all interested in preserving the planet for future generations. But going green is also sound business. The Natural Marketing Institute estimates that the green marketplace (defined as products that are organic, natural or have an environmentally friendly benefit) is estimated to reach $420 billion by 2010.
According to Nielsen, half of Americans say they want to buy green, but don’t. It’s believed that this is a byproduct of consumer confusion about just what constitutes green and whether or not the price paid for a green product is worth it. As marketers of consumer goods, the direct response industry has an opportunity to take the lead on such matters by simply offering consumers cost-effective packaging that uses less plastic and is recyclable.
At SF Video, we are doing our part by promoting new green packaging solutions that reduce CO2 emissions, use less energy and are made from eco-friendly materials. What does all that mean? If you distribute CDs or DVDs as part of your product, now the discs themselves as well as the package they arrive in, including the insert that secures the discs, can be made of materials that are 100 percent recyclable. Marketers can take an environmentally conscious stand that will reflect well on their brand and be welcomed by all stakeholders from their customers to employees, not to mention Mother Earth.
If you need a reminder of why such stewardship is imperative, check out this video from Oprah. It profiles the Great Pacific Garbage Dump, an enormous floating pile of plastic sewage thought to be twice the state of Texas and large enough to stretch from the coast of California to Japan. According to the Huffington Post’s David Burdick, “Discarded water bottles from Iowa, takeout containers from New York City, flip-flops from California and plastic debris from the world over make their way from land into storm drains, streams, rivers and other waterways. They are carried out to sea, where they get trapped in swirling ocean currents - forming a giant, floating trash dump of an enormous proportion - no matter how you quantify it.”
While the magnitude of such ecological disasters may seem insurmountable, if business owners think of themselves as more than a drop in that ocean capable of embracing substantive change, together we can turn the tide.
Steven Feinberg is the CEO of SF Video and the current Treasurer and a member of the Board of Directors of the Electronic Retailing Association. Celebrating its 20th year, SF Video is the leader in DVD and CD replication and duplication to the direct marketing industry. Steven can be reached at 1-800-545-5865 or steven@sfvideo.com.
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