Author: bgrossman

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Looking ahead at the promise of wind power

I have written frequently on the benefits of renewable energy, specifically wind power. It is easy to build, emission free, and uses less than 5% of the land on which turbines are sited.

As a result, wind power is the fastest-growing energy source in the world. It has taken my industry by storm – we see more and more clients who want their products made in plants powered with wind power (using offsets), as it helps send a values-laden message to an organization’s constituents that they are trying to be good stewards of the environment.

And although this is leading to higher wind power costs, as well as rising prices for the turbine equipment (see article from last week in TreeHugger: article), this is not such a bad thing. As the aforementioned article states, “The fact that demand is so high pushes prices upward, but that will only serve to attract more players; investors will see that there’s money to be made with wind power and large industrial companies might shift more resources to their wind power divisions. In fact, demand has been high for long enough to show the market that wind power is not simply a passing fad.”

All of these developments will lead to greater wind power generation capacity which will help the US reduce its dependence on oil, the majority of which comes from foreign sources. It may take a number of years, but the promise is great – as demonstrated in Spain. During one week this spring, wind power accounted for just over 40% of the country’s overall energy demand. And although this number may be a bit high, due to lower-than-normal energy demand, this figure is very exciting and gives us a big goal to shoot for.

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Highlights from Boston Business Journal Green Business Summit


On Friday, May 16, the Boston Business Journal hosted its first-ever Green Business Summit.

I attended the morning event, and was impressed with the program, which included a keynote speech by Cape Wind CEO Jim Gordon. Here’s a link to an article on his talk:
http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2008/05/12/daily46.html?surround=lfn

CEO of Suffolk Construction John Fish’s comments were particularly interesting and penetrating. He cited a number of steps that his firm had taken that I believe represent an excellent roadmap or model for all companies in terms of how to inculcate a commitment to green solutions and sustainability within their organization.

They included the following:

  1. Change the culture – it is important to help people think and act green. Fish said steps to make this possible can be as small as putting a blue recycling bin next to a black trash can at each employee’s desk, reminding them of environmental choices every day.
  2. Training – At Suffolk, this includes a 3-day course on green construction for employees
  3. Be a catalyst for change by bringing all parties together – In Suffolk’s case, this means architects, owners and subcontractors. In our business, it is designers, marketing professionals and senior management.
  4. Affordability – People need to overcome the perception that going green is more expensive. In the construction industry, a green building that is more energy-efficient can save money in the long run.
  5. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – You need to create standards and specifics metrics by which to measure success.
  6. Create standards and specific measurements to reduce waste

For more coverage on the summit, please see the following article:

http://green.bizjournals.com/index.php/2008/05/16/panelists-discuss-keys-to-sustaining-sustainability/

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Video of my Harvard Green Marketing lecture available online


I wrote on this blog earlier this year that I was to give a lecture on green marketing to members of Harvard Extension School’s Environmental Management Program on Friday, February 29, 2008.

I am pleased to provide a link to a video of the discussion:

http://www.extension.harvard.edu/alumni/events/multimedia/video/green.jsp

Many thanks for your interest!

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Boston Globe article on Green Movement in Somerville, MA (where Grossman Marketing Group is headquartered)


Over the weekend, the Boston Globe wrote an article on a Somerville, MA green movement that is catching on. The program, called GoGreen Davis Square,focuses on Davis Square, which is near Tufts University, and it involves local businesses. The goal is to make Davis Square carbon neutral – which for a large group of service-based businesses, would be a huge accomplishment.

I wanted to point to a specific comment from local business owner, Jennifer Park, on the potential business benefits of going green, namely increased customer loyalty, something that I wrote about when I discussed the green efforts of the Lenox Hotel: Click here for that blog post.

Park, who owns two establishments, Diesel Cafe and Bloc11Cafe said of the effort: ‘‘I think it’s built — even increased — loyalty of our customers for the kind of people who care about this area,’’ she said. ‘‘It gets people thinking about this stuff.’’

Grossman Marketing Group is also involved in the program, although we are not located near Davis Square. As one of the largest employers in the city, and an organization that has benefited from “going green,” we believe it is important to demonstrate to other local businesses that going green is not simply an additional cost – rather it is good for the world in which we live, and has major benefits as well.

To read the entire Globe story, please click here: Article

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My firm recognized for expertise in sustainability audits on marketing programs

Recently, Dan Smolen, who heads up a talent-management firm in the Washington, DC area, wrote about my firm on his blog. The blog, called Sturdy Roots, is focused on “Recruiting, Hiring & Retaining Talented Green-Marketers.”

In an April 18th post, titled “How Green Is My Marketing Company?” Smolen recommends a third-party sustainability audit to truly determine how green your marketing communications really are. Specifically he recommended my firm.

He wrote: “We recommend contacting Ben Grossman at Grossman Marketing Group. GMG is a fourth-generation marketing services provider with origins in the commercial envelope business. Based in the Boston suburbs, GMG employs wind-power to run the presses that produce envelopes made of recycled paper. And for its other energy needs, it purchases wind-power credits at no extra charge to its customers.”

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WSJ: Firms Use Earth Day To Show Their Green Side


The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article around Earth Day last week, stating: “As corporate America gets greener, Earth Day is following the path of Valentine’s Day, Easter and Christmas, and turning into a corporate marketing opportunity. But instead of advertising chocolates or toys, companies are selling themselves and their greenness — and often, the biggest marketers are those with sizable carbon footprints.”

Please click here for a link to the article: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB120882594222933291-lMyQjAxMDI4MDI4MjgyMjI1Wj.html The article goes on to discuss various companies showcasing their “green” initiatives, as well as the fact that there was a surge in trademark applications in the United States last year for products or ideas bearing the words” green,” eco”or “clean.”

Although green marketing is important, as it allows organizations to communicate values-laden messages to their constituents, consumers are very smart, and it is critical that these initiatives are not simply words. Rather, they need to be backed up by actions throughout the organizations to reduce their carbon footprints. The winners of the green movement will be the ones that have true commitments to environmentally-sound business practices.

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Supply constraints hamper green product adoption


Earlier this week, a major health care client of my firm asked for some help with an upcoming community event, during which they hoped to distribute eco-friendly shopping bags to the 1000 expected attendees.

This client had previously given away these bags – see image attached to this article. Made from non-woven polypropylene, they are produced with recycled materials and are 100% recyclable. We reached out to the manufacturer that had originally provided them and were told that they were currently out of stock and could not guarantee delivery by the early June event date.

We then called several other best-in-class providers of environmentally-friendly products and were told that they were “wiped out by Earth Day” and that they were “hoping” that their next overseas shipment would arrive by late May. With this unreliable information in hand, I was forced to call my client and explain that we would likely have to look at alternatives for the event.

One oft-cited reason for companies not implementing green initiatives, especially throughout their marketing activities, is the perception that they will drive costs up. In fact, my firm recently surveyed a subset of our clients who have indicated interest in being “greener” and a startling 94% of respondents said that their main hesitation toward “greening” their business practices, and specifically their marketing collateral, is cost. Our in-the-field work has demonstrated that this is a misperception and that there are creative ways to reduce an organization’s carbon footprint without adding much, if any, cost. There may even be ways to save money!

However, these supply issues, which I experienced first hand yesterday, and the inability of product providers to provide better information or hope that they can be solved, are certainly another reason why organizations are not adopting environmentally-friendly business practices more rapidly. The inefficient supply chains of green product providers are significantly hurting adoption rates, and leading companies to take the paths of least resistance and relying upon the tried and true – and often “ungreen” – practices of the past. This must change.

One major barrier to success from creatives is that they often come up with great ideas but fail to execute (to read more on this, please see the fascinating work that Behance has done). A similar issue is facing “green” product providers: when they advertise the potential benefits of their innovative products, but fail to provide them in a timely fashion, they are holding the movement back and giving major corporate buyers the excuse to go back to their ways of the past. My hope is that over the next several months and years, green product providers can work to solve these supply chain issues. I know the demand is there.

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CoStar Study Finds LEED, Energy Star Bldgs. Outperform Peers

There has been increasing news about “green” buildings, and the importance of LEED Certification. I was on the U.S. Green Building Council’s website last weekend (USGBC oversees the LEED system) and came across a news release on a study done by CoStar Group, a leading real estate research firm, on the financial benefits of building “green.” The findings were pretty interesting, and underscored the importance of “green” business practices. Below please find the first part of the report.

A new study by CoStar Group has found that sustainable “green” buildings outperform their non-green peer assets in key areas such as occupancy, sale price and rental rates, sometimes by wide margins. The results indicate a broader demand by property investors and tenants for buildings that have earned either LEED® certification or the Energy Star® label and strengthen the “business case” for green buildings, which proponents have increasingly cast as financially sound investments. According to the CoStar study, LEED buildings command rent premiums of $11.33 per square foot over their non-LEED peers and have 4.1 percent higher occupancy. Rental rates in Energy Star buildings represent a $2.40 per square foot premium over comparable non-Energy Star buildings and have 3.6 percent higher occupancy. And, in a trend that could signal greater attention from institutional investors, Energy Star buildings are selling for an average of $61 per square foot more than their peers, while LEED buildings command a remarkable $171 more per square foot. Andrew Florance, president and CEO of CoStar, called the findings a “strong economic case for developing green buildings” at a recent seminar hosted by the District of Columbia Building Industry Association (DCBIA) where he presented results from the CoStar study last month.

To read the full release, please click here: http://www.costar.com/news/Article.aspx?id=D968F1E0DCF73712B03A099E0E99C679

To view CoStar’s full presentation of their findings, please visit: http://www.costar.com/partners/costar-green-study.pdf

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BusinessWeek Online announces Green Business newsletter


As a past subscriber of BusinessWeek, I recently received an email announcing the launch of a monthly newsletter on green business. According to their website, the newsletter, which will be published from Spring 2008 until September 2008, is a “monthly digest of our reporting on how climate change, alternative energy development, and the sustainability movement are affecting business.”

At first glance, it looks like a helpful resource for anyone who is interested in green business issues. This month’s focus is green design. To learn more, please visit the following website:

http://www.businessweek.com/green_business/newsletter/index.html

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Green approaches help Boston-based hotelier


Over the weekend, I had the chance to read an interesting profile on Tedd Saunders, a principal of his family’s Saunders Hotel Group and a leading proponent of “green” business practices in the lodging industry. The article, published in Connecticut College’s quarterly magazine CC: Connecticut College Magazine, discussed Saunders’ (Class of 1983 from Connecticut) long-time commitment to the environment, and was titled “On The Green List: Hotelier Tedd Saunders ’83 is helping the world’s largest industry set environmentally friendly standards.”

Saunders, in addition to his ownership stake in his family’s business, also founded Ecological Solutions Inc. in 1992, an environmental consulting firm focused on the lodging industry. A web link to the article from CC Magazine was not available. However, to read more about Tedd, please see the following link from the Green Lodging News: http://www.greenlodgingnews.com/content.aspx?id=1663

According to Green Lodging News, an industry publication on “green” issues, at the Saunders Hotel Group’s 212-room Lenox Hotel in Boston, environmental retrofits and other thoughtful business practices have produced impressive annual savings: 1.7 million gallons of water, 110,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, 37 tons of trash from the waste stream, 175 trees through paper recycling. For these and other efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, the Environmental Protection Agency recognized the Lenox with its Energy Star rating in February 2008. Please see an article in the Boston Globe for more information:
http://www.boston.com/realestate/news/articles/2008/02/12/how_green_is_my_building/

For more information on the Lenox Hotel’s green efforts, please see the following page: http://www.lenoxhotel.com/environment.html

The main takeaway from reading about the pioneering work that Saunders and his family are doing is that green business practices can not only result in cost savings (water, energy, etc.) but they can also strengthen a company’s relationships with their existing customers and attract new business from eco-minded travelers. In fact, in 2006 the Lenox was included in Condé Nast Traveler Magazine’s Green List. What’s more impressive about this is that the Lenox was the only urban hotel in the world to be honored. (Here’s a link: http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/10419)