Great Lakes Brewing Company sources its ingredients locally to green its operations

But there’s hope and help for the Coal Burgers of the world. Entrepreneur Magazine, in its November issue, features an article on the five-step guide to marketing a green business called: Selling Green. They called me as a source for their piece the day after I wrote about Coal Burger, so the information was top-of-mind. Here are writer Matt Villano’s five steps to green marketing that he culled from his interviews with marketers and business owners across the country.

1. See What Your Customers Want – Do they even care if you’re green? Bardessono, a luxury hotel and spa in Yountville, CA, made this mistake.
2. Define What Green Means to You – Green has many nebulous meanings to consumers and proprietors alike. Ava Anderson does a nice job of explaining what being natural means in their non-toxic personal care items.
3. Connect the Dots – Answer consumers’ questions: Does it work? Is it good for my budget, my family, and our planet?
4. Practice What You Preach – Are you backing up your green position with sustainable actions that matter? Green Apple Cleaners in New York walk the talk.
5. Reinvest in the Community – The old think globally, act locally adage. Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland only sources its ingredients locally.

The article is filled with case studies that demonstrate each of the five steps to marketing yourself as green. However, I’d like to remind you that being green isn’t so much about your marketing as it is about your philosophy and action. Being sustainable should be a natural bi-product of how you approach your business with planetary efficiency and healthy products as your highest priorities. That’s when your green story starts to get really interesting.

Do you have a favorite company that is doing its green marketing well? Please let us know below.

That’s what Michele and I found ourselves doing right after the Holidays this year. And it has been an education for us ALL.

Not only did our son, Caed, earn a 3.0 grade average in the second semester of his junior year (I especially commend him for his guts in changing schools halfway through his high school career), but Michele and I learned what a difference a truly engaged, inventive and industrious principal can make on students that typically get the short end of the stick in our public educational system.

Dr. Chad Gestson, Principal, Camelback High School, Phoenix, AZ

In fact, Arizona State University just recognized Dr. Chad Gestson, a brilliant man whose wisdom is well beyond his 33 years on this planet, and Camelback High School with its award for student achievement. That’s rather miraculous considering the school was pegged one of the worst performing high schools in the Phoenix Union School District just two years ago.

Dr Gestson’s approach, although you are to call him “Chad,” is quite simple:

“Focus on what interests the individual student, and the grades will take care of themselves.”

Most local parents are just learning about the incredible educational renovation going on at CBHS. I can picture a national story about Chad’s proven philosophy and methods, which he has used to turn around two other poorly performing schools before CBHS.

The kind of educator America needs to learn about.

Now you might be wondering how Michele and I found the nerve to move our son to Camelback from his high performing Scottsdale high school; the alma mater of our two other kids who have since graduated from San Diego State University and Chapman University. We had an inside look at CBHS first through our work with the local nonprofit, Social Venture Partners Arizona.

SVPAZ is a group of successful professionals who invest their time, expertise and resources to help the local nonprofit community. It’s all about applying business skills to charitable concerns in order to make them more socially productive and financially independent.

In 2010, the SVPAZ partnership began focusing their investments to help support the educational renoovation Chad had already started at CBHS. With that first school year now behind them, they needed an annual report that celebrated the progress made, the lessons learned and the devoted volunteers who helped raise the bar for an urban high school on the rise.

Click on the image to explore the interactive online annual report

Our agency was able to create SVPAZ’s latest annual report, which focused on the work at SVPAZ, from the unusual position of our volunteerism with the group, as well as our journey as parents actually benefiting from SVPAZ’s involvement in our son’s new school.

Park Howell, '79 Bothell High School, Bothell, Wa

When we sat down to brainstorm, we began to reflect on our own high school days. And as we looked back, a natural artistic direction began to emerge. Old report cards, yearbooks and ASB cards were soon recruited to create a scholastic theme throughout the piece.

Actual high school photos of SVP partners (Yep, that’s me to the right) were included to add a personal touch of nostalgia, and the partners themselves wrote short articles detailing their involvement with Camelback students, faculty and facilities. These stories reveal how the experience of going back to high school was an extremely rewarding education for everyone.

The resulting piece is entitled Voices, a nod to the old-school yearbooks it draws from and the variety of perspectives it brings to the work of improving education. And yes, it still has the requisite financials and figures called for in every annual report. But what an inspiring story it surrounds them with.

Side note: Michele and I also had the honor to chaperone 50 CBHS students on a marketing field trip to Manhattan over Spring Break. It was one of the greatest extracurricular volunteer experiences we have ever had. You can read about it here.

Todd Sanders, President & CEO of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, presents me with Park&Co's IMPACT Finalist trophy

Last Thursday, Park&Co received a tremendous honor. The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce recognized our work as a growing Arizona business, among nine other companies, during its annual IMPACT Awards at the Arizona Biltmore.

We would not have been on stage if it wasn’t for our remarkable clients, committed team, caring vendors, and the causes and people that place their trust in our brand of disruptive creative marketing services.

Thank you!

Take a quick peek at Park&Co from ParkHowell.com on Vimeo.

Nearly 600 people attended the awards ceremony celebrating companies that have embraced the community, driven innovation, created an empowering company culture, and persevered thourgh adversity. Park&Co is proud to be selected among the top ten from some 80 companies that were nominated for an IMPACT Award from approximately 3,0000 chamber members.

We salute the IMPACT winners:

• IMPACT Business of the Year: Lauri Leadley, Valley Sleep Center
• Innovation: Lauri Meyers, Couponsense.com
• Company Culture: Matthew Clyde, ideas*Collide
• Community Involvement: Jim Mapstead, Accurate Signs & Engraving
• Response to Adversity: Matt Allen, Virginia Auto Service

We’d also like to tip our hat to the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, which made the entire journey an incredible experience for all of us. You can read all about the 2011 IMPACT Awards in this special section of the Phoenix Business Journal from Friday, April 29, 2011.

Here’s our story featured at the IMPACT Awards. We’d love to hear yours.

That’s the question posed during next Wednesday’s FREE Link-n-Learn webinar presented by the Phoenix Green Chamber of Commerce, called, “Is Green Marketing Dying of Irrelevance?”

You have to give the green chamber some credit, as it calls into question the marketing surrounding the vary industry it’s trying to promote. This is a timely subject hosted by Derrick Mains of Your3BL Radio. I am honored to be one of their first guests, especially given my recent rants on the topic of “Got Green?” and other brand-curdling clichés turning green marketing into vanilla.

Marc Stoiber

Joining us is in this green marketing exploration is Marc Stoiber, a creative director with a passion for green and innovation. Over the past 20 years, he has run the creative departments at major agencies like Grey and DDB, started his own green brand agency, and worked as head of green innovation at one of North America’s leading innovation agencies.

His work has garnered awards including Cannes lions, One Show Pencils and Clios. Hell, his brand stewardship saved Mr. Clean from the dumpster and won it P&G’s ‘Worldwide Turnaround of 2005′ award.

Stoiber divides his time between brand building projects for select clients, writing for journals such as Fast Company and speaking internationally on the subject of brands, innovation and sustainability. Stoiber has had front row seats watching the evolution of green in business over the past six years. What he’s learned is reflected in his philosophy that green is only part of what constitutes a ‘futureproof’ brand.

I especially enjoyed Marc’s article in today’s Fast Company, “Will ‘Green Economy’ Kill the Green Economy?”

Marc will discuss how green branding can actually stunt the progress of green business. He will then outline five elements of a futureproof brand that will dictate whether a brand dies or thrives in our new world.

Register now for this FREE webinar on Wednesday, May 4, at 10 am (PDT). We’d love to hear your thoughts as we happily share ours on the state of green marketing.

Ryan La Rosa of Hill & Knowlton, NY, with 50 of his newest fans from Camelback High School

I’ve been quiet on my blog the past several days due to chaperoning 50 DECA students from Camelback High School around Manhattan. A giant shout out to Linda Shaub, Ryan La Rosa and the incredible folks at Hill & Knowlton for sharing your afternoon with us.

Now that I’m back, the education continues with two speaking engagements next week for the American Advertising Federation – Phoenix, and the American Marketing Association.

Tuesday evening, the AAF invited me to share an encore storytelling workshop I ran for the national AD2 organization last fall called, “Storyteller or Marketer? It Pays to be Both.” It’s about using the power of story to develop their marketing careers. Here are event details, and a sneak peek at the presentation. Be sure to click on the presenter notes for the script.

On Wednesday, I will present at the American Marketing Association luncheon about how “Green” is NOT a sustainable differentiator.” It’ll be interesting because the panel discussion is on, “How Being Green Can Pay Big Dividends To Your Bottom Line.”

In two weeks, I will be working with AmeriCorp VISTA, a national service program designed specifically to fight poverty. We will review trends in social media for nonprofit development, and specifically how Social Venture Partner organizations world-wide can enhance the conversations around their causes.

If you’re a marketer in Phoenix, or care to visit from someplace like Bangladesh, I hope you come by and say hello. Feel free to bring your own tomatoes, too.

…especially on the heels of a post I wrote last year about a new airport parking lot had the opportunity to stand for much more than paving the desert, clogging the freeways, and darkening our skies.

My premise is that opportunities to be – and educate about – being “green” and sustainable are all around us, especially if we take a youthful look at what we’re doing.  You don’t have to be a tree hugger. All you need is to tap into your innate creativity, add a little industriousness, don’t fear being disruptive, and you will make a world of difference. AND, have fun while you’re at it.

It’s so easy, even a parking lot can do it!

So stop taking yourself so seriously, and start finding surprising and productive ways to do your planetary thing.

“Your magazine? What magazine?” I asked.

“This is Karl Go, from EcoSeed.org, and we write about bridging the environment and the economy. We noticed you are doing a lot of work in green marketing and sustainability in America, and we’re curious about your approach,” Karl said.

“Ask away,” I said.

Here’s the resulting article, “Green Marketing for Successful Business.”

The internet is a funny place. Share your green marketing by writing several hundred posts about the business of sustainability, and you never know who is going to come calling.

How did a prayer and this model plane change a life forever? View the SlideShare presentation below.

Then I challenged them to write their own personal story, and to focus on what truly great things they would like to accomplish. And when I say “Great,” I mean something out-of-this-world that is bigger than themselves. All compelling protagonists, “You!”, want to achieve something grand. But you’re going to have to go through hell to get it.

The essence of story is revaled in what tests your character, and those who help you along the way. I believe the sooner you begin crafting and telling your own story, the more powerful a storyteller you will become for your agency and your clients.

So I decided to do something different with my presentation. There is only one slide about our agency. There are NO slides showing our work. The bulk of the presentation was simply a tale;

The true story of a long-deceased fighter pilot who answers a prayer from his daughter following 9/11 in the most miraculous and tangible way.

What does this have to do with advertising? Read the story (be sure to click on the presenter notes for the script) and you’ll find out.

Following my presentation, I gave the crowd this StorytellingWorksheet to help them craft and tell their stories. Then I challenged them to post their stories below in the comments. Congratulations in advance to those of you with the industry and guts to share your story with the world. Believe me, it’s the only way you’re going to change it for the better.

If you got the strength, download the Storytelling Worksheet, (Here are the brief instructions) fill it out, and share YOUR story below. Then, see where it takes you.

I shared my green marketing ideas on “Sustainable Storytelling” over the airwaves as a guest on the radio show, “Your Triple Bottom Line.” Show hosts Angelo Fernando and Derrick Mains, CEO of Green Nurture, and I announced the launch of a unique partnership between GreenNurture.com and the Water – Use It Wisely conservation campaign.

We discussed proven ways to engage your employees through sustainable storytelling, coupled with the Green Nurture online platform to encourage behavior change.

Seven storytelling strategies on “Your Triple Bottom Line”

1. The Water – Use It Wisely campaign is based on environmental triggers. What are “environmental triggers,” and how do they work?
   “The importance of triggers in your green marketing”
2. What is the “Three Sunflower” analogy for green marketers in identifying and targeting your audiences when promoting environmental behavior change?
   “How sustainable is your sustainability message?”
3. What motivates people to make a behavior change more: Because it’s good for the environment or because it’s convenient and easy?
   “The surprising story behind what motivates us.”
4. Why is it important to speak to a person’s level of “Greenness” to promote behavior change?
   “How well do you know the ‘greenness’ of your customer?”
5. Why is storytelling so important to changing behavior?
   “Are you a green marketing weirdo trying to change the behavior of normal people?”
6. How do you make water conservation and other eco-actions personal inside your organization?
   “Feeling all green and tingly inside: How to promote your corporate sustainability initiative internally.”
7. How to give your water conservation and environmental initiatives handles?
   “Sustainable green marketing isn’t about creating ad campaigns. It’s about igniting movements.”

Donna DiFrancesco, Water Conservation Specialist for the City of Mesa, AZ, is also featured on the show and covered the operational ways businesses can save water.

Derrick Mains said of the water conservation partnership,

“Water is one of the most overused resources, and it’s costing businesses millions of dollars a year. Thanks to the Water-Use It Wisely campaign over the last ten years, people have become much more water-conscious in their homes. Now it’s time to extend that mentality to the workplace.  This partnership gives GreenNurture an intelligent, effective way to bring important information to our customers about water conservation and adds yet another layer to the Water-Use It Wisely mission.”

You can listen to the show now and call into future shows with questions toll free at 866-536-1100. You can also Tweet your questions to @your3bl.

“Your Triple Bottom Line” is a show that unpacks some of the more complex ideas in sustainability. We bring on some of the leading voices in business who make sense of the social, ecological and the economic threads that runs through business. We get them to put aside their talking points, step out of their corporate speak, and have real conversations with us and you our listeners.

Click on the pic to see how we became one of the first carbon-neutral ad agencies in North America.

The Business Marketing Association just launched a new 30 minute radio series on 1100 KFNX AM. The first show focuses on green marketing and sustainability with park Howell, president of Park&Co, and Derrick Mains from GreenNurture.com, a green solutions company.

Howell explores ways to avoid “Greenwashing” (Not walking your green talk) by creating green marketing about your sustainability efforts that is “Approachable,” “Believable” and “Doable.”

Derrick Mains, CEO of sustainable start-up GreenNurture.com, discusses his new online product that helps organizations become greener and more sustainable within. GreenNurture combines the power of social media with an easy-to-use enterprise software that encourages green conversations and actions by staff members. It’s all about micro-sustainability: coaxing and applauding self-starting green behaviors cubicle by cubicle.

Click here to hear the show.