Entrepreneurs, it’s time to go green or go home.
New studies recently reported that customers, specifically millennials (who control the future of the consumer market), do not want to be caught dead shopping from any company that harms the planet.
The Shelton Group, an organization that helps companies sell products by marketing their sustainability practices, has been polling Americans for 12 years to help understand their feelings about sustainability. An interest in which they have seen a large growth spike starting three years ago, and according to their latest “Eco Pulse” trending data, they’ve found that 90% of millennials will buy from a brand which has social and environmental practices they trust, and 95% of them will recommend that brand to a friend.
Considering millennials spend a $600 billion per year — a figure that’s expected to grow to $1.4 trillion, which is 30% of the market — those numbers have a huge significance for your business.
These are some of the reasons you should seek to tap into their loyalty (and wallets), and get onboard with this eco-friendly business craze:
1. Having an Environmentally-Conscious Enterprise Could Mean Lower Production Costs
Products today have to be presented to consumers in a more creative way, simply because social media have exposed customers to a lot more visual inspirations. In able to stand out from competitors, products should have amazing presentations as they affect how the customers perceive your brand just from your packaging.
This does not mean though that you have to splurge a lot on your products’ unique packaging. For instance, producing a single plastic bottle can require material costs, as well as design, labor and labelling costs. But at the end of the day, producing plastic bottles can harm our environment, and in some cases, even people’s health.
As an entrepreneur, you can opt to recycle and reuse materials to lessen some of your production costs. This is not only good for your pocket, but for our planet too.
Badens Beauty Kitchen, a small enterprise of all-natural rice soaps and rosemary shampoo bars, is a hit among online shoppers. They’re winning clients left and right not only because of its skincare and hair care line are made of all-natural ingredients like grapeseed oil, lavender oil and rosemary essential oil that are exquisite for skin and hair care, but also because customers are attracted to the bottle-less business model of its fragrant, natural shampoo bars.
“I started out with just 5, 000 pesos. The base ingredients of my shampoo bars and soaps were very affordable but high in quality. And because some of my products such as my shampoo bars do not require me to produce pricey plastic bottles, I get to lessen my production costs. I focused on improving my main products which are soap bars and shampoo bars. It was a lengthy process for me to improve my products, but it was worth it, because I have excellent all-natural skincare and hair care bars here. It was a starting point for me, and as with all businesses, the funds revolved to create more soaps and shampoo bars,” Anna Thereasa Montoya, founder of Badens Beauty Kitchen shared.
Staying away from producing non-biodegradable packaging will allow you to use most of your funds on improving your main products.
2. Offering Eco-Friendly Products Are Mostly Good For Your Customers’ Health
Some non-biodegradable materials can harm not only the environment, but people’s health too. For example, the BPA used in Type 7 plastic water bottles is linked to a number of potential complications for pregnant women and the fetus. According to CBC News, BPA acts as a faux-estrogen, and can cause chromosomal abnormalities. These abnormalities are tied to birth defects and developmental disabilities in uterus and fetus.
Eco-friendly products are those that do not harm the environment whether in their production, use or disposal. In other words, these products help preserve the environment by significantly reducing the pollution and waste they could produce. Badens Beauty Kitchen’s lack of non-biodegradable packaging makes it an eco-friendly brand. And with its all-natural products, the production does not do any harm on the environment, as well as on its customers’ health.
“I wanted my own shampoo because none of the usual medium-priced commercialized shampoos can address my bald spots when I was in my mid-30’s. My patrons like the all-natural ingredients and the long lasting scent of my shampoo bars. The hair-growing ingredients are effective that they experience results in a week or less,” Montoya said.
If you want to order some of Badens Beauty Kitchen’s shampoo bars and soaps, you may follow them on Facebook and Instagram with handles @badensbeautykitchen.
3. Going Eco-Friendly Gives Your Business Instant Great Image
Customers today expect eco-mindedness from businesses they associate with. Be it for their social media feed purposes or personal use, customers these days are more conscious about the causes and advocacies they want to involve themselves in.
By offering or selling environmentally friendly products, your customers will have that charitable fulfillment and will continue to shop at your store in order to keep helping the environment. It also might inspire them to incorporate a greener lifestyle. More loyal clientele who want to be connected to your brand means more revenues, inevitably.
Organizing initiatives focusing on saving the planet and its creatures can also earn your peers’ respect easily. Not only can you earn from doing good deeds, but you can start a business that keeps on giving. Filipino enterprise Milea Bee Farms has been known for its efforts of preserving bees. The group organizes beekeeping talks, seminars and workshops that provide an avenue for learning about pollinators, honey producing bees, and valuable information about the bees’ impact to the food chain. Then, comes the awareness of how to attract and protect them so they could be utilized for sustainable agriculture. They also offer sustainable products from cosmetics, skincare to beeswax. If you want to support their cause, you may checkout www.mileabeefarm.com or call up +63 917 888 8438 for more info.
Given the growing trend to support businesses that consider their corporate social responsibility programs, one of the biggest advantages of going green is that it helps your brand’s image become attractive to loyal customers and even potential investors.
4. More Than Anything, Being an Environmental-Friendly Brand Saves the Planet!
Did you know that more than 552 million shampoo bottles could be ending up in landfills every year globally? And some plastic bottles can last more than a lifetime, can land in sea waters, harming underwater creatures and even impact our health indirectly.
Offering eco-friendly products helps the environment, your conscience and your customers’ consciences as well. Small enterprise like Badens Beauty Kitchen, with its line of amazing shampoo bars, can lessen the production of plastic bottles in its small ways. Every small contribution in lessening harmful non-biodegradable materials is still a great step towards saving our environment.
At the end of the day, it is always beneficial to be mindful of our environment when producing a product, service or business. Not only because of better revenue opportunities for you as an entrepreneur, but also because more than anything else, we should not forget that we only have one planet to pass along to the next generations.