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HBR IdeaCast: Don't Bother with the Green Consumer

February 11th, 2008 @ 6:00 am

1 Comment

Categories: Green Business, Harvard IdeaCast, Marketing, Podcast

Tags: Consumer, Product Design, BNET staff

Companies that try to go both green and mainstream could be setting themselves up for failure. Green consumers want to solve the planet’s needs before their own, but mainstream consumers care more about their personal needs. Steve Bishop explains how consumer behavior actually has a bigger impact than product design, but product design can influence behavior to encourage greener practices. For example, the instantaneous consumption guide on the Prius has helped drivers learn how to drive in a way that maximizes the gas mileage on their cars.

Featured Guest: Steve Bishop, global lead of Design for Sustainability at IDEO.

For more on green marketing:

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    1

    invictallc

    02/12/08 | Report as spam

    It's a balancing act

    It is important to always think about the planet in regards to our business processes. We have to do a balancing act, no one is saying to destroy your company in going green, but there is a lot we can all do to go green without destroying our business. At our company we have implemented a total recycling program to recycle all paper and other materials. We have changed our shipping boxes to be made from post-recycled consumer material. We have implemented a power saving policy to reduce our power consumption. This has reduced negative impact on the environment substantially and we have done it with a cost of less than .001% of our revenues.

    Asif Ahmed
    www.heliobusiness.com

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