Think of the first three “green” organizations that come to mind. Maybe it’s Nalgene, a producer of reusable water bottles, or high-end grocery retailer, Whole Foods Markets, whose business model revolves around selling organic, wholesome food. Maybe it’s a national university like MIT who constantly works on new green technology like compostable bioplastics that can be used to replace conventional one-use things made out of plastics that are just to be thrown away. Did you know that the green trend seems to be catching on with companies that are traditionally seen as less environmentally friendly?
WM, or Waste Management has the image of being only a trash collecting company. But, it should be known that WM is one of America’s biggest recyclers and is constantly investing in new green technology to achieve results in the most environmentally friendly way. Another surprising company that’s going green is Unilever. Unilever, the parent company of a variety of disposable one-use products seems to create a lot of products that seem to be discarded after just one use. How can a company that makes this many everyday items be viewed as “green”? Well, under it’s new sustainable living plan, Unilever is launching a new line of environmentally friendly items that all come with a guarantee that, if discarded properly, are recyclable. Unilever also commits to a strong list of philanthropic acts while marketing to the bottom of the pyramid consumers. They give money to build schools and to help build sustainable infrastructure in growing economies. Since 2010, Unilever has reduced its carbon footprint by 6% per customer—a huge leap when it comes to environmental friendliness. They do this by doing simple things that people don’t think about that go into producing a product. Take employee travel for instance. Airplanes are by far the least clean way you can travel. By reducing the number of physical meetings between managers and using online sources such as Skype and other chat methods, Unilver can reserve airplane usage only for the most important meetings.
Also, by investing in new green technologies in the workplace, Unilever reduces the amount of energy per worker. Sure, there’s a high initial investment, but eventually, over a long period, green technology pays for itself. That’s why solar panels are so expensive—high initial investment, but high returns over a long period; sunlight is free whereas fossil fuels are rare and not unlimited.
The third surprising green company is Sprint. How can a cell phone provider be seen as environmentall friendly when the market of cell phones and other wireless devices seems to be changing and growing every day? Because of marketing techniques, people are always dying to get the next new thing, discarding their old cell phones and tablets for new ones, damaging the environment in the process because of all the discarded phones. Sprint is trying to combat this problem by initiating a “buyback” program. Sprint will take any cell phone—regardless of how used it is, and give the customer up to $300 towards a new phone. This is revolutionary and totally eliminates the problem of e-waste, the fastest growing kind of waste in America.
