Posts Tagged ‘ecological’

Isn’t it amazing how marketing trends come and go? Consumers are seemingly running around wildly gobbling up products that are presented to them in a manner that fits the latest marketing fads. A lot of companies are continuing to latch onto the “green movement” by touting products that are eco-friendly or some such claim. Some products and services actually are, while some consumers may just need to fill their conscience with the claims.

Let me tell you a little story about how marketing green is possibly doing more harm than good. We see a lot of offices, and we see a lot of waste. One of the things that blows our minds is the fact that many companies that may tout themselves as green utilize terrible practices in their businesses, some of which could be called more black or red than green.

For example, say you have a company that offers commercial construction, new buildings, remodels, and the like. The customer may prefer to lean towards the green movement at this stage to save money over time. In this case it would be with energy efficient lighting, high R-value insulation and other inexpensive cost-saving measures. When the space is finally complete, the building will be filled with Styrofoam cups, take-out wrappers, wasteful printers and a parking lot full of the easy to hate gas-guzzlers.

Well since our focus is printers, we’ll leave the rest for other bloggers to write about. This fancy building has been built with smooth company workflow in mind, with a touch of greenness to save cash and to get yourself a pat on the back. What happens if the wasteful printer you added to this grand buildup breaks? You likely throw it away and buy a new one. Maybe you even drive to the local we-have-it-all store and purchase the deal of the week. Tell me exactly where this “away” is that you are throwing your broken printer? Stop looking at the floor, you know what you’ve done.

Let’s continue to ridicule the pseudo-green purchaser and toss in the whole ink needed for wasteful printers. They’re destroying the planet one expensive ink cartridge after another, so some harsh ridicule by the rest of the world seems marginally harmless. When you throw away that old ink cartridge you are adding to the waste that we need to deal with. You have your ink refilled? When does that patent protected cartridge wear out to the point of not being able to be refilled, and where does it then end up? You recycle your ink cartridges? That sounds fantastic, and do you expect these “recycled” cartridges are collected and turned into park benches somewhere? I’ll save the details of that illusion for another post, just suffice it to say no dolphins will be in line to hug you.

So what can you do? Simple, all you need to do is either accept the fact that you as an individual or company are really not that green and you are a member of the burden that rests on the world’s shoulders, or you can change your hypocritical ways and find a better option. What do you suppose an option would be to fill the void left by a throwaway printer? If you said a non-throwaway printer, you are correct. Your genius shines when challenged. How would you describe a non-throwaway printer? Big, expensive and complicated? Or would you describe it as efficient, fast and frugal? We would suggest a change in perspective to allow you and your company to see that professional companies have professional printers. If your office equipment is disposable, what does that say about your office?