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| Shel Horowitz’s Clean and Green Marketing Tip,
January 2014
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| Before we get to the tip: three important things
1. Slash Your Trash, and Your Trash Bill
How cool is this? You can cut your waste hauling bill, sometimes as much as 50 percent. You can generate less waste and be better for the planet. And you can do this without spending a penny out of pocket.
I’ve partnered with a solid waste expert who wants to save you big bucks—and he gets paid a percentage of what he saves you.
This is important enough that I’m going to be sending you a special mailing on it toward the end of the month. If you’re too excited to wait that long, go ahead and visit https://greenandprofitable.com/slash-your-solid-wastetrash-bill-50-or-more-at-no-cost/ right now.
2. A Few Minutes of Your Time = Great Gifts from Me
Some of you received an invitation to speak for a few minutes with my associate–my business development coach, actually—to help me set priorities to serve you, and the planet, better. Here’s the key result:
—>People see the green world bubbling up into the mainstream, and want to create communities around this. I’m considering organizing a community like that, and I’d like your input into what would be most helpful to you.
The responses we’re getting are so fascinating, we’d like to get a bigger sample.
If you help me with this, I’ll reward you with your choice of
1) a no-charge 15-minute consultation with me on any aspect of green business, marketing, or book publishing
2) or a review of the effectiveness of any single marketing document (up to five pages)—worth up to $195
Either way, you’ll also get another gift: my acclaimed e-book, Painless Green: 111 Tips to Help the Environment, Lower Your Carbon Footprint, Cut Your Budget, and Improve Your Quality of Life-With No Negative Impact on Your Lifestyle.
To participate: just hit Reply and tell us
Your name
Your phone number
Your country and timezone
Times you like to be called
Your business
Which of the two main gifts you prefer (you get the e-book either way)
The original request was called “Green World on the Cusp of Greatness—Let’s Make it Happen Together.” You might find it hidden in your inbox already. If you don’t have it and want to see the full invitation, hit reply and ask me to send you that e-mail. Just use the subject line, “Cusp of Greatness”
(Tip: If you use GMail, highlight just the part of the email you’re replying to, and your reply will only quote the relevant part–pretty cool, huh?)
3. My First Intensive, Marketing Green in the Wider World, Coming in May
The survey results also point to some strong desire for more in-depth training in the green business world. As a result, I’m going to be leading an intensive green marketing and social change training in my historic 1743 farmhouse, the weekend of May 16-18. I’m getting really psyched as I’m working out the agenda (and what I’ll cook for you :-))—this is going to deliver extreme value. I’ll be back to you with the details in a few weeks. There will be a maximum of 12 seats, and up to four of you can actually stay in my house. The price for this first one will be under $1000 (I expect to raise it for future intensives—my co-author charged $4997 for his three-day in-home intensives). With so few seats available, let me know ASAP if you’re planning to come.
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Is Turkey on the Brink of a Green Marketing Revolution? |
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I spent two weeks of December in Turkey, a fascinating destination and one I’d recommend heartily to most travelers other than those with walking disabilities. Whenever I travel, I keep my eyes open for trends in the country’s environmental progress. And in Turkey, I see a lot of evidence that the country is about to bubble up with environmental awareness—but it’s certainly not there yet. Here’s some of what I noticed:
Alternative Energy:
Everywhere we went outside of Istanbul, water is heated by the sun, and stored in rooftop tanks. From the look of them, a large percentage of these tanks are many years old and had no visible evidence of insulation. Even in frigid Cappadocia, where the temperatures dipped well below freezing every night of our visit, the water is stored outside. I wonder if these tanks are drained in the fall, or if the Turks have found a way to keep the water from freezing and bursting the pipes. The water temperature patterns in all our hotels were consistent with solar.
I saw very little photovoltaic. Wikipedia’s article on solar in Turkey notes that the country is just beginning to take photovoltaics seriously. Currently, most PV installations are off-grid (and thus likely to be in very remote locations, not near power lines). The installed base for PV is only 5 megawatts across that vast and sunny country, compared to 10 gigawatts—2000 times as much—for solar hot water.
Consider that Germany, much smaller and with a far less solar-friendly climate, is already generating 35.5 gigawatts of PV, which is 7000 times as much as Turkey. Clearly, the government and private industry have some pretty big incentives to move Turkey much farther up the solar ladder.
And the government realizes this; one planed 100-megawatt facility alone will multiply the amount of photovoltaic power by 20 when it goes online. I’m confident that as it becomes more affordable to the average Turk, solar will grow rapidly.
I noticed that Turkey has a lot of volcanic areas and lots of natural hot springs. So, while I didn’t actually see any, I wasn’t surprised to learn that geothermal is a significant contributor to the energy mix. As of 2010, the country generated 100 megawatts of geothermal electricity, and another 795 megawatts of direct energy capture.
I did see a few wind farms. Turkey has embraced wind and is on a massive growth path: from just 19 megawatts in 2007 to 3 gigawatts (3000 megawatts) today, and permitting already in place to bring that up to 10 gigawatts.
Eating Green:
Turkey is one of the easiest places I’ve experienced for vegetarians. Nearly every restaurant has half a dozen choices or more: lentil soup (and they all brag about how theirs is the best), esme (a spicy salad of tomatoes and paprika, ranging from just a little prickly on up to salsa intensity), thick and wonderful yogurt with various herbs, eggplant dishes, bulgar salads, vegetarian versions of gozleme (filled crepes), humous, white beans or green beans in tomato sauce, vegetarian stuffed grape leaves, vegetarian pides (similar to pizza), an enormous variety of very fresh cheeses, nuts, dried fruits, fresh fruits, and even the occasional vegetarian kebab–which is not always roasted on a stick. Fresh bread is everywhere, but whole-grain is rare.
It would be harder, but not impossible, to eat vegan or gluten-free.
But it would be very hard to stick to organic. We did see some, but surprisingly little. Given the emphasis on ultra-fresh foods, this was puzzling. I’d think after a year or two of educating its public and establishing distribution, a Turkish natural foods industry would be extremely popular.
As for beverages…Turkey is really schizophrenic. Quality is either superb or absolutely awful. As an example, it’s very easy to get fresh squeezed pomegranate or orange juice, which is absolutely delicious (and you can feel the vitamins flowing into your blood stream)—but we were also served something resembling Tang. The tourists tend to be served lots of tea: usually either Lipton Yellow Label or apple tea—the latter usually from a powdered mix that’s mostly sugar, unfortunately, and at least one brand of which contains no actual apple. But the Turks themselves favor a strong, bitter brewed black tea. The markets offer a bewildering array of herbal blends, but I didn’t encounter people actually drinking them much. One of our hotels did offer bagged Lipton herbal teas in choice of sage or apple. The sage was quite delicious and the apple was a big improvement over the instant mix. And one pomegranate juice vendor, in front of a mosque in a small town where most of the tourists were Turkish, did offer organic, from his own trees. He seemed to be doing quite well.
I saw no one drinking tap water, even in the cheapest restaurants. I read that the objection is on taste, not health—which means there should be a nice market for eco-friendly water filtration systems—though when brushing my teeth, I thought it tasted pretty good. Bottled spring water is inexpensive, readily available, and tasty; if you know where to look, a single lire ($0.47 US) gets a liter and a half as of December 2013, even in on the streets of touristy Old City Istanbul—but there’s no evidence of consciousness about the harmful environmental effects of bottling. A lovely yogurt drink called ayran is popular, as is Turkish coffee. The local beer, Efes, didn’t impress me, but I liked raki, an anise liqueur.
Public Transit:
Between cities, you can get pretty much anywhere on buses and trains. And the buses are sized appropriately for their ridership. In many places, dolmuses (minibuses of 20 seats or so) or even minivans take the place of full-sized coaches. Most cities and towns also have internal bus routes.
Istanbul has a complex and very heavily used transit system, including trams, subways, buses, ferryboats, and even a funicular and a cable car. The system is well-maintained, but do expect crowds. Yet, enough people drive that traffic is a big problem, both on the narrow streets and the big boulevards. Stick to the tram and metro where possible. |
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Connect with Shel on Social Media |
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About Shel & This Newsletter
As a marketing consultant and copywriter… award-winning author of eight books… international speaker, blogger, syndicated columnist — Shel Horowitz shows how green and ethical businesses can actually be *more* profitable than your less-green competitors. His most recent book is category bestseller Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet. Shel also helps authors/ publishers, small businesses, and organizations to market effectively, and turns unpublished writers into well-published authors.
He was inducted into the National Environmental Hall of Fame in 2011.
Shel Horowitz’s consulting firm, Green And Profitable, is the first business ever to earn Green America’s rigorous Gold Certification as a leading green company
He began publishing his monthly newsletter all the way back in 1997, making it one of the oldest marketing e-zines (it’s changed names a few times along the way).
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| “As always, some of the links in this newsletter earn commissions—because I believe in the products and services enough to promote them (I get asked to endorse lots of other programs I don’t share with you, because I don’t find them worthy).” |
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Marketing Green in the Wider World: 3-Day Intensive, May 16-18, Hadley, MA See description near the beginning of the newsletter.
January 29, noon Eastern/9 a.m. Pacific, I’ll be Corey Pinkney’s guest on his brand new Blog Talk Radio show, Self Reliant Now. https://www.blogtalkradio.com/selfreliant-now/2014/01/29/self-reliant-now———-green-and-profitable (yes, that funny-looking URL is correct)
May 10, 2014, I will once again be presenting at CAPA University, a one-day book publishing program in Hartford. More info: gaffney AT kanineknits.com
–> Remember: you can earn 25 percent of my speaking fee if you get me booked someplace. Who do you know that needs a speaker on green business profitability/green marketing? View my demo video, workshop descriptions, and other goodies at https://making-green-sexy.com/speaker.html.
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Take Your Business on the Road, with Help from Marcia Yudkin
Want to chuck your desk for a few months and get out and explore the world? But you still have a business to run! This Udemy course from Marcia Yudkin walks you through, step by step, all the infrastructure and systems you need to run your business from far away, and even ways to make the trip pay for itself and build your business. Normally, it’s $37. While that’s a very reasonable price, I’ve arranged for you to get it during January only for just $17. Visit https://www.udemy.com/take-your-business-on-the-road/?couponCode=ShelH between now and January 31, 2014. |
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| Another Recommended Book—Billions Rising |
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Billions Rising: Empowering Self-Reliance, by Anita Casalina with Warren Whitlock and Heather Vale Goss
Want a good solid dose of inspiration to start your 2014 on a good foot? Every time you encounter naysayers who tell you we’re stuck with the world we have and can’t make things better for ourselves or others, grab this book and open at random. Think of it as a megavitamin, pumping up your immune system to ward them off. As the authors say within the first two pages, “a very basic idea we can spread to the whole world at zero cost is that, no matter where we happen to land in life, none of us is permanently stuck there.”
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The authors recognize that there are times when people need some old-fashioned charity to get over a crisis–but their focus is on developing self-empowerment and community-empowerment tools that build resiliency, end dependency, and prime the pump for long-term success—through entrepreneurship, deeply involving elected and community leaders, and massive creativity.
Page after page of wonderful people doing wonderful things: creating alternatives to poverty and hunger, building individual and group self-reliance, and giving a permanent hand up to the most disempowered people in our world. And doing so, for the most part, with lean, green, collaborative organizations that lose little or nothing to bureaucracy, reduce pollution, and can be set up with very little money or infrastructure.
Here are just a few of the many inspiring world-changers you’ll meet (some well known, most not):
Scott Harrison, founder of Charity: Water. He says that bad water causes 80 percent of all diseases, and bad water is easy and cheap to fix—$20 per person can eliminate the problem.
Dean Kamen, inventor of Segway, who developed a water purification system that can produce 10 gallons of clean water every hour, with just one kilowatt of electricity.
Gretchen Anderson, teaching urban farming and chicken raising so that even economically marginal urban Americans can have a dependable source of protein—and showing how to overturn restrictive laws that interfere with food self-sufficiency.
Howard Buffett (Warren Buffett’s son), who offers desert land in Arizona at no charge to researchers combatting famine in the arid parts of Africa.
Tonya Prince, who developed and teaches a six-point program for women recovering from abuse.
Wafa Al-Rimi, who led a team of teenage girls in Yemen to develop and market solar-powered lanterns, fans, and even patio umbrellas—in a society that faces not only unreliable grid electricity but social mores that encourage women and girls to stay home and uninvolved.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who discusses (in her commencement speech to Harvard’s Class of 2008) the benefits of failure: “Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have fund the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized…rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”
Billions rising uses these and many other stories to explore successful examples of collaboration and alternative institutions, often started or run by people from disadvantaged communities (including youth), often using technology and existing infrastructure creatively—I particularly love the example of how Kamen partnered with Coca-Cola to deliver clean water to potentially billions of people.
The book does have some flaws. It could have benefited somewhat from one extra editing pass. It cries out for a more modern and appealing design. And worst of all, it has no index, which means you’ll need to take good notes with page numbers if you’re going to get real value out of it, because otherwise you probably won’t find your particular inspiration a second time.
But jot down those pages; it’s worth the effort. This book could easily start you on a journey to make the world a better place while creating a very nice livelihood for yourself.
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