Brilliant Blog
P.S. Reilly - CEO & President of Athena
Shades of Green
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December 5, 2006
As you can see I haven't written in a while--too busy racing around and talking about things, or getting ready for our big event in the fall (www.discoverbrilliant.com). But as I've been out and about, one thing that is apparent is that while a few years ago I was heralded as a visionary, now when you wave your arms about the impending arrival of sustainability, no one appears surprised.
But even as an ever-increasing number of folks point out how obvious the whole green movement is, at the same time, they are still making the mistake of assuming that there is one thing going on here. From the research we've done and my anecdotal observations, I've come to the conclusion that there really are shades of green. But I've heard Friedman and others say that too now, so that isn't even novel anymore. Ahh...but what are those shades? I haven't yet heard anyone weigh in. Here's my take. The green world has been lead initially by the types of folks I like to think of as "Golden Green". These are individuals for whom environmentalism is a core ethic. They believe that no matter what business you are in, it is critical that you invest as much as is possible in making the world a better place and preserving the natural environment.
At the other end of the spectrum are the "Light Green" folks. They are not focused on this area, either because they just don't buy it, or they have other things they are focused on. They want the quickest, easiest--give them recycling and better paints, and maybe some green tags if the price is right. Unfortunately the Golden and the Light green decision-makers tend to throw pot shots at each other, often inside the same company.
But we cheat ourselves by thinking those are the only two choices, and that we are all somewhere along a spectrum between the two. As these concepts mainstream, there is a third segment emerging. For the sake of argument, (and to be consistent with our branding) we call them the "Brilliant Green" folks. These are the segment of decision-makers who believe that like information technology before it, sustainable technology by its various names (cleantech, greentech, etc.) is a growing strategic trend. They work to find those things that are going to have the biggest impact on their top and bottom line. This doesn't necessary make them better or worse that the Golden Greens, it just makes them different in their motives and the way they might go about the analysis.
There are, of course, those firms that fit somewhere between--either golden on the way to brilliant or vice versa, or perhaps light on the way to a little bit darker. Or they are like Google, where the founders are definitely Golden, but they manage to make decisions like they are Brilliant. We are lucky enough to have the person leading their initiatives joining us at our conference in the fall, along with dozens of other notable speakers.
As concepts around sustainability mainstream, though, more and more of the newly initiated will be some shades of brilliant and light. While this might be frustrating to some of the "Goldens", who take some offense at their more purist motives being bastardized by those running around to make a buck, we should all remember that motives don't matter nearly as much as behaviors do.
So there are a lot of very famous philosophers who talk about social change. I have my own theory--the enlightened move first, then the greedy, then the fearful. The fact that the enlightened and the greedy are both stepping up to the plate is probably one of the best chances we have to make our way out of the mess and leave a strong legacy for the next generation.
Until next time, PS
Postscript--We've got some great research underway in this area on how your customers start to cement this way too, which makes messaging and packaging important. Be sure to write me if you are interested, or call me at 206-686-9330 x309.
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