The fourth installment in our on-going Leaders of Sustainability series of interviews with executives and entrepreneurs of sustainability-minded business is with Claire Lindsay Burke, Founder of Planet Claire (www.planetclaire.ca). Planet Claire is a Vancouver based independent clothing store, focusing on sustainable and ethically produced clothing.
As always, our hope is that entrepreneurs and business leaders of sustainability-focused businesses will find this series helpful and instructive in growing their businesses and dealing with both the challenges and opportunities facing small business trying to make a profit while reducing their impact on the environment.
Saturday morning, I came across this great banner ad for the Calgary Waterservice; their objective is to show Albertans how to protect their water supply. What’s great about this banner ad is that it works on so many levels.
1) The ad is simple. It identifies three simple, very practical changes in behavior that one can adopt to protect their water resource.
2) The ad is memorable. My short term memory is pretty much shot – but six hours later I can remember exactly the three suggestions.
3) It’s well targeted. I came across this ad on TSN while drinking my Saturday morning coffee. Just think about it – it’s Saturday morning and tonight TSN is broadcasting Game 5 of the Calgary vs Chicago hockey game. And the three issues the ad raises (car washing, disposing of polluting material like motor oil, cleaning sidewalks and driveways) are, for the most point, activies that are performed by adult males. It’s almost guaranteed that a lot of males who live in Calagary will be viewing this ad as the check TSN ahead of tonights game.
It’s great to see leading companies committed to sustainability.
At first, I was excited to see this ad for eco-friendly furniture. Then, upon reflection, realized that the ad was just not well conceived. They have a great story, but the average consumer is simply not going to invest the time to read this very dense ad. We need marketing and communications that speaks and convinces the masses that they need to buy sustainable, environmentally sound products and services. This ad unfortunately speaks only to the already converted.
The third installment in our on-going Leaders of Sustainability series of interviews with executives and entrepreneurs of sustainability-minded business is with Mr. Geoff Baker. Geoff is one of the founders of Vancouver based easywash; one of the first environmentally-friendly car washes in B.C.
Our hope is that entrepreneurs and business leaders of sustainability-focused businesses will find this series helpful and instructive in growing their businesses and dealing with both the challenges and opportunities facing small business trying to make a profit while also reducing their impact on the environment.
The second installment in our on-going Leaders of Sustainability series of interviews with entrepreneurs and executives of sustainability-minded business is with Mr. David Van Seters. David, President and CEO of spud! (www.spud.ca) established this B.C. based company in 1998 and has developed it into the largest organic food delivery company in North America with more than 19,000 customers.
Our hope is that entrepreneurs and business leaders will find this series helpful and that it will offer some insight into how they can better incorporate sustainability into their businesses, and how to better manage both the challenges and opportunities of growing a business while reducing its impact on the environment.
