The chaps at DoTheGreenThing.com are trying to romance up V. Day. They’ve produced these funny virtual Valentines that are a can’t miss. Well, a can’t miss if your special someone has a sense of humor. If not, I’d default to the Whitman’s Sampler.

Click on the legs to send your Valentine a green thing.

Natural evolution is the ultimate form of innovation. If you pay attention, nature can teach all businesses how to thrive, no matter how nasty the economic environment.

Earlier this year, we were privileged to help rebrand Clinica Adelante; a community clinic that was founded to serve the health care needs of farm workers in Maricopa County, AZ 30 years ago.

In that time, their business environment has changed dramatically. Immigration laws and urban sprawl have significantly impacted their patient population. State and federal funding is harder to secure, especially with patient count in decline. And competition from private practices is growing as subdivisions replace farms.

Yet even with all of these impacts, Clinica Adelante remains true to it’s mission:

“Adelante Healthcare continually seeks to improve the health of our communities by providing quality, comprehensive primary health care within each patient’s ability to pay.”

However, in order to continue to serve the underserved, Clinica Adelante needed to evolve, and innovate quickly, to attract privately-insured patients. In January we took their leadership through a branding program. We discussed their nine convenient locations, top-notch doctors, electronic health records initiative, etc.. These are all great features, and yet none of them are brand differentiators. So we dug deeper.

The key to their new brand is in celebrating the organization’s heritage of growing from the land, while making it relevant for the next 30 years. But being relevant wasn’t enough. Clinica Adelante challenged themselves to be leaders. We started by updating its name and organizational persona to reflect its new brand position: “Sustainable Healthcare.”

The original logo depicts the organization's heritage, while the new brand celebrates its relevance today.

Sustainable Healthcare

The “Sustainable Healthcare” platform isn’t just about going “green.” The brand position has three equally significant legs.

1. Sustaining the health of the individual patient: Sustaining individual health includes all of the above features, offering multi-disciplinary services, and becoming an online and offline resource for healthier lifestyles through diet, fitness and green living.
2. Sustaining the availability of health care for all: True to its mission, Adelante Healthcare will continue to serve the needs of all patients – regardless of their ability to pay – through central locations, convenient hours and a multi-cultural staff.
3. Sustaining the environmental health of the communities they serve: Adelante will become a leader in green clinic operations, educate on living healthier lifestyles, and promote environmental sustainability.

Another way to view Adelante’s position is: “Healthcare that is bigger than you are.” That’s a ubiquitous “you,” meaning that when anyone associates with Adelante as a privately insured patient, they are healing more than just themselves. They are helping others benefit from high quality healthcare, while also contributing to a community that strives to make the home, neighborhood, and planet a healthier place.

Adelante's new Sustainable Healthcare website

Operationally, becoming a model of sustainable healthcare is an ambitious goal. It doesn’t happen overnight. The goal is to have a definitive plan in place with measurable outcomes. Adelante is relying on organizations like the Teleosis Institute, Practice Greenhealth, and CleanMed for best practices in sustainable operations. They have also hired a new sustainability professional to enact change throughout the entire organization for waste reduction and recycling, energy efficiency, organic cleaning and maintenance, and green building materials for expansion and renovations. Adelante recently moved into its first LEED certifiied clinic in Buckey, AZ, with more to come.

Avein Saaty-Tafoya, MBA, HCM, is CEO of Adelante Healthcare. She said one of the challenges in their evolution was defining what “Sustainable healthcare” means.

“Our greatest obstacle was clarity. There were many assumptions about our new brand given the new focus on sustainability, as well as all the activity outside our industry in the green movement. Park&Co helped make this brand identity relatable and easy to understand.”

Here’s what Avein had to say about the opportunities the new brand position presents.

“It honors our mission, which is grounded in continuing the provision of health services whether a patient is insured or loses their coverage. It touts our business model, which as a non-profit community based collaborative must drive revenue and cover expenses, while at the same time increase efficiency and contain costs. We are exceeding expectations when it comes to quality and financial metrics. We are becoming a state and national model because of innovative programs like our collaboration with the Farmers Market Association at our centers. This partnership helps our patients gain access to affordable and healthful organic produce. Simple initiatives like this one have made a positive impact on our staff, patients, and the communities we serve.”

By helping Adelante healthcare share its mission of sustainability with a broader audience, we helped it secure its own sustainability as a business and a brand. We’re proud to be part of their innovative evolution to thrive in the next three decades and beyond.

What’s Happening in Vegas Isn’t Staying in Vegas

If you’re anywhere near Las Vegas Friday morning, and your interested in how to use online social media for water conservation, stop by the Southpoint Hotel and Conference Center for the WaterSmart Innovation Conference. I’m presenting my fishing analogy for deploying social media at 9 am.

The Water - Use It Wisely conservation campaign was one of the first in the water-saving business to have a focused, comprehensive strategy for online social media to share its 100+ ways to save water.

Here’s how we go fishing using social media:

1. We consider the Water - Use It Wisely website as our wharf where we process the fish we catch. In this case, the process is to offer a wealth of conservation information to consumers thirsty for content, including 100+ water-saving tips.
2. To get them to the wharf, we go trolling in the sea of prospects with our blog. We lure in folks with timely information on how they can start saving water and money now.
3. To reach as many people with our blog as possible, we cast the content through a number of social media fishing lines, including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. And we make our content easy to share by including links to Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, MySpace and more.

You can review my entire fishing analogy social media presentation on SlideShare.

I am also looking forward to tailoring this presentation for the Texas Regional Water Conference in Fort Worth on Tuesday, November 11. For those of you attending that workshop, feel free to review my landing page, Sustainable Social Media 101, and send me any questions you have prior to the event. That way I can focus my presentation to your needs.

And whether you’re in Vegas or Fort Worth, be sure to stop by a say hello.

What are you doing with that old dust-covered Atari you have sitting in the basement? That useless printer? Or the Zenith TV you got as a graduation present that’s been replaced by your 52″ flatscreen?

If you’re like most consumers, chances are you will dispose of your electronics, and all of the toxic material inside, someplace rather than a recycling center specifically designed to handle e-waste. These are the findings from a Rocky Mountain Poll released this morning by Behavior Research Center.

According to the study, here is how consumers typically dispose of electronics:

* 39% would donate to charities such as Goodwill Industries
* 25% would palm it off on a friend
* 15% would simply put it in the garbage destined for landfills
* 4% said they have no clue what to do with their electronic stuff

The primary challenge to recycling e-waste is the relatively low consumer awareness of how and where to recycle. The study found:

* Awareness declines in rural areas
* Awareness declines among younger consumers (who are the most likely to own and update their electronic equipment)
* Awareness “falls off” in middle and lower income groups
* It also appears that a special public
 information campaign may be needed for Hispanic consumers who are among
 both the most likely to have unused equipment at home (59%) and are the
 most likely to believe that it is okay to dispose of such material in
 the garbage (34%).

Earl de Berg, Chairman, Behavior Research Center

According to Earl de Berg, Research Director at Behavior Research Center, “There are private companies in Arizona that specialize in receiving, recycling, and otherwise disposing of used electronic equipment, but they appear relatively invisible to consumers. These companies are principally oriented to providing services to business, industry and government, even as much of the toxic e-waste problem is in the basements, garages, and homes in our neighborhoods. A clear need exists to increase consumer awareness of specific recycling options.”

Private companies like West-Tech Recyclers target commercial accounts, even though they are a great resource for consumers.

de Berg added that it may be reasonable to conclude that much 
material that is currently stored in garages and closets will still end 
up in city trash barrels unless specialized collection centers do more
 to make the pubic aware of their services and locations.

One option for consumers is Earth911. This is a terrific online resource to find out where to conveniently recycle just about everything, including electronics. But it still requires them to take their old electronics to a specialized facility.

To read the entire study, click here: rocky-mountain-poll

I was blessed with the name Park. It gets attention. No, I’m not Korean. And in some future post, I’ll tell you where it came from.

For now, I thought I’d give you a little more background on the guy behind the name. The following are my responses to the Phoenix Business Journal’s “2 Minutes With” section that just ran.

Does that mean I only have 13 minutes of fame left?

And of course, all of my best lines ended up on the cutting room floor (I guess you can be the judge of that), so I’ve included my entire  interview here.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs just starting out?

I like the famous photographer’s line, “F8 and be there.” You don’t have to be an incredible business mind to be successful, just like you don’t have to be a world renowned photographer to take great pictures.  You just have to show up everyday, give it your all, and keep it simple.

What is one of your business goals for 2009?

We’re going to grow Park&Co by 10 percent this year due to our work in green marketing and sustainability.  We call it “Responsible Marketing,” and the timing couldn’t be better, given the growing economic and environmental sensibilities of the market.

How have you changed your business strategy to reflect current economic conditions?

We took a page out of the survival manual from Arizona Mountain Rescue: “High speed, low drag.” This perfect economic storm is an IDEAL environment for our agency – and our clients – to capture market share that is often more difficult and more expensive to do in bull markets. We are more efficient and nimble than ever with our staff, operations, and bringing campaigns to market. We look for and work with clients that are driven by realistic opportunity and not fear.

What resources did you use to help develop your business and marketing plans?

Fortunately, this cobbler’s kid has shoes, and pretty nice ones too. We rely on our brilliant staff for our own marketing strategy and creative. We also work with outside consultants, like Pete Walsh of Peak Performance Coaching, to test our assumptions and plans.

How do you use technology, i.e., social media, Internet marketing, etc., to promote your business?

Technology and internet marketing is a tactic, not a strategy. We always tie our online digital footprint – Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Pay-per-click campaigns, organic search, Ning groups, etc. – to tangible, in-person marketing so customers can experience us real-time, not just virtually. I also write this blog called “A Brighter Shade of Green Marketing,” at ParkHowell.com. This is a great way for potential clients to get a better understanding of how I, and the agency, approach sustainable, responsible marketing.  You’ll find a lot of free advice there.

How do you recruit and retain quality employees?

We recruit quality employees by a very selective word of mouth and referral program.  We retain them by respecting and appreciating what they contribute to the team.  And we challenge them to do their finest work here; in an accountable environment that promotes their personal and professional growth.

What is a significant goal you achieved in the past 12 months?

We have dramatically increased our online marketing and social media capabilities, and have experienced tremendous results combining this virtual world with real world word of mouth marketing for our clients.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome in growing your business?

Getting out of the way of our talented team. I love rolling up my sleeves and diving into strategy and creative challenges for our clients. But I am surrounded by an insanely talented group of pros, and I need to give them the freedom to do what they do best.

Do you have an exit strategy or a succession plan for when you retire? What is it?

Besides driving my business into the ground through a series of ridiculous and avoidable blunders and waiting for the government to bail me out, I haven’t found a succession plan I like yet.  Too young, I suppose.

Did you ever want to call it quits? If so, why, and what stopped you?

No, I can’t say I ever wanted to call it quits. I don’t have enough dough to retire, and I can’t see myself in a corporate environment. I tend to be a free thinker and like to push our clients beyond their comfort zone to help them grow. These are qualities that often go unappreciated as an employee.  Plus, I can’t color inside the lines very well.  Never have.

What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started your business?

Numbers and Little League coaches often lead to unrealistic expectations. It’s actually impossible to give 110 percent. Ninety percent effort with concerted thought is typically 20 times more than what most businesses offer 60 percent of the time.

How do you market?

We market our traditional and nontraditional advertising services through social media, online marketing, and in-person workshops and presentations. We seek out and ignite the growth of those people, products, services, and businesses that are having a measurable positive impact on our planet.

What mistake have you learned from?

When I started Park&Co in 1995, I tried to be all things to all people. Then we began doing a lot of work in sustainability and cause marketing long before green became cool. This focus is a reflection of the first of our seven operating tenets: “Run a profitable, socially conscious company.” Given the current global economic and ecological meltdown, the market has found us in a big way. Find your niche, and if you don’t, sometimes it finds you.

What’s the best piece of business advice you ever received?

Actually, I have two “Best pieces of business advice” that came from my Dad: “A deal is only good if it’s good for both parties,” and “Make more than you spend.” which is pretty good advice these days.

Do you have a question for me? Please ask in the comments form below, or shoot me a note from my contact form.

Do you think the fur industry is green?

Does Nestle Waters really care about conservation?

Can the Hummer possibly be more thirsty for adventure than gas?

If you’re leading with a message of sustainability, the shoe must first fit. In an earlier article, I wrote about our three-legged bar stool test for sustainable marketing. Is your green marketing “Approachable,” Believable,” and “Doable?” In that piece I covered “approachability.” Now let’s talk “believability.”

Believability is about congruity. The above green marketing claims are simply not believable extensions of the advertiser.

Clorox went to great lengths, including product testing by groups like the EPA and the Sierra Club, before they launched their much-applauded Green Works line of cleaning products. They knew that for Clorox, historically a bleach-producing company, to be believable with the eco-conscious consumer, that they had to be completely transparent and insure that their products were not only green, but worked well.

Click on the image to test your carfun footprint

Where Hummer puts the breaks on its sustainability believability, Mini Cooper completely outperforms in this brand position. The runabout’s “Carfun Footprint” campaign brilliantly attaches the brand’s engineering features to believable green driving attributes.

They put a nice spin on the notion of reducing your carbon footprint by selling the fact that you can have fun doing it too.

Kohler’s “Save Water America” campaign offers another terrific example of believable green marketing.

The water conservation education promotion donates $1 worth of water-efficient products to Habitat for Humanity for every person who takes the short water quiz on their site. Their goal is to donate $1 million in water efficient products that will outfit about 600 Habitat for Humanity homes.

Click on the image to take your toilet test

Kohler’s actions are stronger than their words. Here are the six things they’re doing that are really smart, AND believable.

1. Kohler is selling by educating: The quiz highlights the fact that nearly 50% of all toilets in America (about 100 million) are old school and waste at least two gallons of water with EVERY flush.
2. They found a fun way to talk about your toilet: How else do you engage customers about retrofitting their toilets than to literally have toilets rain down on you during the quiz. It’s kind of cool. Plus, they direct you to toilet rebate programs in your state where you can turn in your old toilet for a new, water-efficient one through your town or city.
3. They make water conservation interesting: Saving water isn’t always the most romantic subject. Kohler does a nice job here of engaging the visitor about the importance of water conservation throughout the home.
4. A tangible and relevant approach to cause marketing: Teaming with Habitat for Humanity is a natural extension of the promotion. Kohler started with $500,000 in seed money, and have had about 4,500 hits to their quiz.
5. Demonstrating industry leadership: Kohler products are inherently about water use, and now more than ever, water efficiency. By helping us all be greener (or bluer) through product demonstration, education, and cause marketing, Kohler is doing what an industry leader should: Providing the technology and education to make us all more environmentally sensitive consumers.
6. Singular focus on toilets: Too often marketers try to accomplish too much with any one promotion.  Kohler could’ve also promoted low flow shower heads and faucet aerators as other important ways to save water in your bathroom, but that would’ve diluted their message. It’s all about toilets.

Who do you think does a credible job of sustaining their green marketing with believable promotion and action? Who do you think doesn’t?

(This post originally appeared on ParkHowell.com, “A Brighter Shade of Green Marketing.”)

Park&Co in Phoenix, Az, is one of the first carbon-neutral ad agencies in North America.

As a sustainable green marketing firm, it’s only natural that we’d be a carbon-neutral operation too (pun intended). And it’s much easier than you might think.

I look at it like a voluntary tax, in some respects. I figure we can’t help but spew out carbon through our daily activities. So why not start an offset program ourselves?  This way we can do our small part to help curb our impact on global warming.

Then I read about EcoAid, a carbon offset consultant and broker, joining Valley Forward here in Phoenix, and I dropped them a line to ask for help.

It’s a learning process, and we’re approaching our carbon neutrality through a number of steps starting at 50,000 feet.

1. EcoAid has calculated our initial carbon footprint that is created by our 10,700-square-foot building in Phoenix. This number is based on an EPA average for buildings of our size in our desert climate.  We have purchased $1,052 in carbon credits for a Michigan reforestation project. Ideally, we’re looking for something a little closer to home; like renewable solar energy in the desert, wind farms closer to the coast, or even reforestation in the Pacific Northwest (the forests of my youth). But Michigan will do for now.
2. Next, EcoAid is performing a Carbon Management Plan for our entire agency. This plan reviews numerous sustainability practices, including our travel and telecommuting, paper and printer use, number of computers, lighting, AC settings, etc., creating an even more exact carbon footprint for our green marketing firm.
3. Step three examines the carbon created through our film and video production services. Since we hire large shoot crews outside of our office, and often find ourselves on location, we need to account for the carbon created through these productions in addition to our day-to-day agency operations. We will pay for these carbon offsets out of our own pocket, and we always invite vendors and clients to participate if they like, but it certainly is not mandatory.
4. The fourth step is a complete energy audit of our facility to determine how we can make the agency more energy efficient.
5. Step five is working with Solar City and other solar providers in Arizona to bring solar to our building and agency.

Each of these projects are underway. It’s important to note that making your office more sustainable doesn’t happen over night. It’s a process. An inspiration to get our process rolling is Deborah Fleischer of Green Impact.  I wrote a post about her approach to activating a sustainability project in your office a while back: How to Get Your Sustainability Project Rolling. The post offers a few of her insights and a handful of books she recommends.

I will continue to share with you what we learn about becoming and maintaining a carbon-neutral ad agency. Please let me know if you have any questions along the way, and I will do my best, with EcoAid’s help, to answer them.

Tomorrow, Brendan Cook from EcoAid will write a guest post about clearing the air on carbon offsetting and carbon credits (Can’t help myself). Do you have a question for Brendan or me? Please ask in the comment section below.

The Summit Building courtyard at Park&Co. Click photo for Google map of location.

BTW, we have 1,500 square feet now available in our beautiful little building at 44th street and Indian School road, in case you know of anyone looking for a fun, creative campus atmosphere.

Is your green brand, message or platform relevant? Can it stand the test of time? Does anyone care? We’ve always put these questions to the famous three-legged green bar stool test: Is your green marketing “Approachable,” “Believable,” and “Doable”?

This post covers the first leg: Is your green brand approachable? We believe that changing the average shopper to an eco-conscious consumer is not prompted by the radical fringes. Most people can’t see themselves plying the north Atlantic in a Zodiac saving whales, or huddled in a make-shift tree fort hugging a Sequoia in Berkley, or chained to a five-ton Caterpillar to keep a developer from blading the desert.

If you and your brand are going to entice eco-friendly behavioral change, then you absolutely most be a welcoming, guiding inspiration in your customer’s life.

One example of this approachability is Green Depot. It is a consumer focused “Home Depot” for green building and remodeling. The Wall Street Journal said, “With its boutique feel, the store is laser-focused on the consumer – not so much builders. And while protecting the environment is part of the shill, marketing puts heavy emphasis on keeping consumers healthier and saving them money on heating, cooling and other energy needs.”

The Green Depot gets it. They are both an online and bricks and mortar boutique that makes it fun and easy for consumers to embrace sustainable green products in their lives and homes.

Patagonia has been “getting green” since the start. Their Footprint Chronicles allows you to track the impact of a specific Patagonia product from design through delivery. This is a welcome transparency and differentiator in the consumer products industry that allows you, the consumer, to make an educated choice on how and where to buy your apparel, and what tangible impact you may have on the environment with your decision.

And to prove eco-consumption isn’t just for the well-heeled, Walmart released the somewhat surprising findings from their green consumer survey just before Earth Day. It revealed an adoption rate increase of 66 percent from last year in its sustainability Live Better Index, which has been tracking consumers’ decisions to purchase five key eco-friendly products since April 2007. This growth in the sustainability index shows that concern for the environment has a growing presence in shopping baskets of the retailer’s 200 million annual customers.

Three of the 10 Ways to Measure the “Approachability” of Your Green Brand

1. Make it Neighborly: Does your consumer feel like they have a vested interest in the promotion and outcome of your cause by purchasing or investing in your product or service? It’s that old adage: “Think Globally, Act Locally.”
   
2. Make it Friendly: Are you selling from fear tactics, or are you helping to empower your consumer? We recommend empowerment, because change happens when people feel they have a choice that can positively impact an outcome.
   
3. Make it Inclusive: Social norms almost always trump individual altruism. If everyone else appears to be doing it, then so should I. There is a terrific article in The Atlantic about “Social Proof,” that illustrates this concept.

Berkeley Tree Sitter

Three of the 10 Pitfalls That Make Your Green Brand “Unapproachable”

1. Far-flung Causes: Although groups like The Water Project have an important mission of bringing clean water to Africa, it is so removed from the average American’s life experience that it’s difficult to compete with consumer mind-share based on more geographically immediate causes.

2. Over Glamourization: When Animal Planet is trying to get its viewers to live vicariously through modern day eco-pirates like they feature on Whale Wars, it sort of sinks the entire eco-genre into the silly, silly fringes.
3. Snootiness: Prius has a tremendous following of eco-evangelists of all shades of green.  Tesla Motors does not. One costs around $35k, the other $100k. Enough said.

Is your green brand approachable, believable and doable? Know of one that is?

You can learn “How To Reduce Your Carbon and Hype Footprints” AND make your green brand approachable, believable and doable, with my SlideShare presentation:

“How To Reduce Your Carbon & Hype Footprints” Presentation Is Now Available On SlideShare

Click on Mr. Praying Mantis to download my green marketing presentation from SlideShare

Are you trying to get the attention of the Millennial generation (ages 13 - 29)? If so, did you know that 76% of this powerful market feels that it’s important or very important for brands to get involved in the green movement, according to a recent study by Generate Insight? What about other consumer segments, like the LOHAS, Naturalites and Drifters? What are their sensibilities and tendencies toward greening their lifestyles and the companies and products that help them do it?

I just uploaded my iG.R.E.E.N. webinar presentation to SlideShare. You can download it to learn how to reduce your carbon & hype footprints for a greater engagement with these growing conusmer segments.

Yippee, it’s Earth Day. The annual celebration of the best of our intentions to help change the world and save our planet.  And yet our ecosystem remains rather indifferent to our eco-affiliations, environmental causes and green agendas.  In it’s brilliant simplicity, the planet responds to only one thing: ACTION.

Mother Nature Could Care Less…

…whether you’re Republican, Democratic, Green Party or Independent: Partisanship aside, the globe warms us all equally. Personally become more sustainable and worry about the party later.

…whether you’re a man or woman: C02 does not discriminate. Pay attention to your carbon footprint and learn how you can reduce it.

…whether you’re rich or poor, or somewhere in between: Maybe you can’t afford a hybrid car or solar for your home, but you certainly can’t afford to ignore the FREE and easy things you can do to help save the planet and your money; like turning down your thermostat, recycling, and re-purposing stuff.

…whether you’re young or old: Our lungs all work the same,  and most of them are extremely efficient at sucking in air pollution.  The clear solution is to simply drive less.

…whether you’re good looking or ugly: No one is immune to free radicals from environmental toxins that ravage our bodies. Detoxify your home with natural cleaners.

…whether you’re bright or dim: Switch to CFL light bulbs.

…whether you’re an environmentalists or redneck: When a species becomes extinct, we all lose. Support smart land management and care for the outdoors like it’s your indoors.

…whether you’re a shopaholic or miser: Non-sustainable products produced by carbon belching factories cost consumers much more than money, so vote with your wallet and buy green.

…whether or not you’re thirsty: When we run out of clean drinking water, we run out. So please use our water wisely, and you’ll conserve some cash while you’re at it.

…whether or not you’ve got a green thumb: Everyone pays the same market and environmental price for our produce. Plant an organic garden – weeds and all – and save money, the planet, and some sanity.

…whether you’re a titan of industry or child laborer: Inequality in the workplace threatens to dismantle the world economy. Ask for and buy fair trade when you can.

…whether you’re hungry or full: When we carelessly strip our lands of natural resources to feed our collective consumption, the table becomes bare for all.

…whether you’re an extrovert or a wallflower: The subtleties of our environment our immensely more powerful than the extremes or our beliefs. As Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

…whether you’re a believer or an atheist: When it’s all said and done, we all compost equally – Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

So today, celebrate Earth Day.  Download this calendar of the 26 things you can do in less than five minutes each day to save the world. It won’t cost you a dime. You can use it during any month. You’ll probably save the planet, and a thousand bucks.

(This post originally appeared on ParkHowell.com, “A Brighter Shade of Green Marketing”)