Green Is the Color of Business

If you’ve ever wanted to start an environmentally-sustainable, green business, now’s the time to take the plunge. My wife and I attended the San Francisco Green Festival yesterday. More of a trade show than a festival, but impressive impact, to say the least.

Hundreds of businesses exhibited their wares and thousands of attendees crushed through the aisles to get a view, touch, feel, taste, talk, compare, and buy. Everything from books to clothing, services, food items, cosmetics, jewelry, furniture from recycled plastics, and lots more.

What fascinated me the most, however, were the small companies who had found ways to build sustainable products and services that will appeal to even the most jaded consumer.

I’m not as interested in herbal remedies, drinks made from strange plants whose names I can’t pronounce, aromatherapy candles, lotions, or hemp t-shirts as I am in cutting edge designs in tote bags made from recycled sailcloth or trade show banners, video services for green companies, hauling services specializing in recycling and reuse, socially responsible event organizers, solar-equipped messenger bags, and their ilk.

Those are the types of products that are going to push sustainable business into the mainstream. Eventually, green won’t mean a thing. It’ll just be the norm. And that should be the aim of every small business.

Don’t get me wrong. I buy Fair Trade coffee and pay top dollar for organic vegetables at my local market. But I was glad to see that businesses were aiming at sustainable business models, meaning profit-making models. There will always be room for non-profits and educational organizations, but to get sustainable business and manufacturing practices to be taken seriously, we need to hit that tipping point where it not only appeals to consumers to buy green, but it also works economically.

I remember the first Earth Day celebration I attended. It was in 1988 or 1989 in San Diego’s Balboa Park. I recall there was a traffic jam of monumental proportions trying to get to the event, ironically. The booths and exhibits were small, usually tables, or portable cabanas. Lots of tie-dye and blond dreadlocks. I remember seeing a few innovative products like a composting toilet and one or two water filtration units, but mainly it was a venue for wind toys, kites, and other non-polluting entertainments. A little like the Renaissance Fair, without mimes.

The Green Festival, in contrast, was a large and well-organized affair jammed into the Exhibition Concourse at Brannan and 8th, South of Market in San Francisco. I don’t even think the first book fair I attended there in 1992 or 1993 was nearly as immense. I don’t have an exact count but there had to be 200 to 3oo or more booths, including food stands and a large area for wine and beer tasting. When we left at 4:00 p.m. after nearly four hours staggering about the hall, a mob of people was still streaming in.

Clearly, the interest, at least in San Francisco, is at a fever pitch. There were still plenty of t-shirts and dreadlocks, but the mood was decidedly more focused on the green behind green.

I’m contacting a few of the companies that really interested me and am hoping to profile a few of them here. I’m especially curious about how their experiences compare and contrast with non-green businesses, and any lessons entrepreneurs can learn from these pioneers.