When “eco” is just a product line.

There are two ways I look at companies that add an eco/green/sustainable product to their offerings:

1. They’re getting started on their eco journey, and making a small commitment that they plan to expand on as they grow and learn, or
2. They’re capitalising on a market that is becoming increasingly eco-conscious, by offering a product with buzz words

I see this a lot:

This is just a judgemental punt, but I’m guessing this merchandising company—that has 50,000+ random bits of whatever for you to print your logo on—is probably not too worried about it’s environmental footprint.

Some think that going green is a bit of a bandwagon – slap “eco” on a product, leave the other 49,999 as they are, and tick off the “environmental sustainability” box.

But I believe it’s a values thing, and it grows stronger over time.

If you truly appreciate the importance of doing business in the lowest-impact way, you’ll find a way to do as many things like that as possible… Over time, it becomes harder to avoid the low impact option, because all others simply stop making sense.

Otherwise, you’ll look like the screenshot above – capturing whatever market share you can in a pretty lousy attempt to cover all bases.

Dipping your toes is brilliant and I commend that, but on its own, “eco” doesn’t make sense as just a product line…