Event focus: adding green to the bottom line with green practices

Tag : peapods

Want to learn more about marketing your business’ greenpractices?
The Metropolitan Independent Business Alliance will hold a teach-in, dubbed “How to make your businessgreener while adding green to your bottom line,” in St. Paulon Wednesday, Sept. 10. The event will cover how small businessescan implement environmentally friendly practices.
Panelists, including business owners, consultants and otherexperts, also will tackle how firms can market their“green-ness” on a tight budget, said Dan Marshall,owner of Peapods, a toy store in St. Paul.
Speakers include Jeff Sommers, owner of Izzy’s Ice Cream inSt. Paul. The business has committed itself to running on solarpower, installing panels at the shop in part by raising fundingfrom customers and local organizations.
Peapods has taken steps such as installing compact fluorescentlight bulbs, which use less energy than traditional bulbs.Marketing green strategies can be tougher for small businesses,which often don’t have deep pockets, Marshall said. Butcompanies can find ways of getting the word out; Peapods, forinstance, participates in the Living Green Expo every year, andalso promotes environmentally friendly practices through itsnewsletter.
Izzy’s solar strategy has garnered it press coverage,Marshall added.
Other panelists at the event include:
• Karen O’Connor, co-owner of Mother Earth Gardens.O’Connor’s Minneapolis business’ green practicesinclude supplying sustainably grown plants and sellingenvironmentally friendly products.
• Thomas Tierney, a partner at Minneapolis-based Paydirt , a consulting firm that helps businesses implement environmentallyfriendly practices.
• Gerardo Ruiz, founder of freEner-g, which leases solarpanels to small businesses and homeowners. The company partnerswith Xcel Energy Inc.
• Terry Gips, an ecologist and author, also is president ofthe Alliance for Sustainability and president of Sustainability Associates , a Minneapolis-based environmental consulting firm. Event info
What: Metropolitan Independent Business Alliance (IBA) B2B Teach In“How to Make Your Business Greener,” a workshopfeaturing local business owners and environmental expertsdiscussing how to make environmentally friendly initiatives abusiness practice, cost-savings tool and marketing advantage
When: 6:30-9 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 10
Where: Warners’ Stellian corporate headquarters, 550 AtwaterCircle, St. Paul
Tickets: $10 Metro IBA members, $25 for nonmembers
More info and registration: www.metroiba.org