Environment friendly cars have put Toyota over the top, finally. Consumer demand for environment friendly cars has helped make Toyota the largest seller of cars in the world, for the first quarter of 2007.
General Motors has long been on, or near the top of the heap in auto sales. Toyota’s investment in hybrid cars is finally paying off. Koji Endo, who is an auto analyst with Credit Suisse, believes that Toyota’s image, with regards to reliability AND ecological technology, has resulted in the excellent showing this quarter. Leading the pack has been Toyota’s Prius. This is one Hybrid that the world has been talking about for years. People have now stopped talking and have opened their wallets. Green business rocks!
Source:Yuri Kageyama
Associated Press
Image via Square-mag.co.uk
A fascinating development has occurred in the area of green business. It seems Hollywood has finally jumped on the bandwagon. If money can be made, and people can be entertained, Hollywood will be there. Leave it the entertainment industry to exploit green business, but in this case I welcome it.
The CW Network, owned by CBS, will air television shows with themes geared towards environmentalism. This is one kind of green business that I personally had no idea existed. It looks like CBS has targeted these shows to the ever popular 18-34 year old audience. This is a perfect example where environmentalism and business have merged. I know first hand that people in “T.V. land” aren’t solely doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. They believe that they can make a buck by doing this.
Personally, I say go for it! If environmental awareness can spread and people can make a living off of it, no matter how honorable their intentions are, I say it’s a decent partnership. Is the heart of CBS in the right place? Probably not, but it’s a powerful example of how environmental issues are becoming mainstream. It may not be a marriage made in heaven, but at least it will be an interesting courtship.
Source: MEG JAMES
Los Angeles Times
I recently moved into a new neighborhood. Not knowing it that well I went on an expedition, checking out all of the stores along the main strip. Between all of the used furniture stores, I mean antique shops, and all of the used clothing stores, I mean vintage, I found a small corner store that specialized in organic products.
Selling only organic produce and other foods made by independent producers, this was a corner store with a conscience. The thing that surprised me most was the size of it. The space was tiny, but it was filled to the roof with great products. I witnessed a steady stream of people browsing and buying. After making a purchase of organic milk I asked the woman behind the counter if she owned the store, she did. Luckily she was more than willing to answer my questions about owning such a store. She said that she believed that most people in the neighborhood wanted to eat organic food but couldn’t afford to do so with their limited budget.
“People in this neighborhood can’t afford to go to a grocery store that sells organic food and do a weekly shopping there. It’s too expensive for most of them, but here they drop by a few times a week and buy something small each time. The people who shop here don’t buy a lot, but they buy often.”
I asked her, as gently as possible, if the business is generating enough revenue for her to keep it afloat. Basically I wanted to know if she was losing money. She said that she makes a decent living. Meaning that she pays all of bills at the end of the month with enough left over to get by, just like most of us.
I have to say, although she seemed liked she really was into the organic food movement she wasn’t a fanatic about it. She didn’t seem to live and die with all of it. She’s content on making a living doing something that she enjoys. She asked me not to give out her name or the name of her shop. Personally I thought any sort of exposure, large or small, would be beneficial. She said that she was happy with how things were going and didn’t want to disturb anything. I think that I’ll become one of her regular customers. One who buys a bunch or organic carrots one day and organic apple cider the next. We all have to do our part.
Although this website is focusing on green business, from time to time I’m simply going to give you some of my favorite environmental websites, regardless if they are about business or not. I’m so happy to be able to give a little help to these sites with a little bit of promotion. Spreading the word is what it’s all about, and doing a Google search will not always result in the best websites. One of my goals is to build an arsenal of informative sites to help further the movement to help save our planet. It may seem a bit sappy, but this is the reason why I started this site in the first place.
Energy Planet is plain and simple the best renewable energy directory on the web today. Beautifully laid out and with a ton of top quality sites dedicated to renewable energy, Energy Planet should be bookmarked by anyone interested in clean energy. Even the hummingbird, their logo, is cute.
Alternative Energy News focuses on renewable energy technologies which is on a lot of people’s minds these days. Discovering new, environment friendly ways of creating energy is what this site is about. From heating your home to driving to work Alternative Energy News has the latest information and is worthy of a five star rating.
Live Green or Die is a green web directory that has three hundred related websites in its core. There mission statement is magical, ” Our goal is simply to improve the connection between people that provide green related information, services, and products and those that seek them.” What more can you ask from a site?
If you have a website that you’d like to submit to us please feel free to email us and we’ll take a look. Our address can be found at the bottom of this page.
Major food companies, such as Heinz, are getting on board the organic food movement. I have to admit that I don’t watch a lot of television so you could imagine my surprise when two days ago I was at a friend’s house and as I was watching television I saw a commercial for Heinz “organic” baby food. I’m as cynical as the next guy when it comes to what major food makers put in our food, whether it be adding genetically modified ingredients without telling consumers or revealing what pesticides were used. My point is when a major food company starts to produce and market organic foods on television times are changing. If there wasn’t a market for these types of products, and a significant one at that, there is no way any major company would advertise organic products on national television. With companies in all businesses squeezing margins to extract every cent, there must be considerable demand from consumers. Business is listening.
A major grocery chain who’s headquarters are based in Ontario, Canada, named Loblaws, who is a world leader in private label foods, have made significant investments in their private label organic food division. The line of products is known as PC Organics. Every time I walk down the aisles of one of their many stores I seem to notice more and more organic products on the shelves.
Some statistics that might surprise the average organic consumer and even the average business person is that there are over 30 million hectares of land that are certified to organic standards, and this number is only going to rise. The country with the largest surface area is Australia, Argentina, followed by China.
The trend towards producing certified organic products is only on the rise. As consumers continue to demand to eat food that has not been genetically modified and pesticide free the growth of products made by major food producers will continue to grow. This is good news for the bottom line, for everyone.
