I grew up in San Diego, which we all know is a desert, and my parents had moved there from Louisiana which is a very watery place. My father was the original environmentalist as he was always knocking on the bathroom door telling us to save water for our children. I think he was panicked that there wouldn't be enough water in San Diego to last his own lifetime.
We small business owners should tap into the trend to use green efforts as a marketing ploy but those of us who have succeeded over the years at business are like my dad. We know that being conservative with every resource is at the core of earning profits.
I don't like being told by out-of-work old and young hippies and people who get a paycheck from my tax dollars (that includes every public school teacher from first grade through graduate school who are busy trying to convert our children to the empty religion of environmentalism) that there should be some law to tell me how to conserve resources in the process of running my business. Our customers and our common sense will guide us as we work to make our world a better place when we leave it than when we arrived.
One of my favorite green business owners is Lupe Fraga. He has an office supply company in Houston and years ago he stopped delivering in cardboard boxes and switched to sturdy bins he can use over and over again. You can learn more about him at Small Business School.
