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Blog item: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Green Economy

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11 comments, last: Oct-15-2009 Add a comment Author:

(Oct-15-2009)

Categories: Philosophical & Quality of Life, Sustainable Living

Lately I have been trying to come up with one or two tag lines for my email newsletter service. The product is Green Wave Email Marketing, and it handles email lists, e-newsletters and e-vites, and helps the environment.

I have been working on the PlanetThoughts.org site for nearly three years, first developing the software, and then maintaining and creating content (and meeting lots of great people along the way). Gradually, the idea dawned on me that it may be necessary to earn some income with all the time I am spending on this important issue, instead of only relying on my traditional software development business for income.

Why should I not be part of the new green economy? If we are going to change world culture and world greenhouse gas emissions, business change will be an essential component. So, I took my existing email marketing (e-newsletter / e-vite) software, which has served companies well since 2005, and I designed a number of carefully thought out methods to have it help the environment as well as help non-profits and companies that believe in the green economy and in cultural improvement such as "co-opetition". The Web site for promoting GWEM is still in development, but, OK, take a peek – Green-Wave-Email.com. Meanwhile, the software itself continues to run for its current clients.

What I want to share here, in addition to the thought process of moving into the green economy, is the process of choosing a slogan (tag line). I have gone through about 40 of them in the past month, and have asked the opinions of 5 or 6 friends and colleagues whom I know rather well and whose opinions I value highly. Although each person tended to make different recommendations, there was some overlap and concensus on the style and content of the slogan. It has been an interesting process of discovering what speaks to my original inspiration as well as what resonates in the hearts and minds of others.

For me, after more than 20 years running my small company and more than 25 years in the working world, I am mostly motivated these days by having my actions also represent something about what is important to me. Strangely, I did not start that way at the beginning of my career, but I guess we all learn along the way.

A central belief of mine is that people want what is good. Some, due to terrible early conditioning, or due to head trauma (proven to be a causation for many violent criminals), or simply due to bad genetics or karma, do not express the desire for good properly. In fact, they can make a real mess of the search for meaning (the late Victor Frankl expounded that thought rather well). The gross errors we can make in our search for expressing meaning does not change the central thesis – we all want to find meaning. Now, how does that relate to business, email marketing, and slogans?

In expressing my desire to have some meaning in the "business" aspect of my life, I want my product as well as its associated language to be consistent with my own goals and values. So, the product name is Green Wave Email Marketing. It gives revenue to environmental organizations that I am picking out from the Wise Giving Guide (I used to use their paper version of the guide, years ago). It supports, through product features, joint campaigns across multiple organizations. There are also incentives for becoming carbon neutral in your business, namely automatically showing of the CarbonFund.org seal in their newsletters after paying the annual fee using their calculator to determine the proper offset amount. And there is sharing of environmental quotes and information, and some community aspects to the product. Once the programming is done later this year, users of the service will be able to choose how these various pieces of the product will show in their own e-newsletter broadcasts. Some of the features are already fully available.

Back to the slogan. Here are some of the slogans that have come from the efforts so far:

Build Green from the Wave Up

Communicate Your Values

Email Marketing for You and Your Planet

Email Marketing for You and the Planet

Ride the Wave

There were many others, but these are some of the favorites among my "review panel". My goal is to link the efforts for personal success with the inherent need to give to the larger society. Do you want to suggest to me your favorite tag line for Green Wave Email Marketing?

Note: this blog is part of Blog Action Day 2009. Have a blog and an interest in the environment and climate change? Join up.

Related PlanetThoughts.org reading:
Is Being a Statesman Compatible with Political '... (Jun-26-2009)

Tags: email marketing, values, blog action day, green wave email

Click one tag to see readings related specifically to that tag; click "Tags" to see all related readings

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Comment by:

PT (David Alexander) (Oct-15-2009) Web site
It's OK, CW. The algae image is interesting -- as you pointed out, it is a bit ambiguous. Algae can be "gross" and a form of contamination of water, or a sign of life and a source of alternative energy. Anyway, I am sure you realize the green wave is perhaps water near trees and grass (therefore green), or is symbolic of the growth of a new way of thinking.

Comment by: City Worker (Oct-15-2009)
Since I “put my foot into my mouth,” I suppose I should continue. When I think of green waves, I think of waves of water full of algae. However, I think that green water is very pretty, and algae is not necessarily bad. It may be used to make alternative energy.

Comment by: City Worker (Oct-15-2009)
I'd like to return to the slogan topic. First, I’d like to say I like very much the “greenwave” image (The correct word to use instead of “image” isn’t coming to mind.) I like the way the “w” and “v” are transformed into a green wave and are attached to a piece of mail. I like the slogans: “Ride the Wave” or “Ride the Green Wave” because visual images come to mind when I think about them. I just want to point out that when I visualize a green wave, I visualize an algae-filled wave.

Comment by: auntiegrav (auntiegrav) (Oct-15-2009)
As with most things that have been marketed, the automobile has been turned into a form of worship. As you ride around on your bike, think of the automobile as a revered icon, especially when you see the bling wheels and people out washing and waxing and kneeling down to shine the chrome. It's like their very own little chapel. They light sacred incense when they drive, they pray (texting), it brings the family closer together than the Nintendos in separate rooms of the McMansion....you get the picture.
I feel like a priest when people bring their machines to me to fix. They ask forgiveness, confess their sins, make donations...the whole 9 yards.

Comment by:

PT (David Alexander) (Oct-15-2009) Web site
AG, I know you are a "purist", but sometimes purism is not pure. You mentioned many points, and I will not answer all of them.

Without money I would eventually die prematurely, after living homelessly for many years. That is hard to do in New York City winters. And not recommended elsewhere either.

I could leave New York and live in a forest somewhere, but they are all owned, and I don't know how to live off the land anyway. Plus, what about family and other lifelong connections who care about me and about whom I care?

Growing food on rooftops? I owned a house with a slanted roof, and now I rent in a house with a slanted roof. I used to grow lots of vegetables in the back yard of my house, and spoke to neighbors who had some interest, but I do not push my ideas on people who don't want them.

I did not use the phrase "Green Marketing" as you imply. "Green Wave" means that there is a wave of change slowly (too slowly?) advancing through the so-called developed world. I carefully chose the name to encourage awareness of that and promote the idea of people changing the way they do business.

Exxon buying carbon credits is good. The problem is that the rest of their activities vastly overwhelm the good of buying the carbon credits. If I am able to move my activities to be less stressful on the environment, then I am doing well. But if I am a police officer by day, and a burgler at night, I would be better off to quit doing both of those activities. That is the problem with a company like Exxon. Anyway, it is individual decisions where control occurs, not companies. Enough individuals together, and then companies and governments can change. That is my purpose.

One path is to farm the land, and hopefully you eventually earn profit. You are still part of the growth economy. Perhaps no crops should "grow". Harvesting consumes energy. Do you pick plants by hand? And if you do so, will you be influencing the most people possible?

Each person has a path, and has limits on what they can do in their own path. Your black-and-white view on things makes discussion difficult for you, as you miss many subtleties.

I mentioned my company since I see it as part of the effort that many are making to do things in a new way. I did carefully consider that issue of bringing the company into the picture -- but since I think Green Wave Email Marketing is a force for good, I decided it is OK to talk about it. Marketing is good -- but I am a software developer, not a marketer. I hope that organic farmers market themselves a storm, and that is why marketing is good, to support ideas and services worthy of exposure. Marketing of poisoned food or toxic plastic products is not good, but it is not marketing that is at fault inherently.

Last, I would suggest that you be more conservative about acting as if you have the answers. Maybe there are better ways to do the good that you want to do. I try to read through the over-burdened words and thoughts that you write, and your stated goals are quite good, but I think some moderation in your verbiage would make your ideas more compelling.

Comment by: Oemissions (Oct-15-2009) Web site
When people give up driving for an alternative means of mobility, we will see changes in all aspects of life on this planet. We will haveless NOISE, less toxic exhaust and fewer deaths and injuries and overall stress caused by the use of automobiles.
The way I see it the automobile runs this planet.
I purchased an electric bike and use public transit, BUT... I worry everytime I step out my door and try to cross a street , especially with a grandchild or 2 in hand.
Its not just carbon emissions. Its a matter of health.
And, I worry and am weary from this overuse and ovekill from automobiles. It is STUPID!!

Comment by: auntiegrav (auntiegrav) (Oct-15-2009)
I have contributed by sending others to your site, also.
I find the computer and the internet to be less and less useful and more interference with living.
Do you really believe that without money you would just roll over and die? If so, you already misunderstand what living is. Just because civilization has preempted self-sufficiency within civilization does not mean it has eliminated the ability of humans to live without money.
I'm not averse to contributing monetarily. It's just that my work in inventions and product development in the past has quite soured me on anything that smacks of 'growth' as a solution to an overconsumption problem. Anything that is called 'Green' should be working to reduce consumption, not just replace one type of unnecessary activity (petroleum-based computer marketing) with another type(solar-based computer marketing).
I also contribute more to people I can reach with my pitchfork to ensure they are prodded along. If you lived next door and did the same thing, I would give you some food. Your neighbors who grow food on their rooftops should be able to help you with that. You do encourage your neighbors to grow food on their roofs, don't you?
If you feel that you must market something or assist others in marketing, fine. Just don't call it 'Green'. That's called "greenwashing". Companies do it all the time. Exxon buys carbon credits, too. Doesn't make them 'green'. Maybe it makes them a 'green -er' shade of black.
Is it OK to market petroleum in any form? Is it OK to market Marketing in any form? I don't know for sure. I do know that if you are worried about 'making a living' at something other than caring for the land (or drilling for oil), then you are going to be a lot more worried in the near future. The economy is not 'recovering'. The jobs are not coming back. The resources necessary for companies to 'rebuild the bubble' just don't exist. Most of the things we do and use (as Annie Leonard's Story of Stuff illustrates so well) are simply thrown away. Where does that leave a poor, starving marketing expert like yourself? I can't answer that, but I can suggest that perhaps marketing as a career was based on the easy money of a fraudulent debt economy, where people didn't care what they spent money on because it wasn't their money. We are only at the beginning of this depression, and it's going to be a doozy. Even if you can make money doing any whoring of yourself to the money printers, the food system is based on debt and credit and petroleum. Almost everything in the not-too-distant future will be based on growing food or fixing the things that grow food, while cities are inundated by oceans and forests become deserts. Everything else will be for wars over food and "oil for food" will take on a whole new meaning.
What niche does your software fill at that point?

P.S. I also submit that the (innocent?) act of bringing up your software company as a PlanetThoughts blog story is a cheap shot and devalues the rest of the hard work you have done on this site. Maybe it is losing money for you, but so is my farm. Get used to it. Being 'green' means putting back what has been taken away from the world, and that costs us time and resources that others might keep for themselves.

Comment by:

PT (David Alexander) (Oct-15-2009) Web site
That is part of what I am doing, AG. The software does support collaboration. I am not in a position to survive by just stating that I would like people to cooperate, or by offering services where I have no established capabilities. This software, by the way, does sell itself, but people have to know it exists!

AG, would you like to contribute cash to support my efforts in PlanetThoughts.org, or do you feel the Web site is also a corrupt effort? If it is a valid, useful Web site, and if it is in accord with your idea of living from people's need to cooperate, you should help fund that, as I do. Or at least, you could find other ways to support and encourage what is here (you have occasionally done a tiny bit of the latter).

My alternative is to simply stop functioning and wait to starve to death. That has been explored by Herman Melville in his great "Bartleby the Scrivener", but it is not a path that I consider to be a valid use of my life.

Comment by: auntiegrav (auntiegrav) (Oct-15-2009)
Like most marketing schemes, email marketing is less and less viable than it was purported to be; as the same technology that makes it possible to use makes it possible to ignore (also meaning that every new email scheme doubles it's carbon footprint automatically by creating a new email filtering scheme).
From a 'Green' standpoint, I suggest focusing on the social networking and benchmarking and cooperation aspects. Think of your job not as selling more software, but supporting partnerships between those who really NEED something and those who can supply it. If you focus on marketing, then the word 'green' is a lie. It isn't green if you have to sell it. It isn't green if you have to work for someone else to do it. The only thing green about most commerce is the fact that they use money. If your software can help people barter and avoid centralized currency and the aristocratic consumption/exploitation system, then it can be a great thing.
"Self-Limited geographical marketing to support local goals"
"Cooperative methods for cost reductions" (a.k.a. "Benchmarking")
"Save a tree, Buy from ME!"

"

Comment by:

PT (David Alexander) (Oct-15-2009) Web site
Hello, CW. Thanks for trying, maybe it is overly optimistic for me to ask anyone to grasp what my software is and quickly suggest a slogan. Just to answer, briefly, Green Wave Email Marketing (GWEM) allows organizations to send out attractive announcements and invitations to their email lists, and provides a variety of features such as unsubscribe management, bounce management, click tracking, sub-groups, and so on. What I have done recently is make sure the service also helps the environment as much as I can make it do so.

Comment by: City Worker (Oct-15-2009)
I don’t really understand what your new business is, so, although I’d have fun trying to pick a slogan, I cannot. Also, I’m not sure how the slogan would be used. Anyway, I guess, because of my lack of understanding, but desiring to participate, I’ve come up with an entirely different slogan: “We make green software for you.” If I understood better, maybe I could comment better.

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About author/contributor Member: PT (David Alexander)

PT (David Alexander)

Web site: http://www.insightandenergy.com

My lifelong pursuit, since age 18, has been to live more fully and find wisdom. This has involved studies with Zen masters, Tai Chi masters, and great psychotherapists while achieving my license as a gestalt therapist and psychoanalyst.

Along the way, I became aware of how the planet is under great stress due to the driven nature of human activity on this planet.

I believe that the advancement of human well-being will reduce societies addictive behaviors, and will thus also help preserve the environment and perhaps slow down the effects of global warming and other major threats to the health of human societies.

Visit Green Wave Email Marketing
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