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- <text id=91TT2045>
- <title>
- Sep. 16, 1991: The Selling of the Green
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Sep. 16, 1991 Can This Man Save Our Schools?
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 48
- ECO-COMMERCIALISM
- The Selling Of the Green
- </hdr><body>
- <p>Doing well by doing good, merchandisers join forces with
- environmentalists
- </p>
- <p> When Evelyn Padham of West Milford, N.J., paid her $45
- telephone bill to MCI last month, she did so with the comforting
- thought that $2.25 was going to help save the environment.
- Padham switched her phone service from Sprint this summer
- largely because MCI was offering new customers the opportunity
- to donate 5% of their monthly telephone bills to any of four
- major conservation groups: the Nature Conservancy, Ducks
- Unlimited, the National Audubon Society and the National
- Wildlife Federation. "I'm not real involved in the environmental
- movement," says Padham, "but this is something I can do to
- help."
- </p>
- <p> With polls showing that nearly 90% of American consumers
- are concerned about the environmental impact of what they buy,
- many companies are spending big sums to develop an
- earth-hugging image--and are naturally looking for something
- in return. It's a win-win situation for both conservation groups
- and businesses. "The program lets us support the environmental
- movement and try to capture the younger demographic audience we
- are looking for," says Debra Shriver, consumer-markets spokesman
- for MCI.
- </p>
- <p> Visa and MasterCard have introduced so-called affinity
- cards for conservation groups. As in credit-card programs that
- award frequent-flyer mileage on major airlines, the nonprofit
- organizations receive a small percentage of the bill charged by
- each new member customer. The Nature Conservancy has taken in
- $150,000 from MCI since the program began last February, and
- expects its take to grow to nearly $400,000 annually in the
- future.
- </p>
- <p> In the face of a weak economy, corporations are cutting
- back on their direct donations to nonprofit groups in favor of
- what they call "cause-related marketing programs." Businesses
- with products closely tied to the interests of a nonprofit
- organization can profitably target environmentalists and even
- help recruit new members for the green organization. These new
- members in turn can become loyal customers. Orvis, which markets
- fly-fishing and hunting equipment, donates nearly $500,000 to
- groups that support wildlife and clean water, ranging from Trout
- Unlimited to the Ruffed Grouse Society.
- </p>
- <p> Such relationships need not be monogamous. In addition to
- its tie-in with MCI, the nonprofit Nature Conservancy recently
- established a partnership with the profit-seeking Nature Co.,
- which sells art, maps and gadgets designed with ecological
- themes through 60 stores and a catalog with a circulation of 4
- million. The National Wildlife Federation has licensed its logo
- for use on toys, T shirts and stuffed animals at K-Mart, Sears
- and other stores across the U.S. The N.W.F. also allows American
- Greetings Co. to sell a series of birthday cards made from
- recycled paper and sporting pictures of endangered animals.
- </p>
- <p> Small companies that can't afford huge campaigns have
- banded together to form the Outdoor Industry Conservation
- Alliance. Started just two years ago, the group has grown from
- four to 26 companies, which pay dues based on sales volume. The
- association now donates nearly $200,000 a year to help local
- citizens fight the destruction of wildlife areas.
- </p>
- <p> The new wave of eco-commercialism has its detractors. Some
- environmentalists criticize the National Fish and Wildlife
- Foundation for forming partnerships with beer companies.
- Loblaws, a Canadian grocery chain, asked the Canadian chapter
- of the activist group Greenpeace to endorse various products
- sold in its stores as environmentally safe. Greenpeace refused,
- and was later vindicated when it was discovered that one of the
- products, a potting soil, contained pulp-mill sludge. "You have
- to maintain a clear line with businesses," says Greenpeace media
- director Peter Dykstra, "or you can end up caught in serious
- conflicts of interest."
- </p>
- <p> By Jerome Cramer/Washington
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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