The New York Times examines a new green technology media play that’s run by media people, not environmentalists.
Apprently like everyone else, we are going green!” wrote Om Malik this week, pretty much owning up to his lack of enthusiasm for the new blog his company introduced, Earth2Tech.
“It took a bit to convince Om to go GigaGreen,” the site’s editor, Katie Fehrenbacher, wrote in her introductory post. She said that the clean-tech boom — fueled in part by the money and marketing prowess of venture capitalists like John Doerr and Vinod Khosla — could turn out to be not much more than a faddish investment vehicle.
“It might be a bubble,” she wrote. “We’re agnostic. As always, through bubble or boom we’ll keep the same GigaOM skepticism on this new site.”
To me this signals the maturation of green. It’s more than a movement today, it’s fast becoming mainstream for businesses to be conscious about their impact on people and the planet, and how that in turn, impacts the bottom line.
The most popular green sites on the web–TreeHugger.com and Grist.org–don’t focus on the business and investment side of green. Rather, they are aimed mainly at selling green idealism and products to eco-conscious consumers.
David,
“Green,” a word that’s suffering inflation from overuse, seems to have two angles in the market right now: One is, as you mention, businesses evolving their practices to reduce environmental impact. The other is the rise of new companies that deliver either renewable/alternative energy or other eco-friendly technologies/products/services. The two have very different needs.
There are actually a number of killer green blogs and sites devoted to the marketing and business of green (I hope some will include mine in that list; check out my blogroll for others). Treehugger is a major force, but it seems aimed mainly at individuals and companies as “consumers” of green products and behaviors.
Succeeding as a green business is another matter. My favorite blog on that subject is the very seasoned and credible Joel Makower (http://makower.typepad.com/joel_makower/)
But you’re right: green is totally maturing, especially in that second category. But there’s a long way to go, especially in the first. Fortunately, there’s too much being invested in too many mind-blowing technologies and products for green to go away.
For ad guys like us, what’s interesting is how we and others will help make green mainstream, normal, expected and in-demand.
Thanks G.B. Green Biz, one of Makower’s advertisers, looks like an interesting property, as well.