Earlier this week, Mike Martin, a regular (and very good) commentator for the local public radio station, brought up an interesting point in a piece about how it just may have taken Al Gore's Nobel Prize to make an environmental stance manly.
No longer about simply "cleaning up" or "keeping house" in a Mother Earth way, coming up with solutions for climate change, a.k.a. global warming, is now seen as "brave," " brilliant," and "pragmatic."
As he put it:
"But, ever so slowly, there is a seeping realization that there is nothing cute or bleeding-heart about environmentalism. The challenges before us are for brave leaders, brilliant engineers, and pragmatic problem-solvers. There is nothing idealistic about saving our environment; on the contrary, it's an extremely practical matter."
While women are certainly driving the consumer push toward sustainability and shrinking environmental footprints, they could never go it alone. EVERYONE has to get on board. If it takes new labeling, clever positioning, nuanced semantics - or even a Nobel Prize - to make an environmental stance valid for more people, then let's do it.
How we persuade or motivate human beings to take their own personal baby steps to positively affect any cause is simply the means to the one big end (upon which most of us can likely agree when it comes to the environment). It doesn't matter so much how you get people to take that step, or if different groups need to hear different words/messages to take it.
Just like any campaign, you have to consider your environmental initiatives, and the community relations surrounding them, very uniquely for each of your markets. At this point in time, I'd bet a lot of the men and women buying your goods will respond wholeheartedly to an environmental approach filled with bravery, brilliance, and pragmatism. Go forth!
