Gonink – Design & Print

In the Are You Walkable post I touched on the idea of smaller towns trying to be more “walkable” or green. The town of Churubusco is certainly not viewed as a walkable city because we don’t have an infrastructure of public transportation or clusters of residential and commercial structures. But what we do have is a small area of businesses who compliment each other and the lifestyle(s) of our residents. This does allow our town to be more “green” by shopping local, driving shorter distances for our products and supporting local businesses owned by local people.

I think the next step for smaller towns is to find a way to produce more locally and import less. A small farmers market is held every Saturday in our town and I think that’s a smart start towards being more small green.

Although we appear to be on the bandwagon of being more ‘green’ to satisfy some sort of need to fit in, that’s far from the truth. For one it’s not the easiest thing in the world to make your life or your business more green and we’re no different.

But as the trend towards more eco-friendly businesses and homes grows, so too will the demand for people wanting to know more than just that you’re green.

A recent newsletter from greenbiz.com reminded us that every life, person & business has a story to tell and telling your business story is one way you inform the public about your company and it’s earth friendly practices. Maybe another local business inspired you to investigate the idea further and you ended up joining forces with that company to expand your ideas to others. From that relationship you in turn created a business relationship and both of your businesses grew or gained financially.

No matter the story there are always two factors that play into a good one and a great one. Both always have a beginning and an end, but the great ones hit on a topic that gets in your head (facts, science, data, etc.) and the heart (our families or the future). If your ‘green’ story is told simply “Because we care”, well you’re not really telling much of a story. For us it was taking a moment to stand back and look at our nieces and nephews future. These young adults are going to receive a horrible future if we don’t act now and our business is a great place to start.

Tell us what you’re doing, but give us a story and we’ll help you tell others.