By Ed Avis
An IRgA panel discussion in April about the concept of green reprographics led to an interesting conclusion: While sustainability issues are in headlines everywhere, how much that affects demand for green services depends somewhat on where your reprographics shop is located.
The panelists were Gene Klein, owner of BarkerBlue in Santa Mateo, California and Tyler Langdon, sales representative of Eastern Engineering in Indiana. Both men described the green initiatives at their shops and how much customers care. The conversation revealed that “being green” seems more important on the West Coast than in the Midwest, but it also depends on the sensibilities of the individual you are speaking with.
Langdon: Green Efforts to Save Money
Langdon said his company’s green efforts, which began before he joined the firm, were initially designed to save money.
“For example, our trash expense,” Langdon said. “You have to pay for someone to come pick up your trash, but if you have a recycling bin, a lot of 'em will come up and pick it up for free. So that was one way to cut expense pretty much on day one.”
Eastern’s “green” offerings spread from there, he explained, and eventually included offering a recycling program for paper, cardboard and printer cartridges. Eastern Engineering participates in the HP Planet Partner program that collects spent HP cartridges and returns them to the company for recycling. To facilitate this program, Eastern offers collection boxes to all of their clients. When a box fills up, a delivery driver picks it up and puts down a new one; HP hauls away the spent cartridges when they accumulate 500 pounds of them.
Eastern started marketing these efforts to clients in 2018, Langdon said.
“Our marketing department led the initiative of, ‘Hey, we're already doing this stuff. We should let our customers know that we're doing it,’” he explained.
However, Langdon said he rarely sees sales benefits from the company’s green efforts.
“I mean, being in the Midwest, to be honest, I don't get asked, ‘Are you guys energy efficient?’” he said “In our sales process, we try to say [we are green], but to say it lands deals, I don't think we're there yet.”
Langdon added that sometimes it helps, but typically only with larger companies that have a green initiative of their own or some kind of sustainability related quota.
Klein: Big Solar Investment
Klein reported that his company’s green efforts kicked off in 2006 when he installed a solar array on his shop’s roof. It was a major investment, but it has long paid for itself in terms of electricity savings, he said.
More important, that investment in solar – and other green efforts – showed his clients that BarkerBlue was serious about sustainability. And today in his market, that does matter.
However, that wasn’t always the case. Klein said there was a lot of “greenwashing” in the early 2000s, when companies said they cared about these issues but did not want to spend any extra money to be green.
For example, when BarkerBlue offered recycled paper, clients were interested until the higher pricetag was revealed. “Most of our clients were like, ‘Oh, is that more money? Well, I don't want to pay any extra if it's recycled,’” Klein said.
Eventually the mood changed, and Klein said being green seems more important to clients than before.
“First of all, we're in California. Secondly, it is really obvious that global warming is happening,” Klein said. “We're that much further along and we’re finding that the young people, the people that are being recruited out of college, they are really attracted to that.”
Not only are clients more interested in green issues, but they seem to want more specifics. For example, Klein said some clients ask for spec sheets and material accreditations to prove that they are environmentally sound.
“So I think green is coming back,” Klein said. “I think we were too early on green and I think that we picked the wrong space because the general contractors could not care less. The developers care about getting LEED certified. We weren’t part of that, but we’re getting a real renaissance in the interests in green building and finishing materials.”
Some Care, Some Don’t
The bottom line from the panel discussion was that being green can help if you’re dealing with a client who cares about that issue.
“It's all depends on who I’m talking to,” Langdon said. “Figuring out if the customer has green initiatives is important. Not everybody at that office cares about it, but if you talk to the right person, they definitely do. So it’s important to have the knowledge of what you’re doing and what your vendors are doing, and being able to explain that to them and articulate it.”
This article just scratched the surface of what was discussed in this event. To watch the recording of the panel discussion, log into the Member Center and click on the Reports and Recorded Webinars tab on the left.