Today’s Hot Business Trends Are Mainly Sustainable
I received another Springwise newsletter in my inbox today, a few days after reading the most recent issue of Fast Company, and the contents of both made me realize: for the most part the entrepreneurial ideas or trends that are being covered by the majority of even not “green”-specific publications today are influenced by sustainable business thinking. The cool stuff just IS more sustainable by design, so the not-so sustainably-oriented ideas don’t make the cut.
Let’s use this most recent Springwise newsletter , specifically, as an example. Of the 14 cool new ideas or businesses listed, half have fairly clear sustainability or socially responsible influences/implications:
- Low cost bikes for (not only) the rural poor [Sustainable transportation/healthy community]
- Retailer recycles customers’ old adult toys [Resource efficiency/effectiveness]
- Service helps designers find sustainable materials [Resource efficiency/effectiveness]
- More consumer directed community giving [Social awareness/healthy community]
- Pedestrian footsteps, converted into energy [Alternative energy]
- Board game stimulates sustainable [re]thinking [Cultural/organizational change/green thinking]
- Vermont school builds net-zero fieldhouse [Green building/energy efficiency]
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How do trends get picked up by the various magazines and publications? Because their editors and writers, who are paid to be on top of cultural and consumer trends, think they should be. (And remember, I’m not talking about “green” publications here.)
Sustainability is infiltrating consumer culture because it is innovative and solves problems, and it is rapidly becoming the rule, not the exception, for consumer expectations of all brands and products. This is no green fad, it is a broader, cultural sustainability movement.
And,… it all sounds suspiciously similar to what was first touted as a “trend,” but what we now realize was really a much deeper cultural shift: the concept of, and need for, marketing to women.
In both cases, the consumer market is not demanding a “for women” or “for green thinker” label on anything. Instead, consumers see their interests, needs and values reflected in cutting edge innovation, design and marketing strategies. And, they are forcing the issue themselves, now that they see what is already possible.
If the magazines, web sites and thought leaders we all turn to for “the latest” are picking up on sustainability to this extent, why aren’t you?
