So I’ve heard that green is the new black, and I’d have to agree. There are few trends more fashionable than eco-friendly anything at the moment. I’ve certainly caught the bug - I tote around a sweet Freitag bag made of recycled truck tarps and parts, I drink out of a pretty little SIGG bottle every day at work, and I pay three times as much for environmentally-friendly laundry detergent. What can I say, it makes me feel hip AND socially conscious. Bonus. I’m addicted to “green.” And all around us, this seems to be the trend.
My favorite go-to magazine, Women’s Health, wrote a feature about global warming/environmental issues about a year ago that was so popular with readers that they’re now including similar topics in every issue (because their readers asked for it, repeatedly!). There’s now an entire section of their website dedicated to “Green Living.”
A few months ago, a particular story caught my eye, in which several environmental/conservation organizations were mentioned, and it made me think about where TWS fits into the conversation. How can we position our organization for opportunities for exposure to audiences that are friendly to our causes but that aren’t squarely within our current target audience? The magazine’s demographics are surely appealing, and I’m sure there are many other publications - online and off - that could offer exposure to segments of people learning about our issues and inspired to do something, just as I was when I read that first article on the topic (and the many since).
Organizationally, I know these conversations are already happening. Let’s keep it up. TWS’ mission, goals, and programs have broad appeal to a mass of different audiences. Our work is incredibly relevant to so many of the big ticket issues right now. All we have to do now is let more people know!
Spread the word: “green is in, and so is TWS.”
I’m a day late for an official Earth Day post, but my brain’s still thinking green and it seems that I’m not the only one. Green is in. There’s a ton of buzz around “carbon footprints” - I think about it in my personal life constantly and it’s become an almost daily conversation within our organization.
We’re “greening” our offices, holding ourselves accountable for carbon expenditures by purchasing offsets, and exploring ways to cut back on daily commuting. We’re even poking around with ideas of how to relay the measures we’re taking to our supporters via the website and email messaging in the hopes to inspire more change.
A few weeks ago, The Wilderness Society released a new report on the huge carbon reserves held in forests. The report is great news. It’s exciting stuff! Yet, it’s also a scientific report and hence can be complicated in places, at least for this right-brained creature! So this got me thinking. What could we do to make the contents of this report a bit easier to digest for the average Jane like me? This is a question that I find myself asking on a very regular basis - one of the awesome challenges of working with a lot of brilliant people in a field that’s quite new to me!
I stumbled across an interesting website today that takes a bit of a different spin on this idea of an environmental footprint. It’s a subsite for Patagonia and it visualizes the footprint of several clothing products they sell. Now to be honest, this makes me - a bit of a shopaholic - a little depressed. Perhaps not what we’d like to go for…but the idea is solid - graphically showing the “footprint” makes an impact while keeping things pretty darn simple to understand.
There was also a little buzz about a map of the US carbon footprint that circulated last week, which, aside from the debates about its scientific merit, is pretty sweet to look at and evokes some interesting thoughts/questions/discussions.
This has gotten me thinking, are there things we could do within The Wilderness Society to make our good work stretch further, appeal to a larger audience, engage folks better and longer? Using some of these models to visually tell our story is definitely a potential solution.