Most marketing Guru’s agree that the greener your company looks, the more profit you are likely to reap. This is especially true within the newly emerging market of electronics trade in portals. Gazelle.com is the market leader and a huge proponent of recycling your electronics while getting some cash at the same time.

In addition to giving straight cash for old electronics items, Gazelle understands that offering extra services like recycling can go along way.

It’s become very smart indeed to be green.

So much so that in many sectors, not having substantiated green credentials can be commercial suicide. Take the Gazelle example again. Having strong green credentials means effectively you can charge more for your services because you are adding the vital ingredient of the good will factor.

The Good Will Factor – an important lesson for every business…

Today it is important for all of us that we feel we are doing the right thing for the environment. When we buy a dishwasher, we need to know that our old one will be recycled and kept out of landfill. We need to know that our Laptop has been made without PVCs, we need assurance that our wood comes from a sustainable source.

General consumers are doing their bit to help the environment such as separating the trash, unplugging their chargers and using efficient light bulks. They expect the same from retailers they buy from, and will go out of their way to seek out green options if they are readily available.

What’s crucial for business is that they will pay more to do so… and this is what will give your business the crucial edge in being green.

Gazelle does not give very much for many items they buy off of customers. However, their green credentials enable them to pay a bit less for an item because the good will that flows from their environmental credentials allow them to increase their profit margin.

Yourenew.com has taken note of this magical effect and taken the business of being green to a new level, donating a portion of the money they make to tackle e-waste. They do not appear to be too competitive on price, and they don’t need to be. It just feel good to sell your electronics to them. You just feel you’re doing something good for the environment. In short, we are willing to pay for that good feeling we get. As a business, ignoring this fact can spell doom for your enterprise.

So here are the 10 most important ways to become green and profit from being green.

(1) Research. Research. Research.

If you’re going to look green, you’ve got to figure out how you can be green. Affiliate yourself with environmental organizations. Two great places to start would be The Carbon Fund and The Carbon Neutral Company. These companies will work with you to help build your company’s green credentials.

(2)  Become a green certified site

By clicking on this logo inside your website, it enables your customers to verify your green credentials through a reputable organization. The site calculates your company’s carbon footprint through the energy consumption.

Logo credentials are very effective in making your business immediately stand out from your competition. Some affiliations do not come cheap. Becoming affiliated with the Better Business Bureau for example can set your company back over $1,000 a year. Most would agree that this is money well spent. To become a Green Certified Site will set you back about $300.  Again, money well spent.

(3) Link Greenness with your Company Ethos

A mission statement is not just how customers should feel about your company. It’s also a reflection of how your employees feel about working for you. This goodwill can go a long way in keeping the staff that make money for the business.

(4) Green Companies pay less

If your company has a strong green mission, it’s going to be easier to hire the people you need to make your buainess successful. They’ll want to come and work for you and that means they’ll accept less of a salary from you compared to your competitors.

(5) Put one person in charge of the company’s green credentials

As stated earlier, making your company green and demonstrating it to your workforce and customers is not a walk in the park. It has to be worked on. By placing someone in charge they can do all the necessary research. This employee will draw on other members of staff to pitch in and become part of the ‘Green Team’. Green Teams have also become vital team building exercises within larger corporations.

Ebay and Google both have a Green Team.

(6) Establish a Green Team within your organization

Green Teams are not just the privileged domain of large organizations with budgets to suit.

(7) Always Always link your company greenness with what your company does.

For example, say you have a printing company. Make sure you provide paper from sustainable sources or old recycled stock and state it plainly. Your customers will want to know, and if your customer is a business it will add value to their business.

(8) Increase your profit margin

Quite a bold statement in itself, but you’re in the business of making money, and investing a lot of time and energy into being green has got to pay off somewhere. This is where being green pays.

Going back to the example of the printing company, recycled paper is actually cheaper to produce than the non green options. However, Printing Businesses will charge more for it. They make a bigger margin on their green products.

You can increase your product margin because people want to do business with green companies and are willing to pay more for it. It is one reason why Wholefoods is such a success. Green detergent is never cheaper, but it’s often cheaper to produce.

It is often a worry  for companies to alter their pricing structure after an internal green revolution. There are 2 main factors to consider. If your new greenness is going to actively increase the number of your orders significantly, your company is obviously going to reap extra profit on the upside.

You may find that orders do not increase in any significant fashion and that your hard earned green credentials may have seemed like a waste of time. This is because you are missing the key ingredient of your new greener beusiness…

(9) You are not just selling a service or product, you are selling a lifestyle

As a green company, you no longer need to be the cheapest in your field. Greener, more environmental businesses are never perceived to be the bargain basements of their industry. People expect to pay a little more for your services. If you don’t increase your prices you are simple missing the point of your company being seen to be greener.

(10) PR. PR and then some more PR. Publish your green credentials on a regular basis.

It’s easy for your customers to forget you are greener. If you stop working at it, your newer customers may not be directed to the fact. You need a website which strongly reinforces your green credentials. Highlight the issues with the environment associated with your business. For example, if you provide server storage services, ensure that your customers are aware that your servers are run using super efficient semi-conductors, and that your facility sources much of its energy using solar panels on the roof. I’d happily pay an extra $20 a month for our server if I knew that.

The problem is that many companies spend a small fortune doing some great work to make themselves greener, but then spend much less effort making their customers aware of it.