Do You Choose Your Customer or Do They Choose You?

Blog by Julie Urlaub, Founder and Managing Partner at Taiga Company
Sep 23, 2010 3:36 PM ET

Taiga Company Blog

What does it mean to be a sustainable business?  Does it mean a company produces a ‘green’ product or service from a sustainable supply chain?   Does it mean the company must also maintain sustainable internal business process?  What about the product once it leaves the front door?  Many companies today are looking up the value chain and asking: Are we defining, attracting, and selling to the right customers? 

In a recent post, Why Monetary Circulation Is Critical to Business Sustainability, we follow the flow of money and resources through a continuous cycle.  The quality of the dollar coming in is often as important as the quality of product going out.    With the shift in consumer preferences over the past few years, companies have been aggressive to respond to the growing ‘green’ value opportunity.  However, lifecycle questions remain on company responsibilities once the products are in the hands of the consumer.    Does a sustainable business need to market and sell to a responsible consumer to be sustainable?   As a personal sustainability consultant and an advocate for sustainable change in business, I express to clients, peers, and friends that everything we buy is an expression of consumer preference.  This purchase choice tells the business world that we approve of the product and service they are providing.  On the flip-side, businesses also have a responsibility to position their products and services in a way to attract the right consumers.   The good news for business is there seems to be a general trend towards increasing eco awareness and a decreasing resistance for more sustainable products. Click here to continue reading.  

 Home to one third of the earth's trees, the Taiga is the largest land-based biosphere and encircles the globe. Its immense oxygen production literally changes the atmosphere and refreshes the planet. It is this continuous renewal that has shaped Taiga Company's vision to drive similar change in the business world. Taiga Company seeks to be the "oxygen for your business".

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