Consumption is, in general, not very green. It often involves the wasteful use of resources, fossil fuels for transportation, and non environmentally friendly materials. While a general reduction in consumption would be ideal, though, there will always be certain purchases that are necessary and there will always be people who are not willing to cut back. Which is where Tal Ater’s initiative – Green Any Site – comes in.
As Tal will soon explain in his own words, Green Any Site can help people making online purchases make a free donation to the environment with every gadget or doo-dah that they buy online.
Tal explains a little more about Green Any Site:
But as I was working on it, I realized that there is a sustainable business model here… One that will allow GAS to support itself as it grows, while still donating 100% of the money we get from greening purchases (which is a critical point for me).
The fact that people use GAS every time they are about to make a purchase lets me know when they decide to buy something, what they decide to buy, and where… This is a great opportunity to advertise other, greener alternatives to them.
For example, let’s say you’re about to purchase a book, and you click the “green this!” button. The GAS window opens and says something like “You’re shopping at somebookstore.com click here to green this purchase”. To the side of that window I may add a small notice that says: “This book is also available as an audio book on Audible. Click here to get it and save another tree”… This is highly targeted advertising that can be used to support GAS. In fact, I don’t know of any other platform that allows you to target your advertising so specifically at the exact time of purchase… All while promoting greener shopping decisions.
The GAS window will also be used for a few other things in the future to help a user with his purchase. For example, soon GAS will show you coupon codes to the site you’re currently shopping on, right in the GAS window on top of the site.
Of course with great power comes great responsibility, and as I have no intention of becoming “big brother”, I will not keep any personally identifiable information on what people buy. That info is just used during the purchase to give you more info, and isn’t stored.”
Author: Karen Chernick
Much to the disappointment of her Moroccan grandmother, Karen became a vegetarian at the age of seven because of a heartfelt respect for other forms of life. She also began her journey to understand her surroundings and her impact on the environment. She even starting an elementary school Ecology Club and an environmental newsletter in the 3rd grade. (The proceeds of the newsletter went to non-profit environmental organizations, of course.) She now studies in New York. Karen can be reached at karen (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
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