For the sake of the environment as well as your budget, it's important to take steps to green your business. However, letting your customers know that your business is green may prove to be more difficult than switching your old lightbulbs to LED bulbs. 

Read on to learn more.

Define What Green Means to You

Being green is an abstract idea, and to get people behind your business and products, it's important to concretely define what being green means to you.

The best place to start is with a personal story. If you're a restaurant owner, why do you choose to purchase and serve only local and/or organic foods? Why do you believe in such foods over more readily available conventional foods?

Vicki Marietta, owner of Backyard Gardens in Ohiopyle, uses locally sourced ingredients in her mustards, which can now also be found at Whole Foods in Pittsburgh. 

By defining your greeness with real-life examples, people will be more likely to trust in your business and products. At a time when practically every company every where is claiming to be all-natural, green, and/or safe, how can you actually prove to be these things?

Pay Attention to the 3 P's

The 3 P's of green marketing are people, profit, and planet. According to the Five-Step Guide to Marketing a Business as Green, a good way to meet the needs of the 3 P's is to emphasize how purchasing from your green business will be better for your customer's family/friends (people) and the environment (planet) all while saving your customer's money (profit). 

That said, before you explain to your customers how they can save green by being green, learn some ways you can, too. Check out Earth Day tips: How being green can save you green.

Join the Great Allegheny Passage Sustainable Business Network

The Great Allegheny Passage Sustainable Business Network (GAP SBN) is a network of businesses along the Great Allegheny Passage that are committed to operating more sustainably. The network currently has 20 members, but accepts applications on a rolling basis. 

GAP SBN member, Savage River Lodge in Frostburg, MD, practices sustainability by manufacturing their own biodiesel, utilizing rain barrels, buying locally, and lots more. 

Joining the network is one big way that you can show, not just tell, your customers that you are green. The network members are posted on the GAP SBN website, so visitors can easily view who's "Green on the GAP." There are many more benefits to joining the GAP SBN, and to learn more and/or begin the application process, click here.  

How do you market your green business? Comment below!