In honor of Earth Day, the Edson E+I team invited Sowan Thai, a participant from our Cultivate PHX AgriFood Tech Incubator, to provide his take on how business owners and entrepreneurs can show some love for the planet on this special day. Let’s hear from Sowan.
My name is Sowan Thai, and I am the Community Food Systems Manager at Spaces of Opportunity. I have been working in the agriculture space for the last eight years, at first as a researcher, then as a grower, and now as a facilitator for other farmers.
Photo: Sowan Thai of Spaces of Opportunity
Since its conception over 50 years ago, Earth Day is now a global tradition that millions of people celebrate. Every year citizens, government officials, and entire corporations all over the world take time out of their busy lives to show reverence for our planet. Some plant trees, others clean up environmental sites. You can even do something small like reduce your carbon emissions by not driving that day. There are a whole slew of things we can do to take part in this global movement.
As business owners and entrepreneurs, here are three ways you can get involved as you stay busy with your growing business.
Host Earth Day Events or Workshops
Organize events such as workshops, seminars, or webinars focused on environmental topics relevant to your business. If you have a brick-and-mortar space where you conduct your work, carve out some time to host an event in person. These workshops get folks in your doors to do an activity that satisfies their social and ethical need to make a positive change. It also makes it more likely for them to make impulse purchases and learn more about your business.
If your business is online, virtual meeting rooms can be just as impactful and allow the participants to learn from the comforts of their own homes. I have taught and attended many workshops over Zoom with great success! You can charge admission fees or offer premium ticket packages that include exclusive access or merchandise. Alternatively, you can make the event itself free to attend and offer your environmentally friendly products for sale at the end.
If you are worried that you don’t know enough about a given topic of interest, you can partner with a local organization or expert who would love to share their knowledge. This is a great way to cross-promote each other’s work and can often lead to new exposure for your business to entirely new groups of potential customers.
Launch Limited Edition Earth Day Products
Create special edition products or services specifically for Earth Day, such as a unique line of eco-friendly merchandise or limited edition menu items at a food business made from locally sourced ingredients. It is worth noting that sourcing locally not only supports people in your own backyard, but it also reduces the carbon footprint of an item’s transit.
You can also create a one-off product that you can sell for a limited time in celebration of Earth Day. Or give it away when your customer purchases one of your other products or spends a particular amount of money at your establishment. One of my favorites to make are seed bombs, which are typically balls of soil and clay embedded with seeds of your choice. These seed bombs can be tossed in your yard, garden, or pretty much anywhere where they will make contact with soil. They are cost-effective and fun to make. They are shelf-stable and you can customize the seed varieties to match your brand. Personally, I love using wildflower seeds. Just make sure the seeds you choose are for plants that are non-invasive and can actually grow in your area.
Organize Community Clean-up or planting Events
It can also be tremendously powerful to sponsor or organize community participation events where people can plant or help clean up a particular area. There is no better way to celebrate Earth Day than to be on the ground and physically making a concerted effort to improve our planet. I have been a part of dozens of these types of events throughout my career and every single time I get an influx of mentions, messages, and even letters from people telling me how much they got out of the work. There is something to be said about seeing the before and after effect you are having in real-time and physically transforming a space into something better than it was before.
Simultaneously, these types of occasions offer plenty of opportunities to engage with customers, build brand awareness, and demonstrate your commitment to environmental responsibility.
When your community sees you demonstrating your values and putting in some sweat hours, you gain a lot of trust in and respect for your brand. Anyone can make a post or share an article about the need to make improvements to our earth, but few are willing to get down and dirty to act on those words. Earth Day can be a meaningful way for all of us to break free from the everyday hustle and bustle. Even if it’s temporary, we can escape into a cause that benefits every single person on this blue marble on which we live. It is a wonderful reminder to all of us that (as of now) we have only one planet which we can live on and we must do our part to care for it as a human race.
Find a Community Balancing Business, People, and Planet
Finding fellow business owners who prioritize sustainable and fair solutions for both people and the planet is a great way to inspire innovative ways to incorporate conscious decision-making into everyday business practices.
If you’re looking for a community like this, connect with the Edson E+I team and get plugged into programs like Cultivate PHX tailored to entrepreneurs developing thoughtful solutions across the Phoenix Metro Area, or take a look at any of our other Edson E+I events to find what works best for your journey.
