In Response to Robert McCarthy

When considering Rob's question: What industries will take the biggest hit from environmentalism, and can they adapt to the challenge? The first industry that comes to mind for me is the oil industry. I think before the issue of environmentalism and being eco-friendly was in the spot light or as focused on as they are today, these companies were already being questioned for the impact they have on the environment. These companies take over land that is important to native people as well as force out or kill off species that live in this land, and when they're done the have depleted the resources and left the land unusable. However, this is what these companies need to do because the oil cannot be replaced as fast as it is consumed. This puts these companies in a tough situation when trying to be more environmentally responsible.
In an effort to fix this many companies have developed alternative energy sources and because of this some of them can adapt to the challenge. The problem with this though is that these alternative energy sources take a lot of money to start up and not always is the public open to the new ideas. Because of all this I think these companies will take a large hit, it may take them years to build and base themselves off of the alternative products they offer. In the long run if these alternative ideas catch on and more people are in support of helping out the environment they will invest in these new ideas and in this event these companies will have adapted to the challenge.

Where do you think oil companies are right now as far as dealing with environmentalism? Do you think they are in the process of considering new ways to be more eco-friendly, or do you think they are trying to invest in and implement new ideas and portray themselves as being more socially responsible? Do you think people will be open to these new energy sources?

Impacts of Environmentalism on Marketing

Environmentalism poses many challenges for marketers, however not all of these challenges necessarily have to be negative. The idea of environmentalism and being socially responsible presents companies with new possibilites and becuase of this I feel as if it is oportunistic to them. The money that may be spent in an effort to become more, "green," seems to overtime more than make up for itself. This can be seen throughout many companies. one specific example of this can be seen with the comany Poland Springs. Bottled water companies were under tremendous scrutiny for being socially irresponsible and creating unnecessary waste. However, Poland Springs did not let this become a threat to them and in turn used this information to better their company and the way they go about producing their bottles. In an effort to do this Poland Springs reduced the amount of raw materials in their botteling process. They also made every part of their bottle recycable, including the lable, and have also created larger containers that are reusable upto 100 times. (http://www.polandspring.com/DoingOurPart/Default.aspx)

Being socially responsible can also improve the public's perception of a company. If consumers are conscience of the environment and feel as if the company is doing their part to better it the consumer is more likely to invest in that company. This helps out companies because public percetion is a huge contirbuting factor to revenues.

Although I chose to focus in on Poland Springs can you think of any other companies that are paying attention to and making changes to their products becuase of enviromentalism?