Hacker Group Creates Coalition To Help Businesses Adopt Green
Marketing Practices
SEATTLE--(Business Wire)--
Hacker Group, a full-service direct marketing agency, has created
the Green Marketing Coalition (GMC). Realizing there were no
industry-wide green marketing standards or guidelines, Hacker Group
formed the GMC to provide tools to organizations interested in
incorporating green marketing into their businesses practices. For
Hacker Group, the green process began last year, and it has since
changed the way it operates from top to bottom.
Hacker Group management invested time and money, researching how
they could reduce their company's carbon footprint. They began phasing
in green initiatives, allowing employees to adapt and educate their
clients on the benefits. It was this discovery process that led to the
creation of the GMC.
Hacker Group invited representatives from Microsoft, Washington
Mutual, Kawasaki, MSP, Nahan Printing, Inc., Data-Mail, Cascade Land
Conservancy, American Recycling, KP Corporation, OptimaHealth, BECU
and FastSigns to join the GMC. The first item on the agenda was to
define and establish green marketing standards and guidelines.
Coalition members now meet quarterly and are helping demystify green
marketing, making it accessible for companies of all sizes.
"After seeing how easily we could incorporate our own green
initiatives, we have dedicated ourselves to helping other
organizations do the same," commented Spyro Kourtis, President, Hacker
Group. "Through our dialog with marketers from around the country, we
found that many of them didn't know where to start; it seemed
overwhelming," Kourtis continued. "We heard that they wished there
were guidelines or standards. Without them, they didn't know how to
get the buy-off from management to make the switch to green marketing.
By partnering with like-minded companies through the GMC, we are
developing tools to help marketers easily integrate green marketing
into their companies."
Prior to the development of the GMC, Hacker Group employees
already had introduced green marketing into their business practices.
The first phase incorporated state-of the-art data processing to
eliminate mailings sent to the wrong addresses. Then they began
working with production vendors who were committed to recycling, using
UV print presses and complying with hazardous waste disposal
standards. Next, employees and clients began using Hacker Group's
extranet to track documents electronically, offering opportunities to
proof and edit material using Adobe PDF files rather than hard copies.
And finally, Hacker Group made the promise to clients that whenever
possible, marketing materials would be printed on recycled paper using
10-percent post-consumer waste.
The next phase involved moving the company from Bellevue, Wash. to
Seattle to reduce the commuting impact its employees were making on
the environment. Through a better-designed new office space, the
company reduced the square footage needed per employee for better
energy efficiency, and used environmentally friendly paint, fabric,
lighting, furniture and equipment.
Adopting green marketing practices doesn't have to break the bank.
Members of the GMC believe all companies can begin to take small steps
towards reducing their carbon footprints.
For more information on how to incorporate green marketing into
your business practices, go to www.greenmarketingcoalition.com.
Cohan Communications Group
Leslie Cohan, 206-527-7950 or 206-849-1810
leslie@cohangroup.com
Copyright Business Wire 2008
