Strategies

Green Thumbs Cash In On Green Trend

By Erica Olsen ⋅ May 7, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

The trusted business planning tool called the SWOT (for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) may be familiar enough, but are you using it to your strategic advantage?
Along with the internal assessments of your organization’s strength and
weaknesses, reviewing your strategic position also includes evaluating external opportunities and threats in the marketplace.

Consider G-Sky, a Vancouver, British Columbia, company that installs
green roofs – vegetation and soil covered roofs that help lower heating
and air-conditioning costs along with dramatically reducing rainwater
runoff. According to an article in Business 2.0, the total square
footage of green roofs in the United States is already growing at the
healthy rate of 125 percent a year, and now some entrepreneurs like
G-Sky are “placing (their) bets on something even more
forward-thinking: green walls”.

Green walls can provide as much bill-saving insulation as green roofs,
and they put less load-bearing strain on the building. They can also
help offset the urban heat island effect caused by heat-absorbing city
surfaces that can raise temperatures as much as 8 degrees higher than
the surrounding countryside. When G-Sky started looking long-term, they
saw a world where “carbon-trading is king and companies are eager to
offset their greenhouse gas emissions”. Now, G-Sky is installing
plant-filled wall panels that can go on any vertical surface – meaning
that “G-Sky just quintupled its opportunity” since for every roof there are four walls. Early G-Sky clients include Whole Foods and the W Hotel chain.

What can we learn from this trailblazer?

• Build on your company’s strengths: Your strengths
  encompass everything that your company does well. Consider your
  company’s capabilities, skills and resources and draw on them to
  execute plans and actions.
• Consider your operational processes: What do you
  already excel at that might have other applications? G-Sky identified
  an opportunity to grow their business 4X with their existing expertise!
• Capitalize on any opportunities that may exist: Keep in mind that opportunities may be political, social, environmental or technological.