Blue Tent Marketing

It is only fitting that we cap off our renaissance summer here at Blue Tent by rolling out a major overhaul of the Solar Energy International (SEI) website. Located just down the road from world headquarters in Carbondale, Colorado, SEI was founded in 1991 as a non-profit organization whose mission is to help others use renewable energy resources and natural building technologies through education and technical assistance. They have advanced this mission by working with grassroots and development organizations around the world to promote sustainability and improve quality of life, while offering a variety of classes and workshops for 18 years.

Having a web presence since 1998, SEI realized the power of the web as a medium to educate and communicate globally.  SEI approached us this spring knowing that, in order to retain their position as the leading force in the non-profit solar industry, their site was in need of a major redesign and redevelopment.

Goals
At the outset of the project, SEI set forth the following goals:

• Build a new site with a compelling design to act as a forum to facilitate SEI’s primary goal of educating people about renewable energy and sustainable building technologies, and be the “go to” online resource to satisfy any level of interest.
• Strengthen SEI’s brand by underscoring its unique history and wide array of products and services offered.
• Create the functionality needed for students to sign up for, and participate in, classes online and in person.
• Provide complete membership sign-up and administration functionality.
• Integrate a comprehensive e-commerce module to sell merchandise, books and DVDs online.

Process
We began by building SEI’s new site on our Drupal based CMS. This platform allows us the flexibility and scalability to add the features and functionality to accomplish the goals SEI set forth. We built the forms, forums, blogs, RSS feed, calendar and video applications necessary to create a trusted online resource for those seeking information about the latest developments in solar energy and sustainable building technologies.

To help facilitate SEI’s educational mission online, we created the custom integrations with Blackboard, so students could access curriculum, the shopping cart for purchasing textbooks, and the next phase of the project will integrate all of this member information seamlessly into their CRM database – creating a comprehensive web application for managing and growing their organization online.

We also created a member’s only area where interested parties can sign up for updates, access additional information and tools or view SEI’s alumni network, and update their member profiles within the CRM database. Down the road, we’ll be looking to enhance their email marketing and communication programs as well.

Conclusion

SEI has been a model client – embracing our holistic approach to internet marketing. Not only did they have the vision and commitment to make an investment in an industry leading web application; they also incorporated search, email marketing, and Google Analytics into their online marketing strategy.  We’re excited to measure the impact this rebirth of the SEI web presence has on their organization. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with such an awesome organization and look forward to helping drive the success of their online marketing initiatives into the future. A big thank-you goes out to everyone that worked on this project!

To celebrate Earth Day 2009, we unveiled the latest phase of our Blue Tent Green initiative: Computer Recycling. It goes without saying how harmful computer components containing hazardous materials such as lead, mercury and chromium can be to our environment if they aren’t disposed of properly.

With a grant from Aspen’s Community Office for Resource Efficiency (C.O.R.E.) and in partnership with the Carbondale-based YouthEntity (formerly Computers For Kids Foundation or C4K), we will contribute to a collaborative effort to reuse and recycle computers from throughout the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond.

Youth Entity is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help prepare local youth prepare for future success by connecting community with technology and education. Their student technicians are able to give approximately 85% of the computers and peripherals they receive a new lease on life by refurbishing the equipment and then distributing it to those in need. The equipment that Youth Entity can’t use is headed for A-1 Electronic Recycling, LLC of Denver, Colorado. It’s not the company that was recently raided by the FBI and featured on “60 Minutes,” so no worries on that front.

Back in the day, our office was located in the server room of a company in Basalt. We were surrounded by old computer monitors, keyboards, speakers and such. Clearly, nobody knew what to do with that stuff or how to dispose of it in a responsible way. Going forward, our goal is to make it easy for people to recycle and reuse older computers as much as possible.

Today, BTM World Headquarters is located upstairs at 218 E. Valley Dr., Suite 205 in the Orchard Plaza building in El Jebel, across from Movieland. Our office will serve as a drop-off point for the mid-valley residents for used computers and peripherals every Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.. We’ll also station the computer recycling trailer at various locations throughout the valley from time to time. A processing fee of $5 to $12 is required to defray the recycling costs. All gift-in-kind donations to YouthEntity are tax deductible.

So if you’re located in the Roaring Fork Valley, keep an eye out for our computer recycling trailer. And help us keep toxic computers out of landfills and extend their life by putting them into the hands of those that could use them.

Happy Earth Day!
- The Blue Tent Team

Have you been wondering how we’ve been progressing with our Green Initiative? I know how you feel. It’s taken some time to generate activities worth reporting! The bus was in the lot. We all jumped aboard to take a demo drive. Sputter… no bio-diesel in the engine!

A legitimate green business initiative requires dedicated resources, time and energy. We’ve embarked on a mission to become a certified green business, and we’re in the process of applying for certification from third party outfits, which we identified as a key element to being recognized as an authentically green business.

Our profile should look like the following in order for us to proclaim, “we are a green business!”

Certified Green business
Low carbon footprint
Carbon offset domain hosting
Powered with renewable energy
Support community outreach programs, like computer & CD recycling
Annual giving program
Employee “green” incentives (alternative transportation day)
Economically sustainable business model

So where do we stand now? We have identified where we need to decrease energy use and reduce our waste stream. We are developing community outreach programs to make certain we are giving back to the area where we work and live. We are analyzing our travel patterns for both daily commuting and yearly business travel. Finally, we are addressing our purchasing decisions so we buy products that are energy efficient, recyclable or reusable.

In the next post, I will list all the tasks we are assigning to department heads. They are being asked to become “change agents” in their areas of influence.

The bus now seems to have some fuel and has left the parking lot. Our goal is to keep the bus in motion, even if a few stops are made along the way.

Go Green!

Charles Erdman

Last week, I announced that Blue Tent is Going Green. This begs the question, “why?” Why does Blue Tent care about going green? After all the company is profitable at its current business. This isn’t a revenue issue. Our clients are NOT asking us to become a more sustainable marketing company. So what is driving this action?

I think two reasons are inspiring our initiative. The first is the desire to take action on an issue that is being highlighted everywhere we turn. People want to do good. They want to change “some” of their routines that they see as detrimental to the environment. We all feel that we can do better at protecting our home (earth). Even the most jaded, self-centered, doubting-Thomas suspects that something is up when weather patterns across the globe are acting out of character.

So that’s the first reason- empathy with our planet.

The second reason is that we value green. We value the idea of being green while making green. Yup…it’s true. Companies are in the business of making money. Blue Tent is no different. That said, we are bullish that there is a real opportunity for us to help our clients to articulate their green efforts. However, its going to take us spending money to learn about green marketing to eventually make some green.

So what are we committed to learning? First off, where we are being wasteful and energy inefficient. We are doing a green audit so we can understand all the issues of reducing waste and energy consumption. The process which began a month ago sometimes seems like we are focusing on trivial items. After all, shouldn’t we address all the major issues such as electricity, building insulation, travel, paper consumption, etc.? We’ve discovered that this is true, but there’s more to it… unfortunately. The devil is always in the details.

It’s the small things repeated numerous times each day that sometimes become the largest issues. Are computers going in to sleep mode every five minutes or are they draining more power by remaining on for 30-minutes? How about the paper plates in the kitchen/break area? Are they made from post-consumer material? Shouldn’t we replace the styrofoam coffee cups used during client meetings? If we do that, what is the cost of using hot water to wash ceramic mugs? What do we do with all the plastic to-go lunch containers?

These seem like small items to be concerned with when you’re running a business. However, this is where the issue of unnecessary waste lives (and the production side of that dilemma- what energy was required to produce that disposable convenience).

Now back to earning green… our goal is to make Blue Tent green and be transparent about it (hence this blog). Once that is achieved, we can be the “green” partner for companies who require this of their vendors. We hope this will create new business opportunities for Blue Tent.

The next part of our green initiative requires more learning and money. We need to become fluent in the language of green marketing.

I’ll leave that topic for another post titled The Language of Green Marketing.

Cheers/

Charley Erdman

“Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.”

-Edward Abbey, A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

Blue Tent Marketing is at the beginning of a new phase of growth. The phase will examine our activities with the goal of becoming a green company. Digital marketing is inherently more energy efficient than other industries merely by the nature of the product it delivers- pixel based communication solutions. But we are ready to go further…

Green… sustainable… energy efficient… socially conscious… environmental… organic…

These terms and more are being bandied about with increasing frequency. They represent the language of a maturing phenomena that is no longer a trend, but a sustained shift being revealed in the world’s top consumer cultures.

The cynic in all of us is skeptical of the marketing of the green movement. Let me repeat that last bit- the marketing of the green movement. This post is not about the social movement towards sustainable living. That is applauded. That is the call to action for our time.

When a company markets, they persuade. As consumers we either decide that their persuasive messages are authentic or not. Can we trust the green claims found in the marketing of our trusted products? How do we know if they are environmentally sensitive? The ability to verify their claims are, after all, nearly impossible.

We have to trust. We have to trust that the message is true.

A great sum of money is being spent every minute to help companies generate persuasive language. The consultants select words to trigger the proper mental images or feelings. If they are successful, we buy. If we are not convinced, we don’t buy.

Very simple… very difficult.

All of this leads to the purpose of this post… green marketing. Right now, we are engaged in becoming green- not figuratively, but literally. We are examining how we do business, how we operate and we’re being honest about the little things. After all, its the cumulative effect of the little things that result in either an integrated or disconnected company.

It is our hope and goal to make Blue Tent green. As the effort achieves results, then we can go out to the world and be honest about our immediate and evolving achievements towards limiting our environmental impact. Hopefully, we can even persuade our clients to become greener. That would be a great marketing story!

In the process, we’ll be learning the language of green first hand. Then once we are comfortable with the language, we can help our clients be true to their words. Only then will we be able to integrate green in to our green marketing.

Over the next weeks and months I will be creating a number of posts to document our journey. We will be honest about our successes and of our dilemmas. Join us by checking back in soon.

cheers/

Charley Erdman