Greens Have Fun and Make A Difference

Can the equivalent of an updated flash mob be organized to have such a positive financial impact on a company that it invests in green improvements?

While we're all familiar with boycotting a particular product, company or store for a personal or political reason, what if someone turned this around and organized a great number of people to purchase things that generated a large boost in revenue and in exchange for this extra business, the company agreed to invest in energy saving changes? What if businesses competed to provide the most energy cost savings?

What have I been putting in my green tea, Green Readers may ask.

This is exactly what Carrot Mob did. In San Francisco, organizers got several hundred people to visit a downtown market on the same day and make their normal purchases all at that selected store. First, one organizer, Brent, went to all the small stores and asked if he brought a large number of shoppers to their store, what percentage of the company's spending would the store be willing to dedicate to making environmentally friendly improvements? The stores began to bid and the store with the greatest percentage of improvements was selected. Carrot Mob organized all the folks to show up on the same day--so many that the line stretched around the block just to get in. The store had five times the normal day's revenues and it invested the money into a new lighting system and new refrigeration gaskets.

"We can harness the buying power of the casual consumer, get businesses to make environmental choices and we can do it with the carrot," said Carrot Mob organizers. Thus, the name.

You can view the video at their web site.

Photo of "Carrot Dog" by Lauren-go-Lightly

Posted in: Carrot Mob,energy efficiency,flash mob