Eco-friendly used to be a buzzword thrown around by people in the small, but growing, environmentalist groups of generations past. Today, however, it has become a way of life as more and more people are waking up to the importance of taking care of the planet. People are recycling, reducing waste, and reusing what they can. They are also taking a cold, hard look at the products they use every day and getting the shock of their life when they realize just how toxic those products really are.
Because of this, one industry that is seeing a huge surge in growth is the green cleaning industry. According to an article by Marketing Daily, which I was led to by a post on the ShopToEarth Live Green blog, green household cleaners are going mainstream. In 2009, consumers spent $557 million dollars on green household cleaning and laundry products. This represents a 229% growth in the sales of green cleaners between 2005 and 2009.
This news is wonderful for two reasons. First, going green is a lot easier now than it was when environmentalism was only a grassroots movement. Nowadays, green products are rubbing shoulders on store shelves with their brand name toxic counterparts, so those looking to make a change now have greater access to more eco-friendly options. Secondly, this trend towards cleaning green has provided an opportunity for entrepreneurs to build successful businesses producing or marketing green products.
And unlike certain fashion trends (bell bottoms anyone?) this movement towards being more eco-conscious isn't going to simply fizzle out. Environmental disasters, both natural and man-made (recent Gulf oil spill), ensure that the push towards responsible conservatorship of the Earth remain at the forefront of the social change that is happening in the world today. People want to make a difference and the majority of them will start in their homes by making different choices when it comes to the food they eat, the products they use, and they way they use resources such as water and electricity.
As an eco pioneer, you can help lead the way to a healthier planet simply by introducing people to green alternatives to the products they already use. In fact, you can build a very profitable home based business just using the internet. According to a survey conducted by the Nielsen Company, over 85% of the world's online population (nearly 1.8 billion people at last count) had used the internet to make a purchase. That represented a 40% growth from 2006. A business that combines these two burgeoning trends really has no way to go but up.
