green
online
“It’s about the journey, not the destination,”
says Rajeev Kapur (YPO California Southwest),
Founder and CEO of one of the fastest growing
eco-focused communities on the web.
F
ounded in 2009, Greenwala.com is a super-highway to
a greener lifestyle combining community, commerce
and literally thousands of pages of content from the
latest industry news to the world’s first pedal-powered
Porsche. It currently serves more than 50,000 online readers
a month. “Every person has the power to make a difference,”
says Kapur “and business goals can be achieved through everexpanding social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter,
developing and leveraging online communities.”
Kapur worked for Dell for 12 years and spent half that time
launching and managing their operations in China, Taiwan and
Singapore. He was involved with e-commerce strategies from
the very inception of the World Wide Web and after returning to
Southern California and working at an e-commerce company, the
idea of combining community and content fuelled his passion to
make a difference.
“The front-end of the business is a hybrid of a social network
with things like profiles, groups and some terrific content. We have
thousands of videos on the site and a fairly popular events section.
The back-end of the business is a different story, where we provide
marketing services to brands that want to get their green or socially
responsible message out. We’ve run successful campaigns for
PETCO, HP, GE and Sylvania to name a few. We make the best use
of social media sites, such as Facebook, to drive viral growth. This
helps us minimize our overall carbon footprint. Everyone works
from home and we have tree planting and cause programs that
reward members and non-profits.” Who does Greenwala target as
it’s primary audience? “We view our community in four groups,” says
Kapur. “Firstly, socially responsible entrepreneurs, those members
just starting out who want to connect into a socially focused
community. Secondly, change agents who are part of the larger
corporate infrastructure who are looking to improve accountability
to stakeholders. Thirdly, students and educators, who need to source
information and lastly, families.”
Is Greenwala bringing home the bacon? How can its success be
measured? “Measuring social impact is difficult. For us it is all about
the members and their willingness to participate in our website and
then share this with their friends via email, Twitter, Facebook and
other social media. We know when an article gets read and shared
online, however we can’t follow the reader to their business to see
if they implement this advice. It’s not easy to measure. If you sell a
solar charger, for example, it’s easier to measure impact, although
you still don’t know if the customer used it once or 100 times.”
Kapur’s website gives practical advice that applies to most
businesses: push your supply chain to use recycled materials,
eliminate paper by pushing instruction manuals online, green your
business through recycling programs, minimize travel by using
services like Go To Meeting. All of these actions have a positive
impact to both the planet and bottomline.
What are the biggest global challenges we face?
“I may have a slightly different view than most. In my opinion the
earth is going to be fine. Look, the earth is 4.5 billion years old. It has
survived this long and will continue to survive no matter what we
do. One thing that I’ve seen since Greenwala was launched is that
despite the furor for ‘Going Green’, there is an equal amount, if not
more indifference to it, thanks to the economy. We are increasingly
seeing the ‘why should I bother’ syndrome. Some of it is political.
Some of it is economy related. However, I believe a big chunk of this
is simply a lack of education.
“Every company on the planet owes it to their stakeholders to
build a profitable business. I believe however that every company
also owes it to their stakeholders to build a profitable business that
focuses on educating the workforce about choices they make and
how that, in turn, impacts everyone.” What are his views on the
widely used buzz-phrase, “People, Planet, Profits”?
“It’s memorable, easy to refer to and most importantly it allows
businesses to look at three succinct areas and link across each. At
the end of the day however the idea of PPP is not one that is easily
embrac