How Green Influencers Could Help Your Company Deliver Profits

Julie Starr • June 28, 2022



The term “green marketing” is becoming common parlance in the US and around the world. Companies are looking for ways to brand themselves as more sustainable and ecologically friendly. 

However, they’re having a bit of a tough time pulling it off. Customers almost universally view corporations as harmful to the environment, only looking to make profits.

What’s more, consumers are becoming very sophisticated. They’re now well aware of tactics such as “greenwashing”, where a company pretends to care about the environment but doesn’t in reality. 

The solution to this, for many, is to outsource the task. Companies should be directing their ESG marketing efforts via trusted third parties, such as green influencers, not relying on purely in-house solutions. 

As digital marketing expert Joey Armstrong points out, influencers are incredibly valuable in marketing. When influencers speak to your audience, it feels more like a peer relationship, not a top-down message. It’s incredibly effective for communicating with people on a personal level. 

The trick here is to make your influencer efforts greener. If you can partner with a person or organization known for their environmental credentials, that will immediately raise your brand profile. You’ll become a respected leader in the space, instead of fighting an uphill battle, trying to win trust.

Once you have a green influencer on your team, they can help you in numerous ways. These include:

Helping You Educate Your Customers

Green influencers are highly effective at helping you educate your customers on what you do and why you deserve your green credentials. They have a unique way of communicating with your audience that it can be hard for internal teams to emulate. 

Improving Product Innovation

In some cases, green influencers can help you innovate and improve your existing products. They may have helpful suggestions that enable you to get more out of them. They may also suggest ideas that help you better appeal to your audience. 

Unique Product Positioning

Relatively few companies have cottoned onto the idea of using green influencers. Therefore, it can be a source of competitive advantage. If you have someone with proven and trusted environmental credentials on your side, then your audience is much more likely to take you seriously. Otherwise, why would they work with you?

Become A Market Leader

Green influencers can also help you become a market leader. If customers see that you take environmental issues seriously, they are much more likely to shop with you than your rivals. In fact, if you can become the benchmark in your industry and force everyone else to follow you, you can build your brand tremendously. 

Engage Customers More

Lack of engagement is a challenge for many businesses. Products are often uninspiring, and consumers really aren’t very interested in them. However, once you throw environmental concerns into the mix, everything changes. While the things you sell might not be particularly interesting, the message behind them is. If you can make everything interesting, then that’s even better. 

So there you have it: some of the ways green influencers can help you build a better brand. 

5 Everyday Items That Can Quietly Boost Your Brand

By Julie Starr • July 17, 2025
The best branding doesn’t always come from big campaigns or expensive graphics. Sometimes it’s the smaller stuff that leaves the biggest impression. Things people actually use, touch, or carry with them. That’s where your brand can quietly make its mark without needing to shout about it. If you’re only focusing on social media and business cards, you’re leaving a lot on the table. Here are five overlooked ways to get your name out there that feel natural, useful, and more personal. Thank-you slips If you’re already sending out orders, there’s no reason not to include a short thank-you slip. You can easily get these made through any decent online print shop , and they’re usually pretty cheap to run off in small batches. Just a simple note that says thanks, maybe with a reminder to follow you online or a cheeky discount code for next time. It’s quick, thoughtful, and makes the whole order feel more finished. Customers notice that kind of detail, especially when everything else they buy online comes with zero personality. You don’t need a complicated design either. Just something clean with your logo, a message that sounds like you, and maybe a social handle. The point is to give them a reason to come back or remember your name without it feeling forced. Branded zip pouches If you sell physical products, offer services, or run events, small zip pouches are surprisingly effective. Think of the kind you’d use for stationery, receipts, or travel bits. You can get your brand printed on the side and hand them out with purchases or include them in welcome packs. People keep them because they’re actually useful. They get tossed in handbags, school bags, or glove boxes and your logo just keeps turning up. Cleaning cloths for glasses or screens This one works brilliantly if you’re in tech, health, beauty, or anything involving screens or eyewear. A simple microfibre cloth with your branding on it can go a long way. Everyone needs one. Whether they use it for glasses, a phone screen, or their laptop, it’s something they hang onto. It’s not the kind of thing people throw away, and that means your name sticks around too. Receipt envelopes You might already use little envelopes to hand over receipts or business cards. Branding those envelopes is a small change that makes a big difference. Instead of someone getting a scruffy bit of paper in a plain sleeve, they’re handed something that feels a bit more finished. You can even add a message inside. Doesn’t need to be anything dramatic. A simple “thanks for visiting” or “see you next time” is enough to add a personal touch. Wet wipes or mini hand gels If your business is in hospitality, food, or anything hands-on, branded wet wipes or pocket-sized hand gels are surprisingly popular. People actually use them, especially at festivals, food stalls, pop-ups, or kids’ events. They end up in handbags or cars and stick around longer than you think. They don’t scream “marketing” either. They’re practical, and when done right, they make your business feel thoughtful. That’s what good branding does, it shows you’ve thought ahead.

How Student-Led ‘Energy Audits’ Are Cutting School Costs (and Lighting the Way Forward)

By Julie Starr • July 14, 2025
What happens when students stop waiting for adults to fix things and start conducting their own energy audits? Money gets saved. The lights get switched off. Data gets analyzed. And a quiet revolution in sustainability begins—inside schools that once overlooked their own inefficiencies. Across the globe, student-led energy audits are proving that change doesn't always need to come from a policy shift or a major capital budget. Sometimes, it begins with a clipboard, a spreadsheet, and a group of curious minds asking: Why are the hallway lights on at noon when sunlight floods the building? The Energy Detectives These audits aren’t science fair projects. They’re rigorous investigations, often done in collaboration with facilities staff, local environmental nonprofits, or even engineering mentors. Students go from classroom to classroom measuring electricity usage, checking for phantom loads , and identifying where heat is escaping in winter or air conditioning is leaking in summer. One high school in Ontario saved over $12,000 a year after its Grade 11 physics students ran an energy audit and suggested simple changes—LED upgrades, motion sensors in bathrooms, and smarter heating schedules. They didn’t just propose ideas. They pitched them with spreadsheets, thermal images, and payback timelines. It worked. Learning That Pays Off—Literally Unlike textbook learning, these audits blend real-world math, environmental science, economics, and persuasive communication. Students aren’t just learning about sustainability. They’re doing it. And the savings add up. From dimming overlit hallways to reprogramming HVAC systems that run all weekend for empty buildings, students are surfacing blind spots that administrators often overlook. In some districts, their findings are influencing energy policy. Elsewhere, the audits have inspired school boards to hire sustainability coordinators—often alumni of the student programs themselves. There’s something poetic about a school funding new books or laptops from money saved by students who found out the vending machines didn’t need to be plugged in 24/7. Why This Matters More Than Ever With education budgets tightening and utility costs rising, every dollar saved is a dollar that can go back into classrooms. And here’s where it gets interesting from a family finance perspective, too. If you’re a parent setting aside money for post-secondary savings, every bit of school efficiency helps. Fewer energy costs might mean more programming, better STEM facilities, or even bursaries. That raises a broader point: when families save for their children’s future, they often look into RESPs (Registered Education Savings Plans). And many wonder—is a RESP deduction available on my taxes? While contributions themselves aren’t deductible, the gains grow tax-free, and students often pay little to no tax when they withdraw the funds during school. A Movement Worth Replicating These audits aren’t just an exercise in environmentalism. They’re leadership labs. Students learn how to spot inefficiencies, speak up in board meetings, and make a business case for change. They don’t just flip switches—they shift mindsets. And they carry these habits into adulthood. The result? A generation growing up not only with climate anxiety, but also with tools to tackle it.