The Ultimate Tips For Branding Green Business

Julie Starr • April 28, 2021



Consumers are more concerned than ever about the environment, so starting a business with green credentials is a good idea. To take advantage of this, you will need to know how to brand your green business well. 

Whatever size of business you have, sustainable branding is important. It tells your customers who you are, what you represent, and that you exist. Branding a green business involves a few different steps, from advertising and PR to reputation building and customer service. 

These branding tips and ideas can help you to build and develop your brand to grow your customer base, increase revenue, and grow your business. 

Tell A Story

Green marketing, PR, and advertising are about storytelling. When you brand your green business, your brand’s story ought to come across so consumers know who you are. Your company name, logo, slogan, and any messages need to get this across. Make sure this story makes it obvious what you do. If you want people to buy your products or services, they need to know who you are. A brand design agency can help you with this. 

Don’t Overcomplicate Your Branding

It’s not easy to build a green brand. You need to make sure that your customers know why your brand is promoting a sustainable message. 

With all the different marketing techniques that are being used by brands, it can be easy to go too far. Don’t overcomplicate your message. Stay away from using long or complicated slogans, too much jargon, or inaccessible tricks like wordplay. Keep your branding simple and powerful. 

Always Come Back To The Customer

Always keep your customer in mind when you’re developing and putting in place elements of branding. Don’t let yourself get caught up in tactics and designs for their own sake if they’re not suitable for your target market. At the start of the branding process, sit down and spend some time working out who your ideal customer is, and let this lead all your branding strategy. 

Be Targeted

When you are working out who your target customer is, keep in mind that your brand doesn’t need to appeal to everyone. With a few exceptions, almost all brands are trying to target only a small section of the population, and usually in a very specific niche. The more targeted and focused your branding is, and how the more it appeals to one niche, the more effective it will be. This approach is much more effective than broader strokes and trying to appeal to everyone. 

Build Relationships

One of the best things you can do to grow your business and send a green message is to build a strong relationship with your customers. Loyal customers are incredibly valuable and will be able to support your business in a lot of different ways. Through your branding, you can engage with your customers on a more personal level. Aim to make your branding friendly, warm, and let it show your brand’s personality. 

Be Interactive

Another good way to build those important customer relationships is through interactions. Interaction engages your customer base and makes them feel as though they are a part of your brand’s story, rather than just someone watching it. There are lots of interactive marketing techniques that you can use, such as polls, surveys, competitions, and many more. Trade shows are also a good opportunity to engage with your customer base in lots of interactive ways. Look for a good trade show builder to help you to create a booth that has plenty of interactive design features. 

Ask For Feedback

In the same category as building relationships with your customer by giving them a stake in your brand is asking them for feedback on your services or products. There are lots of different ways that you can do this, such as feedback forms, comment sections on your company website, customer surveys, and more. Listening to the feedback that you get from your customers and use it to improve the way you do business 

Identify Your Why

Effective branding is all about communicating clearly who you are as a brand. To be able to do this, you need to know who you are. In order to be able to do this, identify what your why is. Why do you do what you do? What is the problem that you are trying to solve for your customers? Once you have identified what this is, make it one of the central parts of your brand. 

Do Market Research

Before you release any new elements of your branding, whether that’s a new logo, slogan, or anything else, do some market research first to see how the consumer responds to it. This doesn’t have to mean you carry out full-scale testing with a professional firm, focus group, or anything else like that. If you’re a small business or a startup, you could just reach out to your previous customers, your network, or your friends and family and ask them for some feedback. 

Conduct Competitor Analysis

Just because you are launching or relaunching your brand doesn’t mean that you need to completely reinvent the wheel. Before you launch, take a look at what your direct competitors are doing. It’s especially important to see what your most successful competitors are doing. By doing this, you can work out what is working out well for them and what elements you might be able to adapt for your business and apply to your own branding. You can also the process of competitor analysis to identify the mistakes your competitors have made and what weaknesses they have that are harming their brands. If you know what these mistakes and weaknesses are, you can avoid them yourself. 

It can seem intimidating at first when you start trying to brand your green business, but there are all kinds of steps to take with your branding that can help your business to thrive. Great branding and marketing are easier to do when you implement these tips.

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.