Morning Coffee: Be Eco Friendly

Almost everyone says that they are concerned about environment but you know how many of us do things that are really eco friendly !!.

Today when I met my friend Vishwanadh I came to know that he started an e-commerce business. I asked him the details and he explained that it was about selling eco-friendly-crackers and right now people from Hyderabad and Bangalore can buy on his site.

I thought he was selling crackers with a great theme ‘eco friendly’ so that he can earn lots of profits. He showed his site http://www.ecofriendlydiwali.com/index.php. He was offering high discounts and it was also mentioned on the site that 50% profits will be given to Project Green Hands for planting trees. I couldn’t guess how much profit he will make after offering such discounts and the 50% charity. This made me curious to know whether he was hiding anything.

“So vissu are you really donating the money?” I asked

“Ofcourse I am.” he replied.

Then I thought he was doing some gimmick in the discounts tpart. So I asked “Are you really offering the high discounts like mentioned on your site? “

“If you find any of the items I am selling at a lower price than mine I will give them to u for free. I am offering the discounts as I said.”

“Man then this business will leave u nothing. Almost negligible profits right ? ”

“How can u expect high profits when I am also donating 50% to planting trees.”

“Then why are you into this business and can you explain how do want to do something ecofriendly by selling crackers ?”

“Finally some sensible question. I did not start this business for profits. I wanted to control the pollution during the Diwali time. I am against the use of crackers. I tried asking many people to stop using crackers and tried to explain the pollution because of them. But that did not yield good result. I thought about the next best thing I could do to curb the pollution if I cannot stop people from using crackers. So I came up with this idea to promote the use of ecofriendly crackers. Doing something ecofriendly was my main intention so I decided to donate 50% of the profits to project green hands. It is an organization which is active in many countries and has thousands of volunteers. This way I can contribute to them as well as promote it. If you don’t want to buy crackers but only want to make contribution to project green hands, you can always do it directly on their site. http://www.projectgreenhands.org/ I would be more than happy if you stop using crackers and donate money to planting trees directly.”

Now I understood the reason for operating on low profit margin.

I asked him “How ecofriendly crackers are different from normal ones? ”

“Ecofriendly crackers emit more light and less sound. They are below decibel limit. Overall pollution from these is very less compared to the crackers which we generally buy” he said.

“So what you are saying is to buy crackers from your site which are eco friendly by which we can also contribute to planting trees as well as reduce pollution during Diwali.“

“To be specific..I suggest you not to buy crackers at all. But in case you think crackers are compulsory then please go for eco friendly crackers. If you buy ecofriendly crackers from my site I can guaranty you that you will get maximum discount and high quality and you can in a way contribute to planting trees. I will contribute the money to project green hands in your name not mine.”

I thought about the advantages of buying from his site...

Firstly I can buy something which is of high quality at a very low price and it will be delivered to my home. Thus I can avoid going to the market and buying something which may not be of good quality but is surely priced high.
By using eco-friendly-crackers I can reduce my contribution to the pollution.
I am also contributing to project green hands this way.