Amazon Follows the Green Light

By Amit Patel

Do you remember in high school, when all the popular kids would do something, and all of the sudden everyone else would begin to follow? Some examples I remember were: Yo-Yo's, baggie jeans, and beepers. If none of this rings a bell (generation gap?), just watch the newest teen comedy and you'll see what I'm talking about within the first 10 minutes of the film (I wouldn't recommend watching the rest).

Well Greenzu.com found this same principle can be applied to other areas of our life, including business. When market leaders (Google, Ebay, Amazon) make moves, people follow. And for better or worse, this is a reoccurring theme across all industries. An example of this took place a few days ago when Yelp added a new feature that allows people to check-in at venues in cities. This is, of course, exactly what the company Foursqaure is built around. But I don't imagine that Foursquare's co-founder, Dennis Crowley, is too flattered with this form of imitation.

The point is that, popular companies have a lot of influence over their industry, their customers and on the business world in general. That is why it is so great to see these types of companies taking steps in the right direction.

And one of these companies is Amazon, which recently added an EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) "green electronics" rating system to help consumers choose environmentally preferable products.

Currently, there are over 800 IT products on Amazon that are tagged with EPEAT information (this will grow along with the EPEAT registered product list). This will provide concise, credible information to consumers about the environmental footprint of there electronic products. And since the EPEAT is a third party rating system, it will be an objective alternative to manufacturer claims.

The EPEAT is a three tier system (gold, bronze, silver) based on a total of 51 environmental criteria including toxic material reduction and energy efficiency. To learn more about its rating system and Environmental Preferable Purchasing in general, check out the Greenzu.com and EPEAT websites.

It is fair to say that Amazon is one of the more "popular kids" on the internet. That being said, we will have to wait and see whether other online retailers will follow suit and include environmental factors in their rating systems as well. All the cool kids are doing it.