Business Blogging for a Sustainable Purpose

Blog by Julie Urlaub, Founder and Managing Partner at Taiga Company
Jan 19, 2012 2:15 PM ET

Taiga Company blog by Julie Urlaub, Founder and Managing Partner at Taiga Compa…

How does the old adage go?  Two aspirin a day keeps the doctor away?  Well, we subscribe to the idea that blogging 2 posts a day, inspires eco action each day.  Truth be told, as sustainability consultants, we like to lead by example.  

Within our business sustainability consulting practice, it's not uncommon to encounter those executives that say sustainability is too hard, too resource intensive, or that it's a passing trend.  With big aspirations, 3 years ago Taiga Company set out with the intention of writing 2 blog post each day to dispel the myth that sustainability and living a sustainable lifestyle is hard.  Blogging is sort of like writing an essay. Imagine writing 2 essays, every week day, in addition to your regular workload, the requirements of your personal life, sick or not sick, holiday or not holiday, vacation or no vacation…you get the picture.  

There are ups and downs in life and there are easy days and harder days.  While it's easy to be green or execute sustainable business strategies when things are good, most fall short when the challenges increase. The intention of writing 2 blog post each weekday is a living example that you do the best you can with what you've got.  Some post are great.  Others, not so great.  But, the posts demonstrate the commitment to sustainability regardless of the ebbs and flows of life.  And, it demonstrates that sustainability isn't all or nothing. Short story: we all can take eco action daily and we don't have to be perfect about how we do it.

So what about blogging for a sustainable purpose?  To have an impact in communicating the sustainability business strategies of your business or consulting firm, it's not required that you blog as frequently.  However, there are benefits to blogging.  Blogging on sustainability related topics offers a host of benefits: insights to new, fresh perspectives of sustainability; a resource for tools, services, white papers; and more importantly, how your business is leading in the sustainability space.  

If you are new to blogging you may not realize there are ways to spread the great green news that you are writing about in your blog posts.  

  • Consider building your community of linking your blog post to LinkedIn and Facebook updates.  

  • Engage with stakeholders on Twitter to promote relationships.

  • Collaborate and participate in conversation on LInkedIn groups specific to sustainability concepts of water, energy, and carbon.  

The biggest contribution anyone can make in the sustainability space is to share, communicate, and inspire others by living the example of how sustainability works in your life or business.  Blogging as a sustainable purpose is a vehicle that offers a communication channel so others can learn from your eco actions and discover the value of sustainability for themselves.   If this blog entry whetted your appetite for more information about how sustainability professionals can use blogging to grow their business, you may be interested in our 8-week, self-guided, online course called Social Media for Sustainability Professionals. It includes an entire section devoted to blogging (with additional sections focused on websites, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and more!)—including how to use categories to properly tag and organize your blog entries, how to come up with blog content, and how to properly manage your time on the blog.    Home to one third of the earth's trees, the Taiga is the largest land-based biosphere and encircles the globe. Its immense oxygen production literally changes the atmosphere and refreshes the planet. It is this continuous renewal that has shaped Taiga Company's vision to drive similar change in the business world. Taiga Company seeks to be the "oxygen for your business".