A Simple Green Success Story

Last month, I ran into a business that doesn’t bill itself as “green” but really is – through and through.

It’s Simple Green Smoothies. The word “green” here doesn’t mean “eco-friendly.” It means that all the smoothies contain spinach or kale – 2 green veggie powerhouses. And the smoothies taste fantastic.

An “eco-friendly” company, that doesn’t preach “green.”

When I found their website, I saw something very deft – a green business that doesn’t preach “greenness.” Instead, they focus on health and feeling great and getting your kids to “drink their veggies.” They made me a convert.

This website does a lot of things right. It has:

• a sense of fun. When you see the pictures of Jen and Jadah holding green “mustaches” to their faces, you can’t help but smile.
• a focus on health, something most people want, rather than on “being green.”
• a friendly vibe. When you read that Jen and Jadah are “two friends on a mission to spread the love of green smoothies,” you understand that right away. It’s simple and authentic.
• lots of lovely images. A picture of a green smoothie looks – to the uninitiated – like “green sludge” (Jadah’s words, not mine). So instead, they photographed the ingredients. Berries, bananas, mangoes – beautifully arranged – look colorful and healthy and enticing.
• lots of “how to” information. Everything from how to blend a smoothie, to what ingredients you can substitute, to where to find the right kind of blender. They make it easy for people like me –a former non-smoothie person – to try this.

The site promotes “green behaviors” without calling them that

Instead, they describe them as:

• Ways to save money. For example, in the FAQ, there’s a section on how to do smoothies on a budget. Every tip that follows could be lifted from a page titled “How to Grocery Shop in a More Eco-friendly Way.” But instead they focus on another customer value – saving money – that has both broader appeal and matters to their audience.
• Friendly suggestions. A second place they sneak in “green”  behaviors is on the “Essentials” page.  They suggest using mason jars, stainless steel straws, and re-usable travel cups. These are all wildly eco-friendly tips. They are simply suggested as the best way to drink your smoothie – as Jen and Jadah do.

A successful, profitable green business

Simple Green Smoothies is a profitable, successful business. More than 500,000 people have taken their green smoothie challenge. They focus on health, feeling great, and losing weight through the power of green smoothies. But they also model and encourage “greener” behaviors in their business and among their fans, without calling them that. And that’s OK.

In more ways than one, their site helps people adopt “greener” behaviors in a “smooth” and enjoyable way (sorry – bad pun.) It’s a model many other businesses can emulate.