Many of you who frequent the green community may have seen a new face around. I happened upon them a little over a week ago, and I really enjoyed their spin on “greening the good life”. I immediately contacted the founder and CEO of the site, David Anderson, and asked for an interview.
GreenOptions.com is comprised of a blog, a green wiki, discussion forums, a 30 day e-course which focuses on a “greener you”, and the green report which is reminiscent of a DrudgeReport. The site is clean, fun, informative, and a welcome addition to the green community.
Interview with David Anderson
- Is there a noticeable reaction to what you and your writers are doing?
- There has been an explosion in “green” blogs. What sets GO apart from the rest?
- What would you change about the way green culture is presented by the national media recently? ( i.e. the global warming naysayers who present us as fanatical, vegan weirdos)
- What is your favorite green blog (other than GreenOptions) and why?
- Where do you see GO in the next five years?
“Except for a couple of very vocal and anonymous commenters on our blog, 100% of the personal feedback from readers regarding the resources we’re providing has been enthusiastic about the need we’re attempting to fill. Even responses that contain constructive criticism make clear that we’re doing enough right with our original, varied content to merit their help in making our information as accessible as possible.”
“First of all, we’re not just a blog. Our four main features on launch were the GO Blog, the Green Life Guide, Discussion Forums, and the Green Report. Each feature takes a way to format information that people find useful on the internet in general, and applies a green lens to it.
Also, our blog isn’t just my blog. It’s a group of writers from around the country (and recently, the world) who specialize in greening all aspects of everyday life, from energy use and eating habits, to easy DIY projects and socially responsible investing. We also interview rising green stars, and have a Tip O’ The Day. You get the idea. We aim to be comprehensive.
The Green Life Guide is a wiki, built from scratch by our staff, individual contributors, and through content partnerships with authoritative voices on particular topics. We find that it serves as a great primer for almost any topic in the world of green.
Our discussion forums, are, well, discussion forums. Sometimes issues can’t adequately be discussed in the comments of a blog post, and people naturally want to chat about new and complex issues.
For those familiar with the format of the Drudge Report, the Green Report will be like second nature. Even those who don’t agree with his politics agree that Drudge hit on something by providing a simple page of interesting headlines linking directly to sources. Our own Shea Gunther takes environmental news, the big stories in politics and business, and a smattering of oddball stories, and remixes them all into the Green Report on a daily basis.
Those are our main features currently, but we’ve got more in the works that I shouldn’t talk about. Look for them late this Spring…”
“The problem with the discourse in this country is that opponents of a green consciousness are just fine with environmentalists who are just as or more vocal than they are. They want to marginalize those of us who want to begin the process of upgrading our civilization to long-term sustainability based on solar energy rather than fossil fuel. (Note: this doesn’t refer to slathering the world in solar panels; a grass-fed hamburger is just as solar powered as a PV panel) By creating a public frame of “treehuggers” as fanatical, and holding extreme values, they insulate normal consumers from the truth about the green movement. Treehugger.com has done a great job of rebranding the word as a postitive, but there is still a vast untapped ocean of normal people who care about the future of their grandchildren, but don’t identify themselves as treehuggers.
Since launch, we’ve added a newsletter-style e-course called “30 Days to a Greener You,” which gives people 30 simple steps they can take to reduce their impact. Over the course of a month, the newsletter helps users realize that being a conscious consumer doesn’t have to entail sacrifices in quality of life. No amount of spin can trump personal experience.”
“Although it was one of the first green blogs I followed, I probably shouldn’t say Sustainablog is my favorite, since its author, Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, is now our Content Director. I would probably have to go with Treehugger, for the reasons above, or possibly The Oil Drum, since it takes a very scientific and somewhat longer view than most blogs.”
“The sky’s the limit, simply because there are so many people out there who are not being effectively reached by a very passionate green marketing community. I can’t get too into specifics because it would necessitate an explanation of our upcoming tools, but we see ourselves in the middle of the charge to take green to the mainstream. We want to let average consumers understand the real costs and benefits of their decisions, and we believe in the power of the internet to enable that understanding.”
So folks, there it is- the newest face in the green community. Thanks to David Anderson for the interview, and we wish the GO team the best of luck!
I liked the site but it was a bit of sensory overload for me. I don’t know that I like the way some sites are becoming jacks of all trades. I hardly read Treehugger anymore because it has too much going on visually. I think that connecting with your readers is more important than all the fancy wikis and advertising.
I just started reading your blog and I think that overall it makes a really good read for alternative energy. I would change the number of posts that you guys do to at least 1 per day though. Just my 2 cents!
Solardawg-
We love feedback, and we’ll constantly be refining our interface for usability… Many of our readers just choose to add our feeds from our blog, Green Report, or particular writers to their RSS feeds. Same great contest, less flair.
PS. I’ll take the challenge to prove you wrong on the jack-of-all-trades part. 🙂
-David
GO CEO
solardawg,
I just wanted to comment on what you said. Yes, Treehugger.com is a busy site- I will give you that. What I want to point out is that there is so much information out there that consumers need to see, experience, and apply themselves. I think that GreenOptions does just that. It presents ways to green your life from A to Z, and carries the powerful message that greening your life does not mean giving up “quality” of life. That is a much needed message today, and I think a lot of us have missed conveying that to our audiences…this blog included.