sustainableliving


Secret Green Sauce


BILL ROTH’S


An Economist Serves Up Recipes for Sustainable Business Success


by Linda Sechrist


n interest in efficiency, compounded by the effects of the 1973-74 oil embargo—cars circling city blocks to get to the gasoline pumps, a 30-cent increase in gas prices and a recession—led Bill Roth, founder of Earth 2017, to become an economist. Turning his focus from efficiency to conservation, and presently to green and sustainable prac- tices, the author of The Secret Green Sauce! now centers his attention on intensive market research. He offers insight- ful interviews with venture capitalists who are financing an emerging new wave of clean technologies, and with green entrepreneurs who are pioneers of the best practices for green revenues and growing brand equity in alignment with what consumers want. Whether he’s coaching the CEO of a green business; blogging; writing columns for Triple Pundit; filming his video interviews, which he posts on his website, Earth2017.com; or addressing small business owners at the Sustainable Business Alliance, Roth does his best to give away all the secrets he uncovers in his inter- views and research. “I want the world to be more sustainable,” empha- sizes Roth, who hopes that the path he offers is one that can help American businesses create jobs and become successful, as well as competitive. He also wants his harvest of best


A Bill Roth


green practices and economic research in the green economic revolution—which he predicted in 2008 while serving as the first green business coach for Entrepreneur Magazine—to im- prove the wellness of the population and enrich all our lives. One of Roth’s observations—“Cost less, mean more”—


parallels that of Quentin Sponselee, CEO of Terramoto, San Diego’s only carbon-negative, full-service private transpor- tation company: You can’t develop a successful business and make it only about sustainability.


Cost Less, Mean More The first secret in Roth’s green sauce recipe was the result of several original market research efforts. Indi- viduals who were polled were willing to purchase a sustainable product or service that cost less than the unsustainable one they were currently buying, but said it also had to mean more in terms of health, family wellness or environmental sustainability.


Prove It Conclusively “No greenwashing allowed,” emphasizes Roth. “You have to conclusively prove to the customer that you are what you say you are.” He cites the


18 San Diego Edition www.na-sd.com


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