photo credit: MSFP

Sometimes it takes one event or trigger to change your life or the direction you are going. I have been very much in my element the last 12 months trying to develop more and more content and services for consulting and coaching clients. I have had clients on a regular basis, even though I always feel I should have more, based on all the time I spend finding them.

As any good coach and entrepreneur should, I keep up on the developments in the industry and believe in the concept of “paying it forward”. The developments in our economy didn’t really help my relatively new company.

Like a small, little seedling, it has been pelted by the storms of uncertainty, increasing prices, tightening of disposable income, and the possibility of a recession.

Digesting lots of training materials and marketing advice showed that a focused, niche approach is important to find the right clients. I thought focusing on top-performance for individuals and companies would be a narrow enough niche.

Have you ever lived through a period of time where you felt you are working hard, helping people, providing good content, being available for others needs, and generally follow what you believe the experts recommend – only to find out that you don’t generate nearly enough income?

A friend of mine send me a message stating: “While working with my hands this weekend, instead of using my head, as I normally do all day, I realized that I didn’t create a business but a job for myself that pays less than what I would make in a corporate environment and bears much more responsibility. I want to change that.”

I thought about this statement and came to the conclusion that she was right. Being in business and working long hours with no vacations is supposed to be a price to be paid for a limited time to get the business going, but not a decades-long state of affairs.

I realized that I had created a job but not the success I wanted to achieve for the company, it’s team members and myself. What I found I was missing was more focus for my passion of coaching.

I asked a few friends earlier in the year how I would know that I have discovered a new, deeper level of focus within my passion. All they said was: “You will know when you experience it”.

For me that moment came the day after I participated in a webinar about everybody’s Green Potential. I felt that I wanted to combine what I had done so far with issues of the environment. That’s how the term “Eco-Conscious Coaching” was born and I am excited to develop all kinds of services and products around it in the near future.

At the start of something new, I think it is helpful to have some definitions to achieve clarity for readers, interested participants, clients, and companies contemplating to adopt what we will have to offer.

The short form “Eco” stands for the word Ecology. Ecology (from Greek: ¿¯º¿Â, oikos, “household”; and »Ì³¿Â, logos, “knowledge”) is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their natural environment.

In the context I am using “Eco”, it goes back to a more business and work oriented view developed by the German biologist Ernst Haekel. He came up with the term “Oekologie” and defined it as the relationship between an organism and the environment. For me, this organism is the human being.

The term environment is applicable both as the immediate space something occupies as well as the environment in the sense of nature as a whole.

Consciousness is a little harder to define and allows for more variety. I apply it in this way: Consciousness = self-awareness, and the ability to perceive a relationship between oneself and one’s environment”.

Put together I would define: “Eco-consciousness is the awareness of the relationship one has with environment (nature) as it relates to the impact of our actions and decisions.”

When looking at eco-conscious coaching and consulting, I want to bring this awareness of our actions into the field of life- and work- improvement. As an example, let’s take the attribute “Motivation“. When helping others become top performers this attribute plays an important role, both for the leader as well as the follower.

When the eco-conscious aspect is added, we can not only talk about the things it takes to motivate oneself or others to do certain things or be aware of certain circumstances, but now we can add the ecological aspect. I can motivate someone to be better organized, thereby achieving higher efficiency.

If, at the same time, I provide guidance for the use of environmentally friendly processes, procedures, policies, materials, and explanations to the why, I can achieve higher efficiency with a lesser impact on the ecology/nature/environment.

In addition, this consciousness in the form of increased awareness can be highlighted to the employees, the clients, and everybody in the market place.

Studies have shown that people want to be, live, and act in harmony with nature and their environment, if they have the choice.

In general, when people have the choice to pick between something natural, organic, environmentally friendly, and a similar item without these attributes, they overwhelmingly go for the environmentally superior product or service.

Studies have shown (I actually supported a very recent study directly) that more than 70% of people in the US want to work for eco-friendly businesses and like to act eco-friendly if the choice is of similar quality, price, or effort. The Unites States is just awakening to the Green revolution. There can be no doubt about the huge demand for information, solutions, services, everything involving eco-conscious approaches.

I believe individuals and businesses want to be more environmentally friendly but often don’t know how.

We will develop services and products to help fulfill this desire and offer new solutions to high performance at work and in private life. Most importantly, eco-conscious behaviors, adopted from coaching sessions , workshops, webinars, or home study courses will provide a more fulfilling and joyful life.

The combination of success and joy is what we all try to find, and a heightened level of eco-consciousness will lead us there. It will be mind-boggling and eye-opening to demonstrate that eco-consciousness means more fun, more success, mire joy, more comforts, and not less, as many officials have lead as to believe for way too long.

I am excited about the prospects and hope to receive a lot of feedback, suggestions and participation as we develop a range of services and products to help everybody lead a more eco-conscious life.

Axel Meierhoefer is an eco-conscious performance coach, author, and the founder of Axel Meierhoefer Consulting (AMC LLC). His motto is” Helping others help themselves achieve success”. If you’d like to get on his E-mail list for more articles, or like more insights, goto http://www.meierhoefer.net/blog or email AM@Meierhoefer.net

photo credit: angela7dreams

Like the automotive and manufacturing sectors, the aesthetic industry along with organic skin care companies are focusing on limiting the impact they have on the environment. Rather than just focusing on the end product, aesthetic companies are now focusing on how their entire business, from production to marketing plans and packaging, to find ways to help the environment and the customers. Producers of green beauty products want the earth to look as healthy and beautiful as all of the faces on it.

Green Products

Green companies in the aesthetic industry have turned their backs on unsustainable resources and harsh chemicals in their products. Years ago, ingredients were taken from the natural environment or made in the lab without a thought to the devastating effects this has on the earth’s ecosystems. Chemicals used in the growth of resources and the production of products go into the air and the water supply. These substances are also absorbed into the bodies of consumers.

Today, the resources used in organic skin care products and the cosmetic industry, come from sources that can be produced through organic farming and other renewable methods rather than being harvested from the natural environment. With these new green practices, care and consideration for endangered species and the rest of the animal and plant population is also taken into account. Items such as sun block, for example, would be applied to the skin only to be absorbed into the body and leeched into the water. Today, organic skin care products like Sunsation are being created that do not contain chemicals that harm marine life and consumers.

Green Business Practices

The way the aesthetic industry conducts day-to-day business has also changed due to the introduction of green practices. Rather than tossing mountains of paper and ink into the garbage, computers and the internet have eliminated a lot of the waste. Paper and ink that is used by cosmetic businesses is now recycled along with packing materials and many other items that used to end up in the landfill.

Energy, water, and other resources used in offices and factories are being conserved as much as possible. An emphasis is placed on using energy efficient appliances. Machinery and production methods are changed to use less renewable energy or are altered to work more efficiently.

Organic skin care and cosmetic companies have augmented their marketing plans to include eco-friendly practices as well. Media kits, for example, are now available online and paper flyers, ads, and catalogues have disappeared. Things such as telephone and web conferences are helping to cut down on travel.

Shipping And Packaging

The adoption of green practices in the aesthetic industry has altered the way products are shipped and packaged. Organic skin care and other cosmetic companies eliminate unnecessary packaging. Any packaging used for their products are recyclable and made from earth friendly materials. This not only saves on waste, but it also maximizes shelf space and makes shipping more efficient because more products fit into each load. Packing materials used when shipping products to retailers and distributed are made of recycled material as well.

The aesthetic industry sees green practices as a necessary step to doing business successfully. Organic skin care companies and other businesses in the cosmetic industry are constantly changing their products and the way their businesses run to ensure they are as customer and environmentally friendly as possible. Everyone in the world is responsible for the fate of the world and the only way to change it is to work together.

Kent Campbell is an author for DNA Skin, an organic skin care company offering a variety of formulas that utilize the ionic chemistry technique. Developed by Dr. Noel Aguilar, DNA Skin products are available through professional dermatologists and at elite spas throughout the globe.