FAQ & More

Green Criteria

How do you decide if a company is green enough to be listed in Green Pages?

• We build our green criteria to allow for the top 10% most sustainable of each industry sector. We use this general rule of thumb because we want the Green Pages directory to provide credible sustainable alternatives to all product sectors on the market.

• We have written a ‘Green Criteria’ that spans the 400 or so categories that are listed in Green Pages. Sometimes it is very easy to draw the ‘line in the sand’ for what we consider to be ‘green’, and other times it is quite complex. Definitions for what can be considered ‘sustainable’ change over time and we are constantly challenged to make decisions. We always defer to the ‘most eco-friendly top 10% of industry sector rule’.

• It is true that there are many shades of green and no end to the discussions about what types of products and practices can be considered ‘eco-friendly’. Many people perceive nuclear power as a clean for of energy that helps combat the carbon emissions caused by coal generated electricity, despite significant opposition to nuclear by the conservation movement. Some people consider hybrid or electric vehicles as ‘green’ because of their reduced reliance on oil, whilst others deem that no car, bus or vehicle can be considered sustainable in comparison to a bicycle or transportation by simply walking. We have heard many arguments over the years about the environmental credibility of many products. Some questions we have had to answer is “Is organic fair trade food ok if it has been shipped in from the other side of the world?”,  ”Is bottled water ok if it comes in a bio-plastic degradable bottle?”, “Is a largely non recycled insulation product with no apparent eco credentials ok because it improves energy efficiency?”,  ”Are woodchips ok that come from native forest, so long as the logging is done carefully and selectively?”. Often both sides to these unending debates often pose valid arguments that need to be assessed.

• We aim to solve the confusion around these debates by providing a database system that allows companies to clearly present their environmental data and certifications. The directory pages have pre defined fields for environmental specifications to be displayed as well as tick boxes for manufacturers to show their environmental certifications. This means that the directory present data in a manner that allows for readers to have insight into the true indication of a companies’ environmental measures, free from spin, brand and hype.

How do I know if my business is environmentally friendly enough?

Is your business in the most sustainable 10% of your industry? Do you have an environmental management plan?  Do you have third party environmental certifications? You don’t need to be immaculately green in every sense to be in Green Pages, you just need to be greener than most of the other businesses in your sector. The best way to find out is to have a look at the other businesses listed in your category in the Green Pages Directory and try to determine if your business is of similar or greater environmental credibility. You can create a directory page and submit it for approval through the advertiser centre where your will be assessed by The GP Team.

I have seen an advertiser who I feel is not green enough or is providing false green claims – how do I inform you?

It is very important for us to police false environmental claims and prevent green charlatans or any form of green washing from appearing in the Green Pages. Please send an email detailing your argument against the company in question directly to our CEO [email protected] and she will attend to the matter immediately.

Ownership and Company History

Who owns Green Pages?

Green Pages is a ‘community for profit’ company that has environmental goals as well as ‘business’ goals. This means that our focus is to assist our community’s goals as well as furthering sustainability and environmental protection. However, we choose to execute these goals as an independent and private Pty Ltd company, rather than a not-for-profit organisation or association. We are committed to supporting our not-for-profit content providers and investing back into pursuing our environmental goals. Our shareholders are all partners or team members in the company who share the environmental values and vision. Majority shareholders consist of Katie Patrick and Jesse Browne as well as a small group of supportive private and family investors.

Where and how did the company start?

Back in 2005 was a time before there were funky green magazines, eco blogs, triple bottom line corporate conferences, ‘sustainability managers’ and progressive design agencies. The concept of ‘green’ was still synonymous with falafels and messy hair. Newspapers very rarely wrote articles on environmental issues, often perceived as part of fringe culture. Yet there was a powerful latent desire from business owners, professionals and consumers for greener business practices that was starting to bubble up to the surface of corporate Australia.

Green Page’s founder, Katie Patrick, was a young environmental engineer working in the green property industry. She saw a strong need to pull together all of the disparate environmental product information and also ‘re-brand’ the green movement as fun, sexy, cool and progressive.

She had compiled a significant database of green suppliers and had started to make progress towards developing a commercial green directory called Green Pages. Her main focus at that time was to help architects to find sustainable materials and businesses to find eco-friendly office supplies. Katie worked out of her share-house bedroom in Sydney’s inner suburb of Redfern and with little more that a bicycle, a brochure and some business cards, eventually launched Australia’s first print and online directory listing over 3,000 sustainable products and services.

Starting with an annual directory, Green Pages grew to be a quarterly magazine, a business directory plus an online portal of sustainable news and products. The Directory itself grew to include over 9000 listings.

In 2010 Green Pages made a bold move to step away from its successful print publishing business to focus on a more progressive digital vision for the business to create a more global social media platform for the green community.

Company Milestones

• August 2005 – Katie developed the first green product database and gained first clients working out of share house in Redfern, Sydney.
• February 2006 – Set up office in Melbourne’s Green Building at 60 Leicester Street Carlton and hired its first staff member.
• April 2006 – Produced the world’s first green criteria across 400 industry categories.
• June 2006 – Company was incorporated.
• October 2006 – Released the first printed directory and online directory containing 2,000 green businesses, launching nationally.
• January 2007 – Moved to larger permanent office in Surry Hills, Sydney.
• May 2007 – Received first angel investment.
• October 2007 – Held Australia’s first eco fashion parade gaining significant national media attention.
• February 2008 – Produced first quarterly magazine, launching into 5 publications per year and growing to around 20 full time staff and being largely recognised as one of Australia’s most prominent green brands.
• June 2008 – Launched first green news portal style and directory website, growing to over 2,000 clients and 15,000 members.
• March 2010 – After a strong 2 years of publishing, Green Pages produced the final print publication and moved to a 100% digital business.
• March 2011 – Launched new community web platform where all content is created by the Green Pages members and environmental advocacy groups.

Advertising

Can I change or cancel my ad campaign?

You can change your advertising campaign at anytime when you are booked on a month by month package. As we only charge retrospectively you can cancel your campaign at any time.

What is your refund policy?

The month by month payment option works on a ‘pay as you go’ model so if you wish to cancel the subscription, you always have the option to do so. There are no refunds available for advertisers on a monthly payment plan as we charge retrospectively, this means that when the payment is processed the advertising has already been delivered.

Our full terms and conditions are available here

How do I maximise my discount rate?

It is helpful for any business to have long term confirmed bookings, so we reward our customers who commit to a long term booking with a generous discount rate.

I am not getting enough clicks on my directory page – what can I do?

This can occur for a few different reasons:

• Your category is not heavily browsed by users
• Your text might need improvement
• Image gallery or logo is poor quality or poorly sized
• You have not filled out all of the environmental specs

Feel free to give our friendly team a call on 02 8003 5915 to discuss the look and feel of your listing. We might have a few ideas of how you can help improve your listing. We will also be able to let you know if you are listed in a category that experiences lower traffic volumes and we can make efforts to improve this issue on our end.

How can I increase my conversion rate on my own website once people have clicked on my ad?

One of the best ways to lose interested customers is at the gate of your own website! Take some time to research ‘online conversion rates’ and improve your own website design to capture the interest of the user. Try setting up a landing page, providing a free downloadable e-book, a live chat feature, a competition or a free gift with purchase. Build a strong ‘call to action’ into your website so when visitors look around your site, they do just what you want them to do once they arrive.

What sort of click through rate (CTR) should I expect from my ads?

As a global average, as described on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click-through_rate click through rates for display ads and banners are around 0.2 – 0.3% of page impressions. This means that for approximately every 400 people who see your ad, one person with click. Luckily on Green Pages, because we have a highly engaged member base, some our clients have experienced up to 5% click through rates – about 1500% higher that the industry average!  But despite the good results from the Green Pages audience, it is prudent to plan your campaign to expect the industry average. Of course, great artwork with a clear call to action will assist to increase your click through rate.

What is the Green Pages Google Ranking? Will a Green Pages ad help my SEO?

Green Pages has 4,000 google indexed pages and a google page rank of 5. By purchasing a directory listing on Green Pages, the Google search algorithm will perceive your url link in the directory listing as valuable and hence perceive your whole website as being more relevant to show in search results.

What special rates or deals do you offer for not for profit advertising campaigns?

We do no offer discount rate advertising for not for profit campaigns, however we do offer content partnerships for environmental advocacy groups to share their news, campaign and events on the Green Pages site for no cost. We are always happy to work out contra (barter) campaigns where we promote the cause in exchange for a promotion of Green Pages to the not-for-profit’s member base. Campaigns, petitions, protests, letter writing can be posted in the ‘Campaigns’ section of Green Pages.

How do you know that you statistics are accurate?

We gather out data from Google Analytics

How do I create banner or square ads with moving images?

You may need to contract a graphic designer to create an ad for you. You can post your job on crowd sourcing sites like www.99designs.com or find a designer in our graphic design category in the Green Pages Directory. If you have access to an image editing program like Photoshop, you can create a number of still images and set them on periodic rotation. Look for online tutorials on how to do create these types of advertisements.

http://www.tutorialwiz.com/animated_banner

http://www.entheosweb.com/photoshop/banner.asp

http://www.adobe.com/support/photoshop/

I am an online eco store with many products – do you have a special arrangement for my type of business?

We allow your directory page to be listed in up to five sub categories. We recommend for eco-stores that you choose the areas where your products sales are their strongest and create more than one directory page. For example you may create a ‘water’ themed directory page and a ‘home wares’ themed directory page, each being able to be listed in up to five subcategories.

How do your prices compare with Google Adwords?

We have found that the most fair means of pricing online advertising is a cost per click rate of $3.00. This is approximate to the average search key word on Google which is priced between $1.00 and $7.00 per click. Google search words can rank as high as $10 per click for popular terms, so our flat rate pricing is often more cost effective.

How do I come up first when users search for my product on Green Pages?

Currently the directory is formatted in alphabetic order when users browse by category. We use Google Search for main search field in the navigation bar which means that the search results via keyword search are determined by the Google algorithm.

Audience & Demographics

How many people visit the Green Pages?

The Green Pages site receives about 20,000 unique visitors per month, each viewing about 3 pages per visit. This is an accurate figure as we do not automatically re-set page counts in order to artificially inflate the number. We currently receive around 5,000 visitors per week from search engines and 9,000 visits are from visitors returning to the site as direct traffic or from entering the site from The Green Razor e-news or other email notifications. The remainder of visits are from referring sites, largely Facebook, Twitter and several environmental websites.

What kind of people visit Green Pages?

The core of the Green Pages’ members are environmental professionals who are deeply embedded in the sustainability community. However because of the broad appeal of the directory, there are several sub-groups who frequent the site. We find that the most pertinent data we have learned from the members is that 54% of members work in a sustainability related profession, 72% are female and 60% have children.

Is Green Pages more of a Business (B2B) or a consumer site (B2C)?

The Green Pages readers are generally both at the same time. They are environmental professionals who espouse a personal passion of sustainable living. They are a composed of a community of people who are heavily influential in their peer groups, such as publicists, event managers, industry experts, teachers and campaign organisers. In terms of the client base, about 50% of the directory is made up of b2b clients, mostly in our extensive ‘Business’ category. In a nutshell, Green Pages is both at the same time.