Edmonds dot-com has tips on being green

EDMONDS -- Information about "being green" and choosing environmentally friendly products and services abounds on the Internet. The problem is sorting through it all.

Which is the reason David Kaufer launched Green for Good, an Edmonds-based site that hopes to be an online gateway for green businesses and news.

And the enterprise also is becoming an organizing force for local green events.

To be sure, Green for Good is still a small enterprise after fewer than three years, during which the Web site has gone through a few incarnations. Kaufer and his co-workers still have day jobs.

But the site's traffic is building, said Kaufer, who refers to himself as chief green officer for the company.

"It's nothing we would toot our horn about yet, but what's more encouraging is where we sit in the search engine rankings," Kaufer said.

With the site's newest look coming online this month, he plans to promote the Web site more. Certainly, it will get visibility at this week's Green Edmonds Festival, which Green for Good organized.

This actually is the second green event the company has pulled together. This past spring, it organized the first GreenPower Baby Shower Expo in Seattle. It was successful enough that the company looked to hold other events.

"We're here in Edmonds, and Edmonds is doing a lot of work to promote sustainability," Kaufer explained. "So why not hold a sustainability event right here?"

The response has been good, with more than 75 exhibitors signed up for Saturday's event, he said. As it happens, the Green Edmonds Festival is coinciding with Green for Good's latest Web site redesign.

Kaufer, 43 and an Edmonds resident, previously worked in public relations and high-tech firms, including Cisco Systems.

After inspiration hit him during a cross-country plane flight, Kaufer got started. He admits it's been a challenge.

"I've understood the marketing and communications well. It's been the whole process of building the Web site, especially one this complex, that has been quite a learning process," he said.

The site is deep with articles, forums and columns identifying "Green Heroes" and those who deserve to be put in the "Green Penalty Box." Above all, the site's advice tries to be simple and straightforward, said Teresa Wippel, the site's vice president of green communications.

"The main focus is to give people an easy way to find out how to live a greener life. We're looking for everyday people who have made some changes and can tell others how they did it," she said.

She and Kaufer both emphasize the "living greener" concept, as opposed to living green all the time. Even small changes in lifestyle or buying habits are more beneficial than none at all, Wippel said.

Despite growing mainstream interest in greener living, Green for Good still has plenty of room to grow. The online business has been self-financed in fits and starts. And it's yet to turn a profit. Once the site is profitable, Kaufer plans to donate a percentage to environmental causes.

But few are doing what Green for Good is doing, and that's an advantage, Kaufer said. As the site's content builds and interest grows, he's hoping it can become one of the most-used environmentally related resources on the Web.

"The good thing is we're in a great position. We've invested the time, we've invested the resources," Kaufer said. "We're in this for the long haul."

Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com