The Green Thumb Initiative

I recently saw a FedEx commercial that talks briefly about the different ways FedEx is currently doing in order to work towards sustainability. This short commercial shows a random company boss who is well-inspired by FedEx’s sustainable ways that it plans to adapt these ways into their daily business operations as well. As mentioned in the commercial, the boss plans to start small by printing double-sided instead of one-sided for any company documents.

I found this commercial quite appealing because it was presented in such a simple manner. It was straightforward and informative too as it tells you some specific ways FedEx is doing in trying to reduce its carbon footprint. Also, with the random company boss involved in the commercial, it makes me think that this commercial is giving off a rational appeal to the viewers. It is implicitly saying that since FedEx is doing this, the right thing to do would be to follow their sustainable ways as well, as portrayed by the random company boss. Not only that, FedEx also mentions about “Sustainable Solutions” and provides a link to the website at the end of the commercial. This quickly brought me to action as it got my interest on finding out what other things is FedEx doing to become more sustainable. After my readings, I’ve discovered that they are doing practical things that are in sync with their main business operation. They do simple and practical things such as reducing the amount of paper used by doing online documents instead of paper. They also offer local pickups or deliveries to reduce carbon gas emissions and you can even choose to print on a certain type of paper that is made from more sustainable materials.

Of course, skepticism among consumers is inevitable with these kinds of actions. Many companies are integrating sustainable business operations into their company simply because it will make them look better to society and it is one of the biggest trends at the moment. I’m not saying that I think FedEx is green washing or anything, but I actually think they’re off to a great start. They don’t make magnanimous claims on how they are the most sustainable company or anything of that sort, but they are mainly focusing on how they are helping the environment by developing a number of sustainable solutions. Their commercial is quite humbling in the sense that they don’t brag about their greatness in developing these sustainable solutions, but instead, it tries to convince you that you should do the same thing. You should take action and change your ways, before making any claims. This would be best if you would want to avoid being accused for green washing as well. But other than that, I suggest that viewers should always double check to be sure. They can do this by looking at the company’s statistics on the change or difference in carbon emissions (if there’s a reduction) after adapting to these sustainable solutions and other things like that.