Guest Writer: Amy Skoczlas Cole, Director of the eBay Green Team

By The Inside Source
March 29, 2010

eBay's Green Team began in 2007 as a grassroots effort by a small group of employees who wanted to make their company a more environmentally friendly place to work. It grew quickly, and exponentially, into a group of thousands of employees all over the world who supported green causes and promoted sustainable business practice within eBay. Realizing that the biggest—and greenest—opportunity came with the entire eBay community, namely its buyers and sellers, the Green Team expanded in March 2009 to include the whole of the online marketplace. Now more than 180,000 members strong, the Green Team harnesses the power of the eBay community to make greener shopping decisions and serves as a hub for information and ideas on environmentally-conscious living, from causes and events worth knowing about to tips for how to green your life. On the occasion of the one year anniversary of the Green Team's current iteration, we invited Amy Skoczlas Cole, Director of the Green Team, to fill us in on what her crew has been up to recently.

The Green Team Mission

One year ago, we at eBay opened up our Green Team to the millions of buyers, sellers and enthusiasts out there in the world. The idea was fairly simple: Connect people so they can help each other make smarter, greener decisions in their everyday shopping habits. Then, aggregate those decisions across the eBay community and watch them add up. In the course of our many conversations with some of the tens of thousands of eBay Green Team members, one concept really stands out: The greenest product is often the one that already exists.

We hear it again and again from the eBay community: eBay is the world’s recycler. But what happens on eBay is even better than recycling. It’s reuse, and it’s on a scale that only our marketplaces can accomplish. Take my latest green purchase as an example—some of you may not even have known how green it is: I recently bought a pair of really cute J.Crew pants on eBay. The seller maybe wore them a few times. They’re part of last year’s collection, and by looking at them, you can’t tell there is anything particularly green about them. (They're grey, in fact!) But, by choosing to re-use rather than buying brand new, I’m doing the planet a big favor because it didn’t have to produce something new all over again.

These kinds of purchases happen every second on eBay, and so we asked the smart folks at Cooler, Inc. to help us understand the real environmental benefit of buying pre-owned online versus new at the mall. The results were pretty astonishing. For example, did you realize that, when you consider all of the energy and resources that go into making a new pair of leather shoes and shipping it to a store for you to purchase, buying a previously-worn pair on eBay saves more energy than an average household uses in a day?

We found these results so compelling, we teamed up with Hearst Magazines (home to Marie Claire, Cosmo, and Redbook, among others) to share the information with their readers in their April magazines. One of the myths that we’re trying to break with this collaboration is that green products either cost more or are lower quality (or both). But just take a look at some of these ads, and we think you'll see that being green can definitely be a trade-up, not a trade-off!

Take the
Green Team Challenge

It’s clear to us that being green doesn’t have to be filled with sacrifices. So, we’re issuing what we call the Green Team Challenge, an initiative that asks everyone to pledge to do something simple: reuse what exists in the world today. It can be as easy as buying something used instead of new, or being a little creative and giving an existing object a new life instead of chucking it out.

To help make the Challenge a bit easier for you, we also recently launched a green shopping hub, which features pre-owned, sustainably-made and resource-saving products handpicked from eBay.com listings.

And, as a way of taking your pledges to the next level, we’ve partnered with Team Earth to protect an acre of rainforest in the name of everyone who takes the challenge. Team Earth is a new collaboration of the world’s leading environmental groups, and we’re really excited to be one of the first companies that they’re working with.

One final reason to take the Challenge: By signing up, you'll automatically be entered for a chance to win $10,000. It's our way of saying thanks for doing your part with the Green Team community.

My Green Shopping List

1. Burman Tapered Brushed Silver Green Shade Table Lamp (buy it now price, $17.99) A super cute, small lamp for my bedside, which is in keeping with the nature theme of my bedroom.

2. Olive/Aqua Girly Apron - Fair Trade Winds (buy it now price, $20) On the rare occasions when I do cook, I like to do it in style with a fair trade crafted apron.

3. Belkin Dual USB Car Charger for iPod & iPhone(F8Z280) (buy it now price, $12.99) A must have for my iPhone!

4. Artic Zone Zippered Lunch Bag Kids Caterpillar Bag (buy it now price, $12.99) My son loves bugs of all shapes and sizes. Now I can pack his lunch in his own caterpillar lunchbox.

5. 18k Gold Flower Necklace Bangle Bracelet Ring Set (buy it now price, $4,795) A girl can dream once in awhile! This necklace would be just gorgeous with a lightweight spring sweater…

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