To satisfy our demands, we human beings use living resources from the Earth at a 35% percent rate faster than they can be naturally regenerated. Facing this ecological deficit, many citizens and companies have turned to the production and consumption of sustainable products. In the case of Argentina, many companies have arisen who want responsible solutions in the products´ they offer, and many new consumers want information about what they buy. But the availability of these so-called sustainable products is still disperse.
Directorio Verde has been created as an answer, a place of reference that puts together and links companies, institutions and consumers.
From this point of view, the green directory makes a vital contribution to sustainable products and services by giving the consumer a variety of choices and helps the company that is selling them an opportunity to be known on the web.
Mission: To build and generate a permanent linking space between providers and clients in the industrial sector concerned about sustainable development in Argentina, in order to promote responsible consumption.
Vision: To be a space of reference for responsible consumption in Argentina.
Objectives:
• To have the most complete guide in Argentina.
• To make the project autosustainable
• To create a network of institutional and company contacts: to make agreements with the fifteen most interested institutions for our project.
• To give quality information: make the companies sign an agreement about the information that is published.
• To install the product in the society: make it known through different actions.
Directorio Verde is an online guide for sustainable products and services, so ICTs are the base for our project.
One of the main reasons why Directorio Verde is online is ecological. We would save lot of paper making it virtual. The other reason is that the Internet Market in Argentina is very interesting.
In Argentina there are 20 million Internet users. According to the consultant company Prince & Cooke from the 20 million Internet users, 18% percent of them are online buyers; electronic commerce has had an almost 30% growth, comparing 2009 with 2008 results.
On the other hand, internet is having a very good level of penetration in homes and according to the consultant Ibarómetro, 45% percent of consumers choose the internet as their favorite media, leaving television and radio in second and third place. The main reasons are related to the easy with which the Internet offers to look for and find information. According to Yahoo, two out of three users of the Web in the country (66%) do their own market research before buying.
Our target groups are two:
Users:
• People sensitive to the ecology, a healthy life and the care of the environment.
• Habitual consumers of sustainable services and products.
• Professionals who need sustainable consumables to develop their own products.
Companies:
• Companies offering sustainable products and/or services
• Managers who acknowledge the internet as a tool to increase the level of visibility of their products
Directorio Verde has definite strengths that can be seen as competitive advantages:
• We are the first and only Green Directory in Argentina: even though there are some magazines that specialize in ecology, there is no another guide for products and services.
• We have the know-how of the market online: we have put together a team with experience in e-commerce and the development of virtual Communication Tools
• We offer a personalized service: database is built and updated by professionals, not by informatic robots like many other online directories in other fields. This allows us a personal bond with our clients and lets us work for the satisfaction of their needs.
The biggest enemy the ecological consumer has is lack of information that does not help to discern the real effect the product has on the environment. Facing this situation, the Green Directory has become in a reliable and complete information place regarding sustainable products and services.
We have been online for 12 months now, and up to date we have 10,000 visitors/month.
