Growing Demand Blog

Here at Demand Media, we take our responsibility as a global citizen seriously, and we challenge our employees, partners, customers and end users to join us in our commitment to the environment. As we celebrate Earth Day this month, I wanted to point out two new and very noteworthy programs we are undertaking on a couple of our flagship sites, eHow.com and Trails.com:

eHow Goes Green

For a limited time eHow contributors can earn some terrific prizes by writing articles on how to be environmentally friendly. The promotion plays to eHow’s DNA: sharing solutions. Prizes are themed around simple but valuable products that can help you be greener every day, like re-usable bags, low water consumption shower heads, etc. This is a tremendous opportunity for everyday green experts to share practical solutions with eHow’s 30 million readers.

More details here >>

Trails.com Tree Planting Eco Program

We've partnered with American Forests — the nation's oldest non-profit citizen's conservation organization to plant thousands of trees across the US to help restore and maintain our forests. Throughout the month of April, Trails.com will plant one tree on behalf of each new subscriber. As the Trails.com community grows, so does the positive impact on the environment.

More details here >>

Additionally, we pride ourselves on the many ways our sites, audiences and partners make environmental sustainability a top priority. Here are a few interesting statistics and facts that illustrate this point:

• Over 80% of eHow users recycle and take action to conserve (Nielsen 2008).
• eHow has over 25,000 articles and videos covering sustainability.
• 58% of our Trails.com audience has purchased environmentally friendly products, and more than 40% would consider purchasing a hybrid vehicle (internal survey 2008).
• We partnered with Clear 2.0 on LIVESTRONG.COM around the topic of drinking water and avoiding bottled water; this was both an advertising and content partnership.
• One of our network sites, GreenCar.com is devoted exclusively to alternatively fueled vehicles.
• We partnered with YouTube on their Live Green channel sponsored by SunChips, providing original content from both eHow and GreenCar.com.

If these fulfilling programs weren’t enough, we also make minimizing our environmental impact an everyday practice inside our offices – in Santa Monica, Austin, Bellevue, New York and London. Among the many ways we respect the planet, our team uses filtered water dispensers and porcelain coffee mugs (to avoid extensive use of paper cups), energy saving light bulbs throughout our facilities, recycling programs for glass, plastic, aluminum, paper and tech waste (batteries, electronics, etc), and a range of personal services available onsite to minimize driving.

All of these efforts, through our products, our partners and our people, together help us minimize our overall impact on the environment. While some of the environmentally-oriented actions we take are bigger than others, they all add up. And most importantly they support the case that fast-paced, entrepreneurial companies can take simple steps to do good and do well at the same time.

Happy Earth Day to everyone!