• Rainforest Alliance Certified Coffees are winning 100% annual revenue growth

• Green household cleaners have achieved 229% revenue growth since 2005

• In 2009 Organic Apparel/Home Textiles achieved 35% revenue growth.

Two key market segments driving this revenue growth are the Millennial Generation and their moms, Concerned Caregivers, that are searching for products that offers “on me, around me, in me” solutions. This “Awareness Customer” market segment has $10 billion of annual buying power!

There is a “Secret Green Sauce” to building business success with the Awareness Customer. The first key ingredient is price. Market research has documented that 85% of consumers will buy the more sustainable good or service versus the less sustainable alternative IF their prices are the same. The companies that are achieving explosive revenue growth have a pricing plan that is driving their product toward price parity with the less sustainable competing product. A great example is solar roof top market segment that has achieved approximately 50% price reductions over the last four years with the most successful companies deploying an ongoing efficiency plan for reducing costs down to electric utility price parity.

The second key ingredient is “Prove It, Conclusively” branding. Market research has conclusively documented that customers are confused on what to buy and who to buy from. This opens the door to revenue growth success for an early stage company that can win brand positioning as being genuinely sustainable in their business practices and their products’ or services’ authenticity. The classic example of success in this space is Clorox’s Green Works, the first green consumer product to reach $100 million annual revenues. Green Works aligns with SIX different third party affiliations to convey a “Prove It, Conclusively” credibility alignment their targeted customers.

The third ingredient is the ability to connect with the experimenting, learning and then buying decision-making process being used by Awareness Customers. The adoption of sustainability is a maturation process where consumers begin by buying lower cost and lower risk products like CFL lights or concentrated organic laundry detergent. Then these customers use their experiences to move into more expensive sustainable goods and services. This is a “Know it, Embrace it” marketing path that is enabled by the Awareness Customers’ use of social media. Apple and Timberland are two of a growing number of companies that are developing social networks around their products that draw-in via social networking a growing number of new customers.

From serving as Entrepreneur.com’s Green Business Coach I have developed an international network of companies that are developing best practices for growing green revenues. I have captured key profiles of these best practices in my book, The Secret Green Sauce, outlining how to price, brand and market into the Awareness Customer market segment to win double digit revenue growth results!

Bill Roth is the founder of Earth 2017 and author of The Secret Green Sauce that profiles best practices of actual companies growing green revenues.

Unsustainability may be one of those invented words like locavore that will soon be part of our culture. It represents our economy’s slide into public policy that enriches legacy vested interests at the expense of the common good.

Example numero uno is oil. I am NOT picking on the oil companies. They are doing what they were created to do, namely find and deliver oil. Oil managers are fulfilling their legal fiduciary responsibilities to the financial satisfaction of their stockholders.

BUT, in terms of the common good, continuing to base the U.S. economy on oil that is either sourced from other countries or that poses a high environmental risk is not sustainable. It is commonly understood among economists that our addiction to oil is eroding our economic foundation because we finance our oil addiction with money borrowed from China that pays for both the oil we import and a military budget that funds the protection of someone else’s oil fields.

The obvious solution is to raise the price of gasoline and other petroleum products to reflect this “unsustainability” (in economics this is called including the “externality costs” in the price of a product). Doing so would create a “price stimulus” for oil alternatives like electric cars made in the USA that are fueled with energy sourced within the U.S. The result would be increases in jobs and a stronger U.S. economy.

So why not do something this obvious? A key point is that we are not shifting from oil to alternative energy solutions due to a lack of technology solutions. We are not shifting to alternative energy because it can’t compete on full cost accounting economics. We are not shifting to alternative energy because we have a political system that will not do what is in the best interest of the common good. And while this election season has surfaced strong voter frustration with politicians and big business the number one reason why we are not adopting alternative energy is consumer resistance to change. Quoting the infamous Pogo cartoon, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Polls continue to document that over 80% of us are against any type of increased tax upon gasoline. What politician would pursue a change in public policy in the face of that type of voter resistance?

Are we then trapped in a “Tragedy of the Commons?” The concept of a Tragedy of the Commons comes from when our cities were built around a grassy common available to all for the grazing of their livestock. The tragedy occurred when combined self-interest overgrazed the commons, ruining it for all.

The solution to a Tragedy of the Commons situation is awareness and leadership. It would appear that we have reached an inflection point where a vast majority of Americans are displeased with our public policy. What we are lacking is leadership where mass-media rhetoric overwhelms reason. Reasoned economics would readilty explain that a tax on oil does not mean higher taxes for all. A tax on oil would shift more of a tax burden upon those who consume a higher share of oil and a lowering of the tax burden upon those who find ways to use less oil. And over time as all consumers see the value of using less imported oil a shift in demand will occur that benefits our economy and almost all consumers/taxpayers. But confront this logic are those who seek to capture headlines rather than solutions.

At a point very soon this all will come crashing down upon our heads. Adding over a trillion dollars per year of new Federal debt is not sustainable. The Federal Reserve’s policy of pumping money into the economy is creating investor flight toward “assets” like gold, oil, stocks and bonds which is not sustainable. We are rapidly approaching a crisis of “unsustainability.” At that point we will have to adopt alternative energy. Unfortunately the price to be paid for shifting to alternative energy as a result of crisis and not reasoned public policy will be economic suffering in the form of job losses, less funding of needed societal programs like education and a further erosion in the value of savings.

But there is an alternative. Business including Walmart and P&G are discovering that consumers will buy competitively priced sustainable goods and services. Products from certified coffees to organic cotton clothing to “green” household cleaners are achieving double digit revenue growth even in this down economy. The key to success is aligning a product’s value with values. A keynote example of this effort in alternative energy and transportation is the Nissan Leaf. It is a five door all-electric car that seat five with five and can handle almost 90% of the daily driving requirements most of us place upon our cars. And Nissan is leasing the Leaf in California for less than $200 per month!!! The promise that for America is that we will implement public policy taht unleashes entrepreneurship to enable a path that overcomes this crisis of unsustainability, offering the restoration of our jobs, economy and environment.

Why these ten? On average, they delivered a total shareholder return of 997%!