Surveys have shown that more than half of global consumers prefer businesses that enact eco-friendly measures and avow to save energy. When trying to find a phone number of a nearby business, Americans are increasingly narrowing their search to companies that demonstrate some measure of environmental consideration. For service-based industries, consumers want to see paperless processes and CFLs. For those who manufacture goods, your customers are going to want to know you seek out the more eco-friendly material resources and remove waste in as safe a way as possible.

It’s therefore apparent that from a strictly marketing point-of-view, going green is good for business. Small businesses looking to make a big statement stand to gain enormously by taking the time and making the investment to ensure their operations run as eco-friendly as possible. When up against far more established competitors, being able to say your company represents the future through firm eco-friendly measures grants you an enormous amount of marketing power. But with that said, there’s a way that small businesses ought to go about declaring themselves green, and a way in which should be avoided.

Regardless of the genuine effectiveness of your eco-friendly measures, the simple fact is that without making potential customers aware of this, it’s not going to do much to help business grow. But to do this effectively requires some subtlety:

Make this fact a fundamental takeaway for visitors of your website, but do not over-inflate your eco-friendliness. To do it right would be to include a web page with an operations breakdown, highlighting the way in which your eco-friendly decisions make your product or services cheaper. The wrong way would be to pat yourself on the back with a blurb about how noble it is for businesses to take such measures.

For instance, when assembling an invoice at the front desk, ask whether or not the customer would prefer a printed copy or one emailed to them instead.

Sponsor local eco-friendly events. From farmer’s markets to solar-powered Go-Kart races, having your name associated with green living and innovation is a great way to brand yourself as a company that cares about the environment.

There’s an entire array of ways in which businesses can not only go green, but ensure that consumers are aware of that fact while avoiding glibness. Your decision to have your enterprise be one where the environment is a top priority should most certainly be based on the genuine desire to make the Earth a better place. But if such actions can lead to better business, there’s no option for small businesses other than to make sure it’s common knowledge among consumers.