Is your company eco-friendly?

General Electric is one of many companies turning eco-friendly. GE's had a handful of environmental scandals in the past (tiffs with the Environmental Protection Agency at the very top of the list), but it's turning a new leaf. With it's new Ecomagination campaign, they're heavily advertising to investors. I've seen their commercials in front of almost all of MarketWatch's video analyses. It's boldly trying to make investors aware that companies are making an effort to be friendlier to mother nature. And everyone should follow. I am proud to say that I've been a GE investor and loyal appliance patron for a few years now. Now that GE's making the effort to be more conscious of the notion that nature could be fleeting, I like them that much more.

Should other companies follow? I mean GE does bounce back and forth as being the market capitalization giant of the Street. If they're the biggest and richest guy out there, should we all follow suit? In this case, I think so. As a shareholder, there's a sense of pride knowing that your company is using your money well and in a way that can't hurt future generations. Starbucks also fills me with such pride.

Did you know that if you bring your own mug into Starbucks and order a drink in it, you get 10 cents off? For someone who spends roughly $20 a month there, 10 cents a cup isn't bad! Those savings could practically pay for the mug itself in time. Anyway, the point was to give people incentives to not use and throw away paper cups. Starbucks' cup sleeves are recycled. They're even toying around with the idea of making 100% recycled paper cups (they're at 10% right now I think and that's already real good). That close contact with such high content of recycled materials has never happened before. I'd be a hair skeptical, but I'd still drink their coffee out of it.

Starbucks also has "Grounds for your Greens," which is ground coffee leftovers rich in nitrogen to fertilize your garden. I love the idea of giving people their aromatic leftovers and have them beautifying their gardens. I've used it before - too bad I didn't know enough about nitrogen rich fertilizer.. Don't put too much in one plant! :)

Anyway, I kind of like stressing investing in a company you really believe in, in one way or another. This way, you can rest assured that as long as these companies are around, the world will be a little bit ... healthier.