GreenPrint - Sustainability as a Service

Global warming, recycling, sustainability, carbon footprint... words a lot of people care about, and with great reason. Village startup, GreenPrint, addresses these issues head on by providing sustainability as a service to increase consumer goodwill, sales, and profitability while practicing promoting sustainability and creating a net-positive impact on our environment for the world’s leading retail fuel, fleet, and product brands.  Their journey from thought to company is pretty impressive and inspiring, thanks to chickens... confused?  Read on.

What is GreenPrint and how did you come to be?

Pete Davis, Founder and CEO, was buying eggs at the grocery store one day. He decided to opt for a dozen eggs from free-range chickens on a sustainable farm, instead of a dozen regular eggs. After, he went to fill up his car and recognized that there may be an opportunity for a “green” type of fuel - a “cage-free” sustainable fuel that he, along with a large percentage of today’s consumers, would be willing choose. GreenPrint’s offerings all stem from this idea of changing a commodity’s value equation by integrating sustainability as a core part of the product.Pete, and Co-founder Trenton Spindler's, vision, and GreenPrint’s mission, is to neutralize CO2 emissions on every gallon of fuel sold at retail gas stations or burned by corporate fleet vehicles until the day burning fossil fuels has become obsolete.

What is the problem you are trying to solve and how?

For consumers, we make it easy to do the right thing and reduce their carbon footprint. For fuel retailers, we provide a competitive differentiator and way to build customer loyalty, goodwill, and market share. For corporate & municipal fleets, we provide a turn-key way for them to be sustainable and meet stakeholder demand.GreenPrint operates low carbon and Reduced Emissions Fuel (REF) programs for retail gasoline and fleet providers through a patent-protected and proprietary platform. GreenPrint offers its programs as voluntary free-market solutions to help leading brands build loyalty and goodwill, by giving back, planting trees in their communities and working to address concerns over climate change by sequestering greenhouse gas emissions from the environment.

What traction do you have?

Our solutions have proven to be impactful for our clients revenue, bottom lines, and their customer’s communities and environment. For example, in 2016, through its products and programs, GreenPrint’s products and programs sequestered over 280,000 tons of CO2 and planted 25,000 trees in US National Forests (through partners such as the Arbor Day Foundation and other local non-profits). In 2017, GreenPrint has already signed agreements to reduce the emissions on over 500,000,000 gallons of fuel. The thought leaders in the fuel industry who have implemented GreenPrint’s programs are being seen as pioneers and heroes in their local communities.

What do you love most about being in the Village?

The Atlanta Tech Village has been GreenPrint's home since its inception in 2014. We've experienced a ton of growth, learnings, and challenges in these walls. One of our favorite things about being here is the collaborative, forward-thinking environment that many Villagers embrace. Villagers help each other, and Villagers push each other to succeed. They also embrace an inspirational and innovative atmosphere, that can be felt amongst the many companies here. We're extremely proud that we've been able to give back a little to the Village by offsetting 2016's emissions, and will offset 2017's emissions - making the Village a little greener and cleaner.

Any words of wisdom for other entrepreneurs?

I'd say the minimum foundation for a successful small business is you need to: (1) have a compelling product or service that's in demand(2) determine who the target buyer is and decide how to get in front or and attract that customer cost-effectively.(3) You need to do this at the right time.  Time refers to the micro and macro business environment and economy.  If your business is to buy, renovate, and flip houses: what are prices like? Are interest rates high or low?  What will lumber and renovations cost?  Where are we in the overall real estate cycle?  All of these questions and more would help answer the timing question.  

Ensure that you have the right service/product, at the right time, that you are offering it to the right customer, and then work your butt off. Don't give up, and iterate as you go. Hard work, persistence and tenacity are key to success.

Well, there you have it.  We are looking at you, retail fuel and c-store industries, restore retail gasoline, corporate and municipal fleets, businesses, product manufacturers, and service providers. Time to be the change in this world and what better/easier way than with GreenPrint.