The Second Green Wave: Necessity For Health Clubs

In our last post we discussed the first of five green waves creating a green perfect storm for health clubs. 

Now we identify the second wave: 

The necessity for health clubs to be green.

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Selling Health and Fitness For Your Body And Environment
Committing to a healthy lifestyle includes both a healthy body and a healthy environment. Twenty five years ago, when health clubs were gyms and participants were body builders, it was not unusual to find both alcohol and cigarettes being sold in gyms. In this day and age, no health club allows smoking on the premises.

Shifting To Wellness Means Going Green
The shifting pro green culture in Northern Europe and North America is leading a wave that will further separate our industry into wellness centers and gyms. In a few years joining a non green club will be like joining a health club now that allows smoking.

Green Sales Problem and Promise
Members and prospects may avoid clubs who say they are interested in your health and longevity but do not have a strong green position. This means clubs promoting a wellness or health brand must be significantly greener.  A truely green health club is in a green building using green cleaners, conserving water and energy.  They walk their environmentally friendly talk.

The sales green impact is clear - prospects get to participate in this eco value the moment they join the health club.

Price Premium And Family Clubs
Club’s with higher fees and those serving families have the highest benefit in greening as it enables further competitive differentiation. And this does not mean superficial ‘greenwashing.’

A Good Place To Start
Learn more about green marketing at The Green Marketing Conference held in the Fall in the U.S.  Visit goodandgreen.biz. They promise thousands of dollars worth of instruction on improving your green marketing ROI; real world, case studies, resources and techniques to build market share and sales.

In the next post we’ll examine the third green wave - health club communities.

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Will Phillips is the President and founder of REX. He has over 30 years of practical experience as a management consultant.

In the past fifteen years his work has focused on broad scale organizational change projects and developing internal change agents.