Make Your Green Sweepstakes Green

As we hunt around for green sweepstakes to list on Ecobunga!, we've seen it time and time again. A "Go Green" Sweepstakes with a not-so-green prize. Two recent examples come to mind:

1) A company runs a $20,000 Green Home Makeover sweepstakes. But the prize is just the cash -- not an actual energy-efficient home makeover -- and there are no restrictions on how the winner can use the money.

Now, winning $20,000 is a happy event, indeed! But it's a shade short of green to consider a "Here's a wad of cash - hope you spend it on something eco-friendly" a Green Sweepstakes. Of course, it's a lot easier administratively. What company really wants to send a construction crew over to the prize winner's house?

But please, if you've got the means to award a big green prize, then give away a hybrid car or a suite of ENERGY STAR appliances or a houseful of new energy-efficient windows, all of which generate oodles of clickthroughs from Ecobunga!

2) An eco-friendly company (or event) runs a sweepstakes or contest with a questionably green prize.

This one puzzles us. If your company or event is eco-friendly, then make sure your prizes are, too. Take the local Consumer Bike Show that's running a Cycle Prize Package giveaway. The top prize? ... Two round trip tickets on Amtrak.

Huh?

Now you could make the case that a train ride is more earth-friendly than a car ride. (And we get it -- Amtrak may be a sponsor of the event.) But why don't these good folks just give away a bike -- the most eco-friendly of all -- with a much longer lasting effect than a single train ride? The bike doesn't have to be expensive. Even a giveaway listing for a basic $300 beach cruiser gets lots of clicks from our Ecobunga! readers.

People like to win stuff -- it's fun! The value of the prize is less important to folks than the fact that it's free. So regardless of whether your prize is big or small, we strongly encourage you to match your prize(s) to your green theme, lest you, tsk-tsk, be accused of greenwashing.

The bottom line? Green giveaways should be green.