PCG – Presenting at both the Midwest Convention
Pawn Industry one of the Greenest Industry’s on Earth
To all of our beloved clients, fans, members, and family, I wanted to take out some time today in this blog to share some very positive commentary and trends that are very relevant to the Industry.
We are all being bombarded with so much noise from so many directions, it is time to step back, take a deep breath, and ponder this subject matter and the significant impact our Industry has on planet Earth.
Recently I was on a hosted call with our friends Cyndee Harrison and Erika Brooks with the Pawnbroker Network, and they were discussing the sustainability of the industry as far as reduction of the carbon foot print and more.
We discussed the potential amount of recycled goods and inventory and more our Industry generates and repurposes every day.
This is a very relevant and exciting topic matter to me personally and wanted to expand on it for all of us to be more aware and conscious of how significant our impact is on the global environment.
Yes, the act of Pawning or borrowing on goods, along with buying, trading and or reselling pledged goods and more has been around for thousands of years.
Going Green
It is no surprise that man(kind) < or lack thereof, has had a significant impact on Mother Earth.
Today more than ever before – there is a globalized effort by many, to help save our planet for future generations.
In as much as there is a lot of propaganda out there, we cannot deny attempting to reduce green house gases is NOT a bad thing.
Pawnshop Consulting Group has a world-wide client base and has seen many operators operating with a wide array of styles, goals, operations, and more.
Green Gold
This is not actually (Green) gold, see below:
Some years back when working with one of my groups in Cambodia, I couldn’t help but notice that they had a program in place of recycling their gold.
Translation, they took what was basically scrap, melted it down, and repurposed it into newly manufactured jewelry.
Their motto was “Green Gold” and there was a fair amount of promotion on the product and the many benefits recycling has to offer.
They advertised and marketed how much less damage was being done to the environment by this process and more, and it seemed to be very effective for them.
When you think about it, what a great concept. Today a number of recyclers repurpose gold, and more in the Pawn Industry are also practicing these techniques and marketing it fairly well.
Devastation of Gold Mining
Mining for gold has a devastating impact on our planet. Take a look at the chart below, in some cases depending on the gold content of the dig, it can take anywhere from 2 tons, to 91 tons of earth to product one ounce of gold.
If you have ever seen a gold mine, it creates massive devastation to the planet.
Then there is the raw chemicals, arsenic, hydrochloric acid, and more that often times runs off or out of the mines and seeps in the aquafers, streams, rivers, crops, and more.
Not to mention the direct human contact with all of this can be devastating as well.
It is really sad how significant this one activity alone is!
Now couple this with rare earth mining (lithium for batteries as an example), minerals, diamonds, coal, and so many other activities that go on to sustain life and or businesses around the world today and it is significant, and it is devastating to Mother Earth.
Electric Cars
Think they are green? Guess again, manufacturing, producing the rare earth for batteries, shipping, and so much more, all produce green house gases.
Some estimates indicate the amount of green house gases it takes to produce electric cars from concept to owning one is up to 10 X the amount of (or reduction) of green house gases that may exist from the full life cycle of electric cars.
Think about that for a moment. The recycling of the toxic batteries is widely a non-discussion by anyone.
Here’s an interesting piece on the subject matter:
https://wholepeople.com/carbon-footprint-of-electric-cars/
Pawnshop Recycling
This brings us full circle to the Pawn Industry. Think of how many billions of dollars of repurposed, and recycled product we generate every year around the world today?
Multiply that times the thousands of years this activity has been going on in our Industry were talking trillions!
The Numbers are massive, TV’s, electronics, tools, computers, gold, materials, the list goes on and on.
This could be one of the most significant campaigns the Pawn Industry could ever get behind today to better the image and thoughts of who and what we do every day in our businesses.
Here is an interesting Blog from National Pawn a group that Pawnshop Consulting Group has worked with which recently posted and it discusses how big the resale markets are and is becoming, consumers getting paid to recycle, how big their sustainability impact is on North Carolina, and more, very good read from our friends at National Pawn:
Carbon Emissions
The big news is that our Industry has a huge impact on reducing carbon emissions for sure along with pollution, waste disposal, recycling, reselling, reusing, repurposing, and so much more.
It would be interesting to see what the total impact of all our loans, buys, trades, and resell of product on a global basis truly looks like, and the net effect of reducing carbon emissions alone makes us probably one of the largest carbon reducing industry’s in the world today.
Think about that, think about targeting your marketing efforts around that subject matter, and let your community and your customers know what we do aside from helping people everyday, we are also helping Mother Earth everyday in a big way!!
Just some commentary from your friends over at the Pawnshop Consulting Group
More to follow, and thank you – Jerry Whitehead @ Pawnshop Consulting Group
Pawnshop Consulting Group, LLC.
900 Egan Way CT
Burleson, Texas 76028
954-540-3697
jerry@www.pawnshopconsultinggroup.com