FRANKLIN— Franklin High School’s DECA students are going green, and hopefully influencing some area businesses as well.

The environmentally conscious team, made up of Mollie Blythe, Seth Drewry and Kylee Ponder, earned second place in the General Marketing Research category for its &uot;G Spot&uot; campaign. The &uot;G&uot; stands for &uot;green&uot; and &uot;garden,&uot; as in Grayson & Emma’s Garden Spot near Courtland.

The students had permission from owner Neil Drake to conduct their marketing research regarding implementing a green marketing project at the business—a concept that Drewry says originated with Bythe’s &uot;obsession of going green.&uot;

They decided that Grayson & Emma’s Garden Spot had a lot of potential to accept green marketing, because local produce was sold there.

&uot;It carries more organic products, so we thought they would be perceptive to new ideas,&uot; said Drewry, who also is an employee of the business.

Ponder said they surveyed customers to find out their suggestions of how the store could be more environmentally friendly.

&uot;The highest ranking suggestion (pertained to) the overuse of plastic bags,&uot; Ponder said. It became the campaign priority to promote the eco-friendly GreenBag, a reusable bag made of recyclable materials that holds approximately the same amount in terms of weight as three to five plastic bags.

In addition, they discerned that other goals would be to start a composting system since there is a lot of organic waste at the store that could be recycled; and to increase public awareness of being environmentally friendly.

According to Blythe, they made flyers that give people tips on ways to go green.

The 10 steps &uot;came from Al Gore’s ‘A Climate Crisis,’&uot; she said. The tips range from driving less, to avoiding products with lots of packaging—the idea being to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.

Another flier the students put together gives pertinent information about why and how to compost. Among tips is a list of what can and cannot be recycled in a compost pile.

Blythe, Drewry and Ponder even designed an advertisement for the local newspaper and the local radio station.

Other recommendations from the students were to give customers a discount on purchases when using the GreenBags, and to distribute fliers promoting the Green Movement.

&uot;(Drake) is interested in what we are doing,&uot; Drewry said. &uot;He wasn’t sure he could implement all the ideas, but said he would look into it.&uot;

Drake, in a letter to the students, stated that he was appreciative of the project because &uot;I will help his business transition into the Green Movement.

&uot;I foretell that these alternatives to become more environmentally friendly will only help my business grow and attract new customers,&uot; he said.

For more information about GreenBags, log onto www.greenbag.info.

Blythe said she hopes others will decide to join the efforts of going green.

&uot;I hope that the concept of our Green Movement campaign will spread around Franklin and other surrounding areas,&uot; she said.

The team will take its project to the International Career and Development Conference in Atlanta on April 25-30, where it will join other DECA chapters from other countries.