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Local Voices

Unique Online Directory Inspiring The Nation To "Opt-Out and Go Green"

Nowadays, everyone everywhere is getting in on the environmentally friendly "green" movement. But to one Long Island-based web business, going green is more than just savvy marketing lingo; it's a steadfast corporate philosophy. 

YellowPagesGoesGreen.org (YPGG), headquartered in Northport, has been in the business of putting people in touch with the telephone and street address listings they’ve needed since 2010; all the while eschewing the tradition and what they call wasteful approach taken by print directories, according to Michael Keegan, CEO of YPGG’s parent company Yellow Pages Directory Inc.

“I wanted to do something good for the environment, and I noticed that the print Yellow Pages were just being thrown away in my office and everywhere else I looked,” he said. “I saw that there was no need for the print Yellow Pages and that they were generating a great deal of waste...I figured, if I’m seeing this much waste just in my own office and hometown, how much waste was being generated nationwide? I felt that doing my part to stop the distribution of the Yellow Pages books would be a good thing to do for the environment.” 

Keegan is no stranger to the world of business; after graduating high school from St. Anthony's of Melville, he attended Farmingdale State College and then Oakdale’s Dowling College, where he earned a BA in Business Administration; in addition to YPGG, he currently owns Keystone Realty USA, a Long Island-based real estate brokerage firm. 

Originally launching in April of 2010 as InteractiveCities.com, the site was acquired in September of the same year by Keegan’s Yellow Pages Directory Inc. and re-named; embracing the environmentally-aware business model and running with it, YPGG offers a comprehensive, cutting-edge website that delivers over 28.5 million up-to-the-minute listings of businesses throughout the United States and Canada. In addition, as of March 2013, YPGG also offers full residential White Page listings as well. 

A strong advocate of the national “opt-out” movement that allows individuals to put a halt to the delivery of paper telephone directories to their homes (the YPGG site links to a national registry that allows users to do just that), Keegan argues that print phone books are often out-of-date within weeks of their publication and use up valuable natural resources in both their creation and disposal; in contrast, he says that YPGG is a fast, convenient, and easy way to access the information you need to find the goods and services that you want while safeguarding the good of the planet at the same time. 

“People today feel a greater sense of responsibility for the environment," he said. “The purpose behind this service is to promote a green earth, and we’ve created an efficient, easy-to-use alternative to paper Yellow Page directories. If more people will use this service and ask their local Yellow Pages suppliers to stop delivering books, we can all contribute to a greener planet.” 

To learn more about YPGG, access their massive Yellow and White phone directory, read numerous educational blog posts on the environment, and opt-out of print phone book delivery to your home, please visit http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org.

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