One of the SIG groups I belong to posed an interesting question, “How do you ethically include green in your marketing?” Having wrestled with this question quite a bit on this blog, I offered the following response:
No company can afford not to consider how they could be more green. Employees want to work for companies that are green. Consumers want to buy from companies that are green. There is money to made from selling green products (i.e. GE windmills) and dollars to be saved by making your operations greener (i.e. Wal-Mart). That said, beware the “green” backlash. Before spending any marketing dollars selling your greenness, make sure your story is solid and your efforts transparent. GE’s ecomagination pledge is a brilliant example of how to do it right. If you choose to tout your greenness, expect watchdog organizations to police all of your activities and uncover less than green activities. This was the case with BP (as I wrote about back in August) who wanted to dump some toxins in the Great Lakes and ended up finding a greener option after watchdogs complained.
Bottom line–before you talk about being green make sure you are really doing everything to be green. Track your progress every step of the way and let your employees and the public know what you are doing. Benchmark your consumables (electricity, oil, paper, etc.) and overall carbon footprint if you can and then set goals for reducing, reusing and recycling. It’s not easy being green and don’t make it sound like it is. Wal-Mart is practically a pioneer in green marketing, yet their CEO Lee Scott, Jr. admitted publicly last week that they “weren’t really green.” This is quite an amazing statement from a company that dramatically reduced its energy consumption (just by changing the lighting in every store) and is driving its entire supply chain to reduce packaging and overall shipping costs. The point is that those that are trying to be green realize how truly difficult it is to cover every base. Under-promising and over-delivering green is a good starting place for any ethically-minded company.
Addendum 3/18 3:45pm
As companies increasingly try to out-green each another, Greenwashingindex.com aims to keep marketers honest. Here’s a brief intro from their website:
Welcome to the Greenwashing Index — home of the world’s first online interactive forum that allows consumers to evaluate real advertisements making environmental claims. “Going green” has become mainstream for businesses large and small — and that’s a good thing. What’s not so great is when businesses make environmental marketing claims that can be misleading. The intent of this Web site is to:
- Help consumers become more savvy about evaluating environmental marketing claims of advertisers;
- Hold businesses accountable to their environmental marketing claims; and
- Stimulate the market and demand for sustainable business practices that truly reduce the impact on the environment.