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Going green is nothing new. And neither is bragging about it.
Ever since businesses have made efforts to curb carbon emissions, increase recycling, build more efficient buildings, lower water consumption and so on, there've been marketing campaigns touting those companies as friends to the environment.
From Wal-Mart to Fort Collins’ own Miramont Lifestyle Fitness, all kinds of businesses these days are making efforts to better the environment, and most are not afraid to advertise their do-goodism. If a company is recycling, using CFL light bulbs or purchasing Renewable Energy Credits, marketers say they should let potential customers know the efforts they are making.
“That's how you are going to reach your consumers. They (the consumers) will be the ones doing the research and making the decisions,” said MacKenzie Budd, public relations director at One Tribe Creative, a Fort Collins marketing firm that specializes in socially and environmentally responsible branding. “You want them to know about all the positive things you are doing.”
One Tribe, which has done marketing for Solix Biofuels, Blue Sun Biodiesel and Bella Energy, and others say marketing green is great as long as the company is actually making positive changes.
If Big O Tires wants to promote their tire-inflation services as a way to conserve fuel and help the planet, good for them. If a new building is promoted as energy efficient because it has lots of natural light (i.e. windows), good for it. If a company is actually doing good, let them shout about it—no matter what the motivation is.
But green marketing is not all electric cars and wind turbines. The green sales zeitgeist can lead to frustration, fatigue and skepticism. As more businesses make environmental claims and more of those claims are outed as false or misleading, the average consumer can grow wary of other products and services labeled green.
It's a complex balance, and the more companies use their green-ness as a part of branding, the more consumers are maturing. Marketing a business as wind-powered might attract environmentally conscious individuals, but it might also anger others who point out that the company is purchasing RECs, not wind turbines. Marketing your ethanol-fueled fleet of trucks might please some, but others could point out the impacts ethanol is expected to have on the global food market.
And consumers are becoming more aware of greenwashing, what the Concise Oxford English Dictionary calls “disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image.”
“It's very easy to look at something on the surface level, and say, ‘yeah that's sustainable and that's green,’” One Tribe Marketing Director Michelle Venus said. “And in fact, we've had struggles with clients who have told us they are sustainable, but in working with them we have discovered that they really aren't. So we've had to move back from those relationships.”
She said it's a matter of ethics.
“If you are going to walk the walk you better walk it. The consumer is too savvy and too in tune,” Venus said. “Especially a consumer that is looking for a company whose values matches theirs. If they discover that this company, which they give their business to, is not honoring that value system, in the long run it will come back to bite them.”
The increasingly overflowing bandwagon of businesses marketing themselves as green often makes it confusing for the consumer. Studies show that individuals are increasingly attracted to environmentally friendly products, and consumers are becoming more educated about them. Still, they are frustrated with the vast amounts of information and companies' claims.
What's better, the Toyota Prius or the Honda Civic Hybrid? How do you know the difference between good and bad renewable energy projects to purchase RECs or offsets from? What are the benefits of using the greener version of a ballpoint pen, the greener version of dish soap? How do you know if (enter business name here) is really recycling, really wind powered, really planting 100,000 trees to offset carbon emissions?
“It takes someone making an effort to dig into the product. And not every consumer has the time or ability or the motivation to do it,” Venus said. “Especially with all the carbon credit and offset issues coming up, it's hard to know if they are walking the walk.”
Umbria, a company that analyzes social media like blogs, conducted ongoing online research on sustainability and consumers' changing reactions to environmental issues. Umbria analyst Averill Doering notes the growth in environmentally focused conversations she read online. In the beginning of her research, she found people questioning if all the talk was just a phase. By late 2007, bloggers had realized the Inconvenient Truth could not be swept under the rug.
She also saw people shifting in their attitudes toward climate change: While more people agree on the problems, they increasingly feel personally insignificant and only sporadically take action, or feel so hopeless that they rarely do anything to help the cause.
Skepticism is common, she said.
“When you're talking about the blogosphere, it tends to be people constantly trying to find the truth,” Doering said. “They are out to uncover the real truth and are really quick to share the information. They are aware of greenwashing and making sure that they are making other people aware.”
The greater harm of greenwashing is the potential for green fatigue, consumers getting tired and overwhelmed by the onslaught of messages and then rebelling against all that is green.
At least one local company, which has a made a name for itself through not just its beer but it's environmental practices and well-recognized advertisements, has done much “soul searching” about its marketing messages.
New Belgium Brewing Co. is often touted as the “wind-powered brewery,” but to say so is not technically correct. The company purchases a majority of its electric power through the city's renewable energy program, which, through Platte River Power Authority, claims part of its energy by purchasing Renewable Energy Credits. The company also burns natural gas on site.
New Belgium said it never meant to mislead the public with its wind-powered message, saying it was more a matter of semantics, and eventually made changes to marketing material.
Spokesman Bryan Simpson says it's been a growing process.
“It started as a bunch of friends in a garage brewing beer and no one had any business savvy. It's about learning as you go,” he said. “Essentially, it's exciting for businesses to be looking at the process. It would be a shame if they didn't, if green went from the hot topic to something without credibility.”
New Belgium, Simpson said, began making environmentally beneficial steps—like using electrical cogeneration from methane to produce up to 15 percent of its electricity and bettering water efficiency—before it even thought about the market benefits. It walked the walk, he said, before it talked the talk.
The local craftbrewer's current Follow Your Folly campaign focuses more on others who are taking actions to stop climate change, like Fort Collins’ own Worm Man, and they post a sign at events that self-deprecatingly admits “We Pollute” and lists the eco-efforts the company is making.
While they are still “working out the kinks” in their messaging, Simpson said other companies should focus on their actions before they think about honing their message. The overzealousness of green claims will only lead to a possible backlash, when more businesses are called out for greenwashing.
“Just to put lipstick on it, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. There's a savvy consumer aware of how things are,” Simpson said.
***
Tired of green advertising? Visit www.greenwashingindex.com and take a stand. “It’s greenwashing when a company or organization spends more time and money claiming to be ‘green’ through advertising and marketing than actually implementing business practices that minimize environmental impact. It’s whitewashing, but with a green brush,” the Web site says.
Ever since businesses have made efforts to curb carbon emissions, increase recycling, build more efficient buildings, lower water consumption and so on, there've been marketing campaigns touting those companies as friends to the environment.
From Wal-Mart to Fort Collins’ own Miramont Lifestyle Fitness, all kinds of businesses these days are making efforts to better the environment, and most are not afraid to advertise their do-goodism. If a company is recycling, using CFL light bulbs or purchasing Renewable Energy Credits, marketers say they should let potential customers know the efforts they are making.
“That's how you are going to reach your consumers. They (the consumers) will be the ones doing the research and making the decisions,” said MacKenzie Budd, public relations director at One Tribe Creative, a Fort Collins marketing firm that specializes in socially and environmentally responsible branding. “You want them to know about all the positive things you are doing.”
One Tribe, which has done marketing for Solix Biofuels, Blue Sun Biodiesel and Bella Energy, and others say marketing green is great as long as the company is actually making positive changes.
If Big O Tires wants to promote their tire-inflation services as a way to conserve fuel and help the planet, good for them. If a new building is promoted as energy efficient because it has lots of natural light (i.e. windows), good for it. If a company is actually doing good, let them shout about it—no matter what the motivation is.
But green marketing is not all electric cars and wind turbines. The green sales zeitgeist can lead to frustration, fatigue and skepticism. As more businesses make environmental claims and more of those claims are outed as false or misleading, the average consumer can grow wary of other products and services labeled green.
It's a complex balance, and the more companies use their green-ness as a part of branding, the more consumers are maturing. Marketing a business as wind-powered might attract environmentally conscious individuals, but it might also anger others who point out that the company is purchasing RECs, not wind turbines. Marketing your ethanol-fueled fleet of trucks might please some, but others could point out the impacts ethanol is expected to have on the global food market.
And consumers are becoming more aware of greenwashing, what the Concise Oxford English Dictionary calls “disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image.”
“It's very easy to look at something on the surface level, and say, ‘yeah that's sustainable and that's green,’” One Tribe Marketing Director Michelle Venus said. “And in fact, we've had struggles with clients who have told us they are sustainable, but in working with them we have discovered that they really aren't. So we've had to move back from those relationships.”
She said it's a matter of ethics.
“If you are going to walk the walk you better walk it. The consumer is too savvy and too in tune,” Venus said. “Especially a consumer that is looking for a company whose values matches theirs. If they discover that this company, which they give their business to, is not honoring that value system, in the long run it will come back to bite them.”
The increasingly overflowing bandwagon of businesses marketing themselves as green often makes it confusing for the consumer. Studies show that individuals are increasingly attracted to environmentally friendly products, and consumers are becoming more educated about them. Still, they are frustrated with the vast amounts of information and companies' claims.
What's better, the Toyota Prius or the Honda Civic Hybrid? How do you know the difference between good and bad renewable energy projects to purchase RECs or offsets from? What are the benefits of using the greener version of a ballpoint pen, the greener version of dish soap? How do you know if (enter business name here) is really recycling, really wind powered, really planting 100,000 trees to offset carbon emissions?
“It takes someone making an effort to dig into the product. And not every consumer has the time or ability or the motivation to do it,” Venus said. “Especially with all the carbon credit and offset issues coming up, it's hard to know if they are walking the walk.”
Umbria, a company that analyzes social media like blogs, conducted ongoing online research on sustainability and consumers' changing reactions to environmental issues. Umbria analyst Averill Doering notes the growth in environmentally focused conversations she read online. In the beginning of her research, she found people questioning if all the talk was just a phase. By late 2007, bloggers had realized the Inconvenient Truth could not be swept under the rug.
She also saw people shifting in their attitudes toward climate change: While more people agree on the problems, they increasingly feel personally insignificant and only sporadically take action, or feel so hopeless that they rarely do anything to help the cause.
Skepticism is common, she said.
“When you're talking about the blogosphere, it tends to be people constantly trying to find the truth,” Doering said. “They are out to uncover the real truth and are really quick to share the information. They are aware of greenwashing and making sure that they are making other people aware.”
The greater harm of greenwashing is the potential for green fatigue, consumers getting tired and overwhelmed by the onslaught of messages and then rebelling against all that is green.
At least one local company, which has a made a name for itself through not just its beer but it's environmental practices and well-recognized advertisements, has done much “soul searching” about its marketing messages.
New Belgium Brewing Co. is often touted as the “wind-powered brewery,” but to say so is not technically correct. The company purchases a majority of its electric power through the city's renewable energy program, which, through Platte River Power Authority, claims part of its energy by purchasing Renewable Energy Credits. The company also burns natural gas on site.
New Belgium said it never meant to mislead the public with its wind-powered message, saying it was more a matter of semantics, and eventually made changes to marketing material.
Spokesman Bryan Simpson says it's been a growing process.
“It started as a bunch of friends in a garage brewing beer and no one had any business savvy. It's about learning as you go,” he said. “Essentially, it's exciting for businesses to be looking at the process. It would be a shame if they didn't, if green went from the hot topic to something without credibility.”
New Belgium, Simpson said, began making environmentally beneficial steps—like using electrical cogeneration from methane to produce up to 15 percent of its electricity and bettering water efficiency—before it even thought about the market benefits. It walked the walk, he said, before it talked the talk.
The local craftbrewer's current Follow Your Folly campaign focuses more on others who are taking actions to stop climate change, like Fort Collins’ own Worm Man, and they post a sign at events that self-deprecatingly admits “We Pollute” and lists the eco-efforts the company is making.
While they are still “working out the kinks” in their messaging, Simpson said other companies should focus on their actions before they think about honing their message. The overzealousness of green claims will only lead to a possible backlash, when more businesses are called out for greenwashing.
“Just to put lipstick on it, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. There's a savvy consumer aware of how things are,” Simpson said.
***
Tired of green advertising? Visit www.greenwashingindex.com and take a stand. “It’s greenwashing when a company or organization spends more time and money claiming to be ‘green’ through advertising and marketing than actually implementing business practices that minimize environmental impact. It’s whitewashing, but with a green brush,” the Web site says.
Read More:
There are several stories posted today exploring the themes in this article from many angles.
Search for "Earth Day" to see them all. |
