According to a recent Pew Research study, 75% of Americans think climate change is an important issue.  How important you ask?  Stunningly, it’s last on a list of 20 compelling issues, far behind terrorism and the economy. The reasons seem simple enough. Bombs exploding and banks imploding have immediate impact. Rising temperatures and shrinking icebergs do not. It will probably take Nevada becoming beachfront before climate change moves to the top of the list.

It seems these issues are not so far removed from other messages in the green world that we have written so much about. The issue of global scale and not personal scale.  In other words, if “What’s in it for me?” is not in the message as an immediate takeaway, most people won’t take away its importance. 

So much anti-reality messaging is flying around today, from Obama’s supposed death panels to the town hall fiascos of people screaming that they don’t want the government involved in their Medicare, that no one knows what to believe any more. 

Environmental Leader just reported on makers of artificial rayon clothing who are selling themselves as bamboo. Their headline read, ”FTC Charges Clothing Firms with ‘Bamboo-zling’ the Public.”  A line, by the way, I wish I had written. What’s so sad is that real change can’t take place when people think what’s really happening isn’t happening to them. It means that all of us in the green world had better do everything we can to tell the story and tell the truth, and make sure that the story gets told in ways that are meaningful and impactful to their audience.   

My advice: Make every word count. And if you can’t figure out how to do that then please hire someone who does. We cannot allow the words, green or eco-friendly or environmentally safe, to go the way of “low-carb” and “natural”.  We can’t allow the lack of information or misinformation to help glaze over the eyes of the public who will do what’s right if they know why and how. We need to make the green movement the road back to sanity, economic as well as environmental.  We need to tell the world that switching to energy efficient light bulbs not only saves energy but saves money. Wal-Mart saved more than $7 million last year alone with that one act.

If you’re a marketer of a green product, put the real and rational reasons on top of your list. We don’t only have to deal with climate change, we have to deal with mind change and priority change if we want to see real change, or pretty soon we’ll all be surfing in Las Vegas and that will be a wipe-out for all of us.

Irv

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No matter what your personal opinion is about climate change, there is no doubt that it is having a profound impact on the marketplace. A huge amount of attention is focused on what companies are doing and whether they are part of the problem or part of the solution.

Today more than 90% of peer-reviewed scientific studies say climate change is real and humans are contributing to it in one form or another.  Images that flash across the Weather Channel compete with the Chiller Channel for sheer horror as tornadoes devastate, rivers rise and flood, heat sears the nation, and cyclones leave thousands homeless or dead.  

All this attention, plus record-breaking energy prices, are motivating consumers across the globe to demand action.  

Billions of dollars are being invested in companies developing alternative energy and other sustainable technologies. Customers, shareholders and employees are pressing companies to reduce their carbon footprints and adopt other sustainability initiatives.  

The risk of inaction overwhelms the benefits of taking action to protect your hard-earned reputation and standing. We live at a time when opinion-driven news and commentary spreads like a virus. What does it say about your company if you don’t say or do something positive and proactive?  Can you afford to sit in silence on the sidelines?  The answer I think is a resounding no.

It is incumbent on every organization to state its actions and intentions. Not with platitudes and hot air, but with substance.  You have to say what you are doing and what you intend to do and state it clearly, precisely and without grandiosity.

Energy company commercials with central casting Granddads teaching their cherubic Grandsons how to fly fish are not going to do it.  We need to hear how much they are investing in alternative sources of energy that will get us off our addiction to foreign oil.  They need to show us that they are not just sucking money out of our pockets, but rather investing profits in a more sustainable future.  We have reached the point where it’s not just polar bears that are endangered, it’s us.

Once again it comes back to our basic premise that meaningful change is beginning to take place because the issue has become personal, not just planetary. With the East Coast boiling, the Mid-West flooding, and the West Coast burning, climate change is no longer something we can just talk about; it’s something we all have to do something about. Buying green, thinking green, talking green and insisting on green may not be the entire answer, but it is a start.

Developing, implementing, and effectively communicating a coherent sustainability strategy will cost real money, but failure to act will cost a lot more. Are there steps you can take now to protect and enhance your reputation?  What actions can you take to enhance your competitive position? Can you grow your business by developing green products that educated consumers will want to buy?  Those are just a few of the questions every business leader has to answer — not someday, but now.

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