There are some intelligent choices in the marketplace today, and as green is becoming more and more prevalent, we’re seeing the prices reducing – and efficacy rising. This Women Of Green podcast features MJ Jolda, the Vice President of Marketing at Marcal Paper Products, a leading manufacturer of household paper goods from 100 percent recycled paper. They have introduced an Environmental Facts panel on their “Small Steps” packaging that details information like recycled paper content, how much chlorine bleach was used for whitening, and the use of chemical-based additives like fragrances and dyes.

This whole effort came out of talking with many many consumers, mostly women, on what they want and don’t want in green.

Listen in to her responses to these questions:

Most of your customers are mainstream consumers – what I would call medium to light greens. They would purchase green but it has to really make sense.

What did you learn in your research about what it would take for them to make a green purchase versus a conventional one?

Women buy 80% of the products in our household, that’s tremendous economic power. So how can we rally those women to really have an impact in the marketplace?

How do we educate women, mainstream women, on what’s really happening when they buy that conventional product?

You have said that one of the biggest threats to the environmental consumerism movement is misinformation, or what’s often called greenwashing. How can we really make an impact in the marketplace if so many manufacturers are just spinning a marketing story without the environmental reality behind it?

I love Patagonia’s Footprint Chronicles. What is Marcal doing or not doing well that you would like to change or improve?

About MJ Jolda: She is the Senior Vice President for Marcal Paper LLC, the nation’s leading manufacturer of household paper goods from 100 percent recycled paper. An industry pioneer, Marcal has used recycled paper to make paper towels, napkins, facial tissue and bath tissue since 1950. MJ is responsible for the Marketing and R&D efforts for the Marcal Small Steps brand. MJ’s 20-plus-year track record of brand revitalization spans a wide range of consumer products, concentrating in food, household cleansers and OTC/HBA.

MJ’s links:

Profile of MJ Jolda in Advertising Age

Marcal’s Small Steps website

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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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