Like many of us, when the notice from our utility company came offering wind energy to us at a slightly higher cost, we signed up right away. We figured it was a clean and sustainable way to get electricity and help the environment at the same time.  According to an article in The New York Times, to date over 1,000,000 customers have volunteered to pay more for this type of power, but it seems a lot of that has been hype, not hope. 

Florida Power and Light had a program called “Sunshine Energy”  with more than 38,000 customers which was terminated by the Florida Public Service Commission after an audit found that 76.4% of the money taken in by this program went to administration and marketing costs instead of to building more solar facilities and generating more clean, renewable energy. 

A California based advocacy group called the Utility Reform Network reported, “There is little evidence to suggest that customer subscriptions have resulted in any new additions of renewable power.”  And that is the shock, not only to energy customers but to all of us in the green marketing space. 

These blatant green claims, all wrapped up in slick marketing campaigns, do more than turn off energy customers, they have the potential to turn off the greater population to many green claims and products. And this hurts us all. 

We speak a lot about green marketing and one of our primary rules is transparency and walking the talk.That means if you say something about green or sustainability, you need to back it up with action. If you claim something, it had better be supported by facts.  

As green grows, so does the danger to the entire movement. Couple that with green fatigue, greenwashing and empty meaningless claims, and green can go the way that low-carbs went. What happens is that once someone is duped by a green marketer, they don’t just turn off that message, but potentially get turned off to the green movement and we all suffer the consequences. 

Everyday the airways are filled with messages that confuse us all. Look at the  current healthcare debate and all the special interest groups pouring millions into bending your opinion one way or the other. No wonder the average person no longer believes what they read and hear.

If you want the green movement to succeed, and your product or service along with it, all of us need to be the green police and be sure that what green says, green does. It would be a tragedy if companies like Florida Power and Light are instrumental in pulling the plug on what all of us have worked so hard to accomplish. Take my word for it, it is much harder to bring someone back in once they have been disappointed than it is to bring them in from the start.

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Want to see greenwashing in action? Than cast your eye on Nestle Waters YouTube videos about bottled water: How Much Water Does it Take to Make Bottled Water?

In this dubious video, the company outlines how water conscious they are, because less water goes into a bottle of water than into the making of a latte. When I hear stuff like that, it’s not the caffeine in the latte that keeps me up at night.  

Maybe the water usage is down, but what about what all that water is going into. Plastic bottles. You can’t be an environmental champion when, as the largest bottled water company in the world, your plastic bottles end up chocking our landfills and littering our environment with their plastic debris that will take centuries, if ever, to decompose. As if the landfill issues weren’t bad enough, how about the vast pollution trail that comes along with plastic bottle manufacturing? 

They start their life in an oil field, get transported in a huge oil tanker (remember the Exxon Valdes?), get trucked from ports to refineries, get synthesized into toxic chemicals that become plastic in a plastic manufacturing plant — which is in itself an ecological nightmare. For something so light in weight, that little plastic bottle has a pretty heavy footprint.  

It’s actually shameful to see a company spinning a tale with so long a pollution trail. Instead why don’t they put their efforts where it might matter? Into the development and production of a biodegradable plant-based bottle. They do exist.  

If companies like Nestle don’t get it by now, they really should begin to see that consumers see through these spin doctored messages. And actually begin to resent the tale tellers. Horizon Dairy found that out when their happy cows really weren’t too happy. And neither were many of their customers who found that out and organized a boycott against their products.

Things like clean coal and water-saving bottled water might sound good on paper, but they sound like bull-produced natural plant food to most of us.

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This is a guest post from (drum roll, please) Chris Brogan, author of “Trust Agents,” but better known as the “rock star” of social media.  

The marketing game has changed. It used to be all about mass communications and a tight message spread across every medium you could afford. The goal was to hit as many people as you could touch, and hope for a low percentage of them to convert. Who knows? Maybe you’re STILL doing it that way. If so, how’s that working for you? If you’re looking at trends, the new growth and success in marketing is coming from niche marketers who understand their community and can protect you along the way.

My area of knowledge is in using social media tools and methods to build sales opportunities, increase engagement, and converting audiences into communities. One way to accomplish this is by writing compelling blog content that opens conversations that may lead to potential lead conversion. Not every bit of the content is designed for sales. There’s a relationship component to all this as well, but the point to building great content for a business is to help that business earn attention, gain a reputation, and develop trust.

Find the right niche marketer, who has a strong relationship with the community you’re seeking, and partner with these organizations for your success. I’m writing this guest post for Carolyn Parrs and team at Mind Over Markets because I was so taken with what she and the organization were doing in the space of green / ecological marketing. In this new space, marketing is about connecting and building relationships that yield. Your opportunities are tied to how you choose to reach these markets, and how you intend to take your first steps towards earning their trust. Instead of selecting based on price, seek some results-driven guidance from marketers who you feel will know your audience’s challenges and reservations, and select them. That’s what I do.

–Chris Brogan is President of New Marketing Labs, LLC, and co-author of the NYT/WSJ bestselling book Trust Agents. He blogs regularly at chrisbrogan.com

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A message to the corner office. Congrats on offering the world a line of recycled paper products.  That’s the good news. The bad news is your message, “Green Done Right,” has got it all wrong.

We say this for a number of reasons. First of all, the green market has matured.  It’s reached the point where you actually have to say something meaningful and not the first thing that comes to your mind. Things have progressed to the point that green products have to stand on their own merits and tell their story to all of us, not just the narrow slice of the market where green began. That’s so 2004.

We’ve said this over and over again, but it still bears repeating. You can’t make your message meaningful if all you do is recycle green clichés.  ”Saving the planet one (whatever) at a time” and “It’s easy being green” had their place once, but that’s ancient history now. 

Of course, we understand the sensitive area you’re in as the paper company that manufactures one of the leading disposable diapers on the market, Huggies. Well, according to the EPA, did you know that18 billion diapers are thrown in landfills each year and they make up 3.4 million tons of waste or 2.1% of all U.S. garbage in those landfills? Not to mention that disposable diapers are made from petroleum by products.

Do you see why your new tag line, “Green Done Right” is so wrong for you, Kimberly-Clark? Our BS meter is way up on this one. 

Instead, why not tell me that all that paper we have been so judiciously collecting and putting in the right bins right next to my cans and bottles are returning as useful products? Why not tell us that your new product line is recycling in action? Why not tell us that you’ve found a way to make disposable products not dispose of so many trees and forests?  Why not tell us that you’ve joined our recycling efforts and developed products that keep landfills cleaner and less stressed? Why not tell us about the tons of paper that has been reclaimed, reused and recycled and how you’re doing it? 

Why not tell me something that actually means something to me and encourage me to do more so you can do more? Then, of course, do it in a clever and memorable way with some real thinking and creativity. One of the most persuasive things you can do is show us your passion for leading an effort not just hopping on the band — or should I say “brand” wagon.

One look at the shelves in most markets today attests to the fact that mass consumer interest is shifting green and that’s a good thing. We even support you cashing in on the trend as long as the ultimate effect helps us all and the planet we all share. But have enough respect for all of us not to leave your communications in the hands of the junior team at your advertising agency who really knows little or nothing about this market. 

Personally, we’re tired of hearing that going green is a sacrifice that we have to make in terms of inferior products and performance.  It no longer is. 

As a long time marketing communicators, we can’t believe that most of us won’t be happy about seeing more and more green products emerge. But our fear is if marketers don’t do green right, they will eventually turn consumers off with empty messages and empty promises and that will set us all back.

So when we see you, Kimberly-Clark, doing something good with all that paper we’ve recycled, we know there’s hope. We just hope you listen and tell it better.

Carolyn and Irv  

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Sorry Kermit, according to the Federal Trade Commission, it’s too easy being green.  And they’re going to do something about it (sound of foot stomping).  This week at a hearing entitled just that,  “It’s too easy being green,” the House subcommittee on commerce, trade and consumer protection presented a concise summary about environmentally – themed marketing claims and suggested that the rules get “significantly tougher” in coming years.

Well, it’s about time. Green has to mean something more than pretty little pictures of forests and flowers on the bottle of your shampoo.  When launching a truly organic (and biodynamic) personal care product for a client, I got to know some of the dirty little secrets of this unregulated field. Did you know that when you see claims like “70% organic” blazoned across the label of a certain shampoo by certain manufacturer, most of the “organic” they are talking about is the water in their product?  Is that misleading or what? Hair washing and greenwashing in one bottle. 

I am happy that new rules are being structured.  The Canadians did it a long time ago. And that’s good news for start-ups that tend to lean more green than the bigger guys.  If we want green to be more than a fad, consumers of all shades of green need to have confidence in the products and services they buy.  And when they do, watch your green brand turn into gold.    

– Carolyn    

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An intriguing statement regarding green and corporations was sent out into cyberspace from a green business community we belong to.  ”Does the ‘green’ come from the board room or the marketing room? If it comes from the marketing room, it’s greenwashing.” 

Our marketing minds lit up on this one.  So much so we simply HAD to respond to this blanket comment that we feel is detrimental to the forward movement of green in the world.   As a co-owner of a marketing company that is dedicated to bringing green to mainstream, greenwashing is not and will never be one of our marketing tactics.  And we’re not alone.

Two weeks ago, we had the opportunity to sit in the “marketing room” of a large corporation that was trying to figure out this whole green thing.  To our surprise, we found the conversations authentic, honest and transparent.

Yes, transparent. 

At the end of the day, is guidance needed?  Yes.  At the end of the day, was the ultimate focus still the bottom-line? Yes.  But for me this is the great challenge and opportunity.  Even our beloved Paul Hawken says that if economics and ecology aren’t joined, we’re in deep trouble.   

As a green marketing coach, one of my greatest pleasures is helping green business owners grow their business through sound and viable marketing strategies and tactics.  When I ask my coaching clients, “What is your vision?” — nine times out of ten I hear:  To EDUCATE the public in order to bring permanent, positive change in the world.  Their products are simply a means to an end. 

This always humbles me and energizes my dedication to each and every one of them — and ultimately to the advancement of green in the world.  These business owners are the ones we’ve been waiting for.  They’re the ones that will influence and educate the consumers.  And it’s the consumers that will ultimately influence the corporations. 

For me, here’s the real bottom-line:  What we need as a movement and a market is to adopt the attitude of inclusion, not exclusion.  And that includes corporations.  Gary Hirshberg, the CEO of Stonyfield Yogurt, said that he could do more positive change on the inside of a corporation than on the outside. 

So let’s quit the blanket statements about marketing and corporations and greenwashing.  Not all “green” from the marketing room is greenwashing.   Instead, let’s join forces (no one said it would be easy) and create the world we all want to live in.  Let’s help ALL people do their part so they can begin to become a part of something, well, GREAT.   

Carolyn

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Transparency is everything.   It’s seeing through what you say to what you do.  It’s having business practices you want, and don’t want the world to see.  

The mission statement of Patagonia, the California-based outdoor equipment and clothing maker, is:”To make the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”  One of the ways Patagonia puts its mission where its mouth is is by implementing a self-imposed “Earth Tax.”  A sum founder, Yvon Chouinard, feels is owed for being a polluter and user of the planet’s non-renewable resources.     

More recently, they created the Patagonia Footprint Chronicles:  An interactive mini-site that allows you to track the impact of five Patagonia products from design through delivery.  It’s part of a new enviro-section called “Leading the Examined Life.” 

That’s transparency in action.

On the other side of the fence – when Ford launched its “Kermit the Frog” advertising campaign a couple of years ago for their Ford Escape Hybrid, they tried to convince the public of their commitment to the environment. One print ad read, “Green vehicles.  Cleaner factories. It’s the right road for our company, and we’re well underway.” 

Meanwhile back at the plant, Ford only planned on producing 20,000 of its Hybrid SUV’s per year, while continuing to produce almost 80,000 of their gas guzzling F-series trucks per month.  Well, the campaign backfired in their face, and the term “Greenwashing” became synonymous with their name.   

Greenwashing is a term describing misleading instances of environmental advertising.  But as more and more corporations are stretching their eco-efforts, the term is expanding to include a wider range of corporate activities, like environmental reporting, distribution of education materials, event sponsorship and more.

Green talk has to exist side-by-side with green walk.  You have to be willing to let the green consumer know not only what goes into the products you make but what goes into the values you uphold.   How you treat your employees, the health of your plant and business offices.  Do you provide fair wages?  Do you employ subcontractors who use child labor or toxic working conditions? 

Green is more than a slogan.  It’s actions that speak louder than words.      

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