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News & Views From the Front Line
Monday, 22 March 2010
When does Greenwash start and end?
The word greenwash came up quite a lot during my various presentations and discussions last week. The Cambridge Dictionary definition of greenwash is:"to make people believe that your company is doing more to protect the environment than it really is"
My point was that, if they had gone with the former project they would have engaged more of the public and communicated their message better than 100 sustainability reports. "Is that not greenwash?" they asked. "Is boasting about a project which gives an economic return not greenwash?" I countered, tongue in cheek.
The answer is you can pretty much accuse anything of being greenwash - and many people on the anti-capitalist fringe of the green movement do. So all green marketing is fraught with danger.
My advice is:
- Never, ever overstate what you are doing.
- Don't ignore the elephant in the room - if you produce persistent and bioaccumulative pesticides, no-one is going to be impressed with your office paper recycling system.
- Don't tell people you are green, rather show them what you have done and let them make up their own mind.
- Balance backroom projects with 'shop window' projects - so you can engage your customers/the wider public.
- If you are really clever you can use the 'economic' projects to finance the 'non-economic' projects.
Labels: business case, greenwash
# posted by Gareth Kane : 10:28
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Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Base 2010: Day 1
The first thing I saw this morning was the sight of two swans skimming low over the Royal Victoria Dock outside my hotel window - the dock is so huge I at first assumed it was the Thames itself. I went for a jog and found that just outside the immediate and somewhat sterile bubble of the Excel conference centre and its cluster of hotels and restaurants, the real East End of London is alive and well - fishmongers unloading their vans, small chemical works and some old traditional mills - all with a rough around the edges charm.
The Base 2010 event itself is very well organised, but the organisers were dwelt a blow by the gods of transport, and the first session by Bjorn Stigson (of WBCSD) had about three times as many people in it at the end that at the start. There was a surreal moment jsut before kick-off where I realised I was surrounded by dozens of people all leafing through my book. Stigson gave a very clear view of the enormity of the task ahead of us.
I'm trying to ration the sessions I attend to avoid powerpoint overload, so I keep retiring to the funky little VIP area with its air-hostess hostesses (it's sponsored by Qatar Airlines), leather furniture and complimentary food and drink.
The second session I went to was about the business case for sustainable development. There were some great contributions from Paul Turner of Lloyds TSB, John Elkington (founder of SustainAbility), Stephen Howard of Business and the Community and Peter White of P&G. Interestingly in the latter, when the executive in charge of sustainability, Bob McDonald, was promoted to CEO, he insisted on keeping the sustainability portfolio. There were so many quotable lines from this talk I can't put them all in this post, but several will be added to the Green Executive, but it was (guess who) P&G's "no trade offs" approach to sustainability that stuck in my mind - great product AND great environmental performance, never 'OR'.
After lunch I facilitated a round table discussion on, again, the business case for sustainability. We had a great conversation based around my model and how it applied in different cases - from finance to plastic bags by way of legal services. Who would have thought that there was a distinct market for legal advice on renewables?
After that I retired for a glass of red wine from the Qatar ladies (it's tough at the top) and to write this. More tomorrow!
Labels: business case, seminar, three secrets of green business
# posted by Gareth Kane : 17:26
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Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Understand Your Business Case
As I'm working through the interviews for The Green Executive, it is becoming clear that companies who lead on sustainability have a really deep understanding of the business case as it applies to them. If you look at many Green Business Support Organisations' literature, it tends to start and finish with the message "save energy, cut waste, save money". This is true, but very short sighted.Most service sector organisations will not save an appreciable amount of cash compared with their turnover or profit margin. The benefit for these companies is in branding and winning new business. Cash savings are a distraction to these companies as they are miniscule compared to business benefits. Manufacturing industries and other resource intensive businesses can save significant sums of money and contribute directly to increased profits. But if they see this as the sole driver, they too will miss out on the wider PR and marketing opportunities. A recent edition of The Low Carbon Agenda dealt with how this type of narrow minded thinking can adversely affect budgeting decisions and some ideas on how to overcome it.
The other aspect of understanding the business case relates to how far you can move from your core business and still bring your customer base with you. Marks & Spencer tried selling worm bins, but realised no-one comes to to M&S for a wormery. They do sell recycled polyester umbrellas - as a green consumer that's what I expect to find in their stores.
So, if you're going to go down this road, take some time to really think through what the business case is for you - both internally and for your customers. It will be time well spent.
Labels: business case, green executive
# posted by Gareth Kane : 09:31
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A highly accessible, practical guide to those who want to introduce sustainability into their business or organization quickly and effectively.
