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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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Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Making Green Look Normal...
I was quite harsh on John Grant's Green Marketing Manifesto when I reviewed it, but while I'm doing the zillionith edit to The Green Executive, I've been having a think about his main maxim:"Green Marketing is about making green stuff seem normal, not about making normal stuff seem green"
The first part is really quite powerful and chimes with the need to aim green products at the mass market rather than the green niche to get any worthwhile impact from and environmental point of view. And the second part really skewers greenwash - that if you want to be green, you've really got to break from the norm, not put a green prism in front of what business does as a matter of course.
I like it. I like it a lot.
Labels: green consumerism, green marketing, greenwash
# posted by Gareth Kane : 07:00
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A highly accessible, practical guide to those who want to introduce sustainability into their business or organization quickly and effectively.
