I ’m delighted to be here tonight in my capacity as Founding Co chair of Sustainable Brands. My co-chair, Pam Van Orden kind enough to relinquish her spot during this kickoff so I can give provide you with some highlights of my new book.
It ’s a book that reflects a lot of learning from the many clients we have had the honor to serve these past many years. Many of them, like you are trying to figure out ways to address mainstream consumers. And that is the focus of the book and why I called it The New Rules of Green Marketing. Essentially, courting mainstream consumers takes very different strategies than the deep green ones who my friends at NMI call the LOHAS consumers.
The book also reflects a lot of learning from Sustainable Brands. It has…. This theme= Play on Key to addressing challenges is to “Play” with new ideas. While we’re playing with new ideas, let’s try to address a key challenge facing our industry:
I ’d like to suggest a goal for thought this week: How to move sustainability forward from the standpoint of consumers??
Before coming up with creative solutions, we have to first define the real problem that ’s holding back consumers from getting more engaged in sustainability?
Many of us believe greenwash is the problem: Greewash definitely an issue! ..Green built on trust.. Intangible (can ’t see fumes not coming from power plant… can’t seem 5 million tons of paper spared from landfills)
Greenwash not the real problem. It ’s merely a symptom of a larger challenge in our industry
I think our real problem is an immature eco-system supporting our industry. The system is not broken – it ’s just hasn’t developed yet. Whoever described the green marketing world as The Wild West is right on! It needs to be strengthened, and I’d like to spend the rest of my 15 min. talking about what I think we can do about it. Right now. Starting tonite. But first, I’d like to talk a little bit more about greening and greenwash.
Skepticism is not unique to green. Consumers have been skeptical of advertising since long before Campbell ’s put marbles in the soup! Except other industries don’t have a cute name like “greenwash” --
They don ’t call car advertising “carwash”. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself)
Most greenwash is inadvertent. The sin of fibbing is the smallest of all of the sins. Greenwash is inadvertent because There ’s too much on the line for businesses who greenwash. I think a lot of greenwash then reflects some of the challenges of greening, namely….
There ’s no such thing as a green product. All products use energy and create waste
So green is a relative term. One product is green-er for someone at some time in some place. I ’m told that if I live in NYC it might be env preferable if I ate conventionally grown strawberries from NJ than organic strawberries shipped in from California.
We ’ve all heard about the “sin of the hidden trade-offs”. I’ve got news for you —greening’s all about the trade-offs! Cloth diapers don’t chop trees down. Disposables don’t use water but take up a lot of space in landfills.
So the answer for the green-er solution for any one consumer in many cases might just be “it depends”. Broadly speaking, Cloth diapers better in NY where we have water. Disposables better in SW where they don’t have a lot of water. Reg’l considerations are impt: I’ve been told it’s better to buy strawberries grown in NJ rather than shipping USDA from California.
So greenwash is not the problem
Maybe we need smarter marketers. We ’re all pretty smart in this room, but how many of us have had to educate new clients that nothing degrades in a landfill? So maybe we need Marketers with some environmental science in their backgrounds
Or at least, Marketers who readily consult with scientists and lawyers
And the whole team needs to be in sync with where “reasonable consumers” are coming from, so we don’t mislead them.
So greenwash is not the problem
Greenwash is not the problem! We also need Better Oversight of Green Claims. What were 5000+ “greenwashed” products doing on the Big Box store shelves in Terrachoice’s study? Why didn’t the Fed gov’t question one green claim in the 8 years under Bush? The FTC Green guides may not be perfect. But I say, Let’s try to enforce what we have.
However, If we wait for government to act, and for retailers to get the resources to become environmental police, we may be waiting a long time. So let ’s start to take things into our own hands. Starting this week. Starting tonite.
As I ’ve started to write about in Sustainable Brands Weekly, We need to come together as an industry and foster self regulation.
Rather than airing our dirty greenwash in public, Let ’s bring our questionable claims to the NAD. How many people know about the NAD, If not, be sure to get to David Mallen’s session tomorrow. The NAD is an industry body that can help you keep your competitors in line – and keep you out of court and out of hock. It’s cheap, quick and accessible!
There ’s more we can be doing ourselves. We need to create products that sell themselves. I talk a lot in the book about “eco_innovation” that can make a lot of this happen.
Apple ’s ipod doesn’t need to talk about all the CDs – and jewel cases (remember jewel cases?) they spare.
The good news is that thanks to advances in technology, materials or design, many green products can be marketed on the benefits that consumers seek first and foremost in the products they buy.
At the end of the day, and this is where I ’d like to spend the rest of my time today—we desperately need better consumers. The consumer economy represents 2/3rds of the U.S. economy, and 1/3 of the pollution.
Specifically, because the answer to what is green is not always so clear cut, we need to empower consumers to make choices – to weigh the trade-offs for themselves .
And we need consumers who can share responsibility. I call this in the book: Responsible Consumption and here ’s how it works…
Manufacturers and marketers can control most of their product ’s life cycle impacts, but they can’t make consumers turn off the water when they brush. They can make the Coke cans recyclable, but they can’t make consumers drop them in the recycling bin. They can make the Sun Chips bag compostable, but they can’t make them compost them in their backyards or otherwise.
Our job is to engage, enlighten, and entertain. You know me for my success strategies. Following are a few for doing this…
Toyota ’s dashboard provides helpful feedback about MPGs
Use – OPower smiley faces on the utility bills, etc. Being used as SMUD, ComEd and other utility bills.
Let ’s make it fun And there are many initiatives on the market trying to do this – OPower smiley faces on the utility bills, etc. Our job is to engage, enlighten and entertain
Make the intangible tangible by helping consumers visualize their environmental impacts. This chart from P&G is meant for B2B communication, but I ’m sure you can see how something similar could be enlightening for consumers. (Describe chart)
Provide “consumer useful” information. The new Fuel Economy labels not only explicitly detail info about fuel economy, and give a Greenhouse Gas and Smog rating, but they provide useful information about annual fuel costs and fuel costs over the life of the car (Total cost of ownership). I’ll bet this information is more persuasive in shifting car sales than the environmental information.
I ’m now seeing certain forms of communications in a whole new light. Transparent, yes. Useful , not really. Comparative would help. But also, information how long my boots would be expected to last. Repair/ rebuild service? This environment-related benefit might be more relevant to consumers than the more generalized sustainability info on the Index, or the “low impact 0.5 rating” on the product footprint.
Same things with HP ’s EcoHighlights label. All of these environmental attributes are important, but at the end of the day I might be more interested in how fast it sucks up toner cartridges, or how long the printer is expected to last and whether it can be upgraded or repaired. Cost per printed page?
I fell in love with this label when I first saw it, and I still congratulate Levi ’s for including it on their jeans. However, I might suggest that consumers might be more motivated to follow the instructions if the primary benefit was making your jeans last longer. Just my thinking. It’s the planets and babies and daisies thing all over again!
So I ’ve laid out what I think is the problem: how to accelerate momentum among consumers. And I laid out some possible solutions among our retailer and government partners. I would venture to say that our industry’s leaders are right in this very room. We have the power to lead our industry. We have the power to empower consumers. Let’s lead!
The conference starts now. I urge you to listen to the speakers at this conference with a new set of ears. How many ideas can you get for improving our industry ’s eco-system? How many ideas for communicating with consumers in a compelling way that will enable them to share responsibility and make choices. What will you do when you get back to your desk?
I ’d like to contribute by posting a “green paper” that I’ve written on all of what I just discussed and more. I invite you all to download a copy starting this evening.
If you send me your comments, and circulate a summary that can stimulate change and promote sharing.
Play ball! I ’m going to be out at the reception afterwards doing a book signing. And starting right now, 5 of you are going to win a free copy of my book. One, two, three, four, five!
