Good Stuff

More on greenwashing

This post by Joel Makower looks into a recent survey by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing. They sent out teams to investigate any products making green claims. After initially identifying 1,081 products making 1,753 separate claims they found "all but one made claims that are either demonstrably false or that risk misleading intended audiences."

Ouch.

The results of this research can be found in a new report 'The Six Sins of Greenwashing'

The "sins" identified by TerraChoice include:

Sin of the Hidden Trade-Off — claims that suggest a product is "green" based on a single environmental attribute (the recycled content of paper, for example) or an unreasonably narrow set of attributes without attention to other important, or perhaps more important, environmental issues (such as the energy, climate, water, or forestry impacts of paper). Such claims aren't usually false, but paint a misleading picture of the product than a more complete environmental analysis would support. This was the most frequently committed "sin," made by 57% of all environmental claims examined.

Sin of No Proof (26% of all claims examined) — any claim that couldn't be substantiated by easily accessible supporting information, or by a reliable third-party certification. TerraChoice determined there to be "no proof" if supporting evidence was not accessible at either the point of purchase or at the product website.

Sin of Vagueness (11% of all claims examined) — any claim that is so poorly defined or broad that its real meaning is likely to be misunderstood by the intended consumer, such as "chemical free" or "all natural."

Sin of Irrelevance (4% of all claims examined) — claims that may be truthful but are unimportant and unhelpful for consumers, such as CFC-free products, since ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons have been outlawed since the late 1980s.

Sin of Lesser of Two Evils (1% of all claims examined) — environmental claims that may be true, but that risk distracting the consumer from the greater environmental impacts of the category as a whole, such as organic tobacco or green insecticides.

Sin of Fibbing (less than 1% of all claims examined) — claims that are simply false, typically by misusing or misrepresenting certification by an independent authority, when no such certification had been made.

I agree with Joel Makower's point that not all of these are necessarily greenwashing and that some of the cases are probably down to sloppiness.

"marketers' efforts to place a green sheen on a product, perhaps rightfully so, but without offering some basic proof points."

But what does this all mean or green marketing and for those brands that really do help us minimise our impact on the planet. Well, it's basically bad news isn't it? Any genuine effort to offer a greener product or service could be met with scepticism. The last wave of green marketing we saw during the nineties eventually died a death because it too was based on a lot of marketing hot air and people saw through it.

Case (Terrachoice):

I think the real danger is if people are successful with their greenwashing efforts, then the truly green, the truly innovative companies — the ones that have really figured out how to reduce their carbon footprint, how to produce a nontoxic product, how to make products out of renewable materials that can be reused — the truly innovative products are going to lose out.

best tag-line ever?

Thanks to Russell Davies for this one. I'm not a big fan of corporate tag-lines. They tend to be self-important at best and in this case almost indecipherable. Another one I remember hating throughout my years at art college was the equally preposterous 'Newcastle College. More that just a college'. In all my years there, I never managed to work out what exactly they meant by this.

Anyone else spotted any nonsense pay-offs recently? There must be some good Scandinavian examples.

Green Marketing Manifesto

He's promising free copies to bloggers who link to this post but I'm plugging John Grant's new book regardless.

I was lucky enough to read through an early draft and I can tell you it's packed full of useful stuff if you're interested in how green issues can be used as a platform for communication and innovation. (everyone should be) I'd love to have gone along to the launch party tonight but I don't think it would hae been that environmentally responsible. Instead, I'll have a glass of wine tonight and read through a few pages.

Interesting scaffolding

Cycling through Copenhagen yesterday morning on my way to a client meeting I came across this creative use of scaffolding. The hardware store which is behind this temporary facade is identical to the life-size poster they've hung outside. Cool eh?

A passing thought on Co-creation

It recently occurred to me that embarking on a collaborative marketing campaign is a brave thing to do for any business especially when you consider the potential for subversion. I for one (cynical old ad-man talking) can't resist the temptation to take the mickey when given the opportunity.

I guess, at the very least, this example of collaberative/viral marketing gets people to the site and raises general awareness but I'm not entirely convinced. It's still interuptive marketing if you're on the receiving end of it, slightly irritating in that respect. What do you think?

Smart media choice

Spotted this ad on the side of my milk carton the other day.

It's for a Merkur Bank, a Danish organisation that is based on ethical principles. The headline reads:

"Can a bank be organic?"

The ad goes on to explain that Merkur bank are running a competition to find social and environmental poineers to celbrate their 15th Anniversary.

There you go, a bank and a diary that have a common purpose, working together. Love it.

The greening of agencies

Like everything else these days, ad agencies are starting to boast green credentials. It won't be long before all the big networks will be making similar statements. One should probably look down their client lists to get a better indication of how green they are.

Via Russell Davies

Goody goody bank wins outdoor award

Thanks to Anders for this piece of reporting from Cannes. (I'm not sure if he's actually there or not)

This poster has just won the Grand Prix in the outdoor category at the Cannes Lions festival.

In a supplementary text the agency explain:

"The World's First Solar Powered Billboard, from a bank committed to making a real difference, was designed to harness and convert the heat of the African sun into a much-needed necessity, electricity. It currently powers the kitchens of a township primary school, feeding 1100 kids and in time will completely generate the school required power needs. The idea is currently being rolled out across the country.

Apart from the obvious benefit to communities, traditional electricity use is the major cause of global warming, so imagine what a difference it could make if every marketer adopted this approach to outdoor?

Community-Empowering
World-Changing.
Planet-Saving.

The initiative will save the school R2300 a month in electricity charges. The bill board has 10 solar panels with each panel generating 135 watts of power. The power generated from the panels will be enough to boil 18.1 litres in domestic kettles continuously at any one time, which goes a long way towards the schools feeding scheme. "You can't teach a hungry child" enabling more students to receive breakfast and lunch.

The billboards batteries store enough energy to make the billboard completely self-sufficient generating sufficient electricity to light up at night."

Is it just me or does this smack a little of greenwashing?

I'm left wondering why they attached a large poster to the bottom of the solar panels? And the text just annoys me. Are they really claiming that this 'idea' that they are rolling out across the country is theirs, as if they invented solar panels?

I might just be being pedantic but wouldn't it have been better/cleverer idea if they used a giant panel as a poster instead. At least the poster would have been integrated somehow instead of just hanging underneath looking a little bolted on.

And what happens when the lights go on at night? Do the kettles stop working? (okay, now I am being a little unfair)

Don't get me wrong. It's brave and it's undoubtedly doing some good, I'm just not sure. It is really a very difficult area to be in. It raises so many questions. Maybe they would have been better off just providing the funding for the panels? What else are they doing to help? What is their CSR policy when it comes to investing ethically?

What do you think?

Hard talk

Watching BBC's Hard Talk last night I was confronted with some alarming stats. The person in the chair being interviewed was some UN advisor or other on climate change. (apologies for my vagueness) The discussion was all about how climate change will eventually force the displacement of people and what kind of challenges this might bring. Indeed, they talked very briefly about Dafur and whether what we're seening their is actually the world's first 'climate change war'. (I also read a book called The Long Emergency recently that suggested that we have already entered a long and protracted period global war and that Irak could be seen as part of the opening scene if you like, but that's another issue.)

Anyway, basically it was a pretty grim picture they managed to paint. It is estimated that within the next fifty years seven billion people will be 'on the move' due to changing climate conditions. That's one in seven!

With such enormous challenges facing us all in the not too distant future, how do we prepare? And what can we do about it in our industry? Does marketing of brands have a role to play in the way develop? Of course it does.

I was reading The Eightfold's blog yesterday. They had this to say on the subject, which I think is very well written. I hope it's okay I use it here.

"A Vision for the Future:

To make real change, society, government and companies must become acutely aware of the delicate symbiosis at work. We are all intricately intertwined, and our decisions and behaviours have an impact larger than ourselves.

Solutions need to therefore be bigger than mere compromises. If we are all to reach mutually beneficial rewards, we need to collectively envision the world we want to live in and fully use the strengths of everyone involved to make it a reality.

This means we need to stop talking to ourselves and start activating everyone we affect. It means our good deeds cannot simply be tactics – they need to draw from a place of inspiration, emotion and purpose. It means we are not the sole owners of our actions – we share our work with all of our stakeholders (suppliers, partners and customers). It means our progress does not exist in a vacuum – it’s also measured by the betterment of society, the environment and humanity.

It’s time for a revolution where we stop apologizing for the past and start winning back the trust necessary to build a better future."

Here's an idea

I spotted this article on Guerrilla Innovation which points at the development of another ad-blocking peice of technology. It made me think. If it's possible to susbscribe to a service which takes away ads and replaces them with art, in theory, it should be possible to take away the adverts and replace them with altenative messages? Maybe someone with a worthy cause? Should we start a similar network of small NGO's who need the advertising space? Just a thought.