Is anyone else finding themselves drowning in ‘green’ advertising? Over the last couple of years it seems like every company under the sun has capitalized on the elevated environmental awareness in the marketplace. Those of us who immerse ourselves in sustainability know how to spot greenwashing and are equipped to differentiate the truth from the lies. And more and more, advice from you and I which we post on the web has become accessible to anyone who keys relevant search terms into the big G.

So how can companies who are taking sincere environmental initiatives market themselves credibly?

Junxion Strategy has some advice. The company is a consulting firm focused on the human dimension of sustainability. Their team has worked on a range of projects from informing the public about the truth behind “clean coal” to the branding and messaging for Forest Stewardship Council Canada.  They mentioned a few ways responsible marketers can promote environmental initiatives and products:

The Do’s

• Consider from all angles why consumers or clients purchase your products. But don’t go right to the green features; understand all of the attributes that matter to them. Weave your brand story from there.
• Move away from the language of sacrifice. Find ways to talk about how your product or service is easier, healthier, more convenient or lower maintenance. Be positive and solutions-focused.
• Align your claims with both the product and the way your company operates. People are not that naïve. They will see through disingenuous claims quickly. Or an NGO will. Case in point: the biodegradable credit card.
• Use your environmental challenges and trade-offs as a way to engage your customers. In fact, an open approach can potentially turn some of them into brand advocates for you. Sherwin-Williams sure could have used this advice with their ‘eco-friendly’ paints.
• Don’t overtrump the facts. For example, Husky garbage bags once touted their garbage bags as biodegradable. The problem is that the bags don’t biodegrade in landfills. In other words, err on the side of modesty. Remember, language is a powerful device and has the power to lead millions of consumers astray. So when you say ‘fresh’ or ‘organic’, mean it. Check out what Larry Light, chairman-CEO of Arcature, says about marketers using sustainability language to confuse rather than to clarify consumer decision making.
• Find ways of linking your brand to related causes. Mountain Equipment Co-op has a national partnership with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Association, an effective non-profit wilderness protection organization. It is a sensible partnership since the co-op’s purpose is also wilderness-focused.
• Involve employees in identifying ways to reduce your product’s environmental footprint to tell your green story. After all, they want to align their personal values at work and feel good about their employer.

The Don’ts

• Don’t trumpet the fact that “we’re green now”. No one will buy that you’ve had an overnight corporate epiphany and nobody likes PR stunts anymore.
• Don’t use vague messaging or images of mountain valleys and flower petals if they have no credible relationship to your product; it just looks gratuitous. Instead, be specific and meaningful.
• Don’t talk about commitments; rather, talk about achievements and real, measurable (and preferably third-party verified) outcomes. As a next step,  Joel Makower suggests translating environmental data into accessible and relevant language.
• Don’t overlook leveraging the web and positive word of mouth. Green consumers tend to be better-educated, more web-savvy and more networked. So, turn your customers into brand advocates – online and off.

More companies are taking further steps to have a higher standard of corporate social responsibility reporting for their stakeholders and thus add another level of credibility.

Interface is the first North American carpet manufacturer to complete an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for one of its product lines. EPD provides detailed information on the materials within products, resources required by products, recyclability of products, and the environmental impacts over a product’s life, from production to use and disposal.

Interface received wide publicity for cleaning up their manufacturing processes and working to reduce the environmental impact of their business since 1994. The company not only significantly reduced their impact, but also increased financial returns for their shareholders in the process.

As people become more educated consumers and as the green economy grows, credible green marketing strategies can effectively put you ahead of your competitors. The right messages and visuals will reflect your values to make green work in your favor.

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Source: Ecopreneurist

Most people in business, community, and government are focusing on tactical and survival-based responses in order to deal with the current financial crisis. I would suggest that sustainability initiatives are an essential element for everyone to consider in order to minimize financial imbalances and limit overhead.

This is a time when it is important for pay very close attention to what you spend. That doesn’t always mean that spending needs to be frozen, but it does mean that value is a more important consideration than ever.

I have found that the sustainable marketing message is becoming increasingly attractive to my clients. At Harvest we show clients how to reduce resource use, reduce environmental impact, and reduce overall expense. Cumulatively these benefits help their companies be more socially responsible which is a critical response to the current environmental crisis. But responsible spending is absolutely essential in this atmosphere of economic crisis.

So many people focus exclusively on the environmental aspects of sustainable business. But there is an opportunity to drive home the message that this practice is a very practical solution to tightening budgets with a continued demand to increase sales.

If you are looking for more information for your home or business, make sure you look through the links listed on the right of this page. There are some excellent resources for learning more. Or feel free to contact me if you are in the Omaha area and I can share what I know.

I got turned on to LinkedIn when I started Harvest. This site is an online social network for professionals in over 150 industries. I immediately connected with people that I had worked with in my previous career, especially people from the bike industry. But then, as my business started to grow, I connected with more and more local professionals.

Social networks are an important resource for any professional tasked with promoting their business in a sustainable way.

The network has helped my business grow quickly, and I recommend that you check it out to learn more. Watch this video for a quick overview. And if you are already LinkedIn, let me know if you want to connect.

Yesterday I rode my bike over to the UNO campus and the KVNO studios to record a podcast for the Pollution Prevention Regional Information Center (P2RIC).

P2RIC is federally funded and tasked with providing information and resources to businesses, agencies, and P2 specialists in EPA Region 7 (Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri). They find ways to encourage resource and information sharing in the P2 community.

The ‘Success Stories‘ project at P2RIC aims to tell the stories of businesses who are going green in a viable manner in order to provide models and encouragement to other businesses. I met Rick Yoder, one of the key player in the program, through the Green Omaha Coalition. After sharing information about Harvest, he asked me to submit a company profile for consideration as a ‘Success Stories’ feature.

Over this last month I went through a submission process and preliminary interview. My approach to sustainable marketing was apparently interesting enough that it was worth sharing. So yesterday I met with Jennifer Korrell in the studio and recorded an interview that will be featured soon by P2RIC.

When the podcasts are online I’ll post a link.

Forbes reports, that business and government executives from across the U.S. gathered in Washington to exchange ideas on energy efficiency. The forum was a run-up event to the annual energy efficiency conference hosted by Johnson Controls, a Wisconsin-based company specializing in improving auto and building efficiency.

The focus of the gathering was to share ideas for improving energy efficiency that didn’t necessarily require a significant in technology. One of the primary focuses was on resource reduction in order to get the most out of what is available. This is also the strategy that Harvest uses in helping clients implement sustainable marketing programs.

UPS was noted as an example of using behavioral changes to reduce resource use. “Two years ago Big Brown established a policy instructing its drivers to save energy and gasoline by turning off their vehicles at even the briefest stops. Through a specialized computer system developed by UPS itself, the company discovered that by not idling their trucks, drivers ran their engines an average of 24 minutes less per day, for a savings of $188 per driver each year. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but with more than 90,000 drivers worldwide, that translates into a cost savings of close to $17 million annually.”

Forbes wrote up a list of 10 money-saving efficiencies that the group came up with:

Lighting Improvements
Compact Fluorescent lamps, which lasts up to 15,000 hours longer than the standard bulb, can save up to 75 percent in energy costs.

Reducing Vehicle Idling
By not letting vehicles idle, UPS saves about $190 per driver per year. And with more than 90,000 drivers under its wings, that about $ 17.1 million in savings.

Building Orientation
Buildings facing north-south instead of east-west can reduce energy consumption by as much as 20 percent. “E” or “H” shaped offices maximizes sunlight and window area, reducing light costs. While long, thin buildings maximize natural ventilation.

Green Roofing
Reduce cooling costs by planting green roofs to soak up sunlight during the day. Light-colored roofs can also reduce cooling expenses by about 40 percent because it reflects light.

Water Recycling
Industrial cooling to irrigation can be taken care of with reused or treated water.

Maximizing Thermal Efficiency
Save as much as 40 percent on thermal heating costs by maximizing the efficiencies of the entire production line instead of individual components. Operate furnaces and boilers at or close to design capacity. Restricting loose air used for combustion will lead to heat savings.

Bicycles
Use bikes as a form of transportation. This will reduce traffic and carbon emissions. In 2007 Paris made more than 20,000 bicycles available to subscribers, similar pilot programs are also planned in the U.S.

Energy Auditing
Have your building audited for wasteful energy to determine what efficiency improvements are needed. Reducing drafts alone can save around 30 percent in energy costs per year.

Driving the Speed Limit
Drive slow, fast driving wastes gas. Keeping tires properly inflated could also improve gas mileage by about 3 percent. Keeping the car light by emptying out unwanted items from the truck can also improve the car’s efficiency.

Lobbying
Lobby congressmen to renew policies such as the federal tax credits for residential energy efficiency improvements, which expired at the end of 2007.

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Source: Environmental Leader

Today I wrapped up my second sustainable workplace presentation. Offices across the city are starting green teams to help transform organizational practices. Because of my connection with the Green Omaha Coalition and my company’s sustainable objectives, I was invited to share information and tactics that I have learned.

On Tuesday I was at the Child Saving Institute. They have a brand new building in Midtown, which I was stoked to get a closer look at. The design is fantastic, and it is a great environment to inspire future-thinking. The group that attended was enthusiastic and well-informed. When went a full hour, and several people hung out afterwards to talk more.

Today I was joined by Dale from Firstar Fiber to present at Pioneer Investments. They have a 70 person office in Regency Court. The group was smaller, but they were thirsty for knowledge and full of energy for change.

I try to keep things fun and interesting, putting the need for change into societal context. I share techniques that utilize the 3-pronged strategy of reduce, reuse, recycle. The focus swings from paper use and energy savings, to transportation and lunch breaks. I think that there is something in there for everyone, with practical tips for any office.

I’m feeling pretty good right now, but it feels like Omaha is moving in the right direction.

If you are starting a green team in your Omaha area office, please contact me and we can see if it is feasible for me to give the presentation at your company.

Despite the best efforts of large and small companies, one of the biggest obstacles to going green remains this: significantly reducing or eliminating the huge amount of paper, toner ink, and other materials needed to produce legal documents, invoices, and other critical communications.

What is more, many companies striving for greenness rely on overnight delivery services to ship such documentation, when in fact they could dramatically reduce this expense.

So leave it to current market conditions, driven by record-high energy prices, to force company management to rethink the manner in which official documents and communications are produced and delivered. And now, a fast-growing 5 year-old green company, DocuSign, is working “to make electronic signatures as ubiquitous and simple as email.”

According to the company’s website, advantages include:

• Eliminate unnecessary costs
• No more overnight shipping, faxing delays, or signing errors
• Increase revenue
• Use the web to close deals in seconds and lock out competitors
• Competitive edge
• Grow business faster and more efficiently

By employing electronic signature technology, any company could eliminate thousands (or millions) of dollars in administrative expenses, and in the process save a forest.

At Harvest, we are currently researching electronic signatures for proposal approvals and proof sign-offs. It will help us improve the speed of our operations and improve our overall quality and service.

Once again, a simple and sustainable innovation can save waste and expense.

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Source: Sturdy Roots

I just got a note from Renze Display in Omaha, they have been named the exclusive regional dealer for Eco-Systems Sustainable Exhibits. This is great news. I work closely with Renze on projects for clients all of the time. They have been really responsive to the sustainability initiatives that I’m promoting through Harvest. This development means that opportunities for green-built, portable and modular, exhibit systems have just been greatly increased for my clients.

It is so nice to be able to go to a trusted local vendor, and get the products that we need. I’m really getting tired of combing the internet for all of these suppliers. It shouldn’t be hard to promote sustainable marketing.

What Renze is telling me so far is that Eco-Systems’ exhibits are developed with environmentally responsible materials benchmarked to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System of the U.S. Green Building Council. They are built using a variety of recycled materials, recyclable materials, and materials derived from recycled content. From what I see on their website, they use 100% recycled aluminum, bamboo plywood, sorghum board, water based stains and finishes, biocarpet, Eco-Spun materials, LED lights, and a variety of flooring materials.

I look forward to learning more about these products, and can’t wait for the first chance to help a client implement them.