Greenwashing gets the red light

Is your company trying to be more sustainable? How about green? Is there a difference? It seems like everyone is throwing around these terms lately, and the trend to use these words has made consumers more curious about what they really mean. In fact, the term greenwashing has been used to label the deceptive usage of environmentally friendly language, and is increasingly a topic of conversation in mainstream media, such as BusinessWeek and The New York Times.

Using words like green and sustainable without being able to fully prove the point only breeds distrust among consumers. The public, and many members of the media, have started to ask more questions of companies that claim to offer sustainable solutions. In an effort to encourage guidelines for sustainability claims, Greenerpackage.com has even launched guidelines for information that must be available or terminology that must be used to support sustainability messaging.

Substantiating claims and carefully choosing language is good practice for any company making an assertion about its product or solution. When referring to environmentally friendly attributes, here are several suggestions from Greenerpackage.com.

• Be specific — Limit environmental claims to specific attributes of the product or solution, since claims may only apply to components of the product.
• Be clear — Explain definitions of terms, such as “carbon neutral” or “renewable resource,” to ensure transparency, and ensure proper procedures are used to provide evidence to back the use of these terms.
• Be honest — Take care not to omit details or facts when supporting a claim.
• Be thorough — Check any applicable laws, such as California’s Environmental Marketing Claims Law.

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Going green - Marketing tidal wave or changing tide?

Our interviews with architects, designers and facility managers for the creation of OM Workspace’s Impact magazine, suggest that the green tides are changing. And smart marketers will change along with them.

Many companies are wondering, in this fickle marketplace, whether the furor of green claims is sustainable or if it will go by way of the pet rock. Companies that scrambled to position themselves as green, whether deserved or not, quickly learned that unqualified alignment with green claims lead to consumer contempt. It even diluted the veracity of all claims. But rather than discount green as all flash, purchase decision-makers (B2B and B2C) have begun to require substantiation. This, along with Federal, state, and local regulations and incentives, has motivated companies to legitimately examine products, processes and policies for their impact on the environment. Companies are now seeking third-party accreditations to substantiate their claims.

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