When is ‘Green’ really ‘Green’?
In a recent discussion about being more efficient with mailing, one of the benefit claims’ was that it is ‘green’. But is it?
As a career-long supplier in the direct marketing world, I would love to be able to put a giant green stamp of environmental approval on each of my client invoices every time I made them more efficient. As a value-add partner, I was able to reduce their impact on the planet, ensuring the diversion of waste from landfills, protecting wildlife habitat, saving the trees, water and air as well as buying time on a dying planet for their children and their children’s children. A little dramatic.
Actually, what I did was save them money. Their savings come in the form of less waste, less raw material and less paper, all good things but is it ‘green’?
Search ‘Greenwashing’ and you can see the huge amount of information and interest on the web about this. With such an active interest, we sure do not want to come down on the wrong side of this.
According to Wikipedia, ‘Greenwashing’ was coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in an essay regarding the hotel industry's practice of placing green placards in each room, promoting reuse of guest-towels, ostensibly to "save the environment". Westerveld noted that, in most cases, little or no effort toward waste recycling was being implemented by these institutions, due in part to the lack of cost-cutting affected by such practice. Westerveld opined that the actual objective of this "green campaign" on the part of many hoteliers was, in fact, increased profit. Westerveld hence monikered this and other outwardly environmentally conscientious acts with a greater, underlying purpose of profit increase as greenwashing.’
As marketers, we need to be careful in ‘greenwashing’ our message to the public. There are numerous organizations now that monitor these claims and expose those that are taking liberties, whether in actual products or overt claims. These monitors are popping up all over the public domain, in blogs, message boards and can have the same negative impact that organizations are trying to produce positively through social media.
So how do you turn this into a positive and truly ‘green’ opportunity? How about taking a portion of savings from the efficiencies that have been driven and investing in ‘greening’ the organization, buy green power, donate to environmental causes or invest in R&D to truly green the organization.
I can already hear the collective chorus ‘Times are tough, we need to save every dollar’. What were you doing when times were good?
Kevin Klein is a member of the Direct Marketing Council for the CMA and Director, Product and Data Performance at ICOM Information & Communications L.P.
***The opinions presented in this post are his own and do not necessarily represent those of the management of ICOM, Epsilon or ADS.
