My last blog entry encouraged marketers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tell consumers of their efforts. A reader correctly cautioned marketers to beware of greenwashing.

What is greenwashing? It's when your claims of environmental-friendliness outstrip the reality of your environmental impact. It's selling the sizzle without the veggie burger.

Years ago, when the environmental movement gained steam, firms were quick to promote biodegradable plastic and recyclable products. Consumers then found out that those plastics didn't degrade in airless landfills and systems didn't exist to actually recycle those products. No wonder consumers became cynical of environmental claims and marketers became gun shy of using those claims.
Time has passed, and there is one again growing interest in environmentally-friendly products and services. If you are thinking of positioning your firm as environmentally-responsible, proceed with caution. The first step is to back up your positioning with sustainable business practices. However, even with cutting-edge sustainable-business practices, caution is necessary. The problem is that sustainable business is more of a goal than a reality. Just because you are moving toward sustainability, doesn't mean you are there yet or that consumers understand the distinction.

Consider BP. The firm got great PR mileage for saying it was moving "beyond petroleum." And, deservedly so - - many BP initiatives are impressive. Of course, BP isn't beyond petroleum yet, and consumers were shocked to learn of BP's leaking pipeline in Alaska. For better or worse, consumers hold firms that claim to be "good" to extremely high standards - - it's not enough to just be better than the competition.

Ford is another example. Ford should get credit for transforming its River Rouge manufacturing plant from an environmental disaster into a model of environmental-responsibility. And Ford was the first American auto maker to introduce hybrids. Then again, the average fuel economy of the Ford fleet is the pits.

Are BP and Ford guilty of greenwashing when they tout their environmental initiatives without presenting the full story?

Consider home grown examples. An area restaurant positions itself as 'sustainable.' The restaurant is a model of environmentally-responsibility compared to the competition. Yet, I know consumers who boycott the restaurant because it isn't responsible enough - - it doesn't always follow best practice. The restaurant's environmental impact, for example, was needlessly high for a long time because it eschewed microwaves on the grounds that many of its consumers perceive microwaves as "unnatural." Catch-22: consumers were saying that they wanted environmental-responsibility, yet they didn't truly want what they were asking for. The firm chose to pander to ignorance rather than educate their consumers, and lost more knowledgeable customers in the process.

Another Maine firm is a leader in energy-efficiency and waste reduction, but its marketing efforts don't match up to its manufacturing standards. At trade shows, the firm gives away disposable plastic pens touting the firm's philosophy of sustainability. Nowhere does the pen say it was made with recycled plastic. No surprise that someone who saw me using the pen wailed "I thought they were one of the good guys!"

I don't want to discourage you from being environmentally-responsible; just proceed with integrity and an awareness of the pitfalls of greenwashing.

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