Marketing Green Products

Everywhere you turn there are green products and services, and we are increasingly surrounded by green advertising. Some of the notable examples may include large billboards advertising the BP being the largest manufacturer of solar panels in Australia-, Virgin Blue offering carbon offset flights, carbon offset beer by Cascade (Cascade Green) and a range of consumer products carrying recycling and recycled content information. Indeed, once you start noticing green marketing, it is far more prevalent than you may expect. In the US last year, the number of products or service applications with the word ‘green’ made to the trademark office more than doubled.

So, is all the green marketing authentic? How much of it is Greewashing? “Greenwash" only entered the official lexicon of the English language in 1999 through its inclusion in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford defines greenwash as: "Disinformation disseminated by an organisation so as to present an environmentally responsible public image." By another definition - Greenwashing can be seen as a symptom of the business community's recognition that the public is demanding that they do better, and prepared to reward those that do. The quickest response is simply to re-brand/spin your company to make it look greener (hence ‘greenwash’).

In investigate the extent of greenwashing, Terrachoice Environmental Marketing surveyed six US ‘big-box’ stores and identified 1,018 consumer products bearing 1,753 environmental claims. Terrachoice concluded that of the 1,018, all but one made claims that are demonstrably false or that risk misleading intended audiences. This is an astounding result. But, by this result, I am not implying that only less that 0.1% of the environmental claims that you may come across are accurate. Indeed, I know that the Cascade Green and Virgin examples above have gone through the Greenhouse Friendly labeling process, an onerous accreditation process conducted by the Federal Department of Climate Change.

From the research, Terrachoice published what it termed the six ‘Sins’ of Greenwashing, being hidden trade-off, no proof, vagueness, irrelevance, the lesser of two evils and fibbing. Helping companies in Australia avoid these ‘sins’ are the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) guidelines, which specify that generally a claim should:

• be honest and truthful;
• detail the specific part of the product or process it is referring to;
• use language which the average member of the public can understand;
• explain the significance of the benefit; and
• be able to be substantiated.

Next time you consider an environmental claim to differentiate your product or service, consider the above definitions and guidance in ensuring that the claim is robust, not deceptive, and could be substantiated. But, certainly do look to differentiate through environmental marketing – my next column will cover some interesting results on the emerging green consumer.

Sources: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Green marketing and Trade Practices Act (ACCC, 2008), The Oxford English Dictionary and Six Sins of Greenwashing by Terrachoice Environmental Marketing (2007).

Terence Jeyaretnam is a Director of Net Balance (terence@netbalance.com), based in Melbourne.