This week is the fortieth
anniversary of Earth Day. The hype is unbelievably high as
companies step all over themselves to share their latest
sustainability accomplishments. In general, this is a good thing
and it’s wonderful to see companies competing on green.

But there is a high risk of saying something that isn’t quite
true, or of overstating the truth. Because this is the time of year
for somewhat self-important pronouncements of changing the world,
it’s also a time for greenwash.

The incidence of actual, pure greenwash – outright, purposeful
untruths about the environmental attributes or impacts of products
– is probably not that high. But there’s an awful lot out there
that gets close (for a truly excellent review of the key missteps
that would qualify, see the href=”http://sinsofgreenwashing.org/” target=”_blank”>Seven Sins of
Greenwashing from Terrachoice).

We’ve all seen some doozies along these lines. An ad touting
paper-free banking as a way to save the forests, last year, not in
1997. A cheap car made specifically for the developing world (and
not an electric car, mind you) presented for no apparent reason on
a backdrop of a wind farm. I’m sure you’ve seen ads like these, and
worse.

The problem of greenwash seems like a mild issue to worry about.
But as advertising giant Ogilvy & Mather puts it in a new
report, greenwash is actually “an extremely serious matter…it is
insidious, eroding consumer trust, contaminating the credibility of
all sustainability-related marketing and hence inhibiting progress
toward a sustainable economy.” In other words, it’s very hard for
customers to know what choices make a difference when some
marketers are muddying the waters for all. When buyers throw up
their hands in confusion, we all lose.

This perspective comes from Ogilvy’s new guide for managing your
brand: “From Greenwash to Great: A Practical Guide to Great Green
Marketing (without the Greenwash).” (Full disclosure: I’m an
informal advisor to target=”_blank”>Ogilvy Earth, and I’m quoted in this document,
but I had very little to do with its creation).

The guide offers a simple framework in three buckets – Planning
Your Approach, Developing Communications, and Launch and Beyond –
with nine common-sense steps. For a preview of this helpful
document (launching on the 21st), and some ideas of the kinds of
stories they share, here are a couple deceptively simple
prescriptions in the “Planning” phase (for a few more of the ideas
in the guide, see my monthly e-letter href=”http://sustainablelifemedia.com/content/column/strategy/a_new_tool_for_avoiding_greenwash”
target=”_blank”>here).

Focus on Fundamentals



This first step is where so many go wrong. An honest green story
starts from inside the company, not from a marketing idea that you
then try to spin. You need hard facts on the environmental
improvement you’re claiming, such as a certain amount of recycled
content in your product or the energy used when your customers turn
your gadget on. These benefits need to be measurable, verified, and
not insignificant to the product’s real footprint (e.g., a
two-stroke engine lawn mower that hypes its recycled packaging is
missing the point a bit). Ogilvy shares the story of Unilever’s
Hellmann’s mayonnaise in the UK. The company explored its
sustainability impacts, did the hard work on figuring out its
supply chain, and made a href=”http://www.unilever.com/brands/nutrition/cookingandeating/articles/good-eggs-for-hellmanns.aspx”
target=”_blank”>switch to free-range eggs. Once it had its new
policy in place, the company then made the pitch to consumers.

Get Out Ahead



Starting from an honest place doesn’t mean you have to think small.
Companies can still be bold and set new standards. One of my
favorite examples of getting out ahead is href=”http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/”
target=”_blank”>IBM’s Smarter Planet, perhaps the best green ad
campaign in history. It’s, well, very smart.

The company took an issue the IT industry is struggling with –
the significant and growing climate and energy impacts of
information and communications technologies (which is now produce
over 2% of global emissions) – and flipped it on its head. Don’t
worry about the growth of IT, this campaign basically says, we’re
going to use our technology to solve much bigger environmental and
energy problems (it’s about tackling “the other 98” as many call
it). We’re going to build smarter transportation systems, smarter
cities, and a smarter world.

Others in the IT community had talked about it, but IBM stuck
its head out to own it. And they had the stories and case studies
to back it up. It’s my favorite green positioning because it
doesn’t talk about saving us from doom and gloom; it just asks us
all to be smarter. And who doesn’t want that?

The rest of Ogilvy’s handbook shares some best practice ideas on
executing a green campaign and beyond. While those buried in the
green branding world may recognize many of the stories, there are
some good gems even for the most knowledgeable, and a helpful
framework for all.

target=”_blank”>Ogilvy’s handbook is available here

By Andrew Winston