Green marketing and eco-friendly PR initiatives have been a major push among almost every company in the past year. But going green isn’t as easy as it seems. And if you’re not careful, you could be greenwashing.
Greenwashing, coined by New York environmentalist Jay Westerveld, is a term that was created to describe any organization that puts more money into marketing environmentally friendly efforts, than on the actual green acts. The motive behind greenwashing always has the sole underlying purpose of increasing profits by misleading consumers with a green message.
In 2007, TerraChoice, an environmental marketing company, published an article that outlined the “Six Sins of Greenwashing”, and was updated in 2009 to “The Seven Sins of Greenwashing”.
You can read the full list of sins on their page, but below is a sampling of a few of my personal favorite sins:
Sin of Worshiping False Labels - A product that, through either words or images, gives the impression of third-party endorsement where no such endorsement exists; fake labels, in other words.
Sin of Vagueness - A claim that is so poorly defined or broad that its real meaning is likely to be misunderstood by the consumer. ‘All-natural’ is an example. Arsenic, uranium, mercury, and formaldehyde are all naturally occurring, and poisonous. ‘All natural’ isn’t necessarily ‘green’.
Sin of Lesser of Two Evils - A claim that may be true within the product category, but that risks distracting the consumer from the greater environmental impacts of the category as a whole. Organic cigarettes could be an example of this Sin, as might the fuel-efficient sport-utility vehicle.
The bottom line is that green is good, and consumers love to buy into green products. But before you go the green marketing route, check your claims against the Seven Sins, because while advertising your environmentally friendly efforts can be an incredibly powerful and useful marketing tool, it can also backfire, even if you never had the intention of using your green message for anything other than helping out mother nature.
photo credit: seanmcgrath
Tags: green marketing, green pr
October 24th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Anna, thanks for the reference to our blog! I agree whole-heartedly with you regarding greenwashing. It’s a fine line many companies have to walk and doing it in the correct manner is always admirable. Thanks again - great stuff!