PaperSpecs’ Greenwashing Webinar with Scot Case has been rescheduled for Wednesday, November 5, so we decided to start the greenwashing discussion with this insightful editorial by Richard Romano.
We believe the desire for sustainable products and services is here to stay and that the certification bodies and systems designed to stop greenwashing have only just begun. So read … then register for the Webinar (it’s FREE thanks to the generous support of Neenah Paper) and learn how to determine which environmental claims are relevant, meaningful and verifiable, and frankly, which ones are not!
First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to declare a permanent moratorium on the phrase “It’s not easy being green.” It seems that almost every article or blog post in recent memory has featured this as a head or subhead. It makes me want to get rid of all my Muppets albums!
That said, unless you’ve been trapped in an underwater pyramid for the past 18 months, you know that so-called “green” initiatives—that is, environmentally responsible and sustainable business practices—are becoming ever more crucial for consumers and, ergo, businesses, and the printing industry (which we could argue has been green for decades) is no exception.
Stats from DoubleClick (via eMarketer)
Sixty percent of U.S. adults who make online purchases say that it is very or extremely important to them that a company is environmentally conscious.
Almost half of those who make online purchases said they specifically search for environmentally friendly products at least some of the time.
More importantly, 45 percent of respondents who make online purchases said they would pay at least five percent more for a product that is promoted with environmentally friendly attributes. An additional 22 percent were willing to pay at least 10 percent more.
Thirty-eight percent of respondents said the most attractive type of environmentally conscious marketing focused on specific user benefits such as saving money on bills or products lasting longer.
Specific environmental benefits were a distant second, cited by 21 percent of those surveyed as the most attractive type of environmentally friendly marketing.
As a result, companies are clambering to beef up their “green cred,”but questions remain.
Now What?
A WhatTheyThink special report, “Printing Goes Green: A WhatTheyThink Primer on Environmental Sustainability in the Commercial Printing Industry,” found that, among commercial printers, the issue is front and center, even if few have taken many steps beyond using and/or recommending recycled paper.
A Google search or two turns up no shortage of companies that tout their environmentally responsible practices, but, as it turns out, companies often oversell the extent of their greenness.
Yes, we’re shocked, shocked, to discover that companies sometimes misrepresent themselves. This is often referred to as “greenwashing,” and anecdotal evidence suggests that consumers increasingly insist that businesses put their money (long green?) where their mouths are. But how to prove it?
The Politics
Now, it probably goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that not everyone believes that environmental sustainability and/or climate change are especially crucial issues, some folks feeling that it is simply “political correctness run amok.”
It’s become a curiously political issue, for reasons passing understanding. Even if the vast majority of climate scientists are wrong (and, by the way, getting scientists to agree on anything is nothing short of a miracle, which is itself tacit evidence that there may very well be something to it), it’s hard to see how focusing on environmental sustainability is a bad thing. For example, why can’t “green” technologies be an economic growth area—or do people prefer large, illusory, unsustainable economic bubbles? or do people just really like pollution?
And free-market, small-government advocates should be content in the fact that the pressures companies face to go green are exactly what proponents of market-based solutions say should happen: the market is demanding something, and businesses can either respond accordingly or lose business.
After all, the emphasis on environmental sustainability has come without any interference or pressure from the government. The trick is for companies to see green initiatives as an opportunity, not an imposition. Just like any other business challenge.
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