Posted here New York Times
How Green Is Your
Brand?
Sustainable brands. A
term soon to join the lexicon of perfect oxymorons, like jumbo shrimp and
plastic glasses, but for now the title of a four-day annual conference in Monterey, Calif., referred to by those in the know as
“SB08.”
The
corporate-logo-covered banner at the conference entrance was straight out of
NASCAR, as SB08 had garnered sponsorship from the likes of the Gap, Hewlett
Packard, Advanced Micro Devices, Clorox, General Electric, Deloitte and Sun
Microsystems, as well as smaller companies like Lunar Design, Mohawk Fine
Papers, Seventh Generation and Fetzer Vineyards. Conference presenters touched
on topics from safer fish to smarter supply chains, consumer attitudes to
crowd-sourcing. This breadth of participation is something to applaud; many of
these companies wouldn’t have seen the merit of attending, let alone
sponsoring, a sustainability conference in years past.
One bit of information
that was driven home by speakers again and again (though it offers a blinding
glimpse of the obvious): most people say they want to do the right thing when
making purchasing decisions but not all
people actually do. Similar gems were offered, i.e., consumers make decisions based on price and
convenience.
Now, no one needs to
attend a conference to learn that. Do they? During many of the presentations, I
was disheartened by the degree to which eco-aspects have to be separated and
called out, rather than be built-in, integral and inherent to a product,
service or philosophy. It would be great to see more products and services
serve a true environmental need rather than see so many emerge from companies
jumping on a savvy marketing opportunity.
I also wonder why so
much sustainable stuff, from shoes to canned goods, still isn’t really allowed
a true design sensibility; is some degree of (whole) grain of hippie-ness
really necessary? Take the rugged footwear of one SB08 presenter, Keen: do they really need something called a vegan sandal? Even their own vice president of marketing
admitted that Keen’s shoes didn’t match the dress she was wearing while
presenting at the conference that day..
But wait, back to the
positive stuff: the fact that companies like Dow Chemical willingly
participated illustrates that the fear of even approaching the idea of
sustainable design and strategy is evaporating. It is heartening to see that
all manner of companies are paying serious attention to things like supply
chain, packaging, distribution, authenticity and transparency in thoughtful
ways.
Not to say that greenwashing (in which consumers are misled regarding the
environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product
or service) has gone away, because it sure hasn’t — though it was fascinating
to learn in one study that 83 percent of consumers are unfamiliar with the
term. When oil companies re-brand themselves as green companies, when hotels
slap on sea-foam green paint (non-toxic, at least) and market themselves as
“eco,” when car models are erroneously marketed as less carbon-emitting than they
really are, that’s greenwashing.
So, sure, there was a
little greenwashing going on at SB08 (gathering large groups of people from
around the county in one remote location is a little less than green). But what
I came away with after hearing about these companies’ myriad sustainable
missions, goals and platforms is:
(1) Finally! Glad they
are paying attention.
(2) Wow. The green
envelope needs to be pushed further. A lot further.
Some 2,670 new green
products were introduced in 2006; the number has almost doubled since then.
Huh?
Making more stuff — no matter how green that stuff is — will not really help combat global warming or reduce our collective carbon footprint. Companies need to produce things and need to make money by selling them — understood — but to me, the idea of simply creating more (albeit greener) product is pretty much on par with lowering gas prices as a solution to skyrocketing oil costs. When will we consider behavior? When we will commit to innovation?
Sustainable solution? That’s no oxymoron.
To read the complete article click on the link at the top of the post.
As an opening post on Harvard
Business.org, I figure no topic could be more appropriate than the change
happening at Harvard, among other places. I’m talking about the big shift in
what business schools are teaching students and, more importantly, what those
future business leaders want from their employers. According to a recent article
in Newsweek, B-school’s are greening their curricula. Students are learning how
to weave environmental thinking into core business strategy and they’re looking
to apply it in the real world.
